Bending pe step ladders...

[coaster]

The steps, that is, I tend to try and catch the edge with a scalpel blade and then grab the edge with my finest tweezers...ocassionally I end up with a trashed step ladder. There mustbe a better way. Being a bear of very little brain, I haven't come up with one. Tried searching the forum to no avail... Anyone got a fool-proof solution?
Cheers
Fraser

[George W]

Recently I have found bending the step using a no 11 while it is still on the fret to be best and being careful to know what direction to bend it first.

[Timmy C]

I've been pretty successful with mine:

Bend the handrails first - use a flat and flush-edged tweezer to grasp along the steps and use the tweezer's edge as a folding point. Do this for both sides.

Then use a needle-point tweezer to hold the top step, and only the top step. Now slowly use your fingers to bend the whole stair assembly until the held step is at the proper angle relative to the whole stairway.

Gingerly grasp the assembly in your fingers by holding the two sides (sides where the railings are folded up, not back/forth of the steps). Repeat as above, gently inserting the needlepoint tweezer to grasp the next step down. Repeat until done!

[coaster]

Hi,
Good point about bending the steps whilst the bits are still in the sheet I think, George. My finest tweezers could do with being ground a bit finer, I reckon! They're just a bit fat to get between the steps. Hand me the 800 grit, nurse!
Cheers,
Fraser

[M�LDERS]

I tried to capture the way i do in video. Its the 700th scale. It might be useful....
The rail is bent first. It provides stability.

[M�LDERS]

Got another one. Its a little different. Its the 350th

[Cadman]

Well done, very informative.

[OS1880]

very very interesting. Learn something everyday

[coaster]

Nice videos M�ders! This is more or less what I do, but you're alot better at it
Cheers
Fraser

[aleccap]

Okay so may I state the obvious, while this is a great video and of interest no doubt to just about everyone, what would be the chances of seeing other such information clips, say on rigging, aplying rail or weathering, I am one of those types of people that learn faster from watching rather than being told (reading), and obviously looking at pix and reading step by step is a fantastic way to learn any subject, I am a visual person.

[coaster]

Seconded, I don't usually have much problem with railings, but, damn, they're fiddly. Rigging, especially at 1/700th is a black art. Jim Baumann's tutorials are brilliant for it.
F

[M�LDERS]

Okay so may I state the obvious, while this is a great video and of interest no doubt to just about everyone, what would be the chances of seeing other such information clips, say on rigging, aplying rail or weathering, I am one of those types of people that learn faster from watching rather than being told (reading), and obviously looking at pix and reading step by step is a fantastic way to learn any subject, I am a visual person.

Sorry for my late reply. I often try to run some tests before only explaining my opinion about it. So in this case as well.
I really like the Video step by step and tutorials and i decided to give my self a try.
In this case, the topic was about rendering wood grain in combiantion with a glaze technique, to create the illusion of real wood in large scale plastic modeling.

One of these videos was abut 4 minutes long and was recorded in HD. In HD we have the issue that one second takes 1MB data volume.
Easily we exceed 240MB total data volume for a 4min clip.
And here the troubles begin. Especially with windows.

240MB is quite a lot data for a average user, still in our times. It has to be converted, edited, we need music, and so on.
Before you have to find software, book a good bandwith at your isp, gotta have a nice camera...

At the other hand the setup at the bench is quite inconvenient. In the following video i had the problem that my eyesight was in a different angle to the lightsources as the objective of the cam was. So we have this darn reflections over almost the whole movie.

With stretched sprue for example, you will shurely need a second person who takes the shot. Or maybe a good tripod.

Its nice, but...you know....simply laborious...
And veeeery time consuming (take it, edit it, convert it, upload it......)
Some boards have different html codes for the right resolution.
So i was not able to change settings to the way it should be in this post here.
Now the comments are difficult to read. It�s better to watch it at youtube it self.

Two examples of recently made vids. The lower one was just made because i was happy to have found a way to improve a engine, and found a way to paint it later. It was not meant that honest.


[youtube]<object width="600" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_QhzDkiuijc&hl=de_DE&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_QhzDkiuijc&hl=de_DE&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="600" height="350"></embed></object>[/youtube]


[youtube]<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7VLZorg6BJI&hl=de_DE&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7VLZorg6BJI&hl=de_DE&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>[/youtube]

[coaster]

Ah ha! another WWI modeller! I know the wood grain technique you're using as I use it too - most recently on a plastic model of a Portuguese 'Port' boat or Rabelo, but more often on Sopwiths, Albatrossen etc.

You're right too about the regrettable amount of time video making takes as it's so much more descriptive of a technique than a step-by-step set of jpegs.
F

[aleccap]

Although this will never sound right, I just love youtube, and these how to do clips and learning vid's for me, just fantastic, only wish there was more for us 1-700 builders.

[coaster]

Although this will never sound right, I just love youtube, and these how to do clips and learning vid's for me, just fantastic, only wish there was more for us 1-700 builders.

Well, the principles are all the same, it's just that with 1/700th you need better eyesight and finer tools...smaller fingers might help too. Being aged I can't manage 1/700th anymore and my 1/350th Hood is about at my limit for PE bending
Fraser

[aleccap]

Hello coaster witout being rude, how old are you ? I'll be 52 on 8-1-10, I have rather large hands, I'm 5.11'' tall and since packing up smoking almost a year ago I now weigh in at 23 stones, Jim Baumann is 'not' as heavy as me, he is taller and his hands are larger, and there are not many people on this site that hasn't seen his work.
So my old mucker you were saying about age, eye sight etc etc etc

[coaster]

You're as old as the woman, er, um the scale you can build... I'm 62 and weigh in at about 80k. While I can see well enough to do 1/700th, it's a bit of a strain, I had a hemorrhage in my right eye a few years back which hasn't helped...it's a bit cloudy. The thing I really have noticed, though, is a certain loss of sensitivity in the fingertips, not so's you'd notice - except when trying to manipulate atomic level PE... I blame too much manual labour in my thirties! I did fine art at school which almost guarantees a colourful CV. Jim is a phenomenon. Perhaps I should have said "I'd rather not do 1/700th" rather than can't manage...
We now live on a hectare of intractable weeds in Portugal, so the manual labour continues, and interferes with prime modelling time - tsk.
http://quinta-mosqueiro.blogspot.com/

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[aleccap]

Thank you for sharing.

[M�LDERS]

Thanks for the interest, gentleman.
I�ll try to improve my vid-edit skills and find better and faster software to reduce data volume and so on.
I really like the Idea that vid and pic together could be one popular option for wip threads in the future.

@coaster
these new wingnutwings 32nd scale kits are absolutely amzaing. The glaze vid is taken during the construction of the cockpit
and inner interior of a LVG V VI.
I never was very close to WWI airplane topics, but these kit just teased my so hard.
Its really fun to build! Just give it a try when you have time and muse.
For more information check out
http://www.wingnutwings.com

Great stuff!

@aleccap
very kind regards to you and thanks for noticing


catch you later guys!

[coaster]

I'm waiting for the Sopwith Pup.... You'd need a shed for the Gotha...

Boy are we way off topic
F