Dan Vadas

A welcome to all that are following this build  . I hope I can do it justice.
 
I reverse-printed a sheet of parts and laminated a backing piece to the firewall and side frame pieces. The firewall piece is not strictly accurate, but it's better than a simple white face. Cutting the holes out of the framing sections took a lot of care :


 
Next I detailed the firewall. The back side :

 
And the front. I used 0.2mm soft brass wire for the tubing :

 
Some of the bracing for the framework was really tiny. These pieces are only 0.4mm wide at the narrow points :


 
Gussets added :




 
Danny
 

Yes it is Popeye. If I build the 2nd Spitfire I'll build another engine as well and install it. However it might be a while coming, as I already have the next kit to follow after this build. More details on that one will be coming when I finish this one  .
 
Danny

Yes it is Popeye. If I build the 2nd Spitfire I'll build another engine as well and install it. However it might be a while coming, as I already have the next kit to follow after this build. More details on that one will be coming when I finish this one  .
 
Danny

No Pav, it didn't  . Thanks for the link, but it's not actually the same one that I've downloaded even though it appears to be the same model engine and at 1/33 scale. That one looks like a scratchbuild, and a well done one at that. Just a pity that there weren't more pics.
 
And a welcome to all you guys as well  .
 
Danny

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 322 – Running Rigging Home Stretch
 
After almost 6 years living and breathing Young America, I can finally see the end in sight.  Another day or two should see the last lines run and, thankfully, the last rope coils hung.  From there it is just a matter of tidying up. 
 
Rigging the yard braces has been interesting and enjoyable work.  The first picture shows the bracing of the lower three yards on the foremast completed.
 

 Braces for the double topsail sails and the fore course were added once there was no further need to get my hands in the space over the cabin – at least that is what I thought.  Braces were installed working from top to bottom to keep the lower deck area open – the opposite sequence to all other yard rigging.  The falls for these braces run through lead blocks on the main rail amidships as shown in the next picture. 
 
 
The lines are then belayed on the main rail.  This opening in the main rail, that replaced the original small entryway, was probably added a year or so after launch when the double topsails were adopted.  The entryway was moved aft.
 
Aft of the mainmast things begin to get more interesting.  The next picture may be a clue.
 
 
Upper main braces run aft to lead blocks on the mizzen, while all the mizzen braces run forward to the mainmast before descending to the deck.  This is a bit of an access nightmare.  The next picture shows the area behind the main masthead where the mizzen topsail braces converge, the uppers to pendants shackled to eyebolts in the cap, the lowers to eyebolts and blocks under the top.
 
 
Unfortunately I had neglected to install the shackled eyebolts in the cap, so the cap and band had to be drilled and the shackled eyebolts inserted between all this rigging.  I hate to admit this.
 
The main upper and lower topsail braces presented an interesting problem that took me about a week to resolve.  These and the main braces run aft to blocks on the boomkin and thence to the poop deck.  This is pretty much standard clipper practice, and quite evident in the two YA photos.  These lines each consist of a yard pendant, a running part that runs from the throat of the mizzen topmast stay through the pendant block, the running end of this is seized to a single block.  The falls run through this block to lead blocks on the boomkin.  This arrangement is fairly straightforward, except that there is major interference between these lines and the lower mizzen braces that run forward from their yardarms to the main mast.  These would also interfere with the mizzen lower sail when set – a lesser problem.  Various arrangements were tested.  I finally settled on the solution Underhill describes in his book, which involves moving the mizzen lower braces inboard on the yard,  allowing the main topsail braces to run clear outboard of these. The relocated crojack braces may be seen in the next photo.
 
 
The main topsail yards are in the upper right corner but the lines are hard to follow in this picture.  The next picture may help.
 
 
The arrows U and L point to the blocks at the end of the brace running parts for the upper and lower yards respectively.  The arrow at the yard points to the relocated crojack brace block.  The eye for this has to be on top of the yard so the block will be over the jackstay where it will not interfere with the sail.  The arrow at the lower left points to the standing end of the lower brace fall where it is seized to #4 chainplate.  The upper fall is seized to chainplate #1 to the right.  The next picture shows the lead blocks for the two braces at the boomkin and their belaying cleats on deck.  The fall of the main brace will run through a third block at the outer end of the boomkin.
 
 
The next picture shows the falls running to the boomkin blocks on the port side. 
 
 
This solution is consistent with the photos of the ship and has some documentary support, so I am quite comfortable with it.  It leaves the issue of interference with a lower mizzen sail, but I suspect that could be tolerated or circumvented when that sail was used.
 
