Pete J.

Ok, we're working on this model again. Enough trying to figure it out. Made and soldered the front/radiator mounting plate and squared up the basic front of the chassis. The plate is brass that I engine turned. Very tedious! I took a piece of hard wood dowel and turned it to .1" and chucked it up in my mill. I then put some cutting oil on the plate at sprinkled some volcanic ash on it and proceeded to lower the dowel to the surface to polish in a disk. Move it to the right .1" . Repeat. At the end of the row go back the starting point, move it up .050" and left .050" and repeat the next row. Repeat. 12 rows later you have an engine turned piece of brass. As I said very tedious! Oh, before anyone asks, I have no idea where you might get volcanic ash. I have a very large coffee can that I collected in Spokane when I lived there and Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980. I shoveled a ton of the stuff and was smart enough to keep some as a souvenir. I knew it would come in handy some time.

Got the frame rails fleshed out so they are now channel instead of flat. I think the added dimension adds a lot to them. Also turned the front spring brace. Now I just have to square it up, solder in the cross bracing and add suspension. Yea, that's all.

Or your could take an entirely different approach to the word. Pro means someone is "for" something as opposed to someone who is against it being "Con". I am for model building so that makes all of us here "Pro modelers".

This is probably the most annoying subject that comes up with some regularity. All the members who have commented so far are right on the button. It doesn't mean squat! There are no certifications, education or licenses required to build and sell models. IMHO prebuilt it is classified at advertising puffery. In other words it is something that sounds good when you are trying to sell something. Want to use it? Fine, knock yourself out but for most of the builders who frequent this forum they take is for what it is worth.

More specifically, a pin vise and set of wire gauge drill bits.

I have three airbrushes and tons of rattle cans. The rattle cans serve several purposes. One is as storage for paint to run through the airbrush after it is decanted. There are a number of paints and colors you just can't get in bottles by themselves. Second is when I need to do a few parts in a single color and I already have a different color setup in the airbrush, a rattle can is very handy. A good example is Tamiya white primer. I always use a rattle can and get great results. Why three airbrushes you may well ask? Different coverage patterns and controllability. One has a very wide fan shaped pattern which is great for doing large surfaces or for whole bodies with a very few passes(especially helpful when doing candies). One is a good general purpose brush for doing a lot of parts that are a single color. The last is a very fine line brush for doing delicate shading and weathering. Each item is a tool with a specific purpose. If you try to do something it was not intended to do, the result may not be good. Used as intended, you can get consistent results with each with practice. Never assume that buying an airbrush is the end all-be all of painting. It isn't. It is just another tool in your arsenal. I have no intent in abandoning any of these. I know them and can make them work for me.

All kidding aside it doesn't sound like you have a good set of wire gage drill bits. They can be had for as little or much as you want to pay for them. Here is a good source for them. http://www.ottofrei.com/Cobalt-High-Speed-Steel-and-Tungsten-Vanadium-Twist-Drills/ They have always given me good service. Last bit set I bought from them was a set with 10 of each set. I use the heck out of them and I can guarantee you that if you use the really small ones you will break your last one at a critical juncture in the build and it will frustrate the heck out of it. There are a lot to choose from and I will warn you, this is a nasty catalogue to browse. It is amazing how closely tools for our hobby coincide with jewelry making.

If you are pulling hair off a cat, Scratch builder would be most appropriate. Or would that be scratched builder?

Ok, got a little more done, but it took a little while to figure this one out. I needed to machine the back side of the head to accommodate the cylinder bores which are turned aluminum. With the machine work done on the top I needed to figure out some way to hold the head upside down securely without damaging the top. The answer was to machine a "square collet" that would squeeze the part when placed in the vise. I clamped it in place and used a boring tool to cut the mounting points. The bores are .200" Here is a shot of the cylinder bores. The four center ones are flat on each side to give the impression that they are a water jacket surrounding a bolt on cylinder. A very "old fashion" way of building and engine. Next job is to cut channels in the bottom of the head to mount the exhaust and intakes.

Mark - Love the knurling that you did on the crank. That is the type of detail that makes other modelers sit up and take notice! Just out of curiosity, do you make a miniature knurling tool or hand engrave it? Either way it is very nice!

Got to go with a model on this one. If it is real then the tires are definitely not of the period. Good pick Harry! There a lot of mixed signals in this one.

We all remember the big wars and their Veterans as we should but there are a lot of forgotten Vets. Whether it be due to it being a small action or an unpopular war. Remember all who served, all who were wounded and all who made the supreme sacrifice. All made the same commitment to serve and offered up their life if called on to do so. We remember those who came home in pieces, those who came home under a flag and those who never made it home. We honor them. Just to jog a few memories here is a list of some of the actions that don't jump to mind when you think of Veterans. I am sure I have forgotten some. If you know of others feel free to add them. Cambodia Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia Somalia Panama Grenada Libya Haiti

I have found that a box cutter/utility knife does a very nice job. Before you cut it you should anneal it. Heat it to cherry red and let it cool. Unlike ferrous metals nonferrous metals will loose there temper by heating and cooling. It makes it much more workable. I have also found that no matter how you cut it, it will distort a little. However if it is annealed it is easy to reflatten it. I have a piece of aluminum rod about 1" in diameter and you can roll it on a flat surface at with a little practice and patients you can get it to lay right down. Try it, it's fun.

