Yeah, I’d go with the balsa “mold” as opposed to trying to do it freehand. Seems to be asking for trouble that way, if you ask me.
Apart from that, your progress looks awesome. Keep up the great work on those gigantic Vacs! [;)][tup]
Thanks MIke - Quite honestly, I’m making it up as I go along!!! [:o] Having only done one vac before, and that one being a beauty (Dynavector Wyvern), I think I was spoiled. It’s a big challenge though, and I like a challenge. Once the wing’s sorted, things should go a lot easier, and I can finish scribing the large parts.
After that, I’ll need my scratchbuilding head, cos there’s lots still to do. Fortunately, with Midupper’s and the Stirling Project’s help, plus a lot of book buying on my part, I have quite a wedge of research that should help me in that department.
Just as a point of interest regarding those plans that the parts are resting on - My contact at Stirling Project tells me they’re quite innacurate. I think it’s the gross outline he’s talking about, as the panel lines seem pretty close to another set of drawings I have, which he says were done from the original plans. Trouble there is that it’s of a later mark, which is a transport/troop carrier version & has no weapons turrets, and a different tail attachment.
I think that I’ll be doing the best I can with the resources available, but I won’t lose sleep if a few panel lines are a couple of scale inches out [:D]
Well - it’s been a busy week in the workshop for me, trying to build some formers for inside the wings. Version one wasn’t too successful, as I was using plastic that was too thin, so it deformed easily. Version 2 with a box spar wasn’t “all that” either, so I laminated the ribs I’d made onto some thicker stock, and made a new spar from the same stock.
That came out ok, so I made some ribs for the bottom part of the wing, and glued them onto the ribs for the top part of the wing. Next, I deepened the spar to the bottom of the new lower wing ribs, to give it more strength. I’ve not glued them to the spar yet, as I’ll be using them as templates for the ribs & spar for the other wing. Enough talk - here are the pics:
Test of the ribs for fit in the spar.
Same again, only different angle.
This is where they’re going once I’ve made the other set.
That’s them with the lid on. X-acto knife is for scale.
Outstanding work here Mike, are you going to be rescribing the panel lines or are the lines you’ve drawn a pre-shading thing ?
Cheers Skii… They’re guidelines in permanent marker for the scribing process - the panel you can see in the last photo is already scribed, apart from the paler section on the rounded fuel tanks, which were wrong, and need re-doing (moulded in, not my mistake). I’ll make up a template for that later on, when I’ve cleared all the scrap plastic, shavings & dust off the desk! [;)]
Was at Duxford for the airshow this weekend, so not much done, other than a complete rebuild of 2 sets of spars & ribs from 2mm styrene stock to give it a bit of rigidity. I used the parts above as templates, which I pencil lined onto the new stock, scored roughly with a blunt blade, snapped out, then sanded to shape using my dremel with a sanding drum. Worked a treat, and helped me get a full set cut almost exactly to shape in about an hour. Watch out for the hot little balls of molten styrene it kicks out though!
The main spars are now glued to the wingtops & have been left to cure overnight. more pics later.
Looks like the ol’ Stirling’s coming along quite nicely, Mike. It just reminds me that I need to start practicing with wing rib construction pretty soon. My monster project is still a bit in limbo. Just waiting for a confirmation e-mail from Heavykits.
Keep up the good work! (You are right- that kit does have some size to it!)
Another thing to consider is to add .60 sheet-syrene “hard points” where the wings and horizontal stabilizers will pass through the thin vac-form fuselage.When I made my scratch-built 1/48 JU-287 I attached the wings using brass tubes inserted into the wings with .60 sheet styrene hard-points with corresponding holes(mounted inside the fuselage halves) to accept the tubes.This produced a secure attachment point and made it easier to establish the correct dihederal which in this case was quite pronounced.
