Fiesler Fi-167 (Marek, 1/33rd Scale)

[Mike1158]

Very nice, great torpedo.

[cjwalas]

Great start. looks like a good fit on the pieces?

[smithdr]

Thanks, Everybody! And yes...so far the kit parts fit great. No problems with bulkheads or lining up panel lines etc.

I printed a "new" torpedo body after my last attempt went south. I thinned my paper a bit by sanding it down. This also made it a bit more pliable. Then I rolled it around a colored pencil and held that in place. This is much smaller than needed, but then I could just spring it back into position using the overlapping interior tab. Worked ok and then I slid some formers in to make the mid section more ridged. Worked ok, but you can see I still have some crinkles. I may give it one more shot. We'll see...


Thanks for looking!
Dan

P.S. didn't really get the petal nose started yet. I was just worried about the main body so far...

[Erik Zwaan]

Dan,

What I usually do when having to round paper is to use a large dowel or thick screw driver. Put the paper in the palm of my hand and gently brush/roll the dowel/screw driver across the paper until it starts to curl. Once the curl is big (or round) enough, I further roll the paper as a tube.

To reinforce the eventual tube you can also consider to use an inner core of rolled paper (not too thick, regular print paper quality would do) and slide it inside the tube, instead of using formers. By doing so you get a more evenly distributed reinforcement and likely also no wrinkles as you indicate.

Good luck with this Havana, it will be an interesting build!

Cheers,
Erik

[PacificWind]

I've never seen this model completed in scale 1/33. It's one of my favorite German planes.
I'll be following your thread.
Good luck.

[elliott]

Dan, that's a great suggestion from Erik. If it's not too late give it a try. Bet it'll solve your crinkle issue which, although it can be seen, doesn't appear to be unfixable on a third try. Loooking forward to a great result!

[smithdr]

Thanks, Erik and Elliot. I did try Erik's core cigar idea and I do like it better! I think this one is a keeper.

Here are the parts reprinted and cut out again:

I cut front petal parts off this time and dealt with it separately. This allowed me to work on the petals a bit easier using my dapping tools. A little patience and it came together fine. I also added a tab to bring this part around to the correct diameter. You can also see the very tip of the warhead which was a teenie-tiny petal part I was very afraid of, but it went together fine.


I did the initial rolling using this jig. The clear plastic taped to the form (a pencil in this case) allows you to roll the piece around the form nice and tight and hold it there. I wish I'd thought of this, but it's from a Polish fellow's YouTube channel where he shows some paper techniques.

Here's a couple shots of the main parts together. I've started sanding the nose cone a bit in prep for priming, puttying and sanding to come.




And here it is with one coat of primer. I should get it done tomorrow with paint, weathering etc. Now the darn thing needs to wait for the rest of the plane!!


Thanks for looking and watch this space!
Dan

[elliott]

Good work Dan. Glad you stuck with it.

[smithdr]

Thanks for the support, Elliot. I'm glad I used that core method...though it weighs almost as much as the real thing!!

I did more filling and sanding and put a silver coat on the tail section and painted the props brass. My plan is to add some panel variation near the mid section and mask off a browner tinted steel for the warhead. It will look super cool.

I also worked on the basic wheel strut covers with the pieces you see here. They all fitted just great and will have a nice wire in the middle for the wheel by tomorrow!



My plan is to make some of the parts that, when I'm winding down a model, I tend to find myself not wanting to make...like wheels, bombs, guns, props etc. I get these suckers done, then they will be ready to just plug into the airframe!

More tomorrow and thanks for looking...Dan

[smithdr]

Well...the torp is done and weathered. The wooden stabilizing fins went on well and look nice and wooden! On the torpedo body itself, I scuffed up the nose a bit with sandpaper to make it look slightly scratched from deck handling. Some panel lines were embossed along with those little slots around the circumference near the warhead. I used a tiny jeweler's screwdriver to make those. I then added some pastel weathering after a coat of dull coat. Mixtures of brown, a rust color and black were rubbed here and there.



You can see I also added the wire for the landing gear. The protrusions will fit into the wheels when they get all done. There are also wire plugs that will fit nicely into the wing rib.

Nice to have this sucker done. It's huge and will look impressive slung under that long, Stuka-like body. It almost weighs as much as the real thing. I'll need to see how it was attached in the real one!

Cheers,

Dan