In the works and in the planning stage(s)

[spaceshiprepairman]

I just joined, and would like to share some of what I'm endeavoring to do.

I'm currently building a 1/48 DO217E model. While I had planned on building this as a conventional bomber, after acquiring a couple books on the '217, I'm thinking of shifting gears. In both are a couple of three-views of a proposed "See Stuka". This was to be a DO217 on floats. One 3-view shows a B model on floats(the one with the Daimler engines), while the other, a more complete 3-view, of an E model, with the BMW radials. This never got past the paper stage, but there are the 3-views. As it was never built, if I wanted to build one, I was thinking of using the floats from a comparably sized aircraft, the prime candidate being the HE115(both were similar in dimensions and weight). However, I have yet to find a scale model of a 115, so I'm afraid I'd have to scratch build the floats. But, ever since I found the 3-views, I've been thinking of a possible diorama with this, with perhaps torpedoes or other anti-ship ordinance. As I am getting more into the realm of speculation, coming up with squadron markings is using more artistic license. I'm thinking of one of the patrol squadrons which actually used FW200's, or JU88's.

Among the other projects is a scratch build of an early Soviet airliner prototype, a KHaI-3 in 1/48 scale. My biggest problem being that there are no photos of the prototypes remaining, which brings me to my first set of questions. Are there any passenger seat diagrams of early airliners of the 20's and 30's. As I am "winging it", so to speak, any seatrs I come up with would be pure speculation. The seating arrangement is described, but I'm not sure as to the style of seats themselves. I found a cutaway of a MiG 8 Utka, which might work, but that was flying in the 50's, while the KHaI was flying during the mid 30's. So, are there any photos of the interiors of early airliners available? Ones that might show any parts of seat structure and some framework?

My next question concerns engine colors. While kit instructions call for "steel" or "aluminum", engines in reality don't had just those two colors. What I've got in the planning stages are a 1/32 Beaufighter and 1/32 Lysander, and the engines are fairly visible. Radials are not simply one or two colors, but a mixture, with the metal of the cylinders being decidely un-shiny, and in some cases down right dirty. Then there are the push rods, ignition wires, and exhaust stacks or collector ring. So, in anyone else's experience, what colors can I use?

[Mike]

A belated to the forums Max - I hope you've managed to log in again after I tweaked your user, and enjoy the forums

[spaceshiprepairman]

A belated to the forums Max - I hope you've managed to log in again after I tweaked your user, and enjoy the forums

Thank you.

I hope that I am able to, in some small way, add to the general body of knowledge here, and plan on learning as much as I can while still enjoying myself.