A couple of tips might help you out here. Firstly, check that all the wing sections are correctly formed, and that you’ve got no “droop” like I had. If one’s drooped & the other isn’t, use the best one for the template. If they’re both out of shape, you might need to try & get some plans to construct your ribs from, then pull the wing skins into shape as you build her up.
Second tip is not to use too thin stock. I’m using 2mm styrene for mine, and it’s only just suitable. For your Goose, I’d use 3mm minimum, and would even consider thin gauge plywood as an alternative. That’s a hell of a span you’re going to be supporting there, and it might be worthwhile adding additional brass supports at the root where the maximum stress is applied.
If you decide to make your ribs using the wing piece as a template, you need to avoid deforming the skin when you’re pressing the profile gauge into the wing space. I used a tray of fine dry sand to support mine, tamping the sand down around the part before using the gauge. This kept the deformation to a minimum, but always check that the gauge has the true shape by offering it up to the selected rib line without touching the part. If the gap is constant, you’ve got it right.
Again, if you’re making your ribs from the wing parts, draw corresponding rib lines on the top & bottom parts, making template pieces from each half for each rib. You can then glue these pieces together and use them as a template for the final rib pair, which you can make out of the thicker stock. The same goes for the spar - that might involve quite a bit of guesswork initially, but refining it through several versions will result in a strong, well made & snug fitting spar, which will make the job easier in the long run.
Whatever you do, DON’T approach the task like I did without planning it, as you’ll waste lots of plastic in the process, and run the risk of ruining your project in one sitting! It’s better to spend a week making the spars fit just right, than bodge it & have a pair of twisted wings…
That’s a good tip Philo, thanks. I’ve left about 2" of the spar hanging out of the wings on each side, and was planning on making some kind of short box spar for this to attach into, which would sort out the dihedral, and keep the fuselage halves square once the weight of the wings was applied. Given the amount of plastic now sitting inside each wing, there’s going to be a tendency for the wings to droop, pulling the top sides of the fuselage out, and putting a lot of stress on the top seam over the wings.
The answer to that seems to be the box spar, together with some hefty bulkheads within the wing area of the fuselage. Now that the fuselage is approaching something like square, I can get the profile gauge in there & make some bulkheads to firm things up.
Been doing “stuff”.
The kit canopy was too narrow, so I decided to make my own using styrene, milliput & lots of elbow grease. I gave it a styrene base, and then used styrene pieces to create the flat sides, and used more styrene to create some formers to which I could build up the milliput to. I created the rolled effect on the transition from sides to the roof by gluing individual strips of rod in a sort of “timbre” effect, which was then covered in CA. I then filled the gaping holes with chopped up scraps of thick styrene, cemented in place with thick CA. On top of this I dumped a load of putty & roughly shaped it to look vaguely like a Stirling canopy.
This was it after the first sanding & Mr Surfacer treatment:
And again after the 2nd round of sanding & Mr Surfacer:
It’s now ready for me to put the framing on. I’m just not 100% sure whether to use tape, or foil, or what?
I put some proper formers into the fuselage next, which firmed it up no end, and made the two halves fit much cleaner. I also built the basics of the cockpit floor from really thick stock, so it could take any hammering that I might mete out to it while I was putting in the finer details:
I had to hack the front off the cockpit formers, as I’d got the dimensions & slope wrong. It was pretty easy, and it didn’t take me too long to correct it with a nice sloped drop & 2 access steps. here is is with some of the detail added, nothing too fancy yet, just the basics:
and again from the back:
Here’s a couple of shots of the vacformer I knocked up last week for £5 ($8-9):
and here’s my first ever vac!
It wasn’t the perfect subject matter, but it was all I had to hand at the time, and came out pretty well considering!
Ah, very nice. You gotta love progress. The Stirling looks like she is coming together rather well! Now excuse me while I eagerly take some notes to help with certian (cough) future projects!
