12jaguarHi all
no progress as such to report today as the team was in attendnace at the Brampton Model Show, where we took our Pilots’ seat and the Glycol tank to show the public. We get invited every year and have a very good relationship with the orhanisers as it always draws some attention not just for ourselves but also Brampton IPMS model club. As usual we got some donations and got some income from selling off some surplus model kits.
One negative thing that happened though this week was that our workshop along with several other on site was broken into by some low life individuals. Thankfully/surprisingly nothing was stolen as far as we can tell but it is a wake up call. So thanks to an understanding boss I was able to slope away from work for a couple of hours to check things over and to buy a new, better padlock to secure the premises.
Awaiting the frame material to be laser cut, but information seems to imply that it won’t be long now
take care
John
12jaguarJust myself and Cliff at the workshop yesterday. Whilst Cliff was beavering away on joggling channels, I riveted up the vertical pillar assembly I started last week. This was then finished off as far as we can go at the moment with the addition of 2 top attachment brackets which which will be bolted to the undersurface of the Fr5 transverse cockpit floor beam. Both this and the Fr5 lower transverse beam have now been primed and set aside until they’re required later in the build. Thinking about it, I can make the top attachment brackets for the Stbd vertical pillar which is a mirror image but without the Elevator control rod cut-out. A job for next time methinks.
On the planning side, David Collins has been drawing up the design for the Bomb Bay structure jig; it’s quite frightening (in a good way) how things are suddenly gaining momentum.
A company has been identified to construct the jig and a rough estimate of cost put together; as you can imagine this will be the most costly items we have procured so if you feel like contributing please head over to our Facebook or website pages and all contributions will be gratefully received.
The company who we hope will be laser cutting the bomb frames have started nesting the frames to determine how many sheets of material are required. More on this soon hopefully.
as usual, take care
John
12jaguarAs luck would have it, our plans changed on Saturday so I was able to escape for a few hours to the workshop.
First up was to assemble the Terminal Block to the Frame 13 heated glove and boot TB bracket. This won’t be installed for quite some time yet but it’s nice to get something finished that’s been made from an original blueprint (thanks RAFM ). It;s also nice to paint something in silver for a change rather than black or cockpit green!
Last week I collected 5 off cast triangular brackets which have been machined to an exact right angle by our good friend of the Project, John Scott. These are used in various places under the flight deck structure so obviously accuracy is paramount as these will be used to set up some of the beams and pillars.
Referring to my last post, I;ve been working on the structure beneath the flightdeck on the 1st Pilots’ side. I’ve almost gone as far as I can with the transverse beam so have turned my attention to the vertical support pillar (port one to be exact) that frames the stairwell leading down into the Bomb Aimers Station. This has a cutout to clear the Elevator pushrod. As luck would have it we have the remains of the top of this pillar which has been in the Projects position for as long as I can remember. Some time ago we had the pillar extrusion machined to size and at some stage quite some time ago I made copies of the profiled reinforcing bracket for the cutout. As this has been rattling around in my toolbox for donkeys years I thought it was high time these were finally fitted. I didn’t quite get round to riveting this up but this should be a quick job for next Saturday
On a very positive note the CAD files for laser cutting the bomb frames have now been finalised and sent off; hopefully the organisation that potentially will be doing these will be able to turn them round relatively quickly. If so I should be able to report a sizeable cache of structural parts ready to be worked on.
Take care
John
12jaguarA steady day yesterday rather than one with rapid progress. Graham has started stripping down some of the Simmonds fasteners from the remains of various Bomb hoist covers; these are installed on the bomb bay floor and are removed to allow the armourers to raise the bombs into their respective crutches. Simmonds T type fasteners are as rare as hens’ teeth so we’ll have to reclaim as many as possible and Graham will be drawing up the best ones so that we can recreate them and we need 6 panels recreating for the section that we’re making.
Cliff is still beavering away with the step; all the requisite parts have been made but it’s been a bit of a challenge to work out a reliable means of joggling the mating faces of the witches hat channels. he’s nearly finished them all off now so hopefully he’ll be able to start assembling the structure on his next visit in a few weeks time.
Whilst waiting for the bomb frames to be laser cut, I’ve progressed the lower transverse beam at Frame 5; this is a busy piece of structure with aileron pulley controls fitted along with the aileron servo motor installed on it. Frome earlier posts you’ll have seen that we have an original albeit twisted piece from which we’ve been able to re-use some parts and also take some critical measurements. So, having stripped the beam down to it’s bare structure, I was was able to transfer the relevant pilot holes over to the newly machined example. This now has new attachment brackets slaved into position and even a terminal block. I have the original terminal block which is still in a serviceable condition which just needs cleaning up and will be re-fitted to the new beam once complete.
