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Blackburn B2 - a 30's bipe with a whole lot of shiny bits!


Tim Hooper
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Posted by Danny Fenton on 05/12/2011 09:27:49:
GAPS!!! That's very unlike you Tim, surely a typo? irregularities in the grain perhaps?
 
 
Grain irregularities looking very much like the misplaced cut of a 10A scalpel blade!
 
3-view of the Elf? Now, you know that I don't even consider choosing a future build until I've finished the one I'm currently doing! Except for the scaled-up Clean Sweep.....oh, and the 1/3 scale AW Quadruplane, of course....
 
tim
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It's that CDO again....

I've started on the front hatch this morning. A bit of Sellotape stops it sticking to the fuselage during fabrication. It occured to me that adding the occasional 1/8" BBQ skewer to the planking would stiffen the assembly up considerably. I may skin the whole thing in 1/64 ply as well. We'll see.....

 
After searching the net for quite a while for suitable oleo/damper/thingies, I set about making my own! A length of 3/16 brass bar, some matching tube, a couple of springs, etc.
 
Add a couple of hours sawing, filing, soldering, drilling and tapping, and here're the finished items!

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It made sense to dry assemble the rest of the undercart well away from the fuselage whilst all the hammering, bending and soldering gets underway!
 
I made 4 brackets from angle-section aluminium, drilled them, and then screwed them in place.
 
A couple of balsa pillars followed to hold the swing arms in place. The arms are cut from hefty 8swg wire.
 


I've cut clips from brass sheet to join the pieces together near the wheel hubs. I suspect that I'll need to use a gas torch to get everything hot enough to solder succesfully....
 
The inner ends of the arms are secured to the brackets by wheel collets. I may substitute these with plain brass collars later.
 

 
 
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Right, now for some reason I've been mentally putting off carving the dummy air outlets on the fuselage sides, but in the end I couldn't avoid it any longer so I marked their positions out in pen.

Then using a scalpel and a round Permagrit file, it only took a few minutes to hollow each one out!
 
Next I decided to skin the cowl top and sides in 1/64" ply just to give a 'crispness' to the panels.

The side strakes (from triangular 3/16 strip) followed next....
.....whilst the 1/32 balsa wing fairings weren't far behind!

Whilst making the lower nose cowl, I installed a short length of convoluted plastic conduit to suggest No1 engine cylinder.

Oh, and Netty's bought me a new box of pins - see the pretty red heads?

tim
 

Edited By Tim Hooper on 17/12/2011 21:48:49

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Excellent work as ever Tim.....wish I could build half as well.......
 
I do wonder how you are going to cover the model & retain these feature-ettes though....I always find that such crisp detail is easily lost under film/tex or whatever....& as to covering concave surfaces (such as your outlets!!)...well that brings me out in a cold sweat....
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Lovely Tim, Steve we all want to se how Tim will maintain the fus shape under the covering

Can I ask where the pins were from Tim, I have bought dozens of packets trying to get more of the really fine ones with small glass heads, similar to the ones I have had for years, these you have here look very close

Cheers
Danny
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Steve,
 
There'll be no 'tex or film on this fuselage! A substrate of tissue and dope will provide a base for a layer of Flair Aluclad - a self adhesive aluminium film. Woooooo.....

Danny, I'll have to ask Netty, although I suspect they've been lurking in the bacvk of a drawer for some years.

tim
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Right - a good day yesterday!
 
I knocked up a card template for the windscreen, and then transferred the shape to 1/64 ply. After that I made an internal frame from BBQ skewers.

The 1/5 driver comes from Pete's Pilots. Yes, I know he's sporting an oxygen mask, but he's just had a sortie in his Spitfire, OK?

A bit of sheeting and some Multiplex 'old timer' instruments....
Next came the task of fairing in all the struttery with balsa. Netty came up with the idea of using 1/4" LE stock. I routed a slot in the rear faces with a Dremel, then glued the pieces together, sandwiching the strut in the centre cavity.

Seemed only fair to bolt the whole caboodle together to have a look at it all together for the first time. So the fuselage came first.......


.......followed in short order by the wings!



Then I persuaded Netty to give it some scale!

 So, there's lots of small details to sort out - some before and some after covering.  For the moment she can stay locked in the loft (the model, not Netty....) whilst we get Xmas done and dusted.
 
tim

Edited By Tim Hooper on 24/12/2011 18:01:13

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Thank you Stephen!
 
It's been a smelly old day here. Firstly the sanded fuselage was daubed in sanding sealer, then rubbed down again. Then it was time to crack open a new tin of dope and some fresh tissue.
 
Several hours later sees the fuselage and struts all covered in tissue, and me in the pub .....
 
tim
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