Former Member Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 [This posting has been removed] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted April 26, 2015 Author Share Posted April 26, 2015 I'm in Wigton, so have kirkbride and Silloth airfields close by, the club club I'm in flies from kirkbride. The area was used as a training area for coastal command - it's a sobering thought when you realise why the solway bay in this area was known locally as 'Hudson bay'. Leccyflyer you've just named the next project on my list.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Member Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 [This posting has been removed] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted April 26, 2015 Author Share Posted April 26, 2015 I know what you mean Percy. I visited an old 8th airforce airfield years ago as a teenager, that scene from the film 12 o'clock high always springs to mind when I remember being there, I'd not seen the film then but it was like the crews were still there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted April 26, 2015 Author Share Posted April 26, 2015 Well it's been daddy day care for a few days so not much going on with the build. After a time the Germans realised how much of a threat to their shipping the strike wings were. Instead of sailing in convoys during the day they took to sailing early in the morning and anchoring up in fjords before the strike wings could get across. The solution came up with was to send out a vickers Warwick to drop flares off of the norwegian coast for the strike wing to form up over before dawn - then they'd be in position before the enemy were anchored up. The Warwick then covered the withdrawal of the strike aircraft and would be air sea rescue for any downed aircrew. Flying these slow aircraft so close to enemy territory wasn't exactly safe and the crews had to be on the lookout for enemy fighters. Even a mosquito flying on one engine would still outpace the Warwick! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 Hi Well, a couple of hours work - my first try at silver soldering hasn't gone too badly. The biggest issue is jigging everything up properly. One side of the retracts now looking more like it might actually work! I couldn't resist temptation and found a spare wheel - just to play around with! Ive got to admit, having never done this sort of thing before - I'm feeling rather pleased with it so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Wilson 2 Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 You are doing pretty much what I had in mind, even got the HK struts put aside and the mounting brackets made but my metal working skills are about zero so this is on the back burner at the moment. Yours are looking really good so I will be following this with a great deal of interest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted April 28, 2015 Author Share Posted April 28, 2015 Thanks for the compliment Brian, I'm having to take my time and stop myself from rushing it otherwise I'd mess it up. As it is, I must've snapped about 8 carbide drillbits using a hand drill until the Mrs agreed it would be a good idea to get a benchdrill - for the other side I should get nice accurate holes drilled without snapping anything!  after a slight miscalculation in ordering materials via fleabay I've got enough to make about a dozen more downlocks, I'm not sick of filing metal (yet) so could be open to doing some more in future - can't get enough mossies now can we!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 Not much progress today. One step forward, one back some days! On the plus side ive soldered the spacers in place - holding the structure rigid and it all still seems to fold up nicely. The oleos are mounted by grub screws and piano wire onto an aluminium pivot point - I've given up trying to make this pivot point tonight as I've managed to snap both of my engineering taps trying to thread one of the holes that one of the securing grub screws goes in... The last one I was skillfully able to get stuck tight in the hole and can't get out without destroying the whole piece, oh well we only learn by our mistakes I suppose suppose!! I've still got enough to get on with whilst some new taps are on order so I can make some changes to what I was going to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Wilson 2 Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 Such is life, things never go entirely smoothly. I was intending to drill the top of the strut and use that as the pivot point rather than adding an extra piece to fit onto the mounting bracket. I have made aluminium triangular mounting brackets (pretty much as per plan) and am going to use a 3mm rod through the top of the struts with a pair of the brackets in between. That is the plan anyway, time will tell if it is OK or not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 Yes, I'd probably have gone that route as well to keep things less complicated - the only problem was that the oleos I could get hold of weren't long enough. I wanted to keep the dimensions the same as the plan to make sure the geometry was the same. If it works for BT it should hopefully work for me! Just a couple of photos of the setup so far - now that the spacers are in place that spare wheel I put in looks somewhat daft but it'll motivate me to keep going!! Sorry if all the photos are a bit'samey' at the moment, and must remember to orientate them properly in future before posting!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Wilson 2 Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 That looks good No problem with Oleo length for me as my build is 65" and the oleos are the same length as on the scaled down plan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 Talk about timing, Tony Nijhuis has just announced the rcm&e autumn special - a 72inch wingspan dh mosquito! Am sure he'll supply retracts for it... And it'll have a recommended electric setup as well. Somehow I think the mosquito will be a much more common sight in a few months! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 I've had another look at the plans today - it seems that the spacers that I put in as straight pieces should actually be X shaped... Can't have been concentrating last night when I did them as it's obvious on the plans! It's just a case of re heating the metal and pulling them out, then making up another set that are the right shape but shows what happens when you rush these things!! Before I do this though I'm going to get all the parts for the other side ready... Got to keep smiling!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 I've had another look at the plans - it looks like I was right first time round - the spacers between the downlocks are straight, the X shaped spacers are on the oleos. Good thing I paused and looked at the plans and some photos of the real thing before taking it all apart! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted April 30, 2015 Author Share Posted April 30, 2015 Second sides coming on okay... Oleos on order from HK. ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 So I've been at it again today, the first side of the undercarriage is nearly done - I think the next thing to do will be to make up a jig to fit it to to make sure it all tucks away like it's supposed to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Wilson 2 Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Looking good Are you going to place the retract as per plan or like the original with it down at the down lock? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted May 7, 2015 Author Share Posted May 7, 2015 Thanks Brian, it's going to be as per the plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 The other set of oleos arrived from HK. Unfortunately they didn't match the first set - my fault though as I then realised I hadn't ordered the first set from them... A bit of a blessing though as they're narrower than the first set so will allow me to make the fairings over them more to scale. It had been getting to me that the model would end up with fat legs and wouldn't look right. If I can't make the fairings to look right I'll go back to the original oleos and leave them off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted May 16, 2015 Author Share Posted May 16, 2015 After about three hours work I've got one of the new oleos with a cover on it to look more scale-like like. Overall I'm quite happy with it although it's taken some time to get it on. Only three more to do so hopefully I'll get a little bit quicker as I get them done... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted May 17, 2015 Author Share Posted May 17, 2015 Second oleo now has a cover on it. Both have a small hole under the mount for the downlocks filed into them so that I can access the grub screws in the oleos if I need to in future. It might not be 100% scale but it's close enough for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Wilson 2 Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 Nice result Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted May 17, 2015 Author Share Posted May 17, 2015 Yeah I'm pleased with it. I'll have some detailing to put on it and I've still got to figure out which way to go to actually move it - oh yes and I'll need something to put them in.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris meek 1 Posted May 18, 2015 Author Share Posted May 18, 2015 Tonight I've been adding some of the scale details on, and the cross braces between the oleos. Also I've made the balcony balsa bases of the legs... I've run out of silver solder now though and still waiting for the other set of oleos to arrive from HK so a short break for a few days... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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