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Donnet-Lévêque Type A, Libramodels, 1:72


Brandy

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22 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Hi Ian

Lovely attention to detail, you are setting a very high standard of authenticity, for which I cannot commend you highly enough :worthy:

cheers Pat

Thanks Pat, much appreciated! I can only hope that the detail is correct...there seems to be so much variation, and there is no "bible" on the type to refer to, so it's a case of using the one pic I have of the aircraft and comparing it with replicas and other pics to see what appears to be common and where the differences are.

 

Thanks Jaime!

 

12 hours ago, bristol boy said:

Great start, looking forward to seeing more. I acquired a Libra Bristol Scout recently so interested to see how good these vacs are, I take it you will not bother trying to use the supplied struts?

 

I may use the kit strut material, I've used it before with no problems. I'll look at it a little closer when I get that far......

 

 

Edited by limeypilot
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11 hours ago, Fritag said:

Inspiring plastic modelling Ian.

Cheers Steve, no VG's though......

 

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

Dead lush that Ian. It's a shapely little beast isn't it?

Aye, that she is! Thanks Tony!

 

Today's progress was mostly in sitting and thinking about how I wanted to go about the rear fuselage mods. I was contemplating how relatively simple such mods have been on injected kits due to the thickness of the plastic when it suddenly dawned on me that all I really had to do was recreate that thickness so I could sand it to the right shape....out with the Miliput!

 Before I did that, I cut out the cockpit openings and added the three bulkheads, plus some tabs to help glue the halves together. I then filled the rear end with Miliput, making sure it is full and the two halves can be glued together. I may even sheath it with .005" sheet when it's done just to be sure.
 A false floor has also been added with .010" sheet to hide the seam. 

 

37159137272_6ea1fa001c_c.jpg

 

 That's it for today, nothing too exciting I'm afraid but a few potential problems hopefully sorted. Now I can start detailing the cockpits.....

 

 

Ian

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Hi all, here's today's update.

 Today I've mostly been cutting plastic strip into tiny pieces. I used .010"x.020" (.25mm x .5mm) plastic strip for the majority of the cockpit framing. Fortunately there are some good pics online of the prototype in the Musée de l'Air, including a couple of cockpit shots. With no reference available for the particular aircraft I'm modelling, these are a very good second best. There is no instrument panel (not uncommon in those early machines), so I have simply added the wooden framework, aileron control linkages, and the seat support frames. 

 

37210862521_2f8342ecf8_c.jpg

 

36541267093_f9aff4f143_c.jpg

 

36541267673_741e0d8279_c.jpg

 

 I have no idea whether the interior of the Austrian machines was painted or not. The prototype is the same colour as the exterior - green, the alternative is bare wood, which will be the outer colour for this model. So for a bit of contrast I will paint the interior green as per the prototype. I see no reason that it shouldn't have had some sort of protection from the elements/salt water, etc.

 If anyone has evidence to the contrary please shout, I'd love to get it right!

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

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Really engrossing stuff Ian :thumbsup: !

 

There's something very satisfying  about watching a Vac form being built with care.

 

I had my poor wife grovelling around in the office two days ago, to find my Libra Models DH 5. It's all your fault :rofl:!!

 

It had never been opened. Metal engine and guns, and a set of decals! Quite nice too. 

 

One question; what are your ideas for displaying this one? A small ocean/lake effect base? Beaching trolley?

 

Keep up the good modelling :thumbsup2: 

 

Best regards

TonyT

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4 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said:

Really engrossing stuff Ian :thumbsup: !

 

There's something very satisfying  about watching a Vac form being built with care.

 

I had my poor wife grovelling around in the office two days ago, to find my Libra Models DH 5. It's all your fault :rofl:!!

 

It had never been opened. Metal engine and guns, and a set of decals! Quite nice too. 

 

One question; what are your ideas for displaying this one? A small ocean/lake effect base? Beaching trolley?

