pheonix

Thank you @invidia and @Malc2 for the kind comments Malc2: the link is If you scroll down to the section on the Bleriot XXIII of Hamel the photo is there. P

Evening All, As I wrote above, I had to build the Bleriot XXIII's entirely from photographs and published data, but I was misled by the latter. The source that I used was based on a French publication which had been translated into English, and I think that the translator made a simple error by stating that when the wings of the two machines were modified prior to the GB race, the span was reduced to approximately 17 feet. In fact the individual wing lengths were reduced to approximately 17 feet, giving an overall span of approximately 37 feet, allowing 3 feet for the fuselage. It was only after I had completed the project and handed it over that the penny dropped for me and I realised my error. I have been making two new models since with the correct span and completed them recently and handed them to Eastchurch Aviation museum earlier today. The new models look like this: Keen-eyed observers will notice that I have not just corrected the wingspan but I have also added the guards on the leading edges of the wings behind the engines, which were added to protect the pilots from oil and exhaust gases. These were visible on a photograph of Hamel's machine which I only saw for the first time shortly before I handed the display to the museum. I will shortly update the entry on the Air Race with photos of the new models in the display at Eastchurch Aviation museum. Thanks for looking. P

Evening All, I have been seriously distracted in the last month and have not had a great deal of time either to comment or to do a great deal on the current project. Added to which what I have done has been time consuming and laborious, so what follows is not a great deal but did take a lot of time and effort, both of which have been in short supply of late. I used 1/16 x 1/16 inch (2mm x 2mm) pine strip to make the deck planking. For those who like me know little or nothing about the construction of armoured warships, the decks were covered in wood: teak in the case of British warships. This was because these ships operated in oceans and seas around the world, which meant that in the tropics and sub-tropical waters a bare steel deck would become so hot during the day that sailors would not be able to walk on it. In addition the crew quarters below the decks would have been unbearably hot. In Arctic and Southern Ocean waters in winter, ice would rapidly build up on the very cold bare steel decks and rapidly make the ship top heavy and unstable. Wood acts as an insulator and thus helps to keep the ship cool in the tropics and slows the build-up of ice on the ship in high latitude seas and oceans. After that lesson in marine construction I glued the strips of pine to the lime base, starting at the front centre and working outwards: After several sessions and what seemed at the time like an eternity I had managed to cover the whole of the deck area: Making the strip fit the different curves of the barbette, edge of the deck and fill the gaps between the ventilation hatches involved another steep learning curve for me. The decks of those old warships were teak as stated above, but the wood rapidly discoloured in the salt air and under the influence of the sun. In addition sailors were expected to scrub the decks with honeystone, an abrasive stone which was supposed to make the decks white: an affectation of senior naval officers, some of whom seemed to think that they were still living in the age of sail. Indeed it could be said that if the Royal Navy prior to 1914 had spent more time practising gunnery and other military activity than burnishing the brass and decks of the warships, they may have been more effective, even successful, when they finally engaged the enemy. However that may have been, the decks of warships were not the colour of pine strip, so I had to find a way of representing discoloured teak. Colour photographs of modern preserved battleship wood decks show that they are a dull grey. I stained the pine with a dark red wood stain (Peruvian mahogony), to try to represent the teak deck when new: In the process I managed to remove several areas of the acryllic grey on the barbette and ventilation covers, so these will need to be repainted later. When the woodstain was dry I used a wash of Revell Hellgrau(76) mixed with white: I applied many coats of this until I had something close to the grey in my reference photographs: The slightly uneven colours are what I wanted to achieve: the deck areas of these ships was huge and the variation in colour on the originals was considerable. Now all I have to do is to repaint the barbette and ventilation covers before I attach the turret and guns and start to make the bridge structure which will form the rear of the display. Thanks for looking. P

Words do not adequately describe just how good that is: not quite flawless but about as close as it gets. The finish including the slight weathering is excellent. The figure and base turn this into a mini-masterpiece. P