The last picture shows the cutter slung inboard on the davits, finally, after 3 years in a box. 
 
 
The picture shows the next, and perhaps the last remaining rigging riddle: what to do with the crojack, sheets, tacks and lazy tacks.  In the picture the latter two are belayed under the boat, awaiting a more acceptable solution for these idled lines.  Next time for that – and for the main yard braces that are still left off for access.  Then tidying up.
 
 
Ed
 

Yes it is Popeye. If I build the 2nd Spitfire I'll build another engine as well and install it. However it might be a while coming, as I already have the next kit to follow after this build. More details on that one will be coming when I finish this one  .
 
Danny

No Pav, it didn't  . Thanks for the link, but it's not actually the same one that I've downloaded even though it appears to be the same model engine and at 1/33 scale. That one looks like a scratchbuild, and a well done one at that. Just a pity that there weren't more pics.
 
And a welcome to all you guys as well  .
 
Danny

I also didn't know about the pre-molded canopy when I ordered the kit, so everything is made from 0.25mm acetate. Gluing this stuff is almost impossible without the right glue. Fortunately Loctite make one that actually works  . It comes with an activator which must be applied before the super-glue :

 
To shape the curved parts I clamped them to some scrap timber and used my heat gun on low setting to CAREFULLY bend them permanently. A couple of goes were needed before I found the right amount of heat without melting the pieces :


 
The canopy frames have an inside and an outside. The Loctite glue worked well, but a lot of care was needed to align the pieces properly. The excess was trimmed off after the glue dried :

 
The windscreen :

 
Before fitting the screen I had to fit the bomb-sight :

 
All done :



 
Danny

There are quite a few small details left to make. A lot of these will be left off until they are safe to fit. The radio aerial :



 
The wing cannons. These are rolled around a 0.5mm wire for strength :



 
The propellor and spinner took nearly two days to make :



 
The blades are reinforced with a paper tube wrapped around a wire and shaped to fit :





 
Danny

The air scoop took me most of a day to make. Some of those joins look bad in the pics, but a lot better in real life. I'll touch them up a bit when I've finished everything else :


 
The wing fillets did fit perfectly  . They were also not too difficult to fit. I used toothpicks to hold them out from the fuselage while I applied glue :


 
There is a small fillet on the leading edge of the right wing which has a tube fitted (I don't know what it's actually for). Here's how I fitted it. The brass wire locates it in the panel while gluing :



 
It's time to fit the first half of the exhaust pipes. The outer ones will be fitted later to avoid damage :



 
Danny

Now came the time to fit the wings and fuselage together. This looked rather scary when I first dry-fitted them, as the fit looked WAY off. However there are fillets to be added later between them which will cover the gaps perfectly. I cut these out and tried them before applying any glue to make sure everything was in fact OK - which it should be (we'll see ):





 
Danny

There are a few small details under the wings that are best fitted now before I attach the wings to the fuselage. The kit gives you the option of either gluing a flat piece on or making and fitting a rounded one :

 
Naturally I opted for the rounded ones  :


 
I also made the intake scoop, even though it gets fitted after the wings are on. This uses a very small framework, which would have been nice to have as laser-cut but I had to make it from laminated card - lots of rather difficult cutting :





 
Danny

I've finished skinning the wings. They turned out very well, even around the wheel wells  :



 
I had to do a little bit of painting on the seams where some white card was showing. I used Acrylic paint mixed up on a palette to get the right shades :

 
Next I fitted the radiators which I'd made earlier. They were a very tight fit, but after some minor trimming to the framing they fitted very well. After looking at this pic I see I will need to do a bit of minor touching up on a couple of edges :


 
Danny

The wheels are laminated together from various diameters of card. Resin wheels are available for this model, but I didn't find that out until after I'd ordered the kit, so I'm going to have a go at making these ones. No real instructions on how to go about the process were with the kit :

 
Cutting the outer edge using a scalpel with a chopping motion, one small piece at a time :

 
The inner edge was cut out using a modified flat blade Xacto chisel. I have 3 of these - 2.0mm, 1.0mm an 0.2mm which are used depending on the radius of the cut. I used the 1.0mm for this part :

 
The axle cover is 2.0mm in diameter. I could have simply punched it out of the sheet, but instead I decided to show a bit of a trick on how I handle small parts when cutting them. Note the "handle" I've left to make it easier to hold :


 
The sidewall has a pronounced curve. I shaped it into the printed part using a 8mm washer which has a rounded inner edge and a piece of 2.5mm brass rod :


