Finished up the nose gear for the 1/6th scale He-219

Completed the He-219 and Ta-154 mains, both in 6th scale....

First build of the Do-335 Nose gear is almost done. Pretty soon will be fabbing up the parts for the mains. Will see how far I get towards making those over Christmas.

Every year around this time I build out a proto of something new. This time, I did scale working brakes and scale wheels for the FW-189 recently and now I'm doing design refinements and a test build of the DO-335 Nose gear in 6th scale. Mains will come later.

Basically done except topcoat and a few minor bits and bobs like the canvas top brackets, hammer and shovel. Drives great. Really happy with how it came out for my first try of scratch building any complete model.

These days, I'm freely mixing machining and 3D printing wherever it make sense, and its really allowing me to up the detail on my designs. While not quite 100% yet, I really upped the details on the Do-335 Nose gear at the beginning of the year. I'm Sans shop these days, so haven't fabricated them yet.

Inching forward, Turning the digital designs in the real thing. The orange test hull, is the first trial fitment of the running gear with differential and steering brakes. This is my first try at scratch building a full vehicle (and scale in both form and function as I can make it too) and its been lots of fun. Lots more to come. I hope to have it driving (but not fully complete) over the holidays.

Getting closer to the finishline.

Made the bogeys fully scale. Scale springs, size, thickness and camber and each spring leaf was modeled and printed separately (64 in all). The bogeys pivot as well as the individual wheels having their own travel. Much to my surprise, works like a charm! Very supple too.

And associated bolt-ons.

Taking a break from landing gear for a bit, thought I'd try my hand at tanks, completely from scratch and in 1/12 scale to match my preferred practical backyard flyer airplane scale. As always, I'll focus on the stuff others don't, so this first one is the Hetzer. Its mostly 3D printed in both FDM and SLA and uses the drive and suspension configuration of the the real thing with a front differential and steering brakes. I've been at it for a couple weeks of hobby time and its coming together both quickly and nicely. I've trial printed everything, and am making a few tweaks before first trial assembly of the hull and powertrain. Once that's debugged, I'll do the superstructure. Once I have this one nailed down, I'll do the Stug next.

I had basically finished the design for 1/6 scale landing gear, counting mostly on casting and machining. With 3d printers so good now, and careful design practices I can make more of the functional parts with the 3d printer. The stainless steel oleo and axle will actually bear the load and transfer it to the mounts. Not sure yet if 3d printed scissors will hold up or if I'll need to cast or machine those. Ordered steel and fittings, and prototyping underway. This is a biggie. Making tires will be another big hurdle. Thinking of 3d printing the master, then pouring a silicone mold. or just 3d printing the mold directly after I get a bigger printer.

Designed up a scale control column for the Blackhorse/Graupner He-111. A bit better than the piece of foam it came with.

Finally after years of messing around, with the help of the latest 3D printer tech I'm finally, fully done with my He-111 gear design, with the last details worked out with the purchase of a Blackhorse/Graupner 111.

The pics show just the 3d printed parts, some of the many prototypes at several scales and the the prototype installation. I still have multiple generations of metal gear, but the mounts will have to be redesigned for the Blackhorse airframe, and the new hybrid metal/3d printed version is more scale.

Bought a SLA 3d printer and curing station, and redesigned my gear fully scale in this size as a hybrid of mostly 3d printed, with steel, stainless steel and aluminum bits where it made sense. Just finishing up the first couple sets now for installation in my Black Horse model. The pics are of 3 different generations of gear, with the gray ones being the latest SLA parts.

Not shown are the mains and nose gear, rear intake, exhaust and spinner (all different than the front). 2nd pic is a 1/10th scale spinner which is designed quite a bit better with snap fit for the spinner to the backplate, and lightened backplate.

Playing again with Do-335 components. This is the current part collection, some at 14.68 (lanyu) scale, some at 1/10 scale and the Landing gear at 1/6th scale....Continue Reading

Starting to explore investment casting to get more detail out of my parts. With that in mind, started to design some fully scale parts - In this case 6th scale He-111 parts ("scaled up" some of the machined parts too)

This is the 5th set of this gear I've made, each getting more scale.. I think there's one more round on this gear before its done, but not for a while!

Finally got the Do-335 gear done (first round anyway). I plan to even have real hydraulics on this one