Evening All, Thanks for the encouraging comments gentlemen - I really appreciate them. I have been studying the many photographs that were taken in early May 1912 on and of HMS Hibernia to try to get to grips with the details of the deck and fittings. In one of the photos and on the scale drawings there are some oblongs in front of the turre, and I could not work out what they were. A friend helped me to solve the problem when he showed me a photograph of another pre-WW1 battleship foredeck: they were ventilator openings to the focsle (crew quarters) in the front end of the ship. Having solved that problem I felt able to proceed with the basic deck/barbette assembly. I covered the edges of the pieces of wood which will represent the ship sides with thin plastic sheet and painted them Tamiya Dark Sea Grey as I have been advised that this is probably close to the grey of RN ships of that era: these were glued to the base. I glued strips of 20 x 30 Evergreen strip to to represent the metal step on the edges of the deck and painted these and the wood grey as above: I decided that the basswood needed more support underneath, so before I attached the decking I reinforced the base with some more support: When the deck pieces were well set I added the barbette, which had also been painted, and the breakwater in front of the barbette. The latter was cut form 15 thou card with holes drilled as observed on a photograph, and the bracing pieces also as observed on a photograph and ship plans. The vents for the crew quarters were also made from 15 thou card and painted grey, except the bottoms which are black as I have no intention of trying to replicate the internals of the ship! The covers will be added later in the open position. The next part will be to add the deck planking and start on the bridge which will form the rear of the model and support for the rear of the launch ramp. Thanks for looking. P.

Evening All, Thanks Stuart for your kind comment and to all the others who read my recent update: your support is much appreciated. @Bandsaw Steve - please note that although I do not have a bandsaw in my garage, wood has now been sacrficed /carved for this part of the build. I have become a ship modeller recently: usually I make aeroplanes so I am learning fast. When I dropped into my LMS and asked for a kit of the front turret and foredeck of an Edwaed VII class battleship of 1912 in 1/72 scale I just received a blank stare! I started by downloading a plan and side elevation of the foredeck of HMS Africa/Hibernia and enlarged it until 1mm represents 1 foot. I could then draw a plan at 1/72 scale where 1 inch represents 6 feet. I have made a base which is 12 inches (30 cm) x 11 inches (28cm) from hardboard and painted the edges which will not be covered by the deck white. I used white rather than sea blue because this will not be a waterline model: only the top of the ship sides above the portholes of the crew accommodation will be represented. Three supports from 1 inch x 1 inch (2.5cm x 2.5 cm) wood were glued to the top of the hardboard - these will hold the deck. I shaped 2 pieces of 1 inch square wood to represent the sides of the ship immediately below the deck line and covered the outer faces with 10 thou plastic sheet. These will be painted battleship grey later. The small fillets at the rear of the sides represent the curve of the ship sides above a 9.2 inch gun mounted low down in the hull: The gaps at the front and rear of the model between deck and base will be covered with plastic card later. The deck was cut form 1/8th inch (2mm) basswood (lime) sheet: 2 pieces were cut and shaped to represent the deck forward of the bridge to a point approximately 30 feet (8.2m) forward of the forward barbette breakwater. The edges were rounded with glass paper and sealed with a mixture of talcum powder and dope: The circle and arc represent where the barbette and breakwater will be positioned later. The curved rear covered the 9.2 inch guns in the hull and will have 60th plastic sheet CA'd underneath to represent the armoured deck.The top of the deck will be covered with 1/8 inch (2mm) square pine strip to represent the wood planking on the real ships. The barbette was cut form 4 pieces of 1/4 inch (0.5mm) basswood sheet: 2 pieces were joined to form a square sheet and the two sheets glued so that the joints were at 90 degrees. When the glue had set I cut off the waste wood around the circle that I had drawn on one surface, and the final rounding was achieved with a wood file: I made a block for the turret from 2 inch (5cm) square basswood: I cut a length of wood into two and glued the two pieces together and then added two more pieces of 1/4 inch sheet to the rear of the sides to allow for the wider rear of the turret. The top of the block was removed with a tenon saw (sorry @Bandsaw Steve😞 The front of the turret has also been trimmed to save filing the front face later. I filed/shaped the top of the turret first. I traced the upper and lower surfaces of the turret plan and the faces of the turret sides from the drawing and transferred these to the wood block and cut the sides of the block so that they were almost in alignment with the lower outline: Starting at the rear I could now file the individual faces of one side of the turret using the lines as a guide: The above operation was repeated for the other half of the turret and the front surface was also completed: The rear of the turret had the recesses cut with a saw. I drilled two holes in the front of the turret to take the gun barrels. The barrels of the guns were made from pine dowel which had been turned in an electric drill and sanded to shape with coarse, and polished with fine, glasspaper. The ends were shaped to fit into the holes in the turret. The turret, gun barrels and barbette were sealed with my go to wood sealant - talcum powder and dope mixture - and sanded smooth: The gun barrels, turret and barbette have only been placed together for photos and checking fit and position. They will be permanently glued together later. Thanks for looking. P

