I did the first print of the HO version of the FM Loco Primer Mover. Some parts worked well. others not as good. The problem was where I had the supports. I had the engine bottom facing down to promote drainage of the uncured resin, but this put all the supports right on top of all the delicate hatch details on the top crank cover. I tried to remove remnants, but did a lot of damage to the details. I'm reprinting it in a reversed position. Notice though how fantastically the Machine printed those tiny hand grabs on the injector covers. They are tiny. If HO rendered this well, imagine how the O'scale version will look.
The front pump cover came out okay.
The exhaust stacks didn't do so well and I'm reprinting them in a different orientation also. It's never the printer's fault. It's always how you situate parts on the machine.
S-38
Today was a big deal day. I finished putting the last of the support struts on the fuselage. The wing end is soldered. The fuze end was fastened with a 2-56 cap screw into a hole that I drilled and tapped. These six center struts were strong enough to support the fuselage weight. I was able to lift the 50 pound beast up from the build table and set it on the arms of our old knock-off Eames chair, but I am not able to lift it, hold it and position it onto the build table right side up.
To do the great reversion I enlisted the help of my daily-growing, 15 year-old grandson. He came over tonight and we were able to turn it and set it properly onto the build table. I've started doing the final cleaning and finishing in preparation for painting. I also added the hanging brace that suspends the tail of the fuselage from the tail booms. This piece is steel wire and replaces another piece of steel wire. We had to cut that wire to release the fuselage from the wing when we removed it from the memorial. All of the rest of the struts (the hot glued ones) had let go and only this wire was holding the mess together. I was pleased that the piece I made ended up being the same length as the wire it replaced indicating that the geometry was still pretty good. Tying the main struts to the lower wing are only four or five more solder joints needed to finish the job. There are some non-load-bearing cross wires that go between the tail booms. I'm going to epoxy these instead of soldering because of their proximity to the hanging brace.
Now that it's sitting correctly I find that one strut on one side is a bit long (about 3/32") and on the other side it's a bit short. It wouldn't be hard to de-solder and move the mounting position, but I can't do that with the model in this orientation. It's hard enough to solder this model. It would be near impossible to solder upside down. So I'm going to trim the long one in situ, and either shim the other with a piece of brass or just tie it to the small wing slightly separated from the other strut. The model is over seven feet in the air so no one will ever see the upper surfaces of the small wings.
I epoxied the landing gear so they're ready for paint too. I'm painting them separately and will epoxy them to the plane when it's actually on the dome. They're delicate and will most certainly be destroyed when we're attempting to maneuver the model into position. The props also will go on at the end. This is like my other scratch-build projects. There are no instructions. Much of the thinking is building things in your head to determine the best sequence to do something. You don't want to find yourself having to take something apart to put something in that should have been done before. It's probably the most gratifying part of the job. Someone gives you a beat up piece of junk and a box of unlabeled parts and you have to make it something good. I imagine that a battlefield surgeon is faced with this kind of challenge all the time. What to do before what to get maximum benefit and minimum collateral damage.
The Heritage Team did not believe that the model could be recreated. It's truly a phoenix. Until I solved the solder heat problem I wasn't so sure it was doable either. They are very pleased!
