Fri Apr 20, 2007 10:16 pm
I was at CAF HQ today for the General Staff meetings and I went over to see Mr. Austin and I must say one thing, the pictures don't do the B-24A justice. The work is BEAUTIFUL! I crawled all through it and it looked like a totally different airplane from the old "lil". Mr. Arustin is doing such a great job and she'll surely become the centerpiece of the fleet. Keep up the good work!!!
Taylor Stevenson
Taylor Stevenson
Fri Apr 20, 2007 10:21 pm
retroaviation wrote:lmritger wrote:Brilliant stuff... I can't wait to see 927 in the flesh. I really hope she'll be coming somewhere near Norfolk this year!
Gary, you are THE MAN. Don't let anyone tell you different.
Lynn
Thank you, Sir...but there are quite a few others that have helped immensely with this project that have made me look good. I just bark out orders and point everyone in different directions.
Gary
Gary, well said. Like on Cheers when Norm was asked by Woody how was his day. Its a dog eat dog world Woody and I'm wearing milkbone underwear.....
Well done Gary...
Lynn
This is only my 2nd post so please bear with me
Sat Apr 21, 2007 12:53 am
Gary, I'm quite astounded both by the quality of your workmanship and by your willingness to carefully describe, step-by-step, your personal successes and failures while working through the process.
I'm even more astounded that you find time to respond almost every day to your readership at WIX. You seemingly have amazing patience, and amazing energy.
This aeroplane looks very good to me, although as a Canadian I really would have preferred a Coastal Command colour scheme. Oh well. Maybe next time. Or next aircraft.
I'm glad you received my small donation and please thank your powers-that-be for quickly informing me (today's mail) telling me that it will be used correctly. Even the bean-counters deserve credit sometimes.
But YOU get big-time kudos from me. And AM927 looks great.
Andrew
I'm even more astounded that you find time to respond almost every day to your readership at WIX. You seemingly have amazing patience, and amazing energy.
This aeroplane looks very good to me, although as a Canadian I really would have preferred a Coastal Command colour scheme. Oh well. Maybe next time. Or next aircraft.
I'm glad you received my small donation and please thank your powers-that-be for quickly informing me (today's mail) telling me that it will be used correctly. Even the bean-counters deserve credit sometimes.
But YOU get big-time kudos from me. And AM927 looks great.
Andrew
Sat Apr 21, 2007 5:29 am
Stephanie...thank you for posting this time (rather than just lurking) in order to relay your kind words. Thanks also for distracting a few folks with your avtar picture so that I could have more time between updates. 
Taylor...It was great seeing you out at the hangar and I'm glad you liked what you saw. Oh, and happy 18th birthday!
Lynn...I must've been working when that episode of Cheers was on, but I think I get what you were saying. I can't say that I've ever been compared to Norm before.
Andrew...Sorry about not making 927 a Coastal Command scheme, but it was considered...just not voted in. Overall, I think we went the best route for the airplane's reconfiguration for now. I had to laugh out loud when I read that you said I "have amazing patience, and amazing energy." I appreciate the comment, but man-oh-man, the folks that work around me every day would probably have something to say about the patience comment. And the energy I have is waining quite fast as well. 
I'll try to have a short photo update for y'all later today.
Gary
Taylor...It was great seeing you out at the hangar and I'm glad you liked what you saw. Oh, and happy 18th birthday!
Lynn...I must've been working when that episode of Cheers was on, but I think I get what you were saying. I can't say that I've ever been compared to Norm before.
Andrew...Sorry about not making 927 a Coastal Command scheme, but it was considered...just not voted in. Overall, I think we went the best route for the airplane's reconfiguration for now. I had to laugh out loud when I read that you said I "have amazing patience, and amazing energy." I appreciate the comment, but man-oh-man, the folks that work around me every day would probably have something to say about the patience comment.
And the energy I have is waining quite fast as well.
I'll try to have a short photo update for y'all later today.
Gary
Sat Apr 21, 2007 3:02 pm
Was going to give y'all a photo update this afternoon, but I feel like poop and I'm going home. I'll catch up with y'all tomorrow morning. Sorry for the delay.
Gary
Gary
Sat Apr 21, 2007 3:25 pm
Ah yes, a welcome afternoon @ Austion Resort & Spa....
Get some rest...
Lynn
Get some rest...
Lynn
Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:03 am
Okay, here's a photo update for everyone. With the busier than usual schedule, I've not taken the amount of photos I probably should have, so you may have to fill in the blanks a little bit here......
Scott continued working on the fuselage patch, just forward of the entry door. He went as far as he could by himself, but eventually needed help. He recruited his wife, Ellen. This was the first time she'd ever bucked rivets, so they started out with a practice piece.......
And before you knew it, they were making noise inside the airplane. Sure, there were some glitches here and there, but they got them all corrected. And I must say, for a married couple, they acutally work together much better than expected........