Last update for a couple of weeks due to family stuff and other team members being on holiday
take care
John
12jaguarA short update today as most of us could only spare a few hours at the workshop. That’s not to say though that stuff wasn’t done.
Graham has finished off the Heated Boot and Glove Terminal Block bracket that will be fitted at Frame 13; this just needs some silver paint to finish this off. Being modellers, Cliff and I have settled on Nissan silver as an appropriate match as this is a close approximation to High Speed Silver which is close to some of the original parts that we have have.
Cliff is beavering on with the lift up step, the bare parts have been made he is currently figuring out the best way to joggle the mating faces of the top hat stringers where they fit inside the edge U sections.
After fabricating the armour plates, these have now been painted with the fixed lower armour now permanently attached to the seat frame. The upper armour is temporarily attached pending the design and manufacture of the fixing brackets that will be rivetted to the seat chassis and then bolted to the upper armour.
I have made a start on the lower transverse beam at Frame 5 whilst we’re waiting for the bomb frames to be cut; hopefully this won’t be too far away now.
more next week
John
12jaguarNot much physical work to relate on this week as other areas took priority. I did manage to steal a few hours to finish priming and painting the pilots head armour; then for a change of pace had a potter on my Chippy WP927. This has been on the back burner through necessity and is now in the process of having the belly skins replaced; this is a tricky job as access isn’t great and there’s some complex profiles to deal with. It was nice to something a bit different fro a change though.
Friday was a long day involving myself and my long suffering wife took a trip down south (near Bath) to visit long term friend of the Project and fellow forumite Hindenburg. After some good catching up and some swaps we came away with a nearly complete Pilots DV window and Bomb Aimers Punkah Louvre. Additionally, we have been loaned some useful items including cockpit structure, and Pitot mast which will greatly aid us moving forward, so a big thankyou
Back to metal bashing next week
take care
John
12jaguarThanks guys
TA, the armour would be stowed on non-combat ops methinks. When the Gee sets were introduced at the Nav Station, you couldn’t lower the armour as the racks were in the way so they were permanently fixed in the raised position. As we’re intending on representing a MkIII, this is fortunate as we haven’t got any details relating to the latching mechanism in the lower and upper positions. We do have good photos of said installation on the seat at Deelen.
This also has the headache or reproducing the Gee racks, but that’s something for much, much later in the build
John
12jaguarHi all
Cliff was busy today making up the kit of parts that make up the large flightdeck step, and has now got to the point of assembly. He won’t be at the workshop next week so hopefully in a fortnight we’ll start seeing some assembly photos.
Graham is making another Terminal Block Bracket for Frame 13, I think this one is for heated boots and gloves although I could be mistaken.
I received some material for the Pilots’ Head Armour this week so getting this sorted was the order of the day. First stage was to dismount the fiexed armour plate from the seat and attach the hinge brackets that Graham made last week. Having ensured that the two plates were correctly aligned with each other the hinges were clamped to the head plate and using the pilot holes in the brackets as a guide the holes were opened up to 1/4″. Using the damaged original piece of armour as a guide, the plate was cut and shaped to the same curved profile. Much deburring and keying in of surfaces later and the brackets were finally assembled to the plate and the inner surface was primed.
We ran out of time to prime the other surface but for effect we fixed the whole assembly back on the seat. The head armour was a relatively simple item to get progressed, but it certainly bulks up the flightdeck. This will be in a fixed configuration as 2 bracket assemblies will need making which will be rivetted to the seat structure and then bolted to the head armour making that a fixed assembly. The brackets are fairly complex to make so will need some thought as to how we’ll accomplish it, but that’s for another day.
Take care
John
12jaguarMorning all
A moderately productive day at the workshop yesterday with just myself and Graham on site. Graham has completed the other hinge for the Pilots’ armoured headplate so we’re just waiting on the plate material to finish that off.
I had a bit of a tinker with the sheet metal folder and have set it up so that we can repetitively make the channels for the fold up step between the Pilots seats, we should now be able to make sufficient to allow Cliff to progress with that.