Can’t wait to see this thing finished. Keep up the good work! [:D][tup]
Thanks Mike - I’m glad someone’s still watching! [;)] Yep… if just one person learns from my mistakes or successes, it’ll be a job well done. Somehow, I suspect that your Goose will make mine look a bit of a tiddler…
Didn’t mention it before, but I took delivery of a 1/48th Tamiya Lancaster last week. I’m now desperately trying to decide whether I’ll trust Mr Sanger or les Francaises (FM) to provide me with a 1/48th scale kit of the remaining British heavy bomber from WWII… the Halifax!
Miduppergunner has just taken delivery of his Sanger Halifax, and has made a solid start already. He’s relatively impressed with his compared with mine, which has needed lots of basic & back-breaking work just to get it to this early stage.
Wow! Thats one heck of a project! You seem to be making good progress so far. I hope to see more of this one as you go along. Its a kit I would be too afraid to tackle, I take my hat off to you. Regards, Darren.
Are you kidding? I’m watching this build with GREAT intrest! Not only is the experience very useful, the Stirling is one of my favorite British bombers! Besides, the tons of pics every post helps to hold my intres- Oo, look! A bird! [;)]
Can’t wait 'til the bird gets some paint!
Heh - you’re almost as easily distr… Latest update of the work in progress, hosted for a change from my mountain biking webspace, as my normal webspace seems to be broken! 
Pipex support have been mailed & I expect resolution shortly 
Tonight I created an RTV rubber mould of the canopy master, which is currently downstairs setting up. It’s the second mould I’ve made, and the biggest so far, using up almost a third of my tin of rubber. This could get expensive!
last night, I cut out the Bomb Aimer’s Window (BAW) and glued the two pieces together, then filled the hollow part with milliput. tonight I sanded it to a decent shape, until it was smooth, and slightly smaller than the aperture, so that when I vacform the clear sheet over it, it’ll be the right size. Strips of electrical insulation tape were stuck on to form the framing, and the part was given a coat of future to help it hold together & cover any little blemishes. Here’s the finished article:
While I’d been test fitting the BAW, I was looking at the inconsistency in the shape of the two halves of the forward fuselage. I decided that it wasn’t going to go away, and that it was too extreme for me to be able to sand both halves into a reasonable shape. I made a template of the left hand side from a prominent panel line towards the back of the cockpit area up to the nose, using a profiler gauge, and cut a piece of sturdy styrene sheet to shape. This fitted perfectly on the left side (from above).
I then flipped it over, and applied it to the right hand side. This is what I saw:
Now, it’s clear that the major part of the difference is on the wider lower section of the right hand side, so once I’ve checked my references to check that the left hand “blown” side is the correct one, I’ll plant some thick stock on the right hand side, building it up to the required profile. Then, the harsh edges will be filled with milliput and sanded smooth, so that both sides match.
If it’s the right hand side that’s correct, some major surgery will be performed on the left side, and the sidewall replaced with some correctly profiled styrene sheet. Not the easiest of tasks in any event, but I’m kind of hoping that I have to “plant” rather than “excavate”… I think you know what I mean 
I’ve also got another Stirling book on the way, which is reported to have lots of lovely detail pics for me to use in my research. Abebooks.co.uk is a GREAT place to get 2nd hand books from [:D]
Hmm. Looks like stuff could get dicey real quick with that large of an area to fix. My advice- keep pluggin’ away at it. The results haven’t dissapointed yet! [:D][tup]
In a tiny personal update, I just sent Heavykits the payment for my 1/72 Spruce Goose just a few minutes ago. That Goose is so close I can taste it. (Not really. That would be a bit weird… [;)])
Looks good!
Am now really wanting to see this Goose …
Yes Mike - I think you have drawn the short straw with the Stirling - compared with the Halifax. Clearly the Hali has its faults but not as significant as you are finding. Hence I will doft my cap along with others to you. The Hali is only making intermittent progress by the way… can’t get a run at it at the moment.
Keep the work, I love the Stirling and I think your kit will look great poised on that large main gear.[tup]