Build: Up-Scale 1:20, Republic P-47D-25, Halinski 3/06

[Gil]

Rick,

It happens that way sometimes. On apertures larger than 5-6 mm it's best to use clear shelving plastic film firmly tacked to the outside surface. It's made from vinyl and has a low tack adhesive on one side and can be used for all sorts of minor miracle solves in card modeling. Cut into strips it makes one of the greatest rubber band replacements in existence. I suspect that the Testor's window cement is in reality Aleene's Paper Glaze under the Testor's label. Follow the same procedure as previously described and let dry thoroughly. Peel off the shelf liner and you're done.

As long as we're on the subject there is another method that works well. The photo below shows the results of a quick demonstration of the method (please excuse the crudeness of the photo but it was a quick and dirty show for the tell). The plastic is a piece of 6 mil acetate that's been surface vacuum formed into a scrap piece of card board. The layup consists of placing a piece of mylar film at the bottom in contact with the vacuum forming table (you need a smooth surface for the acetate film to form to) followed by the cutout paper frame, the acetate layer and finally a mylar oven bag which is used to cover the rest of the vacuum table. Check that all is aligned and turn on the vacuum. Use a heat gun to heat the surface of the layup with a circular motion until the acetate softens and forms into the paper frame. Use of 3 mil acetate is preferred to allow an even closer framing of the glaze against the frame. Cutout the glaze panels and affix to the backside with cement. You'll have to do some experiments to determine the best way to get the glaze curved for the running lights but that remains as an exercise.

That's all there is to the method. Somewhat easier to do than explain.

-Gil

P.S. Cellophane is another form of acetate (rayon is the thread form). It will work fairly well for small scale applications such as navigation lights and portholes.

[Loopy]

Beautifull build!

Can you please give more info on the procedure of upscaling a model. I have a pdf file, which will print on A3 as it is at the moment, scale of the model is 1/25. I would like to take that to 1/16, but be able to either keep it on A3, or if possible use A4, as my printer can only do A4. For A3 I will have to use a print shop, with the added cost involved.

I have tried to find posts by Leif on this subject, but scanning through more than a 1000 posts on the old site.....

Thanks

[Leif Ohlsson]

Loopy,

The main thing to realize is that you are not restricted to A4 size, even if you think your printer is - you can define longer (MUCH longer) paper sizes than A4, as long as the paper width is not larger than the A4 printer can take.

As an example, my Epson printer accepts a max width of 21.6 cm (slightly larger than A4). For convenience, I buy 160 paper in A3 sheets, and cut them down to 21.6 x 42 cm (max width of printer x A3 length). If you come across larger paper, you can make even longer print sheets.

In the print format dialogue box you then define your own new "custom" paper size of 21.6 x 42 cm, and you are ready to go.

Similarly, in your graphics program you make a new template document for the new paper size. If you need margins, make the canvas area correspondingly smaller.

Now scale your model to your heart's content, and rearrange parts on to your new print sheets. Very rarely will you require extreme measures (like dividing single parts). Most likely this might happen with large wing panels.

As an example I attach a rearranged parts sheet for the Halinski Spitfire scaled to 1/16. As you can see the wing panel (the largest part) fits well within the 21.6 x 42 cm parts sheet.

If the wing had been designed with top & bottom in one piece, you would have had to redesign that part by dividing it along suitable lines and glueing the parts together after printing. This can usually be accomplished rather smoothly by dividing the part along existing panel lines in a flat area. Glue the parts together with an extra layer of reinforcement on the back side.

But it is very rarely needed.

Leif

[Loopy]

Thnks Leif!

Will try it out.

[rlwhitt]

Now to finish the wings. Here is an installed aileron:



And the next 2 are of the fairing pieces at the wing root, which are fairly large in this model. The rear part blends in with a tab strip that was installed as part of the fuselage skin way back in time:




Next up are flaps. Even these are built like a tank, with tons of framework:



Finished flaps, top and bottom, showing the hinge parts. The kit comes with 2 sets of hinge parts, one like this for mounting the flaps extended, and a short set for mounting them in the retracted position:



Finally, the flaps mounted:



Now it's on to landing gear (ugh!)

[dansls1]

Looking great as always!

Are you finding the scaled up build to have any difference in difficulty than doing the 1/33 scale kits? Or is it about the same, just a little bigger?

[Bluenoser]

This is like looking at the real thing.
You could probably apply for your Aircraft Maintenance Engineers licence after this. :p

[Willja67]

That is incredible Rick! Do you think you can show some more pics of the alierons and the way the hinges are done? Reason being the Thunderbolt has the same dynamically balanced type of alierons that the Corsair does and I'd like to see how these were designed.

[rlwhitt]

I'm finding the upscale to be MUCH easier, in general. The small bits are much easier at 1:20. The only thing that is harder is dealing with thicker materials; thick formers, thicker card stock harder to bend, etc. I'm using regular thickness stock when I need a fold in a small part or rolling smaller stuff.

Something this large is harder to handle, it takes a lot of care not to keep bashing it against stuff!

Looking at the other planes in my collection, I can see now that there are a couple I will probably never try to do at 1:33, most notably Halinksi's "Daunting" Dauntless!

Originally Posted by dansls1

Looking great as always!

Are you finding the scaled up build to have any difference in difficulty than doing the 1/33 scale kits? Or is it about the same, just a little bigger?

[rlwhitt]

Ailerons or flaps? There's not much to the aileron hinges on this model, and they are mostly hidden.

Originally Posted by Willja67

That is incredible Rick! Do you think you can show some more pics of the alierons and the way the hinges are done? Reason being the Thunderbolt has the same dynamically balanced type of alierons that the Corsair does and I'd like to see how these were designed.