Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Whoa! Those are some serious projects! You really get the award for best recycling of material! Had I known this just about a year ago, I would have saved some of these old beasts, but alas we moved buildings and had to make pallets full of old IT junk and ship them off. I probably personally threw away dozens of those. We use all HP lasers now, so I have amassed quite a collection of gears and bitz from those, but haven't put them into any projects yet. You can see from my necromunda project thread that I use SIM card blanks from Lenovo Laptops for hatches. Great job, and I hope you get around to finishing those beasts!

The gear temporarily installed in gear wells to check for clearance and operating space. There appears to be sufficient room and the struts remain within the hull instead of poking out through the wing root whew!


http://i.imgur.com/lWAZP


http://i.imgur.com/03w7w
--
E. Blackadder

ARMORMAN wrote:Found some shots of the landing gear and bays of the FW resin kit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8476775@N05/2596192384

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8476775@N05/2596192018

Whoa those are some fantastic shots, much better than anything I have. Very much appreciated; I am in your debt.

Viewing these it very much reinforces what I have suspected all along; FW got the main gear retraction all wrong.

As the forward (angled) retract cylinder contracts it pivots the main strut forward. the landing pad with what I assume is a leveling cylinder collapses forward with the main strut intersecting with the hull well forward of the gear well opening instead of covering it forming a door as FW intends.

My main strut perforce will collapse vertically and the angled retract cylinder will be more of a stabilizing/centering device to keep the gear from swiveling.

The whole hydraulic/mechanical structure from an engineering standpoint is totally inadequate for a vehicle the size of the T'hawk but at least my interpretation will keep the external configuration intact with the gear retracted.

The forward strut is a different case and I may be able to adapt the FW design by placing the foot pad further aft on the shock strut the short strut/pad may intersect the hull where FW intended when retracted and cover the well.

The Blackadder, I'm not an engineer but I play one on the internet
--
E. Blackadder

Dood, that is just amazing! You're stil la lunatic, but a lunatic doing some amazing stuff! Engineers in real life spend ALL their time talking and not doing, you are better than them!.. Oh wait, I'm an engineer (IT, not mechanical or aerospace)

I'm trying to build the wings as light as possible because I want the upper wing appendages with the lascannons on the tips to be movable and not be a truss for the support of the lower main wing as in the FW model. FW really ought to research into drilling and tapping threads into resin and installing machine screws to hold the heavier pieces together. Crazy glue and even epoxy sometimes just isn't enough.

When I get to mounting the wings on the hull I'll do a tutorial on screwing.

Not what you're thinking,

Blackadder

Back when I was building Lucie I bought some gray ABS plastic box beam tubing manufactured by Plastruct. I don't recommend using this stuff but I've got to get rid of it.so I'm using it to frame the engine mounts and the wing core assembly. It's stronger than styrene but doesn't cement well with styrene glue unless you rough the surface up with sandpaper. Or you could use ABS cement which I believe is mainly acetone.


http://i.imgur.com/3ydfP


http://i.imgur.com/TPmC6

Before you get your 'nads in a knot the just installed beams will be cut very short; they're just left long for now to insure they are parallel. That is a building hint; it's easier to insure frames are parallel and true if they are long rather than short. The discrepancy in trueness is easier to detect with the longer length.

PLastruct Plastic Weld holds the ABS nicely. It actually melts the two surfaces together. Works with styrene, ABS, and PVC.

Excellent work here! I've been a bit of a lurker of your work, both while you were working on Lucie and now the THawk. Very inspirational! I'd like to try my hand at some scratchbuilding sometime, though I might cut my teeth on a project just a tad smaller than the stuff you're working on

Keep up the grea work!

Rawson

I have twenty or thirty ABS 1/2" tubes that I have had problems using. I used PVC glue at first but the Plastruct glue sounds good thanks for the tips.

dsteingass wrote:PLastruct Plastic Weld holds the ABS nicely. It actually melts the two surfaces together. Works with styrene, ABS, and PVC.

Thanks for the information but my hobby supply doesn't have the cement even though they do carry the ABS material; go figure!

Rawson wrote:Excellent work here! I've been a bit of a lurker of your work, both while you were working on Lucie and now the THawk. Very inspirational! I'd like to try my hand at some scratchbuilding sometime, though I might cut my teeth on a project just a tad smaller than the stuff you're working on

My mantra is never build anything small (i.e. Anything I can afford to buy. ) mais, Chacun à son goût.

mxwllmdr wrote:I have twenty or thirty ABS 1/2" tubes that I have had problems using. I used PVC glue at first but the Plastruct glue sounds good thanks for the tips.

Good luck in finding it.

I've found that sanding the surfaces to be cemented and applying clamps whilst drying gives a sufficiently strong weld.

