LB's FlightLine B-25J to B-25C "Desert Warrior" Build

[f4u ausie]

Look awesome to me.. but I'm upside down . Between U and danger I think U both do an incredible job.. at some point I will have a try

[f4u ausie]

By the way Steve U may not have a smart fone. But nobody on the planet can drive a 3d printer like U can

[Elbee]

Thanks, Mate. Appreciate the comment, muchly.

[Elbee]

Mitchell Maniax,

The "Twins" are all glued down and ready for a check flight.

I had to break it to them that we're months away....


Tomorrow, with any luck, the bombardier suite will get glued in place, though that could carry over into Sunday, we'll see.

Best, LB

[jetfool]

Elbee,
You have done it again. Beautiful modifications and pilots. Looking forward to flying review.
Best Regards, Rex

[Elbee]

Elbee,
You have done it again. Beautiful modifications and pilots. Looking forward to flying review.
Best Regards, Rex

Thanks, Rex.

Flying review?.....well, hadn't even thought about that yet....

I am looking forward to that day very much.

In the mean time, I will be pleased to get back to work on the fuselage modifications to a "C" Variant.

Cutting many holes for windows, bubbles and the like.

Going to take some scrounging to find the glass pieces.

I have not found or seen a way to print clear parts that look good.

Vacuum form or equivalent is going to be the only way I think.

Cross that bridge when I get there.

Best, Steve

[Grossman56]

Grossman56

I thank you.

It sometimes seems if it just isn't perfect (what's in my head) then it's not quite good enough.

Besides, Tamms came into the Hanger and said "you still working on that?"

I showed her 'the little dudes' and she said, "They're fine...stop".

Can't argue with that or at least I ought-naught.

Best, Steve

So what you're saying is that you learned a lesson, actually you had a 2-for-1 epiphany. 1) Perfection is impossible 2) Winning an argument with the wife is impossible. As a married man myself, the only answer available is "Yep, your right"
Remember the quote from Clint, "A man's gotta know his limitations"

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

So what you're saying is that you learned a lesson, actually you had a 2-for-1 epiphany. 1) Perfection is impossible 2) Winning an argument with the wife is impossible. As a married man myself, the only answer available is "Yep, your right"
Remember the quote from Clint, "A man's gotta know his limitations"

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

I have used, "Oh, I didn't think of it like that,,,,, Honey."

[jetfool]

Elbee,
Could you make a f/g mold over the original top and use that instead of the original foam to make your mods? Not having seen the real model just me daydreaming.

[Elbee]

I could, but then why not just build a F/G B-25 fuselage with foam wings. Old school stuff. I have a method for cutting the holes by scaling the size and designing a a part that at least does the outline impression and I cut out the rest with an X-Acto or scalpel. Works good and I think I'll be make surrounds for the all those openings to hide the thick foam. That's the plan for now. I am using a 1/72 scale drawing from which I take my measurements.

[Elbee]

B-25 Dudes and Dudettes,

I did get about half the bombardier's office glued in place.

The other half will need to wait until all the other glue is dry.

The top sill (for lack of a better term) forward cross-bar lookin' thing will be cut away after that is glued in place.

After all that is completed, I'll be mounting the manned 50 cal in the greenhouse glass.

That is after that piece has been masked and painted for the inner color.

All the barrels dry fit in place like the OEM, so I am covered there.

More when there is more.....

Best, LB

[Grossman56]

Wow, if you think your job was bad, imagine sitting there with two .50's blasting in your ears, enough to make you jittery

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

Quick Update

Parts in place and looking more like a B-25 Nose.

Finalizing the 50 Cal mounting to the Greenhouse and cleaning up the exposed foam inside and out.

I've found references to a canvas looking bag(s) that catch the empty brass from the 50 cal.

Those look to mount beneath and to the left of the gun and go all the way to the nose floor.

Could be a good secondary mounting for the hand operated machine gun and look good at the same time.

We'll see.

Best, LB

[borntoolate]

looking good!!!


Bob

[Elbee]

borntoolate

And everybody who is still tuning in

Found these acrylic ornaments which are split into 2 parts on @m@z0n.

3 different diameters and the middle size one arch is perfect for this Observation Dome.

Cut it down to 0.545+/-" on my drill press.

I made a "C" shaped 0.6 on the 3D printer to set the height correctly and cut slowly.