Evening All Thank you all for the kind comments. @Bandsaw Steve I apologise for causing you outrage by not using a bandsaw yet - I promise that I will try to do so when I make the turret and deck base for the model. I will certainly be using quantities of wood when I do get around to that part..... I have made some progress with this project, but did have a case of two steps forward and one back, which meant that I had to dissemble and re-assemble some parts. I completed the addition of the interplane and boom struts after the initial assembly had dried out: this was a straightforward task as it involved gently placing the ends of the struts into the pre-drilled holes in the wings after I had place a small drop of glue into the relevant holes. The boom struts were cut to exact length and fixed in place with CA: When I added the supporting struts for the upper wing overhang I did not cut them to the correct length and as a consequence I distorted the wing and boom structures. It took me a whole evening of fiddling and thinking before I realised the cause of the problem, by which time I had partially dissembled the top wing. Fortunately as soon as I removed the outermost interplane struts the problem was resolved: the wing was re-assembled and new outer struts cut and glued into place and all was square again. I made the front booms from brass bar as the originals were square section. I measured the gap between the wings using a pair of dividers and marked the where the ends of the booms needed to be with a pencil on a piece of paper. I could then lay the brass bar on the paper to form two V's which I was able to solder: After the joints had been cleaned with a file I was able to CA the repective booms to each side of the front of the model. I started rigging the model at this stage because some areas will be difficult to reach later. The wings and boom bracing was rigged using rolled copper wire held with CA: I have now reached a snag: the undercarriage was a simple structure consisting of two struts on each side supporting two skids. The axle ran across the skids. This will be an inherently weak part of the model which will require careful handling, especially when rigging. In addition if I finish the aircraft before I make the turret and foredeck on which I intend to mount it, I will have to be very careful in storing the aircraft model to stop it being accidentally damaged, so I have put it to one side for the moment while I concentrate on the base. I have made a small start on the base but am still in the process of studying photos of the deck and turret to work out some of the smaller details. I am not a ship modeller so I am on a very steep (vertical?) learning curve at the moment, but in the last couple of days I have had access to some very helpful information with the help of a fellow modeller and I hope to be able to present the results of my research in model form before too long. Thanks for looking. P

Dear Iain, Sadly there are no plans that I know of. I used basic plans of the Wright type B and modified them using the available photographic evidence. There is a scale model in the Smithsonian museum however, so there must be plans of some sort. Images of the model can be found at: https://www.google.com/search?q=flight+wright+baby+type+r&tbm=isch&hl=en&client=firefox-b-e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjOjNuSs_mCAxV6tycCHdpqBmYQgowBKAB6BAgBECw&biw=1905&bih=879#im

Splendid stuff. Your model seems to have a similar history to mine: I had the original issue Airfix Lancaster from the mid 1960's hanging from my bedroom wall. The supports snapped and it ended on my bed - in two parts as it split down the middle. I stored it in the roof of my parents house for a number of years and then, (did someone mention Alan Hall, balsa wood and talcum powder and dope filler?) decided to convert it following A Hall's article in Airfix Magazine. This was in the mid 1970's.... The result: and those Vulture engines: The model is still in my work room in a perspex case - nearly 50 years later. P