We're starting at the ground floor building the wings so there shouldn't be any question later on how it was done. Now if I can just do it without a mistake.


http://i.imgur.com/ZDVp7

I calculated the wing outboard of the engine should extend 17.5 mm excluding the wing tip armament That seems a bit small to me but figures don't lie. We'll just have to see I can always make them bigger.

I wonder...... If you have made any templates/drawings that are available for other wargamers to use? (or is that too cheeky?)

Cheers: TTK

This wing build will be something I watch with much interest as mine were horribly planned. Please, Black, be detailed with pics. Your insight is highly valued.

TheToastKing wrote:I wonder...... If you have made any templates/drawings that are available for other wargamers to use? (or is that too cheeky?)
Cheers: TTK

No, not too cheeky but here's the deal. I don't make templates or plans of any type. I get too caught up in their production and waste valuable time producing them. What I do is take images such as the ones I provided at the beginning of this thread and enlarged them to the appropriate size with my photo editor program and take the measurements off of the screen. Fortunately the rendered 3D images give almost perfect four projection views of the necessary components.

mxwllmdr wrote:This wing build will be something I watch with much interest as mine were horribly planned. Please, Black, be detailed with pics. Your insight is highly valued.

Bearing in mind that my T'hawk is a bit outsized because of the Rhino carrying cargo hold capability using the above technique I proceeded cutting the wings with the following result.

Mad mad madman.

dsteingass wrote:Mad mad madman.

agreed

They seem a little wider than i thought they should be. Am I wrong or is that part of the outsize you mentioned? Or is it the angle of the photo? I am probably wrong.

Hurry up and finish this beast would ya!

Great work on the wings dude!

mxwllmdr wrote:They seem a little wider than i thought they should be. Am I wrong or is that part of the outsize you mentioned? Or is it the angle of the photo? I am probably wrong.

It's the foreshortening perspective; if I took the picture perpendicular to the wings the pencil lines wouldn't show up.

Commander Cain wrote:Hurry up and finish this beast would ya!

One shouldn't rush but savor the build as you would a fine wine.

I hate wine.

Wine rocks.

Blackadder, love the work you are doing. Inspires me to start planning a long term, extra detailed build. Can't wait to attempt something of this magnitude and skill!

Ok, so wine does rock, I am just too impatient for this kind of absolute beauty. But, i am currently under commission to my local shop for a couple items and, Black, your inspiration will ensure that my shopowner has a bad@$$ warlord and T-hawk.
Incidentally, what's the sizes on that ABS square tubing for reference.

If I don't plow through my projects like a man obsessed, I get bored with them and they tend to sit around unfinished for years.

mxwllmdr wrote:Ok, so wine does rock, I am just too impatient for this kind of absolute beauty. But, i am currently under commission to my local shop for a couple items and, Black, your inspiration will ensure that my shopowner has a bad@$$ warlord and T-hawk.
Incidentally, what's the sizes on that ABS square tubing for reference.

Glad to see someone is making money at this, The wing spars are 3/8" or 9.0 MM and the wing root longeron is 1/4" or 6.0 MM

dsteingass wrote:If I don't plow through my projects like a man obsessed, I get bored with them and they tend to sit around unfinished for years.

How could I get bored when I have all the wonderful replies to spur me on.

Doesn't look wide to me, I was going to say how good they look. Even their thickness looks good.

The_Blackadder wrote:
Glad to see someone is making money at this, The wing spars are 3/8" or 9.0 MM and the wing root longeron is 1/4" or 6.0 MM

No, I don't make money, I ask for enough to get materials but because I buy materials in bulk there is usually enough left over to make the project worth my while.

That's the smart way to go!

Looking good! keep going!

I'm afraid you gentlemen and mayhaps ladies perhaps have hitched your wagon to a falling star. I wasted a week on a futile bit of building that did not pan out. Going back to square one I have in a flurry of desperation managed to come up with a better way of doing the wings. This morning I started gluing the first wing together and the foreground piece is the second wing which I hope will be more facile to build now that I think I know what I am doing.


http://i.imgur.com/T15nG


http://i.imgur.com/FNTlE

The extremely fallible Blackadder

I don't get it.... Looks fantastic. What was the problem?

Ah my loyal support, what I am describing is that I made wings that did not work and the new wings pictured above are more accurate in scale and construction. I disliked scraping a week of work but I will not compromise in this effort my motto being, "Good enough is never good enough!" Many posts express incredulity as to the depth of detail and uncompromising attention to accuracy; the only thing I can say to that is I will not accept a second rate effort and am not afraid to redo that which is not acceptable. That is the non-secret of my building.

Man I shouldn't be drinking Martinis when I answer these replies, I come across as a major douch