I have attached a photo of the continuing work. Once the lower wing was attached an awful lot of small detail work was needed and still needs to be done. The wings for Roden kits seem to be engineered fairly tight. The use of the Part PE framework made for a difficult fit because of that tightness. It wasn't unworkable, it just required me to go slow and fix as i went.

The gap in the fuselage and wing joint is the most difficult. I need some fillet material (lead foil, "bare metal" foil, or milliput. Still working on that. The CA gapfiller has made for a VERY strong wing joint.

An awful lot of the small detail work will all come at the end..........in one great big flurry. But that is a ways off.



I keep reminding myself that this is a "Slow build".

Regards
Steve

My "turnbuckle" factory has started again. From most research, it appears that the SE5a was equipped with RAF Flying Wires, the thin flat wire with a very small turnbuckle near the clamp. I found this uknown photo "suppossedly" of an SE5a showing standard turnbuckles. Maybe early build?



That photo has gotten the assembly line moving again. Any thoughts?

Regards
Steve

It is not an Se 5a but one of the BE series with a Mk II Lewis gun.

Indeed. Stephen is correct. This is a BE12 (A BE2c (or d)) Converted to a single seater.
These were primarily used in Home defence.

Cheers,

Hugh

Ahhhh Ha............A mislabeled photo...egads......

There was something that just didn't look right about it.................thanks for the correction on that.

Turnbuckle factory still humming....VERY slowly.

I'm in the fiddley stage right now.

Regards
Steve

Any thoughts on how you are going to do the double guy wires ?

Turning , turning , turning " keep those buckles rolling ............................

Yes I find that the rigging can be time consuming in any scale . British aircraft sure have a lot more them there German counter parts did .

Terri,

The turnbuckle assembly line keeps moving. So has my "pondering" of the SE5a RAF flying wires. What I am thinking is to shorten the Q-tip material and shorten the tail end, pre-drill, and then CA into the hole. Will give me a shorter version, but more along the lines of those darn pesky RAF wires. And here I was sort of "Liking" my turnbuckles. I'm getting about 6 done in a "setting" of about an hour. Not in a hurry.

Double wires? Of course, where they are actually double on the original, yes.

I will most likely still use most of the Part PE brackets where provided.

Regards
Steve

I have just a thought on how to do the flat wires . I'm sitting here thinking that using stretch spruce but instead of using round stock , how about using flat stock about .40 . Not sure if this will work or how it will turn out in the end .

Here's an idea that I might just run up the flag pole and see who salutes...

I have some nickle coated copper wire (0.4mm Ø). It straightens out real nice on my cutting matt when rolled under a steel ruler. This process in itself serves to work harden the wire a bit (Important).

Now, what say you were to pre drill all your little bitty rigging holes in your wings and fuselage... and then cut lengths of my wire to a couple of mm longer than the rigging line we want to replicate.

The nice thing about this wire is that it fits snuggly in the lengths of stretched q-tip shafts that we have been playing with... which given that the q-tip is very thin in cross section, will make great "turnbuckles".

This is the method that I have been toying with for when I build one of these...

There is only one problem;
The wire tends to stretch with temperature changes while the plastic of the model stays stable... so the rigging lines sag.

I think... that this is a problem that can be overcome.

In that, you CA one end only and let the other end float in the hole at the opposing end.

Hmmmmm?

Cheers,

Hugh

Terri's Idea is a good one too, but I reckon regularity in cross section might be a pipe dream.

Cheers,

Hugh

I'm hearing the ideas.............but i gotta tell you that i don't think it really makes a hill of beans.........I dont think one can see them anyway. Even at 1/32, it's still too small.

But i WILL try a flattened wire.....................just to see for myself. I'll report back.

I'm liking these old standard turnbuckles more and more.

Regards
Steve

Terri and Hugh,

Been playing with both your ideas some. There is an issue.....in my feeble little mind.....of fitting there "Flat" pre-cut pieces.

Acting as "Mr negativity"

1. Have to cut each piece specifically to that part.
2. They have to be layed perfectly straight.....any twist would be seen.
3. Have to use mighty quick working glue, unless one wants to hold it in place for a LONggggggggg time.
4. has to be VERY small stock.........I've got .30 wire and it's too large.

Looking forward to what Stephen might have come up with. Hint Hint....

Regards
Steve

Steve
I have an old flexible thread type Gold-Zack. This thread is flat and flexible, if you like to try this for wires on your build send me your adress in a PM and I´ll send you a couple off meters(that is unstreched )

I haven´t tryed this thread myself yet but the idea is to use this for flatwires.

Larsa

Larsa,

How about giving me the name of that thread first. Might be able to find it here. very kind of you.................

Regards
Steve

Hey Steve,
I wasn't suggesting flattening the wire... I was just thinking that the wire with the stretched q-tips would be a better representation of the RAF wires than Monofilament might...

Now, if we were working in 1/24 I might look at flattening the wire!

I will do some tests at home and post some shots.

Cheers,

Hugh

Hugh,

I think you just might like what I've got cooked up. Still gonna use monofilament, but might go with a silver mono.......we shall see. I also understand that there is flat monofilament thread running around. Peeking into that.

I tried rolling some copper wire today, did not work rolling along the wire. Might work with a more powerful LONG roller or "Masher" of some sort. I'm not into a machine shop here. I'm thinking now about using the Part PE brackets and then a really shortened turnbuckle.

Right now I'm concentrating on getting the cockpit Futured / washed / detailed and then closed up.

The whole underside of the aft fuselage is kinda con-cave so will need to fill/sand/polish that area.

I'm also playing with Lozenge in Photoshop...........for future kits.

Regards
Steve

Here's an interesting Shot.

http://thevintageaviator.co.nz/image/tid/109

Cheers,

Hugh

Woops! That didn't work.

http://thevintageaviator.co.nz/image/tid/109

Hugh,

Those are VERY interesting shots..........Went through them all. Very nice turnbuckle / RAF wire shots. Got me interested in that plane also. I don't know how I missed those. Maybe I wasn't interested in Turnbuckles at the time.

Thanks

Regards
Steve

Yep, I want this in 32-scale to, but 48 will do.
thanks for sharing
Larsa

You and me both Larsa...
Tell you what; I'll scratch build one in 1/24 and Roden will do it in 1/32 as soon as I finish...

Maybe Steve, you skipped over it because you were focusing so much on the SE5a...

Cheers,

Hugh

Your absolutely correct Hugh, I can only focus on one at a time.....otherwise I'd have 3 or 4 on the table at one time. Had to work hard NOT to get into the Abbie's engine. As much as I'd like to.

Regards
Steve

Well I have been thinking more on this wire thing here . I like Hughs Idea on using the Q-tips for the rigging . I don't kown If this will pan out , but you can flatten the Q-tip some what and then heat pull it . The plastic is really soft so flatten it first just might work .

You will end up with more of a flat oval shape , just an idea !

Hi
Often the Q-tips will flatten when heatstretching, I always need too get the tube back by using an old airbrushneedle, just to get the Lycrathread thru the Q-tips

The worst tip for today would be to hot stretch some old Contrailstruts if you can find them. Contrail have/has round and profilshaped strips.This tecnique works byt you always have thr troubble with diffrent thickness off the stretched strip.

Larsa

Well Steve , I'm curious now on what you have come up with ! Lars does have some good points which I didn't think about at the time . Went to the craft store and came up empty handed on what can be used .

Back to thinking here some more , might have to have a few beers before I do . Not to worry , I will send the empties to Lars !