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[rbeach84]

Originally Posted by murphyaa

I redesigned the nose to make it rounder, while avoiding petals. Unfortunately my build skills don't do it justice. (I can design just about anything. Unfortunately, I can't build a box.)

Attachment 122838

Aaron, I don't know, your canopy turned out better than mine, methinks.

I have finished the aft fuselage, the canopy, attached the 'tail feathers' and the port wing. I worked up one of the main gear well fairings, but had to just trim off the tabs as there was nothing for them to attach onto, plus the fairing does not line up exactly with the wing opening. The wing attachment to the tabs was troublesome mostly because I didn't address the center cross-piece section with enough precision. Being an ol' plastic modeler, I don't deal with 'floating placement' parts too well. Still, the result is fairly good and validates the precision of the design in spite of my rough building skills.

One note of concern however with the vertical tail. I again made a bit of mess of it due to imprecise cutting of the part with regards to the tabs on the leading edge of the fin (really, in the placement of my fold.) This resulted in a lopsided contour because the fin cross section is sensitive to the exact alignment of the profile edges. Being off even a small bit (tiny, really) will induce a relatively large distortion. I'd recommend that both halves of the fin have interlocking tabs that would then (sort of like a 'zipper's teeth) automatically align the edges in the vertical plane. Similar principle could be applied to all the 'fold-over' parts of the wings and tail. Since the tabs fold into the interior of the part, having matching tabs on the other half drawn to fit in the 'gaps' along the edge would create a more positive alignment of those edges. More complex to draw but a bit easier to accomplish an accurate alignment during glue-up.

The parts as they are work pretty well even for me, but the vertical fin really showed me how much care is needed. I'll have pictures later tonight to illustrate the work, but thought I'd go ahead and get these comments out for you.

[legion]

I do value that (but still take it with a sack of salt), but (especially) with books and tools I prefer to hold the items before going for the buy. When I pick out a book (either on a shelve or on display), I like to flip it open and see how big the letters are in relation to the size of the book. It happened a few times that when I did that with thick books there were HUGE letters. That tells me instantly that there isn't much to the story and would only entertain me for as long as I am reading the book. Which isn't very long.
But if the letters are small, it means more value for money and enjoyment. This is still done without even reading the synopsis on the back... It either goes directly back on the shelve if it is the huge case, or if it is a sequel to another book I haven't read yet.

Anyway, back to Aaron and his things.

[murphyaa]

How about some pancakes?



Had one of those "AHA" moments last night, and figured out how to do this one.

[3Turner]

Originally Posted by murphyaa

How about some pancakes?

Had one of those "AHA" moments last night, and figured out how to do this one.

Let me guess...you were eating waffles when you had your "aha" moment. LOL!

She looks nice Aaron.

[Dyna-Soar]

Originally Posted by murphyaa

How about some pancakes?

Attachment 123321

Had one of those "AHA" moments last night, and figured out how to do this one.

In the immortal words of Philip J. Fry:

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!

[murphyaa]

Another edge-pusher here:



If I just did the hull in single piece strips, the model would have ended up about 4 inches long. With spaghetti thin strips.


The Aha moment was to use an existing panel line that traversed the whole width of the fuselage and split the hull into 3 sections; Leading edge, Top strips and Bottom strips, With a former box in the middle of it all.

We'll see how the beta build goes.

If all else fails, I've got a good start on a Cylon Raider...

[legion]

Do the Raider anyway!

[murphyaa]

I already did the Raider. The one available on JLeslies site is mine.

[legion]

Doh!

Oh, another thing. How do you do the wing section on the Seamaster? I tried it, but failed horribly. That is one aircraft that would really benefit from a set of formers in that location.

[murphyaa]

It's pretty straightforward. Make sure you line up all the edges.

I might retrofit a spar box if I can figure out how.