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Trumpeter 1:32 Enhanced Avenger
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TBM: Wing Work plus
While I did work on Saturday to finish up the PE on the other wing root, I didn't post, but got more done today. Basically what I didn't get done was get the flap hinges to work. The design is awkward and doesn't really work. I attempted to stabilize all the floating pieces with CA, but just got a mess. After messing with the pins and the PE hinges, I decided to scrap it and glue the flaps closed since I'm going to display with the wings folded and the flaps would not be hanging open. The hinge rods should have somehow snapped into their slots, not just lay there hoping that the upper wing will hold it all in place. Today I started working on the upper wings. These too have their PE enhancements some from the kit and a lot from the Eduard set. First there were two walls to install in the wheel well. Last week I cut the parts for one wing ahead of when I was going to use them thinking, "I won't lose them". Famous last words! Of course I lost one. So I cobbled one together out of styrene sheet, added a raised strip and marked and drill the rivet marks.
In the wing root, the PE lined both the bottom and side of the space with all those webs. In the wing body (top), Eduard did not include a bottom and you had to fill the slots to receive the plastic webs in preparation to receive the PE wedges. Instead of piling in filler and then sanding it all off, I used styrene strip to fill the bulk of the space, and then use some filler to clean it up.
I used a razor saw to trim the strips down almost level so I reduced the amount of filing needed to make them flush.
After this pic was taken I added the Tamiya filler. I'll sand it tomorrow.
While all this was drying, I saw that there was some more PE to be added on the fuze. There were two PE overlays to add more relief to the tail skid area, and then a folded piece which was supposed to have a piece of plastic rod to add as a snubber to control the downward drop of the tail hook.
Instead of the plastic rod, I drilled the PE to accept a 0.021" brass rod. I also did not use CA on this, but epoxied it with J-B Weld 5-Minute Epoxy. It cured much more securely than CA which has been letting go on a lot of the brass overlays that concerns me. I scratch the back of the brass pieces to provide more "tooth" for the CA to grab, but it still doesn't like to hold metal all that well. The epoxy worked really well, it's just not instant.
I feel bad about scrapping the hinges, but with folded wings you're not going to be expecting the flight surfaces to be moving at all.
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TBM: Wings and Gear
Worked today finishing up the Eduard PE on the outer wings. There are more gussets in the outer wing. The last two are very small with the very last one, almost microscopic. On the first wing I attempted, both flew into the rift. I did get them both on the second one and was quite surprised that I did. When folded, these details are not easy to see. When un-folded, they're buried in the wing. Notice that I drilled the plastic behind the open hole on the wall PE. AMS rearing it's head again.
I painted those inner wing areas dark sea blue now since they'll be very hard to air brush when assembled. Tomorrow I'll pick out the silver details in the joint area and paint the flexible hoses rubber black.
While this was all drying, it was time to work on the main landing gear. I reinforced the main shaft with a piece of 0.021" brass rod, and then after assembling the oleo links, drilled the their pivot points and again used the brass wire to reinforce and make the joint more realistic.
On the opposite side of the wheel hub is a tie-down ring. The first one I was going to place blasted out of my tweezers, but lo and behold, I actually found it. I glued it in and carefully glued in the second. I wanted to take a picture and guess what? The first ring glue joint had let go and it disappeared again. This time it successfully went into the Rift and was lost. So, even though I had found it and glued it in, it still disappeared. So I made one out of brass that luckily was exactly the same gauge. I took the opportunity to put the brass all the way out to the other end, thereby strengthening the wheel hub.
There were tiny nuts and washers that Eduard wanted me to glue on the pivot ends of the oleo links. I actually tried to put these on. They were so small that my very expensive jeweler's tweezers could barely grab them. One actually got stuck under my fingernail. Ultimately, I realized that any detail so small that magnification was needed to see it, wouldn't be missed on the model. You've got to draw the line sometimes.
The last thing I did was add the gear doors. There's a little Eduard folded PE bracket that goes onto the top of the door. Nice little detail...
With this done, the hiatus has to begin again. The additional parts for the distillery arrived today and I'll be working on that project until its completion (or when paint is drying).
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Okay, dug up my torpedo pictures from the Hornet; these were the various torpedoes they've had on display over the last 10 years or so. The little one on the bench is (I believe) a helicopter-dropped weapon, since early helicopters couldn't carry that much (tbm probably knows more about that than I do):
There's one more photo, but I'll have to post that in a separate entry."There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not there any more." -Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge
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"There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not there any more." -Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge
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Thanks for the great pics. So they can be green on green, gray on gray, bare metal, and probably one with a red nose like I'm using.
With the torpedo up inside, you'll have to pick up the model to look inside unless I sit it on a mirror which isn't a bad idea since picking this beast up invites disaster.
