DMC

Ah, good another airliner. These little airliner kits are becoming more and more a focus of interest to me. Macchi M.39 nearly done so maybe next build will be one that I’ve actually flown on an age ago. Watching. Dennis

Really nice! Looking forward to the next one. Dennis

Following your build reminded me of the time a US Navy Beech pancaked into Masons Creek just short of the perimeter fence of NAS Norfolk, Va. News of the event raced around the navy project we were living in at the time and I peddled furiously to the creek and got there just in time to see 3 or 4 very wet naval personal, one a navy Wave, stepping ashore from, just maybe, a rubber dinghy. No fatalities, if memory serves, just a little shaken up. Liking your build thread. Dennis

Top left strut: thinking that I needed something a little stiffer for the struts than just a strip of styrene, I flattened a length of aluminium tube with a bit of wire in I. This left an indentation down the length that needed filling, which I did with Milliput (that stuff sticks to anything) and filed it down a little to an airfoil shape. This would work but is a bit of a faff shaping it to an airfoil and adjusting the length, which I would probably need to do, would be too difficult. Top middle strut: staying with the tubing. I added a second bit of wire which almost eliminated the indentation and made shaping it to an airfoil a little easier. Top right strut: this one is .010 styrene folded between two lengths of balsa and heated with a hair dryer to get a sharp crease. A length of wire was placed in the crease with a thread of Milliput and the trailing edge was clamped with a bulldog clamp and left to cure overnight. Trimmed and cemented next day this method produces a pretty good airfoil shape and will only need a little thinning of the trailing edge and a minimum of sanding. I went with this one and I've made four and two for the cross struts. To attach the strut firmly to the float required something more than just the wire. On the 1:1 there looks to be a fairing where the strut meets the float. I did a quick balsa mould in a downsized version of the wing fairing/fillet mould and plunged a .015 square of styrene into a fairing shape for a trail run. Looks okay for the first test but as the struts are at angles and the front ones slanted back I will need to work make moulds for each strut. The scoring on the Tabloid wing turned out (almost) okay but I didn't get enough camber in there and there is no dihedral to speak of, which the wing should have. I messed up because I tried to get the camber and the dihedral done in one go and I had two curves working against each other. Cleary , the camber has to be done separately and the dihedral perhaps achieved by using little hot water. Perhaps! Thanks for your interest Dennis

Hi Glen, Wow, thanks for taking the time to post this terrific reply. It has, more or less, helped me to make up my mind about taking on what has proved to be quite a challenging build. At first I thought, after basic research, the similarities between the two aircraft were close enough to allow me to convert with only detail scratch building, mainly the bow. Now I have come to the conclusion, thanks to your reply, and the others, that the project is probably above my modelling pay grade. The build in the Airfix Tribute Forman is especially worth viewing just to see what is involved. Just the sort of thing I enjoy seeing other, more adventurous, modellers take on. Fascinating stuff. Cheers, and thanks again, Dennis

Deluxe does some nice blues for the ceiling. Dennis

Your welcome. I have one in the post myself. That whole Imperial Airway thing makes for good reading . I don’t know very much about the, is it mayo?, set-up but I’ve seen photos. That would be quite a project. Out of my abilities I think. Cheers Dennis

Ah ha, @greggles.w, your back! I’ve been looking for you to show up. I’m almost ready to start on the struts and would like a gander at how you set those jigs up. Thank you for the kind comments, and the plethora of likes. And thank Mr Woodman for the fillet technique. His book is reprinted in full in the link on #95. Worth a look. Cheers Dennis

This thread has developed into something quite interesting. I now have enough input to make a decision on whether to proceed with the conversion...or not. Thanking everyone for taking the time to reply. Cheers Dennis

Hi Steve, You are correct, according to Wiki the wing sweep was increased by 4.25 degrees to shift the c of g back to compensate for the extra weight of the tail turret (think I’ve got that right). Easy to correct but seems that would knock the nacelles askew a bit. Probably the best way to check would be to overlay the Airfix kit on the above plans. Not impressed with what I’ve seen of the Italeri kit but only because of the deep scribing and heavy riveting. Really starting to get into this now. Much thought and research required, however. Thank you for the input. Dennis

Hi JWM, I’d be quite interested to see how you managed this project. I have done a little scratch building and would not hesitate in cutting into the Airfix kit fuselage. It’s really the wing isn’t it that might present a problem? I have the drawing (top) that you’ve enclosed and it looks pretty good. However, it’s my understanding that the factory drawings were destroyed and these were put together from actual measurements, etc. But you have to rely on something to get started don’t you? And who’s to know if there’s something amiss anyway? The two interior drawings are quite good but, except for the cockpit, I would not want to get bogged down again (I am old, time is priceless) in spending a lot of time on interior detail. Looking forward to to seeing you get started and thank you for your interesting reply. Cheers, Dennis

Thanks guys, very much appreciated. Dennis

Thanks @Turbofan, Ian, sounds like a good read. And, speaking of the Short Empire, have a look at this RC Empire build log. Really quite something. https://www.modelflying.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=75111&p=1 Dennis

Thanks, Chris, bookmarked it about an hour ago. Dennis

Thanks @Ian and @Graham Boak. Kit looks pretty good, Ian, but a little out of my price range. It’s the conversion that really interests me. Well, Graham, I guess your information kinda shoots my idea all to heck. It was the Empire and the old Imperial Airways route that I am interested in. Still, if it were a closer match I might consider it. Fools rush in where angels ...... and all that. Thanks again for the timely replies. Dennis