Looks 'spot on' and measures well against the scale drawing.

More when there is more.

Best, LB

[Grossman56]

You're as bad as me, I've always got my eye out for interesting shapes and things that could be used for modeling.
Good find!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

Mitchell Mob,

Observation Bubble in place. Woo-da-hoody!

Not sure whether to cut out the hole all the way through or just print and 'gray out' a base for it.

There's no real detail in there and the OEM view would be the battery top, so....we'll see.

Any who, more when there is more.

Best, LB

[f4u ausie]

Would like to ask lb,, when U scale guys do these awsome mods ,,how do U no the right size etc, for the right scale on each .... Part.. reference books,, I'm sure ,, r part of that. I imagine original drawings would b handy....... Just wondering

[Elbee]

Would like to ask lb,, when U scale guys do these awsome mods ,,how do U no the right size etc, for the right scale on each .... Part.. reference books,, I'm sure ,, r part of that. I imagine original drawings would b handy....... Just wondering

Craig,

Well, I can't speak for others, but personally I do this always:

1) lick the tip of my thumb so I know there's no dirt on it,

2) close one eye,

3) hold my hand out with my thumb up,

4) extend my arm to its' full length,

5) site down over the top of my thumb nail,

6) measure off of that.

Works almost never.

Best, Steve

ps: I use a ton of reference pictures and a search for a decent 5-view which includes top-down and down-up shots.

For me, I scale based on what I know, could be a panel, a part like the canopy, just some known something I can scale to the both the model and the drawing.

I will take a reference photo, open it in Photo-Shop, crop it, size it and guestimate as needed to find the scale.

I will also print a part or a portion of the 3 views to the size of my model and design from there

I use a little math and get an accurate (enough) scale to the 1:1 versus the model.

That is to say, if the FlightLine B-25 has a wingspan of 1600mm and a length of 1280mm and the 1:1 has a wingspan of 67' 7'' and length of 52'11'', do a little math to find the ratio of each.

In this case, a conversion would give me a wingspan number of 67'7'' divided by 1600mm or 1/12.875 of the actual wingspan and the length would be 52'11'' divided by 1280mm or 1/12.6.

I add both the scales and average, so 12.875+12.6=25.474 and divide by 2 = 12.7375.

That number gives me my constant when I know the actual measurement of a part I am designing or going to print.

So if I am going design a 500 lb bomb for this model I take the actual bomb size and divide it by 12.7375 to get my scale size.

Make sense?

Motion calls the B-25J 1/13th scale; however, when you're designing parts it's better to use the actual average of 1/12.7375, IMHO.

In any event, it is always a compromise and I mean always.

My greenhouse for the B-25C conversion filled up quickly with all the parts.

I thought I had over-sized some things and sometimes a fraction of a inch shows up in the part.

That is where 'artistic license comes to play.

I will print the part until I 'think' it looks like it belongs there and matches the references best I can.

Also, I have realized the B-25 foamie model doesn't always allow me to have scale paper thin fuselage walls or floors and I can't always allow for that as a variable.

Cutting back the foam sides was a start, but I still lost almost 0.625" of floor width, which would have given a better perspective of the space.

In the Corsair it was simpler as I had most the entirety of the cockpit to place my cockpit parts, but was still squeezed in by the thickness of the foam structure.

Anyway, the scale police would arrest me without a warrant for the artistic license I shamelessly apply to my builds.

Hope this at least muddies the water enough that you don't actually realize I have no clue what I'm doing.

Your friend, Steve

[jetfool]

F4u ausie,

I use a good 3 -view, pictures, measure and use the good ole TAR method. So far this has worked for me and no one has measured my models at the field.

Best Regards, Rex

[f4u ausie]

Thanx guys... Yas all do an awesome job,,as I've said b4,, but I wonder if an average person who sees these beautiful representations has any idea. On the hours spent(they likely don't care)..I'm sure some are in the hundreds,, over a year or so...

I spent couple hours a nite after work for 2 or 3 weeks hand brushing the art work on the al37(b4 it drifted off into the sunset ). Just paint. So all you mods 3d printing. Changes etc. And then U paint it.. big kudos to your patience and skills. B safe

[Elbee]

f4u ausie

Craig, it's a labor of love, Mate. Best, LB