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TBM: Back on the Job
Well... the Bernheim project for Heaven Hill Distilleries is complete and waiting for delivery. It is supposedly going to be on display at their Bourbon Experience attraction in Downtown Louisville.
So today, after a little cleanup, I went back to work on the TBM. I'd like to finish that up over the next couple of weeks because I have some more big model railroad projects to complete.
Today, I glued in the main gear, completed the tail feathers and then glued on the main wing tops. Before I left it, I applied Tamiya filler to any gaps and let it dry overnight.
I was able to use Trumpeter's questionable hinging method on the elevators and it worked. There's a very fragile plastic rod that attaches the right and left elevators to syncronize their movement. It also worked, but it's really fragile and probably shouldn't be played with.
I need to detail the main gear now that they're installed, and attach the wings and bomb bay doors. There's a few added details like antennas and then it will be time to mask and paint this beast.
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TBM: Main Gear and Wings
Today I got the main landing gear decked out with their hydraulic and brake lines. I used foil to "chrome" the oleo struts and wine bottle foil for the tubing clamps on the structs. I had a choice of 0.016" or 0.010" iron wire to use. I chose the larger since it would show up better when it was all painted. The large scales out to 1/2" and the smaller to .31". I don't think the scale brake lines were a half inch.
The wine bottle material is a bit thick and you have to overlap it a bit to get it to adhere right. Painted you won't notice it. And these gear get painted the same dark sea blue as the rest of the craft.
I sanded down yesterday's filler and made the small leading edge seams sand made them disappear. I also glued in the ailerons and flaps on the main wings and then snapped them home. As I noted before, I completely gave up on getting the main wing flight surfaces workable with those Trumpeter hinges. The wings will be folded so all the hinge details would be on the inside away from the viewer.
You need no glue to fasten the main wings. They literally snap in and will not come out without breaking a lot of stuff.
Tomorrow when I come back from the doc's I'll finish up adding all the remaining doodads and start getting it ready for painting. Lots of Eduard glazing masks to apply...
I had an episode with atrial fibrillation that lasted for about 11 days. I got a beta blocker and blood thinner to reduce the impact and then 10 days ago it just stopped and the engine was firing normally. I'm going to get an ECG tomorrow to see if my heart has converted back to sinous rythym. If it has, I'm not sure why that is, or what if anything, you have to do going forward.
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TBM: Masking and Paint (Part A)
So... the ECG showed my heart is now beating normally and there's no really sound reason why it's doing so, but I'm not arguing. On Friday, I started the canopy masking process. The back and mid-canopies are supposed to be glued together. Instead of using Hypo-cement which would have controlled the glue better, I chose (unwisely) to use the applicator brush in the Tamiya glue bottle. And this is what resulted.
Needless to say, I was disgusted.
So I let it dry overnight.
Saturday I got in the shop and did some TBM work. I sanded the damaged canopy as best I could and then dipped it into Pledge Floor treatment with Future and hoped for the best. I also started using those wonderful Eduard canopy masked to cover all the intricate glazing. I completely masked the airframe using wet paper towels to plug the big areas and Tamiya masking tape for the smalller ones.
Today, I found the now-cured canopy to be better, but not close to perfect. I decided that it was as good as it was going to get and masked it. The Eduard masks are incredibly accurate and if you position them correctly they fit very well. Don't be afraid to pull them off and reposition them. The adhesive dosn't lose its grip and they will still stick just fine even after several attempts. Most impressive were the ones for the windscreen and the gun turret.
Burnish them down well with a burnishing tool (if you have one) and they don't leak. Just to be sure, I hit all of them first with Tamiya clear spray to seal the edges. The backsides are completely masked with Tamiya tape. I believe Tamiya tape and Eduard's masks are made from the same material.
First color that goes on is interior green. Believe it or not, I just learned this trick recently. I always wondered how guys would get the inside colors on... masking inside? Really? This was airbrushed with Model Master Acrylic.
After force drying this coat, I sprayed several light coats of Vallejo "Steel Blue) which is their name for Dark Sea Blue. Again I forced dried it so I could remove the tape today.
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TBM: Masking and Paint (Part B)
While the green was drying I shot the airframe with Tamiya Grey Primer outside to give more tooth to the Vallejo acrylic which followed and to prime any bare metal that was still left like around the landing gear details.
After pulling the tape, I was very impressed with the accuracy of the masks. They really worked well.
In looking at this pic I realize that I neglected to paint the little triangular window that separates the cabin from the guner's area. I hate to do tiny jobs with the airbrush since it takes just as long to clean it as to spray the part (or longer). Here's the backside of all the glazing showing the interior green. Pretty slick!
