Building of the USS Blunderbuss - 28mm aeronef

[Ray Rivers]

When it comes to scratch building stuff... I am not the "go to guy."  Nevertheless, I thought I would start a thread on my current attempt to build a medium sized aeronef for my Americans on Venus Project.

Warning:  This thread is not for the feint hearted!   

Caution:  I have no idea whether I shall succeed or fail, nor even what the final project will look like.      If things go array I am prepared to blame disaster on my tools, but as I have few, it may not hold much water.

So given that I am a complete novice at such endeavors this will truly be an adventure for me and for those skilled in such affairs an incredible laugh.

Ah, and one last thought...I have to first place the blame inspiration for this project with "rabbitz" and his incredible Prussian Aeronef Fleet.  If you haven't seen it you really must gaze upon its' awesomeness.

So let us finally get to the subject at hand.  The first thing I did was go to Reviresco and order a whole bunch of stuff.  I had no idea what I was going to make, however, after seeing the 6" Rifle on Pintle Mount I decided, being very large and Americanish  , I wanted that thing on my ship.

With the order placed I then began looking for a hull.  I looked all over the place, stores, work, everywhere and at first it appeared that I was going to be using a rather large plastic bottle for a product we call here in Spain, Mistol.  I began preparations by scouting out possible strange and worthy plastic bits when I then ran into two disused and broken computer speakers which once attached to the sides of a rather large monitor.

At last I had my hull!   



Now work began in earnest.

I determined that I would need to place my gigantic canon on the bow, so while my wife was showering, I crept into the kitchen and stole a round plastic bowl, chopped it up and marveled at its' grandness.     It was important to do the gun platform first, as it would give me the dimensions of my ship and once it was complete, I then attached the two pieces together with metal rods and using my wee hobby drill managed to put two holes in the craft for mounting on some sort of flying base.

Here is how it looked at this point:



Pretty amazing, eh?   

[Ray Rivers]

If you are wondering... yes, you are looking at the bottom of the craft, which is fairly amazing as at first I thought it was going to be the top!   

After having put the sides of the hull together, the idea struck me that I could use the metal rods later as support for the deck I planned to put inside.

I now began to ponder how I would close up the bottom of the hull and place another hole forward for the stand.  As I have only thin plastic sheet I quickly determined that this material was not going to provide sufficient support.  It kinda put a kink in the game plan, but as I expect lots of those, I remained undeterred and dived into my plastic bits box.  Low and behold I found a whole bunch of old plastic music cassette box pieces and began chopping them up with utter disregard for personal safety... hence the small hole in my right forefinger which is currently healing. 

The plastic itself is nice and hard and was just what I needed, however, it dawned on me while I was nursing my finger wound, that a rod projecting into the center of the hole would necessitate some sort of mating between it and my deck.  Back to the bits box... where I found a nice cardboard 'roundy' thing and a plastic thing for support.  I lashed at the cardboard to cut it to size, drilled yet another hole and then glued it all together with heaps of super glue.

It came out looking like this:



Ingenious... wouldn't you say... 

Now it was time to cover most of the bottom of my blessed Blunderbuss and again, with ample portions of super glue, pasted my gadget and the rest of the plastic panels I had cut out from the cassette boxes, onto the gap in the bottom of the haul.

It presently looks like this:



So there you have it... progress to date.  I expect it will be quite awhile in finishing and as I figure out how to put together this thing I will update my progress.  Hopefully soon I will receive the stuff I ordered from Reviresco and that will give me a bit of inspiration as to how to proceed.

I realize this is a bit of a strange project, one that I am certainly unqualified to do, however, strange things happen to you when you spend to long looking at stuff in the VSF sub-forum... so beware... 

Till the next time...

[gamer Mac]

Looking good so far Ray.
It is going to be massive.
Looking forward to the next installment.

[Ray Rivers]

It is going to be massive.

Indeed... I may have bitten off more than I can chew.   

[Sinewgrab]

It is going to be massive.

Indeed... I may have bitten off more than I can chew.   

Pshaw. We are all gamers here - our mouths are too large to be intimidated by a mere Aeronef.

I am going to watch your progress, though - an Aeronef is my next project after I finish my Pirate ship and fleet.

[Malamute]

Great thread, ray, very much looking forward to seeing this evolve

[Ray Rivers]

evolve

Key word there.  I look at the thing and get all kinds of doubts and ideas.

[Sinewgrab]

evolve

Key word there.  I look at the thing and get all kinds of doubts and ideas.

If they are ideas - keep 'em. They'll either work or be replaced by better ones. Give the doubts to the dog. You'll do well - after all, you have us to turn to if you have an issue. With Malamute, Grimm, Doc Midnight and the rest, how can you go wrong?

[dampfpanzerwagon]

Looking good so far - keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing the step-by-step construction.

Tony
http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/

[Ray Rivers]

Back to work...

Next I used 1mm plastic sheeting and closed the sides of the inner part of the ship.

Looked like this when I was finished:



Easily done, even for me.  I just put the sheet flush against the hull and used a marker to outline where I needed to cut.

The next step wasn't so easy.  That was cutting out the deck.  The first time I measured the dimensions from the top of the haul.  Because the sides slant a bit, it was too small.  I blame that on my measuring stick.     So I did it again this time measuring where the deck was actually going to lay... doh!

Glued it together and it now looks like this:



Oh, and in case you noticed, I have received my stuff from Reviresco and put together the 6" gun (took almost two hours  ).  Here is a closeup:



Now I got to tell you, the mini's Reviresco produces are not the greatest.  However, do not let that fool you, their equipment is top notch.  This is a beautifully modeled gun.  Still have to paint it though...

Next, I'll be working on the superstructure.  I think I am closing in on how it will look, but I have had to change ideas, for one reason or another, 4 or 5 times now.  Certainly a couple more changes to come, as I actually do it.

Till the next time...

[Ray Rivers]

Hi again!

Decided I needed to finish the main hull before moving to the superstructure.

In doing so, I made an important discovery.  Old CD-rom cases have really nice hard plastic that is not so difficult to work with.  Basically you score the plastic well... and then it snaps off clean.  So the main hull was finished using two CD-rom cases.

The big change in plan here was to do away with the "gun tube" idea and just square off the front and cut out a firing slot.  Knew things would change, with this project it happens almost every time I sit down to work with it. 

After that I cut a couple thin strips of plastic card and covered the top of the sides of the inner hull.

It looks like this now:



Next time... I will start with the superstructure.

Caio!

[Malamute]

Lovely gun. Looking good.

[Phil_McCrackin]

The more I watch this thread, the more it makes me want to build a Weird WWII Aeronef.

Awesome work so far!  I cant wait to see more!

[Ray Rivers]

 

It's moving a little slowly, though I put about two hours each evening into building.  However, getting the hull set-up is probably the most important phase as it dictates how much room you have for all the neat stuff.  I'm also trying to use as much scrap and bits as possible.

Hopefully, things will get more interesting from here on out as I begin to construct the superstructure.

Here are some photos from Model Ship Master I'm using for inspiration:







I want a flying (open) bridge like you see in the first photo, followed by a mast with an observation deck (crow's nest) as you see in the third photo, followed by a couple small gun tubs for machine guns and the stack at the aft.

At least... that is the plan so far...   

[Trencher]

This one is frightening big, but looks interesting. 
I like that gun.
Do you work from sketches or just by intuition? I use the last one, sometimes with devastating results!