Jases Battlestar Galactica

[darkimmitator]

I think the castings look like they came out pretty good !! Especially with the primer splashed on em !!!!!!!!!

[Wombat]

Yep,they'll do the trick!


Just one thing on the Panther G part in the trench.It sit's up off the floor,you can see it in GalRes685.I was playing around with the same pieces tonight.Glad i looked,the natural thing to do is glue it down like you have.Nothing major either if you just leave em as is,Jase.

So ya progressing well up there dude,these things are really taking shape now!

[JAWS]

Ha lucky I didn't glue it down! Thanks for the tip. I hope to get the other 4 done today & mould up the Entex parts, maybe. I think the resin will be better today. I gave it a good stir yesterday & theres still a little crystal in it. That will have settled to the bottom now & should be good to go.

[JAWS]

Small update. Plows are back on the right way around(thanks Phil, again!) Had no luck with casting today so have only got one top side slope completed so far. I still need to pull another 3 sets of B52 parts... One sides done & just needs the Fujimi tanks on the lower slope wall with a couple of other bits. The Hasegawa 155mm Long Tom parts are in the plow gap on the waist which look good. Just need one more Long Tom for the other side now.... It never ends

[dbhs]

It's really coming together with the primer on it.

[Wombat]

Little by little,piece by piece,it's getting there mate.
It won't be long and she'll really be looking the part on both sides.Trust me!!
Look,heat up the laundry and cast those few pieces in there,it's no good being held up when you actually want to get stuck into it.
If you still have problems in there,then perhaps the resin has gone bad?Hopefully not though!
I don't know what temperature you need it to be,but inside with the heater going might be ya only option.

[JAWS]

Resins ok. Weathers fuct! Got a couple more pieces on & the first 211. I have another 4 coming I somehow managed to score Just need another 5.... Im in no rush to get the pieces on. As long as i get a bit done everyday or atleast every week Im good. I just make a list of what Ive missed so when I get it I go back.
Was looking at my Shuttle today & had a little play with that aswell . Everything else is packed away... The Centurion grill is a cast piece & will be replaced by the actual kit part once it arrives. I have no problem cutting that kit up as I got it for a fantastic steal

[LastBattlestar]

Looks great Jase, nice and sharp in the detail. You'll definitely need two Long Toms as they yield a lot of parts: also the little horseshoe parts on the engine sides, a couple on the nose cap and a complex detail part under the neck. A good value kit for a change.

I did some casting on the weekend with variable results. My resin is at least 6 months old and one run is still soft two days later and the parts are emitting a clear, oily film. My next run I was super careful to get the A and B quantities correct and the castings are good as gold. I think the resin becomes more sensitive as it gets older and you have to get it spot on for success. Hopefully yours is still OK as I think you have large quantities right?

Mike

[darkimmitator]

Looks excellent there Jase ! Listen, if you need any more roco 211's ,I have tons of them casted !

[427 Cobra]

(07-12-2010, 08:39 PM)LastBattlestar Wrote: Looks great Jase, nice and sharp in the detail. You'll definitely need two Long Toms as they yield a lot of parts: also the little horseshoe parts on the engine sides, a couple on the nose cap and a complex detail part under the neck. A good value kit for a change.

I did some casting on the weekend with variable results. My resin is at least 6 months old and one run is still soft two days later and the parts are emitting a clear, oily film. My next run I was super careful to get the A and B quantities correct and the castings are good as gold. I think the resin becomes more sensitive as it gets older and you have to get it spot on for success. Hopefully yours is still OK as I think you have large quantities right?

Mike

What brand of resin are you using? WWW://TAPPLASTICS.COM has resin that you just mix 50/50 so there's no messing around. If the stuff you're using doesn't pan out - maybe this will help. It's cheaper than smooth-on, and it offers a lot more variety of materials for casting hard resins, and it doesn't take a college degree to figure it out!

~ Cobra Chris

[JAWS]

Small update. Have just finished putting the 'Butt Plate' together & noticed 2 things.
The first thing is that in Parts Id picture there are two different pieces used on the Butt Plate in the two different pictures. The Butt Plate Parts Id picture clearly has the Nitto part that sits at the bottom on top of the Tiger radiator. The picture behind has a similar piece but not the Nitti piece. I then cross checked that with some Pappas pictures & their clearly different So which is the right one? The other thing is I can see once i put the piece on my old Back Plate that it shows that the backplate is a bit narrow compared to the pictures. The piece is the right size. The back plate is not. Ho well I guess thats just another correction I can make on the plans I just have to find the piece that caps it off now... Just can't find a good clear picture

[LastBattlestar]

Ed Miarecki made a new cover plate when restoring the Galactica as the original must have been missing.

