Super Detailing S.E.5 Guillow's model

[Wurger]

A great model.

 

[Crimea_River]

Good looking Stringbag. The model, not you!

 

[Skyediamonds]

Crimea.... LoL... Enjoyed that one.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Mr. Wurger, Thank you!!

 

[Skyediamonds]

Installation of the radiator also called for additional details such as "Hold down" cable. This was made from stranded thread painted silver to help bring out the highlights of the strands as well as giving the thread that "cable" look.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Manifold exhaust cover was the next item to be installed. I made do with the Guillow's kit plastic cover, but cut down a bit to more scale. I then added some wood plugs fashioned from balsa and filler. My wife always has those little decorative ties she uses whenever she buys something or uses them for gift-wrapping. In this case, I used the tie wrapping as a hook up behind the manifold cover to disappear behind the forward cabane strut. The whole piece was painted gloss black first before installing to the model and adding the wiring.

On the second photo, the burnished copper shows up to good effect through the exhaust manifold near the engine block.

 

[Skyediamonds]

The beautifully stitched cockpit coaming came about courtesy of a strap from an old hand bag. I only needed to rummage through a local thrift store and find several old leather hand bags with different colors and stitches on the straps. I picked out two or three. One was dark brown leather, another was light tan color, and the third was black. I chose the light tan. The stitching from the strap was perfect for my needs. I only needed to cut the stitched part off the strap, open up the inside to hold over the cockpit opening and Voila' a beautifully stitched coaming without any hassles or work. Amazing things can be found at thrift stores.

As you can see from the last picture, the strap had to be carefully wound around the cockpit opening. This is the reason of why I did not install the front windshield. I am positive I would have knocked it off.

 

[special ed]

Absolutely fantastic attention to detail. You could build models for the Smithsonian. I have learned many tips from this build as well as relearned a couple I had forgotten. Many thanks for both builds. As an aside, Paul Treen, older brother of ex Louisiana governor Dave Treen was also a deaf pilot. At that time, New Orleans Lakefront airport used both radio and tower lights. He often would ask some of us to go flying to do the radio work. He was also a model builder, mostly free flight scale. Once I watched him build a beautiful J-3 cub and he sprayed it with enamel. When I questioned him about it not being fuel proof he told me it would be in three months. He put it on the shelf and waited and it was.

 

[Skyediamonds]

The front windshield was next and it was quite easy to fabricate. Again, I used old credit cards cut up and shaped to conform to the curvature of the fuselage. The windshield itself came from an old water color plastic cover. In the first two pictures, I'm getting ahead of myself to show what I was visualizing in my mind.

The next picture is also a bit ahead of myself, but it was to show the water color paint set that I took the plastic cover from.

Here is the plastic cover now being cut up.

I'm taking advantage of the molded inserts of the plastic cover for the lower curved portion of the front windshield. The last picture shows me holding a small strip of tape to be wound up on each end of the copper wire.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Let's start with cutting up the credit card and bending it to conform to the curvature of the top decking of the fuselage. I must admit that I cut up about three or four of them, then compared the cutout with the photos from the Internet, to get it "just right." Practicing again and again. As Crimea says, "Tedious, but worth it."

Then we take the copper wire that was taped on both ends and glue it to the lower curved portion of the plastic "windshield." Now you can easily see what a little bit of foresight and lots of imagination can accomplish. No need to perform complex molds and then heat the plastic to shape like a vacuum form set up. Nothing complicated here.

The results can be easily seen here.

Even more evident of success when you complete it with the Lewis machine gun, which will be my next topic of discussion. Like the Vickers machine gun, this has some surprises.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Special ed, I sincerely thank you for sharing that with all of us. Being partially deaf myself and using signing as a way of supplementing my verbal communication, I often wondered if I could teach ASL to the control towers. But then I realized it would be rather difficult to sign my intentions to land while twenty miles out...... Fantastic story and absolutely thrilled that you have learned so much from my postings. I'm truly flattered. Thank you so much!!

 

[Crimea_River]

Great stuff here.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Crimea, Thank you very much. I'll start on the Lewis machine gun tomorrow. Time permitting. I'm truly glad you're enjoying it. Just picked up the latest issue of FineScale Modeler of the November issue. Even though I subscribe to them, the store seems to get the advanced issues long before me. In this particular issue, the author delved into a very simple way of producing photo-etching. Just floored me when I read it. If you don't have it or cannot obtain a copy let me know.. This is a good issue.

 

[Crimea_River]

Interesting thanks. I should be able to pick up a copy at the local Chapters store.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far!

 

[Airframes]

Great work - looking forward to more.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Airframes, Gnomey, Wurger, Crimea, and fellow members, I sincerely thank you all for your feedback. I really thrive on this! I'll have to postpone the Lewis gun just a wee bit longer. Need to rest today.

Skye

 

[Skyediamonds]

Gentlemen,

Good morning. Today, I'll start the build thread on the Lewis machine gun. Just like the Vickers, there were no guns in plastic kits to this scale. I think Williams Bros used to make them in 1/12th scale, but they're no longer available. So, with that in mind, I had no choice but to fabricate a Lewis machine gun sitting proudly on top of the upper wing. Because it's one of those details that gets the eye's attention, I knew I was going to have to really super detail this gun to get it just right. Then, everything else will tie together. So the theory goes anyway. So, let's get started.

As in previous postings, all things in detailed accessories starts with a little bit of extra research. Of course, there's much more information available from other sources as well as the Internet, but it's always a good idea to get the state of mind and the ideal image of what a Lewis gun should look like as well as setting a goal of pursuing that image. The last two photos show I'm getting ahead of myself but I thought it best to see the end results.

 

[Skyediamonds]

By the way, this project will involve the fabrication of two separate projects and put them together. The first project will be the Lewis gun itself and the second project will be the mounting rail that the gun sits on. They're really a two-build project at the same time such that they will fit together.