Whilst I’m waiting for the plate to arrive, I thought I’d have a further look at the underfloor transverse beam at Frame 5 which was made for us earlier. We have an original piece which came from BK716 which we’ve used as a pattern and for some time I’ve been wondering about another piece of wreckage that seems to have been with us forever and was of unknown provenance. This is the remnants of the Port vertical pillar that supports the flightdeck at Fr5 and I wondered if it would give some clues about how they interacted with each. Surprisingly they fitted together perfectly so I can now identify the pillar as also being from BK716. This has now gained even more significance as it allows us to accurately set the position of the transverse beam beneath the flightdeck. The photos below show the beam and pillar from BK716 slaved together. I’ve started to remove the usable parts from the beam and this has allowed the new beam to be drilled and temporaily fixed to the original pillar.
From the original beam I’ve been able to recover a bracket, terminal block and P clips which I’m hoping to re-use. It’s a fair way off but through looking at the Repair AP and the Vol 3 (Parts Catalogue) I’ve been able to order sufficient material to put in store for the under flightdeck structure including the Observers Platform just behind the 2nd Pilots seat.
take care
John
12jaguarHope to be there!
12jaguarHi all
A picture heavy update today
Firstly, I was passed some more photos from Berts visit last weekend; the one with him sat in the 2nd Pilots seat is very evocative as you can see how he has been transported back in time, he mentioned that it was exactly as he remembered it which is very pleasing to us.
The formers which we received earlier this week are now safely stored at the workshop ready for the metal blanks once they’ve been cut. Meanwhile David Collins our CAD wizard has ironed out the last minute anomalies in the drawings so hopefully these will be signed off and cutting will commence soon. I’ve placed the CAD models below which will give an overview of teh complexity of the structure.
The workshop today was graced by 4 of us; Dave was assembling some new racking for our electrical AGS, Cliff was fighting the U channels for the lift up step, whilst I finished off and assembled the male armour plate hinges to the Pilots fixed armour plate. Graham, was making the first pair of female hinges which will be attached to the Upper armour plate.
All small jobs that need finishing off before we get on to the bomb frames proper. I even managed to find a few spare minutes to carry on drilling the belly skin on my Chippy WP927, something I haven’t had the bandwidth to do for quite some time.
Take care all
John
12jaguarAnd yet another quick update
Received today 4 off Flying Control Stops (located on Frame 9 vertical bulkhead)
Thanks to Ian Mitchell for making these FOC
John
12jaguarHi all
It’s been a very long time coming but I hope that you’ll agree it’s a major step forward for the Project.
We took delivery today of the MDF formers for the individual bomb frames. these were produced in record time by Pete of Red Hut CNC of Stowmarket.
we’re just waiting on some tweaks to the laser cutting files for the metal blanks and manufacture of a bead and flare tool
Hopefully some structure WIP photos to follow soon
John
12jaguarMorning all
As I alluded to last week, we were hosting a group of Veterans at the workshop so no proper work was undertaken, however Graham and I did assemble some racking to accomodate some of our AGS and electrical spares.
At about 11 a group of 9 from the Tri-Services Veterans Support Centre based in Newcastle-Under-Lyme arrived; these were mostly ex-Army but amongst their number we were honoured to welcome W/O Bert Trurner ex-196 Sqn Stirling IV Flight Engineer. At 97 years old, Bert could many to shame as he enthusiastically climbed on to the Flight Deck to take up his normal take off position as 2nd Pilot to assist the Pilot. It was obvious that Bert was taken back to the good and not so good times he had whilst on Stirlings. He remembered all of the F/E controls and told us of how his aircraft was shot up over Arnhem with the loss of the Rear Gunner and his Skipper who unfortunately died of his wounds after bailing out. Bert was married 7 days before being shot down and his wife was told that she had been widowed; however it wasn’t the case and he made it back to Allied lines and arrived home without having changed clothes or having a wash, his wife welcomed with the immortal line ‘you stink’.
The group spent several hours with us and showed a lot of interest in our activity and as always a timely reminder that we’re not just ‘men in shed’ but we’re commemorating all who served.
Below is a photo of the group with Bert in the 2nd Pilots seat.
I must mention that the Tr-Services Veterans Support Centre are doing fantastic work in their own right and as a Registered Charity are supporting not just Veterans but also the local community through Foodbanks and social support. If you can see fit to make a small donation to them please visit https://veteransupportcentre.org/contact to see what they do.
take care
John
12jaguarThanks Tim
Being patient is an occupational necessity when rebuilding Stirlings LOL.
Getting these items will be protracted but hopefully will definitely be worth the wait and effort, all depends on when Covid restrictions get lifted here and elsewhere
John
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