Mike

[JAWS]

Mike does that mean this is the correct piece remade by Pappas? Ok let me ask this. What did you use?

[Wombat]

Jase,nice work mate,it looks pretty close to the picture you used.It looks a lot wider than the one i got from CR,least something looks different whan seeing it on your backplate.Anyway again,nice work mate!
Now as for modifying the backplate to fit it betta,not sure you can do a real lot there.You are confined by your box dimensions,and also you've made your port's so those things can't really be changed.I think all you can do is work your bum plug to suit your backplate dimensions perhaps?

Keep at it dude!!

[darkimmitator]

Man , your cruising right along there Jase and making some decent progress !!!The armature cap looks really good .Nice work man !!!!

[LastBattlestar]

I'm assuming that it is the new plate that is now in the G resto photos. In the right pic, you can see the scratched star-shaped part in the centre before they ID'd the correct kit part. Those guys don't comment at all about the restoration, so that's my best guess. As for mine, it will be rebuilt also as I scratched it up from pics before we had any of this new stuff out there. It wasn't too bad, but I only need that star part to get it 100%.

Mike

[JAWS]

I looked at the CR pictures & they didn't put the little cross piece on their butt plate? Maybe it is a little wide? The spaceing looks right except for the 2 bottom corne pieces? Crap I dunno its pissing me off now....

[JAWS]

Well guess i gotta make a new one tonight...A couple of mm thinner on the sides at the bottom should do the trick & pull it in just right.

[Wombat]

Yeah thats a bit of a bummer but i think you are doing the right thing doing just that.It just doesn't quite look right,but doing that should bring it into line much betta.Hey,ya are having fun and you'll be very happy with yourself once you've got the look you are after mate!

[JAWS]

So I pulled the parts off the Butt Plate with one loss(A Karl side panel...) Ive fixed the bottom which now looks pretty much spot on to my eye with spacing. The top piece is still not right... I thought I had it but obviously its still just a little wide. Not as before but just need another 1.5mm off the bottom corners to pull the side panels in just a bit more. At a later date now

[darkimmitator]

It's like being 0.4 cents short at the cash register for a new model !!! LOL
Almost there Jase !!! We all know you can do it ,and third time is always the charm !!!!

[Wombat]

Yeah,it sucks re doing it but don't let it get ta ya mate!
Most people wouldn't think a mm here or there would make much difference but it does.Damn,that is close but ya right,it still needs a bee's dick removed to get it to fit right.It's nothing major though,like Ken said,third times the charm bud!

[JAWS]

Yeah you know Im gonna doit... Im really happy with the bottom section. Lucky I didn't use much glue joining the two pieces so the back should pop off pretty easilly.
Question: which kit are those tanks out of that go on the lower trench wall? The big ones.

[darkimmitator]

(07-16-2010, 07:43 AM)jasonwright.1972 Wrote: Yeah you know Im gonna doit... Im really happy with the bottom section. Lucky I didn't use much glue joining the two pieces so the back should pop off pretty easilly.
Question: which kit are those tanks out of that go on the lower trench wall? The big ones.

If you mean those drop tanks Jase ,They are from the 1:48 F15 eagle by Fujimi . Kit #5a27

[Battlestar1563]

awesome work jason !

[JAWS]

Hey thanks mates. Glad to see you back over here 1563. Maybe you could post your build with the group & we can work together?

[JAWS]

Ok here she is #3! This is all Im doing to this piece. Its good enough for me.

[JAWS]

Moving along. Something good & something unfortunately not so good. The good is I have realised what I was doing wrong with the resin... or more so what I wasn't doing. Giving it a good stir before using. Simple. i just did a cast in the mould of the B52 parts. The mould still had flakey resin in it from an usuccessful pull. I was hoping this pull would secure all the left over resin so it would clean the mould for another few casts. Good thing is it worked quite well. even on this cool night so all is good. The bad part is ive wrecked the mould from trying to scrape the crusty flakey unsuccessful casts out... Looks like Im not going to get these parts done until I get a B52 kit as I have returned Phils last week. On the bright side I know what i was & wasn't doing & will now get my new roco 211's moulded & casted so i can finish that part of the project up aswell as start moulding & casting some of the other parts I & the team need.