I sprayed the entire airframe the Vallejo blue. It wasn't spraying particually well and the spray pattern was very narrow, but after several force-dried coats, I got it covered. There were a couple of missed spots that I noticed after drying and I hand-brushed those for that same airbrush cleaning issue.
Vallejo paints, even though they're no longer shiny, are not dry yet. It takes a good 24 hours for the paint to lose its tackiness and be completely capable of being touched without paint damage. So all of this will dry overnight. I need to get more clear gloss spray since that's the next step prior to decaling and any weathering I'm going to do. With the dark blue most weathering won't show very much. Besides, I'm not building this as a war-weary craft. In fact, I've been reading various threads about weathering and the condition of most war machinery has a lot to do with who the crew chief and the rest of the chain of command was. In some instances, the machinery was always spotless and others not so. In the modern Navy, most craft are very clean. They're kept that way out of pride, but more so since it's much easier to spot leaks and their source when the machine is basically spotless.
Last thing I did was spray the prop tips yellow, force dry and then mask them. I then sprayed Tamiya gloss black over the entire surface. After force drying, I pulled the tape, and was satisfied with the results. Tomorrow I'll mask the black and spray bare metal on the hub and polished metal on the prop pitch piston cover. Having the gloss black as a base coat makes for better bare metal finishes.
To facilitate handling the prop I clamped it into a pin vise. We're getting close to the end of this project.
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TBM: Odds and Ends and Decals
Yesterday, I masked the prop hub and sprayed it with rattle can Tamiya natural metal. I then intended to use the buffing metal paste for the hydrodynamic piston hub. If you all recall, I said that I'm not actually a patient man. I am persistent. My lack of patience always gets me in trouble. In this case, I attempted to do the buffing paste before the natural metal was set. I thought it was, but it wasn't AND because it's a solvent-based it started to melt away the gloss black below creating a mess. I removed all the black on the hub, and resprayed the natural metal. Then, after really letting it dry, applied the past successfully. Here's the results. The hub is reasonably shiny, but it could have been better.
I had a little residue left on the paper towel I was using and I rubbed it on the prop's leading edges to give it a little wear.
I sprayed all the blue stuff with the Pledge with Future Acrylic to create the gloss for the decals. This plane actually was gloss sea blue so it will get another coating after the deals are in place. I covered it while drying, but still ended up with a lot of dust in the surface which made me not happy. I used some steel wool to knock it down a bit, but it's not really good.
The radio mast was a flimsy styrene part that butted up to the center canopy rid. Not having much support, I was afraid it wouldn't perform very well so I made a brass part with a tang on the bottom that would epoxy into a hole in the rib. Unfortunately, when I finished drilling a 0.031" hole, the rib broke in two. I then repaired this by epoxying a brass bar underneath which really reinforced it.
I then epoxied the brass mast in place and it will cure overnight.
I applied the "Hamilton Standard" prop decals. I needed to drill a hole in the wheel hubs to accept the new brake lines.
I also had overlooked putting in the wing fold lugs on the outboard wing tips. This little PE part had a tab that was supposed to engage in the box in the wing. With the wings glued together the box was no longer accessible. So I folded the tab over on itself and epoxied them into their respective opening. That problem solved.
I airbrushed the assembled wheels, a triangular panel that opens when the wings are folder and the little piston assemblies that are simulating the rams that open and close the wings. It was then time to apply decals.
I had trouble with those wing tip decals. They were very delicate, and being Cartograph, they had no added film extending beyond the graphic so they kept tearing. I also had a similar problem with the fleet insignia on the tail with one of those cross Shelalies on the bottom tearing off. I was able to get them back together.
There are lots of stencils, but they're basically invisible against the dark blue so I'm not wasting time putting them on. I installed several and you can't see them.
Tomorrow, I'll overcoat it again with clear gloss to blend it all together. I will try to control the dust better. I think it was on the plane when I sprayed it.
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TBm: Details and Gloss
I've been exercising on the bike and elliptical every two days (or trying to) and today was one of those days so I didn't get into the shop until after 3:00, so I didn't get enough done, but I got some stuff done.
First I painted the new brass radio antenna support and the brass reinforcement bar beneath.
I painted those triangular access panels that open to enable the wings to fold with the inside interior green and the outside deep sea blue. I painted the running lights will go on after everything's done. I painted the back sides chrome silver and the lenses either Tamiya clear green or red. I also painted chrome silver the inside of the area on the wing where the four lights will go. The tip lights get covered by a streamlined clear part. There's another light that goes on the dorsal fuselage that stays clear which also got the chrome back treatment.
The only thing I paint with these two colors are lenses, therefore these two bottles last for years. There's no solid pigment so they don't dry out.
