Rhinolover Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 (edited) I have received many...many PM's asking how I made my inflight refueling basket. Since I began modeling last year I have received many encouraging post and help. Now it's time to offer back anything that may be of help to others. I hope this post is helpful to anyone that may be interested. This is the method I used and described to best of my ability. The scale of it when completed using the measurments I'm providing seem to give a very good 1/48 scale representation. Here was the motivation photo.. Here is the list of the supplies I used.... 1) Beer and more beer. 2) Paper towel 3) Elmers Glue 4) 4.8mm/.187 Round Styrene 5) .010 .020" Stryrene strips 6) .33 Galvanized Steel wire 7) Super glue 8) Foil Tape 8) Wire dry cleaner hanger 9) Electrical wire heat wrap 3" x 3/32" Diameter The steps The first thing I made was the parachute to attach to the arms. This was done using paper towel. 1) Cut a piece of paper towel about 2" long and 1/18" wide. 2) Fold the piece of paper towel over a piece of the wire hanger. 3) Mix a bit of white Elmer glue and water. 4) Brush the water and glue mixture over the paper towel. 5) Let dry over night. Once the paper towel was dried I needed to make it round. This was done by wrapping it around the open end of a marker cap. 1) Gently work the dried paper towel around the open end of the marker cap. 2) Connect the ends to each other and over lap a small bit not to make too much of a bulge. 3) Use a toothpick and coat the towel with Super Glue. 4) Once dry..wa..la..a parachute. The width of the marker used was 9/16" across. Also, here is an image I quickly shot. I was a little short not connecting the ends, but you can get the idea. After the chute was dried and done I moved onto the arms, coupling, and hose. The arms were the biggest pain. I have counted 20 on the actual chute assembly, but I went with 18 because it got too tight. Each arm has two pieces glued together with some Tamiya thin cement. 1) Cut 18 long arms to 9/32" 2) Cut 18 short arms to 5/32" 3) Glue the arms together. 4) I cut an angle on the end of the arm that will attach to the couling. I estimate it at about 45 degrees. I did just enough to flare it out to the chute. Here are the arms.. The arms attach to what I call the coupling. The coupling is made from 4.8mm round styrene cut to a length of 8/32" 1) Cut the coupling from the 4.8mm styrene. 2) Sand one end to tapper it down to where the hose will be inserted. I found that it was best to drill the opening through the coupling first. The hole needs to be just big enough to accept the 3/32" hose. You need to drill in the whole lenght of the coupling. Once drilled then sand a tapper down to the opening. As you can see on the actual image the coupling has 6 little vanes running down the side. I just cut 6 to the coupling lenght from the strip styrene and glued them around the coupling evenly. Once the coupling was complete I glued the 18 arms around it spaced evenly using CA glue. It gets a little tight but there is space between the arms. I flared them out so they would hit the 9/16" width of the chute. Once the arms are dried you can glue that unit to the chute putting the arms inside the chute. After all this it gets pretty easy. Into the hole in the coupling insert the hose. This goes all the way through the coupling. Into the hose opening the wire hanger refueling probe slides right into the hose and it's all snug. For me, I wanted to make sure I had maximum strength in the probe. This is why I used the wire hanger. It was the perfect diameter match to both the Wolfpack F-18 & F-14 probes. The wire probe was bent to match the curvature of the arm needed. I inserted it into the fuseage opening about 1/2" with 5 minute epoxy so it was good and tight since it is just hanging out there and could get bumped. Remember since the probe is inserted into the basket you don't need the tip detail on the wire. After everything was together I finished it off with some foil tape and the galvanized wire. Paint and weathering finished off the project. All in all not bad results. Edited January 4, 2010 by Rhinolover Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Waco Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Awesome...simply awesome. Thanks for sharing! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fishwelding Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 I agree. That's impressive. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Excellent ! Thanks for the lesson ! Gregg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blackhawk7 Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Thanks for this how-to, it's a great help. Tom Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Scot M Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Excellent work!! Thanks so much for taking the time to share this with others! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
modelman11 Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 very awesome!!! Now how bout 1/72???!!! Kidding but really nice of you to think of others!!!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Marlin Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Thank You for this. I've saved the pics for future use. Merry Christmas. /Bosse Quote Link to post Share on other sites
f12aaa Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Very interesting, thanks for sharing. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ken Middleton Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 brilliant! Great work and thanks for posting it Quote Link to post Share on other sites
R Tate Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Thank you. It helps a lot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darren Roberts Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Outstanding! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jinxter13 Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Ahhhhhhh.....Yankee ingenuity at it's finest!!!!!, not to mention some outstanding scratchbuilding Quote Link to post Share on other sites
graves_09 Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Very nice! Saved for future reference! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
wombat43 Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 I can't see any of the pictures - it just says you need to upgrade photobucket which carries a cost of $400 - does anyone have these pictures on file that I could get copies of - saw the article and want to build but when I went back a few days later it was blank Jerry Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darren Roberts Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 Wow! That's quite a thread revival! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MoFo Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 Right click 'image', open in new tab. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
wombat43 Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 Still no joy - says photo bucket not working on every photo in the article - even opening in new tab doesn't work - does anyone have these saved that I could get copies - leaving for IPMS Nats in the morning so may be out of pocket this week but any help would certainly be appreciated - doing an A-3 refueling an F-8 in 1/48 based on planes from my 68 cruise on Ticonderoga CVA-14 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
habu2 Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 (edited) On 12/22/2009 at 8:37 PM, Rhinolover said: 3 hours ago, MoFo said: Right click 'image', open in new tab. MoFo, did you try this? It didn't work for me. I viewed the html source code for this thread and it appears the OP's posts pre-dated the ban on uploading images. The pathname in the "img src=" tag looks like a link to a local directory on ARC. leading and trailing caret bracket omitted in the following: Quote img src="./My Refueling Basket How to build post...Many have asked. - Jet Modeling - ARC Discussion Forums_files/DSC_0964.jpg" alt="DSC_0964.jpg" Although this doesn't explain the appearance of the PB ransom logo...... Edited July 25, 2017 by habu2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darren Roberts Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 10 hours ago, wombat43 said: Still no joy - says photo bucket not working on every photo in the article - even opening in new tab doesn't work - does anyone have these saved that I could get copies - leaving for IPMS Nats in the morning so may be out of pocket this week but any help would certainly be appreciated - doing an A-3 refueling an F-8 in 1/48 based on planes from my 68 cruise on Ticonderoga CVA-14 That's going to be a great looking dio! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mstor Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 11 hours ago, habu2 said: MoFo, did you try this? It didn't work for me. I viewed the html source code for this thread and it appears the OP's posts pre-dated the ban on uploading images. The pathname in the "img src=" tag looks like a link to a local directory on ARC. leading and trailing caret bracket omitted in the following: Although this doesn't explain the appearance of the PB ransom logo...... The image source is definitely Photobucket not a local url. Here is the source for one of the images (Spaces added between "http" and the colon to prevent the forum software from trying to grap the linked image): http ://img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/jheller/DSC_0908.jpg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MoFo Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 Weird. Worked for me yesterday. Didn't work for me just now... except for *one* pic, which opened. Tried it *again* and got two other images to display... but not the one that had just worked. http://photobucket.com/gallery/user/jheller/media/cGF0aDovRFNDXzA5OTYuanBn/?ref= http://photobucket.com/gallery/user/jheller/media/cGF0aDovRFNDXzA5NjQuanBn/?ref= Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.