The two Air Force guys that came down for a couple of days, Mark and Tom, spent their second day inside the airplane fabricating new fuel drain lines for us. I had relocated the drains on the fuselage to a more "comfortable" location (especially for us short folks), and these new lines were a part of that modification. It was great to have those guys here, and I hope to see them back in the next week or two to help get this thing finished........
During the entire reconfiguration project of this airplane, there are only a small handful of events that have occurred that would be piled in the "great stroke of luck" category. For example, the acquisition of the bomb doors & racks is something I consider us to be quite lucky about (thanks Questmasters). Well, late last week, we stumbled into another small stroke of good luck. As you all know, I've been struggling since this project began, to find any photos, drawings, parts, or pieces of anything that goes in the tailgunner's section. And you've seen how making everything from scratch has been consuming time like the B-29 consumes fuel and engines.
Anyway, the latest debaccle was trying to figure out how I was going to make the gun mount for the tail position. I've looked and looked, but the most detailed drawing I've got of it is this........
Nice, huh?
I mean, it's quality is fine, but there's just not much to go by to built it. How tall is it? What angle is that mount at? Etc., etc. It was obvious to me that the yoke that attaches to the gun was much different from the other ones we had. I was not sure how I wanted to make it, as it was going to need to be quite strong to hold the gun up at such a steep angle (the yokes for the other guns are much shorter and have no angle to them).
Well, a week or so ago, Carl Scholl had called and said he found a goofy looking item, which he thought might be a gun mount of some sort and said he sent it to me just in case I could modify it to work with our guns. I really didn't give it a second thought until it showed up on Friday. As soon as I opened the box, I knew we had somehow stumbled upon some good luck.
Do you reckon this is pretty close? ...............
I was very excited about this find and drug everyone from their work areas to come and see. It doesn't take much these days to make me happy or mad (I'm an emotional wreck)...but that was definitely one happy moment for me. I was now able to continue with the assembly of the tailgunner's gun and get it ready for installation.
Once it was assembled, I just placed it on the work stand so that I'll not have to drag it in and out of the airplane while fabricating the base for the gun mount. Plus, it just made the work stand look cool........
While all of this was going on, I was also able to start painting one of the National insignias on the airplane. I started with the one on the R/H side of the fuselage. Again, I didn't take the detailed pictures I normally would have, but will try to remember to do so on the next insignia. Here it is with the star and surrounding blue painted on.......
I was hoping for the blue to be completely cured by the time I got here this morning (which was late for me), but it was still tacky. I've just not had much luck with my painting during this whole project, so I wasn't even a little bit surprised by this. I still needed to get the red dot (or "meatball") painted on, so I just figured out a way to work around the tacky paint.
The first step was to lay out the circle (which I'll show y'all that procedure with the next insignia), and to put the border tape around the pencil line.....
Then, since I couldn't just lay paper down over the blue part of the insignia, I just made a little dam with the tape. I'd done this years ago with great results, and frankly, was surprised I remembered to do it this time. It basically just funnels the air/paint mixture straight back out and away from the airplane as you spray it. I use a HVLP (High Volume, Low Pressure) gun, and kept the spray down to a minimun, so it ended up working out fairly well...........
Unmasked and finished.......
I've been a bit under the weather, so to speak, for the last couple of days, and today isn't much better. So my productivity has been slowed down. However, I'm still trying to get as much work done as possible. I will be glad when this is finished, but until then.....if you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.
Gary
Scott continued working on the fuselage patch, just forward of the entry door. He went as far as he could by himself, but eventually needed help. He recruited his wife, Ellen. This was the first time she'd ever bucked rivets, so they started out with a practice piece.......
And before you knew it, they were making noise inside the airplane. Sure, there were some glitches here and there, but they got them all corrected. And I must say, for a married couple, they acutally work together much better than expected........
The two Air Force guys that came down for a couple of days, Mark and Tom, spent their second day inside the airplane fabricating new fuel drain lines for us. I had relocated the drains on the fuselage to a more "comfortable" location (especially for us short folks), and these new lines were a part of that modification. It was great to have those guys here, and I hope to see them back in the next week or two to help get this thing finished........
During the entire reconfiguration project of this airplane, there are only a small handful of events that have occurred that would be piled in the "great stroke of luck" category. For example, the acquisition of the bomb doors & racks is something I consider us to be quite lucky about (thanks Questmasters). Well, late last week, we stumbled into another small stroke of good luck. As you all know, I've been struggling since this project began, to find any photos, drawings, parts, or pieces of anything that goes in the tailgunner's section. And you've seen how making everything from scratch has been consuming time like the B-29 consumes fuel and engines.
Anyway, the latest debaccle was trying to figure out how I was going to make the gun mount for the tail position. I've looked and looked, but the most detailed drawing I've got of it is this........
Nice, huh?
I mean, it's quality is fine, but there's just not much to go by to built it. How tall is it? What angle is that mount at? Etc., etc. It was obvious to me that the yoke that attaches to the gun was much different from the other ones we had. I was not sure how I wanted to make it, as it was going to need to be quite strong to hold the gun up at such a steep angle (the yokes for the other guns are much shorter and have no angle to them).