[Richard_2001]

Jason,

That rear cover number 3 looks pretty darn good to me Good job on the improved resin mixing, sometimes the seemingly optional steps really aren't.

Richard

[darkimmitator]

See ,third time around is the charm ! Knew you would have it nailed .Good job man ,it looks great !!!!!!!!

[JAWS]

Thanks Ken & Richard. Just wish I hadn't have screwed that mould so I could get those last 3 parts done... Seems that all the resin needed was a good stir. It set hard as rock again which is good & the color etc was right.

[Battlestar1563]

Jason, that cover plates amazing!! great job on the 3rd one. post some pic for ya. later ROn

[Wombat]

You should be very happy with the work you've done on that last one!It looks to be a good fit now with the backplate dimensions we are working with.The first two were good practice runs for this one i guess.At the end of the day bar losing one part and a little time,it's all good.
Well done mate,that looks much betta!

Good news i guess also on the resin problem,or more so the no problem with it.If you like,i'll send those B-29 part's back on Monday for ya,along with that piece for the starboard waist flap i said i would send you.I'm a little annoyed you didn't suss this out before sending all the stuff back,with what both you and i have we had a lot of the stuff covered.Oh well shit happens!

[JAWS]

Hey BS1563 that will be great to join the crew. Really looking forward to your post.
Phil, mate yeah thats a bit of a bummer that it was such a simple thing. We should have had a good stockpile of parts. We will though so its all just a learning curb. That backplate is actually #4. I cut 2 more & liked the 4th one. The #3 was a bit narrow on the top end & just looked funny so I cut one with an extra mm each side that did the trick. I do feel relieved now its done 7 doesn't look too bad. Another good coat of paint & she'll be right.
Looks like I'll be starting on my top deck over the weekend until i can get the last of the parts I need for the side walls & slope. So few parts, so far away........

[darkimmitator]

(07-17-2010, 09:00 AM)jasonwright.1972 Wrote: Hey BS1563 that will be great to join the crew. Really looking forward to your post.
Phil, mate yeah thats a bit of a bummer that it was such a simple thing. We should have had a good stockpile of parts. We will though so its all just a learning curb. That backplate is actually #4. I cut 2 more & liked the 4th one. The #3 was a bit narrow on the top end & just looked funny so I cut one with an extra mm each side that did the trick. I do feel relieved now its done 7 doesn't look too bad. Another good coat of paint & she'll be right.
Looks like I'll be starting on my top deck over the weekend until i can get the last of the parts I need for the side walls & slope. So few parts, so far away........

So Jase , Do you have those fujimi f15 eagle drop tanks ?

[JAWS]

Their on their way as they say!

[JAWS]

Small update. Just added a few of the last parts to the side walls. The Fuel Tanks are all thats needed on the walls with the Long Tom U Bolts. Other than that its the last of the B52 parts that need casting once my mould sets.
The Peerless Max 155mm Howitzer arrived today. This is the original kit. Italeri started their company by purchasing the moulds of this kit & some other Peerless Max trucks. I collect these Peerless Max kits.

[Wombat]

Good score on the kit,thats got a few goodies you'll be using outa it,that one.

Also good to see some more progress there,it might be just a little but least you are still tinkering around with it.A little a day will get the job done,now i just gotta start living along those lines also.You've still got the lid you can play around with,least with everything from the centre line out to the big Saturn stages.You've got everything you need to get that far with it all.
Keep at it when ya get the chance,Jase.

[JAWS]

Well I did move to the Lid. Everything 'was' going great until I went about taking 2mm off the back end... I mitred/bevelled the edges so it sat in all nice & flush. That went good I was happy with the outcome. Then I needed to shorten the back by 2mm as it overhung. It was all good until a section snapped & the knife went sideways. So two fuck ups with one swipe! Really really not happy. Pissed off is more precise. Thats two serious screw ups this week & Im now over it for a while.

[Wombat]

Man,that sucks!!

But hey,it's not the end of the world,just get another piece cut.This time you know what it needs to be,so you won't have ta do a thing.It'll be the right length straight from the cutters.Now,it could have been worse,someone like myself would have had that lid scribed already also.LOL

Back on that pony now!!