I picked out some details on the airframe that needed doing such as the red stick in the wing fold area that is the manual release handle for the wing fold lock and a couple of silver details. According the to prototype very little is anything but deep sea blue. I'm going to paint the hydraulic hoses flat black along with the brake lines on the main gear. I need to paint the walk ways one the wings with flat clear. Right now they're very glossy which they would not be.
I carefully glued on the gyro compass into position inside the top of windscreen. I used Hypo Cement to give a very controlled amount of glue so I didn't screw up any more glazing.
I made the wheels. After spraying gloss on the prop I put some Tamiya clear smoke on the prop hub to highlight the details.
I'm going to airbrush exhaust streaks on the fuze sides once it's all nice and dry. I then gave the fuze another coat of Pledge. This dried much more nicely than the first coat. The Vallejo Steel Blue is almost the exact same shade as the blue in the stars and bars. I pulled off all the masks tonight and was pleased for the most part. A bit of interior green was pulled off in the radio area and I'll have to go back and touch up the fuze edges after the canopies are all glued on.
We're very near the end. Tomorrow I'll start putting on all that's not on and do some mild weathering. I'm at a loss since this blue is so dark, so shiny and so pervasive that none of the normal things will be seen. I suppose I could have used a more faded color in the panel centers to bring out their contrast, but that plane has left the hanger. Since I actually have a blog follower who owns a real blue TBM that's being restored, mine is going to look like a restored plane that is not all beat up.
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TBM: Completed! Part (A)
Today, the TBM 3 Project was complete!
The echo cardiogram was early this morning so I had a long work day in the shop. The test proved at least one thing... my "heart's in the right place" literally. Other than that from what I could see, my heart is working. I didn't see any blood flow going through valves in the wrong direction, but the tech didn't tell me very much. The doc has to do that. Watching those valves opening and closing I was awestruck thinking about how many times they done that in my 71 years and came up with a number of over 49 billion times.
I have a ton of pics today so bear with me.
The "work" day started with touch up painting any areas where the masks leaked and then installing the torpedo and the bomb bay doors. Leaving them off to the end was a good idea since they're in the way and would be knocked around a lot.
I painted the brake lines, removed the masks around the oleo struts, and installed the running lights at the wing tips.
I then moved topsides to get the glazing installed. I used Formula 560 Canopy Cement exclusively for the clear stuff since it dries clear, doesn't fog, wipes off without damage when it's not dry. The windscreen went it without any difficulty. Since it's a slow-drying glue, I taped the parts until they set (about an hour).
The above also shows another mod. Whenever you add reinforcement to a model part, there's always the chance that it will interfere with something else. In the case of that brass bar I added below the mid-canopy slide impinged on the armor, roll cage behind the pilot and wasn't letting the canopy seat down on the fuze rails properly. So I had to cut a groove in the roll cage without screwing anything else up. I used that new, fine-tooth razor saw to rough out the trench and cleaned it up with an Xacto. It worked and the rest of the canopy array settled down nicely.
The gun turret dome isn't glued. It snapped in place so nicely that I didn't put glue on it at all. No glue is the best way to prevent glue smears. I touched up all the blue areas adjacent to the glazing and added some clear Future on it. I also used brush paint Tamiya clear flat on the walkways on both wings.
It was time to fold the wings. Instead of using the fat string included in the kit, I made some clips with brass wire. I painted them flat black. Probably not prototypical, but it's very secure.
It was time to glue in the Wright R-2600. I scraped all paint from the glue area, and decided to use 30-minute epoxy for a) strength and b) ability to reposition with the longer curing time. I carefully mounted the plane in my Panavise turned on the side and c-clamped to the work bench. After placeing the engine, I put the cowl on top so it was positioned correctly, and let it set.
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TBM: Completed! Part (B)
When the engine was set, it was time to permanently glue on the cowl. To get it to sit down tight, again, I used epoxy and added some weight for a "Gravity Clamp". Again, after curing it was on for good and reasonably in line. Not perfect, but reasonable.
I needed something to encircle the engine's gear case with something so the weight was on the cowl, not the engine. A Tamiya spray can lid served this purpose.
With the cowl on, all that was left was the prop and the radio antenna. Like the B-17, I used E-Z Line for this purpose. The beautiful thing about this product, besides its elasticity, is that it is intantly adhered with CA. It allows you to intersect lines at 90 degrees and with a tiny drop of CA it's adhered and can be trimmed very close.
So here's the finished model taken in a better photographic environment.
Some weathering powders on the wheels, tires and exhause area is all the weathering I did. It's a newly restored musuem bird so it's clean and fresh.
Well that's all folks. Thanks for hanging in since the beginning.
The next project up is a large Plastruct petrochemical refinery that will be for the railroad. Since it's a plastic structure perhaps I'll post the build here and in the model railroad sites that I feature.
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