WWI Air Corps Gunnery Trainer

[danpickard]

Marc,
There is easily room in the chassis of that thing for a decoder, speaker enclosure and probably even some fibre optic to run into the barrel of the gun 

Dan

[marc_reusser]

Roughed out sub-assemblies. Two hull/body halves only loose fit. Body end panles will receive final shaping after interior is painted and installed. Wheels are Grandt Line. Shouldered axles were made from brass rod soldered into brass tubing.

[finescalerr]

Nice, clean fabrication. -- Russ

[Junior]

Reminds me of Ozzy Osbourne´s "Crazy Train"  and crazy it is  but I´m sure the finish will be awesome!

Anders

[marc_reusser]

Reminds me of Ozzy Osbourne´s "Crazy Train"   and crazy it is  but I´m sure the finish will be awesome!

Anders

LOL. Yeah, its like some kind of mad carnival ride.


...OK... a bit of progress. It's slow going, because there are a lot of steps in a very small area.

The ever risky, "milling almost finished delicate parts". I was debating adding the notch that the one in the photo had, but in the end felt, that that was an important visual feature/detail.




Primer coat, and test fitting interior after cutting notch and applying upper bulkhead piece.



The real RE-8 sides at the gunners compartment were canvas, however, as this contraption did not need to fly, and likely needed to be more sturdy due to heavy use, I am going to interpret them as being made of Plywood, but in order to give the trainee a more accurate sense of the space in a plane, the ribbing and framing of the plane would be present.

I will be using the plywood decals made by Uschi van der Rosten (Alexander Glass) http://www.uschivdr.com/, so I will be following his painting steps pretty closely.

I need to fully paint and weather the interior before I can work further on the exterior;

Base color XF-59.




Temporarily inserting interior frame, and lightly out-lining frame pieces in pencil.




A mix of panel shading and CM, following the previously drawn pencil lines. (Interior framing in left half is inserted just for photo, to show effect.)




A light blend coat and fading, using approximately a 60/40 mix of XF-15 and XF-55. (Interior framing just temporarily inserted.)

[marc_reusser]

Decals applied. I wet the painted surface with Microscale decal setting solution, with a small amount of carpenters glue thoroughly mixed in.




At right are the different plywood patterns/decals I used for the different surfaces,




Plywood interior slightly darkened and tinted reddish brown with ABt-502 Oil paint "Dark Rust".




Some slight CM on the interior frame members. All upper surfaces were painted with a lighter color mix (left colors), while underside of all memebers was painted with a darker mix (right colors).




Pre-shading/corner shading on the floor surface (to prep for plywood decal application) using thinned AK-Interactive streaking grime.




Now just need to wait for all the oils to cure for a couple of days.

[Gordon Ferguson]

Neat work, as one would expect.

I purchased some of those decals and their in a drawer somewhere awaiting a suitable project ...... Looks as they do a great job.

Glad to see the "primer on the nail"  effect as well

Can you post a picture of the Lewis gun some time soon, and what you think of it, as thinking of purchasing that set for something ?

[marc_reusser]

Thanks Gordon. First decal really scared the heck out of me.....the whole process is like heading out into the vast unknown (and definitely outside my comfort zone).

I really like the results of the decals. Great product. Was dubious at first...but now, have lots of ideas and uses floating around in my head.

Sorry to say, the patterns I used are not yet on the market...they were some thrown in test samples,....but, it's my favorite pattern (I have the 3 others that are out as well)...hopefully it will be out/available soon. (or drop Alex a line, and see if he will print you a set of these.)

Grey is my color.

Will post a pic. I know nothing about Lewis guns, but insofar as the casting and detail go it is typical WN high quality. (I was told by several people when I started this build, theirs is the best...and pretty much only one on the market. There is one by someone else, but it is supposedly garbage.)

[Junior]

Great start on the paint job!

Saw a couple of P.E. templates for wood grain, plywood etc. if you want to air brush the patterns. Forgot the manufacturer but you will find them here somewhere http://www.relishmodels.co.uk/ if anyone is interested.

Anders

[marc_reusser]

Thanks Anders.


Not much progress, or anything exciting...just a couple of hours.


Next step was to apply a plywood pattern to the sub-floor. The UvdR decals were cut into the approprate width strips and inserted between the cleats. Once set the excess was trimmed. One can see the decals in place on the left half, and the painted base surface on the right.




After the decals were in place, a glaze/tinting of Abt-502 'Dark Rust' was applied (sim to the interior side walls). The oil paint was applied with the smaller brush, while the flat round tip brush was used to work the coloraround. More color was worked into the sides, to create a shading/wear difference from the center (effect doesn't really show in this photo). A Q-Tip was used, to remove the oil paint/color from the top of the cleats and perimiter frame.




Cheers

[Junior]

Really nice work Marc!

By the way I saw the P.E. templates I mentioned and they are only usefull for larger areas no way they would fit a job like this and those decals are just great. Also saw pictures of aircrafts where Uschi had applied them and they are indeed fantastic.

Hope I will live to see the track completed as well  !

Anders

[Gordon Ferguson]

These plywood decals are really effective ..... and neatly applied .

Do me a favour though, stop posting such neat set ups ...... everything is so clean and tidy, could you not just sweep an area clear on the bench as I do to take a pic ....... might make the rest of us feel better.

[Geoff Ringle]

Mark, 
The success you had with the plywood decals is stunning.  Thanks for posting.
Geoff

[marc_reusser]

Thanks Gordon and Goeff.

The drn things are actaully pretty addictive. Mkes me itch to do some kind of panel truck or van, where I cn ue them on the interior.

They come in1/48 as well, so somebody building a more contemporary RR subject, like a boxcar or caboose with ply sheathing on the inside could use them as well.....heck I can see numerous uses....all that one would neeed to adapt/experiment with, is the undercoat and staining colors that would be appropriate for their use/conditions.

[eTraxx]

I was looking around the website .. and very interesting. I think I could find a use for 1:48 decals like that. I was curious about the website name and found this - http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/uschi-van-der-rosten/51535-uschi-van-der-rosten.html