One of the benefits of a internal structure and fabric outer, over monocoque, is local damage. Monocoque, depends on the skin stressed surface to be kept intact at a larger percentage before overall frame failure occurs. Just my thoughts..

Fuzz

One downside of the geodetic construction was that the Wimpy stretched a foot when towing a glider...........

Originally Posted by Colonel Blink

One downside of the geodetic construction was that the Wimpy stretched a foot when towing a glider...........

Yikes!

Apparently, one was constructed in a 23 hour 50 minute marathon by factory workers. "Pass me that wrench, would ya?"

Steve

Steve, hope it is OK to post this.

1940s British Aircraft Industry Workers - Workers Weekend - 1943 - CharlieDeanArchives (12 min 49 sec)

Vicky,

Wow, thanks for finding that! Really eye-opening to see how many women were working in the factory at the time.

On the other hand, my own better half wondered aloud why it was taking me so long to build a model when the real thing could be built in a day...

Steve

Way back in post #126, I mentioned finding Max Grueter's 3D pilot figure models, and sprung for his 1/6 scale RAF pilot figure. At $39.00, the 3D model wasn't cheap, but I figured I would get a fair bit of mileage out of the 3D files if I could find a way to turn them into crew members for the Bolly and any other British models I might build in the future. I was able to import the 3D STL files into my CAM program, resize them to the Bolly's 1/14 scale and produce cutfiles for my CNC router. I'd had good success milling a pilot bust for my Sopwith Triplane out of pink foam, and decided to try doing the same for the Grueter figure.

The CAM software calculates a roughing cutfile to remove most of the excess material with a larger cutting bit, and then a finishing cutfile to carve finer detail with a smaller cutting bit. I have to run the cutfiles for both the top and bottom of the pilot figure, but there are limitations to the approach. Any areas of the 3D model "shadowed" vertically by other parts of the model (like the area under the pilot's left arm) aren't rendered in 3D and need to be cleaned up manually once the CNC has done its work. The finishing or fine detailing cutfile cuts as a raster, leaving fine raster lines on the final model unless the raster interval is set at a very small value, leading to long cut times on the router.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the result, and with a bit of cleaning up with Dremel and needle files and some paint, I think a couple of these crew figures will prevent the Bolly from looking like it's flying around unoccupied.

Steve

Very impressive Steve. At 1/14 those are not big figures but the level of detail retained in the foam is very good. It is very difficult to hand sculpt even an outline figure in foam at that scale. And 2g! Looking forward to seeing them painted up.

Alec

That is cool!

Very imoressive Steve, and some good individuality in the pilot and nav. Nice work!

Thanks guys. I may tighten up the raster interval on the finishing cutfiles to reduce some of the ribbing, but I think they'll do. I have a choice of three heads; one with mask and goggles on, another with mask on but with goggles up, and a third with mask dangling and goggles up. That and being able to turn the head will allow all three crew figures some individuality. I think I'll try milling the heads from basswood for better detail.

Steve

4th choice: Hand holding mask on face

Ha! I have a few of those queasy-looking pilots in my stash too.

Steve

Very nice work on the pilots- and extremely lightweight!

D-Rock

That is slick!

I never even knew that was possible!