 

Keep up the good modelling :thumbsup2: 

 

Best regards

TonyT

Thanks Tony. Go on, build it, you know you want to!

 I've seen a couple of photos showing them just sat on the ground, no trolley or any other support, so I'll probably just leave it like that. I'll see how it sits and then decide.

 

Ian

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Great scratch building of the interior, Ian! Very well done indeed! :thumbsup:

 

I think your option of painting the interior green and the exterior wood will look very good!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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I've made a little progress over the last few days, although most of that time has been spent at work. Unfortunately my camera has eaten the pics I took of the seats, but suffice to say that I have cut them out, sanded them to shape and drilled the lightening holes in the seat backs. Other than that, a coat of interior green has been sprayed and I'm almost ready to close up the fuselage.

36577720183_4876858971_c.jpg

Ian

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That interior just goes to show that if you put straight lines together with enough care, that they stop being lines and fuse into a 'thing'.

 

A damn handsome thing in this instance Ian.

:thumbsup2:

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Hello Ian,

Real modelling on the go !

Congratulations, there's one of these flying boat in Bruxelles, Musée des armées.

Freshly restored, but I think this is the same model than the one showed previously by @TonyTiger66

I agree 200% about researches, I really like that. It's fascinating, then the model are just a logical end... IMHO

Well will follow this one with interest too.

Good job, :partytime:

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

Must try a vac formed !

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The simplicity of the cockpits of these early machines is very striking when compared with later aircraft - a couple of seats, control stick, rudder bar and an instrument or two if you were lucky.

 

That is a very neat cockpit construction Ian, it really looks very neat and tidy. Looking forward to more of this build.

 

P

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On 9/23/2017 at 8:44 PM, jrlx said:

That interior green looks beautiful! Well done!

Thanks Jaime, it's actually RAF interior green!

 

On 9/24/2017 at 2:18 AM, TheBaron said:

That interior just goes to show that if you put straight lines together with enough care, that they stop being lines and fuse into a 'thing'.

 

A damn handsome thing in this instance Ian.

:thumbsup2:

Many thanks Tony, I must admit it looks better than I'd dared hope!

 

On 9/24/2017 at 4:09 AM, corsaircorp said:

Hello Ian,

Real modelling on the go !

Congratulations, there's one of these flying boat in Bruxelles, Musée des armées.

Freshly restored, but I think this is the same model than the one showed previously by @TonyTiger66

I agree 200% about researches, I really like that. It's fascinating, then the model are just a logical end... IMHO

Well will follow this one with interest too.

Good job, :partytime:

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

Must try a vac formed !

Many thanks CC! There is a very nice replica at "Les Retroplanes d'Argenteuil" here although it is the slightly later FBA version with the different bow and it has the Le Rhône instead of Gnôme engine.

 

P & John - cheers! Glad you like her!

 

The rudder bar was added today from .010 x .030" strip, and I added a little more miliput inside the front end just in case the sanding to reshape it goes through the thin plastic.

 That was all that was needed, so the final job was to glue the halves together and tape it up to let it dry!

 

37306623252_56e89df945_c.jpg

 

 Here are the seats awaiting paint. They were shaped from the ones supplied on the sheet....

 

36667045333_fa33bff47e_c.jpg

 

Ian

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Thanks Ray, here you are....

 

Another quick update for this morning...

 

 After the fuselage had sat overnight, I added the step on the hull this morning. Needless to say, it doesn't fit very well.....

 

37323326302_df2ba86469_c.jpg

 

 Strips of .010" sheet were then added to both sharpen up the edges, and blend it in to the hull.

 I then got the miliput out again and added some to the top of the forward hull. It was roughly shaped with a wet knife blade and will be sanded to the final shape when dry. I also added some of the excess to the step to help blend that in.

 

37323324492_7772808f71_c.jpg

 

37323327642_ce9b2a7f8d_c.jpg

 

 So that's how it sits now until the miliput has hardened properly.

 

 

Ian

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