[star-art]

Looking good, Jason. Sorry to hear about the setback. That's why I try never to hand-work acrylic -- it's a royal PITA. Better to use styrene if you want to make parts by hand. It is always best to laser-cut acrylic.

But, laser-cut has its challenges as well. For example, the panel will tend to snap at the engraved lines. And, the engine lid just happens to have some lines that will cause very large portions of it to snap right off. I lost an entire panel because it broke in two during shipping. That's why it's best to laminate a scribed panel onto another panel to support it and help keep it from bending. Any bending and -- SNAP!

[JAWS]

Yeah yeah giddy up donkey...... Thanks fellas. I'll get one cut to lenghth. Is a bummer after the work of angleing the sides. that was no fun either really. I did it with the Dremel blade sharpener. Spits hot acrylic all ofver you while running it along the edges...

[star-art]

Beveling is best done at a sanding station. Get a power sanding station that has a disc sander and a belt sander. Mine has an 8 inch disc and a small 1-inch belt, is made by Delta and cost less than $75 US. It machines acrylic very nicely. It just takes some practice to get the hang of it. Do it a little bit at a time until you get it just right. The key is not to sand it all down at once, but make several light passes and eat away just a bit of material at a time.

Be sure to choose a table with a tilting platform to let you sand perfect bevels at just about any angle. A vacuum dust attachment is a real plus as well.

[427 Cobra]

(07-27-2010, 03:10 AM)star-art Wrote: I lost an entire panel because it broke in two during shipping. That's why it's best to laminate a scribed panel onto another panel to support it and help keep it from bending. Any bending and -- SNAP!

This is why I put two strips of 1/8" thick wood on the outside of parts that are delicate. I strap one piece across the part with masking tape, then wrap both of those pieces with the other wood strip, and masking tape. This reinforces it so that it doesn't break while in transit.

(07-28-2010, 03:32 AM)star-art Wrote: Mine has an 8 inch disc and a small 1-inch belt, is made by Delta and cost less than $75 US. It machines acrylic very nicely. It just takes some practice to get the hang of it. Do it a little bit at a time until you get it just right. The key is not to sand it all down at once, but make several light passes and eat away just a bit of material at a time.

A disc sander is best. Machining a little at a time is the best way to go for metal, and wood too! I do this for just about any material that requires a power tool assist. Remember, it's better to not remove enough than to remove too much. Once it's gone - you can't put it back!

~ Cobra Chris

[JAWS]

Thanks guys. Sometimes we just have to make do with what we have at the time. The result works after hand sanding to smooth things out. I was really happy the way it sat in nice & snug. I was cutting it on the carpet. Running the blade over & over & over. Must have just pushed too hard & snap! I'll get another one cut next week. i haven't spent all my money befroe I get it on ebay so am actually going to have some cash. That'll be nice, Since I started this project it has chewed up all my spare & not so spare funds.....

[JAWS]

Small update. Just did some test casts of the quick mould I made for the B52 parts. A couple of ugly's, some more rubber cutting & their good to go I got a couple of good ones done tonight & will do a few more until the moulds screwd. these pats are used a few more times on this build so best to get as many as possible. Will get the Starboard side slope finished over the next couple of days now so it will just be the Fujimi drop tanks for the side walls & the 155mm U bolts & their done.

[Wombat]

They look like they've turned out very well there.It's good to see you are over the casting problems you was having,it all just comes down to experience really.Don't forget you are only a newbie at all this,and like all the others out there that cast,it just takes a lil time to perfect the process.So far ya doing just fine!!

Well,we'll be looking for tha update,good to see you are still plugging away there!

Keep it going!!

[Richard_2001]

Jason,

Repeat after me B-29 B-29 B-29 lol

Seriously the B-29 bulkhead really does not need to be the best casting as it is pretty much totally buried under the 215 shell

Looks good enough to me

Richard

[JAWS]

Thanks boys. Richard true what you say except it will bother the builder... now things are working & Ive got a better hold on what needs to happen to get consistant results. Its about time for those Entex parts to get rubbered & see if I can pull them off. The wheel will be interesting. I think the cockpit will be easy. I saw one of them going for a $1000 on ebay this week....

[star-art]

Those JPS cockpit parts are very thin. The key to successfully casting them in resin is to use the right resin (I hear something called "hard cast" is the one to get) and to leave them in the mold for at least 24 hours to make sure they are fully cured. You should also keep the molds nice and warm to make sure the resin fully catalyzes. Hope that helps!