Nope, just like the jolt

Some people are very capable of denying even in the face of blatant reality. Reminds me of a story my grandmother told of my great grandmother. When airplanes were first becoming common, she refused to believe that man could fly. Flying was the domain of angles and birds. If man were meant to fly God would have given him wings. When an airplane would pass overhead she would fall into a panic of fear and claim that it was the devil rowing his boat across the sky. Religious fervor can cloud the mind of even the most resolute.

NO, SAY IT AIN'T SO HARRY! Yea, there is a lot of hearsay on the internet just like there is in print. It just gets around on the internet a lot quicker. But the internet is always a good place to start. A good browser will give you a options for your source.

Good afternoon to all! Thank you for the nice comments. The mill has been a steep learning curve with a lot of mistakes before I got this far. There is a lot of planning that goes into making this thing function and I have a lot of new found respect for those of you who make a living working with the full sized machines. I have learned, or I should say relearned the lesson about measure twice(or three or five) times and cut once. This is a very small machine so taking a lot of little cuts is important. The cuts to cut the channels between the supports were ten passes taking .005" at a time. It is far easier to go deeper then to undo a cut that it too deep. Little cuts are better than big cuts especially with very small mill ends because they flex easily and distort the cut. Everything needs to be locked down except the direction you are cutting. I have been using a lot of Zen with this machine. Thinking about the problems and how to do it every morning during my hour long walks. Mentally visualizing the steps is important in making it all work. I suppose that is not that different from how I build with plastic it just seems to be a bit more complex. Still it is fun. Ray and KC- owning both a mill and lathe has been a long time in coming. I have had the lathe for over five years and just got to the point that there was stuff I wanted to do that a lathe would not do. As a incorrigible tinker and do it yourselfer, I have found a lot of other uses for the lathe besides model building. I have made and repaired a lot of things that I never would have considered without it. I am sure the mill will prove equally useful. At least that is what I told my wife.

Ok, I have not posted in a while. It took me this long and a lot of metal scrap to feel confidant enough with the mill to move on the this part. This is the start of the new head for the new engine in brass. First of all, I must state for the record, once again, this is not ment to replicate a Mercedes D III which was suppose to be what was in the original Red Barron. It is no where close to the size of that engine in 1:24th scale. This is much smaller. For that reason I have decided to create a somewhat custom version of that engine, taking the inspiration from it and making it in a " of the style of" a 1900's aviation engine. This is the head. It is going to be a pushrod style with exposed valve rockers arms. Having said this here is the basic machining that I have done so far. I started with a .5" X .5" X 2" piece of brass and cut it down to the size I wanted and laid out the basic positions of the exposed pieces. I then cut everything square but a lot thicker than the final piece will be when it is done. I then used a 1/16" ball end mill to cut the grooves on either side of what would be the central supports for the rocker arms. I then cut the ends of the supports. Then I cut the sides of each of the supports. I used a ball end to create a "cast" look. I also milled the sides where the hold down bolts will go to hold the top of the supports. I then drilled the hole for the .025" stainless steel tubing on which I will mount the rocker arms. I included this last shot to give it some perspective. As I mentioned before I am taking classes to get my certification to teach ground school to pilots so this project is going slower that I would like, but I do need to study but Tuesday is my last class for the summer. Perhaps I can get a bit more done after that. I hope you enjoy the work. I certainly am.

I don't mind the correction, but please reference the source whether it be 20 years as a mechanic or you found a source on the internet. If you don't it just comes across as "..cuz I said so!!!!" In others words don't just say I am wrong, give me better information.

:D ....cuz ya never know when you are going to have to change a tire just before a contest.... Very innovative. I don't recall seeing any other working jacks in a model before.

Mark - I have a dumb question - when the trunk is done and body work is in place are you going to be able to get the tire in through the trunk opening or are you going to build the tire in or does it just not matter.

Terry- Remember that you are not alone. There are of a lot of us out their who have been through it at varying levels. You can and should find another survivor near by that you can talk to. It will help a lot. They got to mine pretty early but this is the second time I have had to put up with male specific cancer. I am now 63 the first time was about 40 years ago the last was 3 years ago. You just have to keep on keeping on. One day at a time man! Good luck.

Here is a place to by hypodermic tubing in small quantities. I have been using them for years for times I need actual tubing. You can buy concentric sizes and make radio antennas or simulate hydraulic cylinders. https://www.amazonsupply.com/s/700776011/ref=sp_iss_700776011

Erik's suggestion is good and I have two of these. I seem to always have several different size holes to drill at the same time so I have two of them.If you are only going to have one then buy this one. Also a Tamiya tool. http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=74050 I am suggesting this for a hidden reason. None of the information that I can find talks to this but the thing has four collets! I had mine for years before I discovered this. It comes with one double ended collet mounted and if you unscrew the swivel end there is a second double ended collet inside. With four different sized collets it will hold anything from and 80 up to a 1/8". Very versatile.