 
Rounding off the "tread" area starts by trimming with a scalpel to get most of the waste off. This is followed by sanding using 150 grit paper on a sanding stick, and finishing with 400 grit :



 
A coat of Sanding Sealer was applied and sanded down again with a 1000-grit flexible pad, then a mix of dark grey acrylic paint finishes the job. This pic was taken just after the paint was applied - the roughness disappeared when the paint dried :

 
Danny

The landing flaps have a lot of bracing ribs attached. This is the half that goes under the wings themselves :

 
Next step is to make and attach the wheel wells. The smallest parts on this model are the gussets inside them (27j), they took some careful handling :





 
The wheel wells ready to glue to the wing. This must be done before the lower skin is glued in as there is a bit of trimming to be done to some of the framing - they are a very tight fit :

 
Before gluing the wells in I thought it might be a good idea to make the wheel struts in case there were any problems with fitting them later. They actually fitted perfectly  :

 
The legs have a number of different diameter steps. A 0.8mm wire in the centre gives added strength to them. The larger wire is for the axle :


 
Danny

I made the horizontal fins and elevators next so I could fit them together. I'm leaving them off the fuselage until I have finished with the wings :



 
Some of the parts are tiny, but there are smaller ones coming up later :
 
I started the wings by gluing the widest pieces to the central brace :

 
More pics of the wing framing :



 
Skinning the wings starts with the middle piece :

 
Followed by the upper skins :

 
The fuselage with the wings temporarily in place. They aren't glued together yet :

 
Danny

I wouldn't have room to fit it Pav, but it would make a nice "stand alone" model to display alongside this one . Thanks for the offer.
 
And these pics show what I mean - here's the engine compartment sub-assembly :


 
Start of the outer covering of the fuselage :


 
The tail fin is the next stage :


 
I'm building my kit a bit differently to Halinski's method, I don't know yet whether that is a good idea or not . The kit says to glue all the fuselage sections together as a unit before attaching to the cabin section. Due to the use of the tiny tabs on the joining strips I thought it might be a better idea to build a couple of sections of inner framing for support instead, as this would strengthen the model significantly and help prevent any possibility of accidental crushing. This method is not without it's own problems - accuracy is vital :

 
The Rudder is probably easier to fit to the tail fin before attaching to the rest of the model :



 
The skinned fuselage :


 
Danny

The completed tail-wheel which will be left off until later :

 
The two wing-mounted bombs and their mounts, another couple of day's work :



 
The two "propellors" are rather small and almost invisible when fitted, but why not  :

 
The mounts fitted. A few wire braces to be made and fitted :


 
One of the bombs fitted :


 
Danny
 
 

After fitting the small details the model is FINISHED  . It was a very enjoyable kit to build, and I'm going to make the Merlin engine next as a "stand-alone" build to be displayed alongside the plane :















 
Danny

Hi all,
 
Here's a tricky build. It's a 1/33 scale attempt at a Rolls Royce Merlin engine to be displayed as a "stand-alone" model next to the Mk. IX Spitfire I built. It's a design by Alin Osarik and a downloadable copy of it can only be found on THIS SITE.
 
As far as I'm aware no-one has successfully managed to build one at this small a scale, and no wonder - some of the parts are TINY  . All other builds I have seen have been blown up to 1/16 scale. But I'll have a go  .
 
Here's a pic of the parts. They come on one page, but there are a further 34 pages of step-by-step rendered photo instructions :

 
One example of the size of the parts :

And this is what I've done so far. This is the start of the engine compartment framework that supports the engine. It's been designed to fit inside the Halinski Card Spitfire, which may be a future build for me as I have a 2nd model Spitfire that came with the original kit that I've already built.

 
Danny

Yes it is Popeye. If I build the 2nd Spitfire I'll build another engine as well and install it. However it might be a while coming, as I already have the next kit to follow after this build. More details on that one will be coming when I finish this one  .
 
Danny

No Pav, it didn't  . Thanks for the link, but it's not actually the same one that I've downloaded even though it appears to be the same model engine and at 1/33 scale. That one looks like a scratchbuild, and a well done one at that. Just a pity that there weren't more pics.
 
And a welcome to all you guys as well  .
 
Danny

no Danny. those are Alin's engines... no scratch. Bernie is in a class of his own. same as Doris, he is well known for his mastery. maybe not in the Oz, but in Central Europe his name means quality work...

I dont think its to do with scale. Its to do with the actual size of the model... 

I don't know how you can do it....... were talking micro and working with paper......... But i do know you will take the build to the blue max.🙂