Well, a week or so ago, Carl Scholl had called and said he found a goofy looking item, which he thought might be a gun mount of some sort and said he sent it to me just in case I could modify it to work with our guns. I really didn't give it a second thought until it showed up on Friday. As soon as I opened the box, I knew we had somehow stumbled upon some good luck.
Do you reckon this is pretty close?
...............
I was very excited about this find and drug everyone from their work areas to come and see. It doesn't take much these days to make me happy or mad (I'm an emotional wreck)...but that was definitely one happy moment for me. I was now able to continue with the assembly of the tailgunner's gun and get it ready for installation.
Once it was assembled, I just placed it on the work stand so that I'll not have to drag it in and out of the airplane while fabricating the base for the gun mount. Plus, it just made the work stand look cool........
While all of this was going on, I was also able to start painting one of the National insignias on the airplane. I started with the one on the R/H side of the fuselage. Again, I didn't take the detailed pictures I normally would have, but will try to remember to do so on the next insignia. Here it is with the star and surrounding blue painted on.......
I was hoping for the blue to be completely cured by the time I got here this morning (which was late for me), but it was still tacky. I've just not had much luck with my painting during this whole project, so I wasn't even a little bit surprised by this. I still needed to get the red dot (or "meatball") painted on, so I just figured out a way to work around the tacky paint.
The first step was to lay out the circle (which I'll show y'all that procedure with the next insignia), and to put the border tape around the pencil line.....
Then, since I couldn't just lay paper down over the blue part of the insignia, I just made a little dam with the tape. I'd done this years ago with great results, and frankly, was surprised I remembered to do it this time. It basically just funnels the air/paint mixture straight back out and away from the airplane as you spray it. I use a HVLP (High Volume, Low Pressure) gun, and kept the spray down to a minimun, so it ended up working out fairly well...........
Unmasked and finished.......
I've been a bit under the weather, so to speak, for the last couple of days, and today isn't much better. So my productivity has been slowed down. However, I'm still trying to get as much work done as possible. I will be glad when this is finished, but until then.....if you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.
Gary
Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:17 am
Wow! I could've used a gun mount (and weapon) like that for my desk!!!
All kidding aside, great job, Gary -- and ALL the volunteers that have come down to help out!
All kidding aside, great job, Gary -- and ALL the volunteers that have come down to help out!
Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:29 am
Hey Gary (and company),
Things are looking great. I really love those pre-war US rondels (That's what they're called, right? And the Paint job looks great!!!
I sure hope you continue to get help from those two Air Force guys continue to help you out.
Cheers,
David
Things are looking great. I really love those pre-war US rondels (That's what they're called, right? And the Paint job looks great!!!
I sure hope you continue to get help from those two Air Force guys continue to help you out.
Cheers,
David
B-24A
Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:34 am
Gary, Fantastic Job!!!!!!!!!! Just wish I had the time and money to come to Midland and lend a hand. But between helping get our BT back in the air and the National Mustang Show it ha been a little busy. Keep up the FANTASTIC WORK and this goes for all the other voluteers as well!!!
Mike
DFW Wing
Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:06 am
The armed work stand just screams " Don't bother me while I'm working !"
Sun Apr 22, 2007 11:29 am
That National insignia looks sharp!
Sun Apr 22, 2007 7:29 pm
RickH wrote:The armed work stand just screams " Don't bother me while I'm working !"
Probably not a bad idea considering the time crunch Gary is under. I remember seeing a sign hanging up in a farm implement repair business that read, "If you have the urge to socialize with our mechanics you will be charged $65.00 per hour!"
John
Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:03 pm
Give no thoughts about deadlines Gary!! Your baby is looking great!! The world will see your magic on May 12th and be amazed!! Wish I could be there to lend a hand.
Will the props be back in time?? Dave
Will the props be back in time?? Dave
Mon Apr 23, 2007 6:30 am
snjfxr wrote:Give no thoughts about deadlines Gary!! Your baby is looking great!! The world will see your magic on May 12th and be amazed!! Wish I could be there to lend a hand.
Will the props be back in time?? Dave
Give no thoughts about the deadline??? Heck, I hear about the deadline daily, not to mention how often I think about it while trying to sleep.
It ain't my baby. This airplane belongs to everyone who's a member of the CAF and those who have a special place in their hearts for an ol' B-24. I'm just trying to make it more presentable.
The world will see my magic on May 12? Geez, I hope so, because getting this thing finished by then (or even making it where people can even walk through it) is a feat David Copperfield wouldn't tackle.
I wish you were able to get here as well, Dave. It's always great to have you here and the quality of work you do is wonderful. I definitely appreciate everything you've done up to this point.
The props have been finished for some time. I just didn't have them delivered until I painted the cowlings. They should be here on Wednesday.
Gary