Evening All Thank you for all of the encouraging comments - they are much appreciated. I agree - I bet the poor chap was livid, but given that the admiral was given a ride on the S38 in the afternoon after the launch from Hibernia in Weymouth Bay I am not sure that he would have made his views too public! I have been working on this while working on the Gordon Bennett dio. Now that the latter is finished, (well almost - as I will explain later, I have decided to make two new Bleriot XXIII's because I have finally sorted out the wing problem), I will focus on this subject. Having made most of the major parts I painted them: CDL for the flying surfaces, and Revell semi-matt 382 tan for the struts: The engine was mounted on a block on the trailing edge of the lower wing: I made a mounting from plastic card and inserted a piece of rod to represent the shaft which connected the fuel and oil tanks to the engine. The fuel/oil tanks were cut from 60 thou rod and mounted on a frame made from plastic strip. There was a passenger seat in front of the fuel/oil tanks - that was cut from 20 thou card and after all had been painted, the sub-assemblies were fixed to the lower wing: NB the pilot's seat and frame are only placed on the model - they will be attached permanently later. All was now ready to attach the upper wing. I followed my usual procedure for making the process easy: select 4 wing struts and the two rear boom struts. Place drops of cement into the holes on the ends of the lower wing and place the struts into the holes. While the cement is still soft put small drops of cement into the relevant holes in the upper wing and gently place the lower wing and struts into the 4 holes in the inverted upper wing. I had paint pots handy to keep the wing edges square and supported while I put super glue on to one corner of the rear of the booms. I inserted one of the rear struts, followed by the second, and I had a square structure. I set this aside and allowed the cement to set: When the cement had set I had a rigid structure which can be handled so that the remaining struts can be fixed at leisure: The next step will be to add the interplane and boom struts and then the undercarriage. Thanks for looking. P

Evening All, The Gordon Bennett air races for land planes were established by the millionaire Gordon Bennett in 1909. The rules of the races were similar to the Schneider Trophy for floatplanes: 1.The races were open to all nationalities and would be held annually in the country of the previous year’s winner. 2.The first nation to win the race for three consecutive years would win the trophy outright and the races would cease. The first race was held in Paris in 1909 and was won by Glenn Curtis from the USA, the second in 1910 was won by C. Grahaeme-White for Britain. Consequently the third race in 1911 had to be held in Britain, where the flying ground of the Royal Aero Club and new factory site of Short Brothers at Eastchurch in Kent was chosen: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) The poster above is displayed in Eastchurch Aviation museum but has several errors: only one Wright baby biplane took part and the Bleriot types are wrong - two type XXIII took part, not type XI as shown. (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) The race attracted a large crowd, (some estimate up to 10,000 but a figure of 5-6,000 is probably more realistic), and was held on 1st July. Originally there were 12 entrants to the race, but 5 withdrew before the start: D. Graham Gilmore withdrew on the day because his Bristol monoplane had not been completed: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) The course was a circuit of 6 km and each aeroplane had to complete 20 laps. (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) Score boards were set up to allow the spectators to see how the race was progressing: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) The turning points on the polygonal course were indicated by four towers: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) The competitors and their aircraft were: 1. Alexander Ogilvy flying a Wright Baby biplane with a 50hp NEC 4 cylinder two stroke engine: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) Ogilvy had bought this aeroplane from the Wright brothers in 1910 and had competed in the previous year’s race at Belmont Park, New York. The Short brothers had installed the engine and partially rebuilt the centre of the aeroplane for the race, in one of many rebuilds and modifications of the machine. Olgivy had to stop to refuel during the race so his average speed was reduced to 51.2 mph (82.4 kph). He was placed fourth. 2. Charles Weymann was an American who was flying a Nieuport IV monoplane powered by a 100 hp Gnome Omega Omega rotary engine which was two rotary engines bolted together to a common drive shaft.In this photo he is sitting in the centre of the group: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) Weymann achieved an average speed of 78.1 mph (125.7 kph) and thus won the race: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) 5. Gustav Hamel (in white hat) was a German born naturalised Englishman who flew a Bleriot XXIII monoplane: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) The engine was also a Gnome Omega Omega 100hp rotary. The original wingspan was greater than on the day of the race in July: the span had been reduced by approximately 1/3 to approximately 17 feet (5m), after he found that he was approximately 5 seconds slower per lap than one of the competitors, the Nieuport II, against the advice of L. Bleriot himself. (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) This caused the editor of The Aeroplane to comment that the aircraft looked more like: “the latter half of a dogfish with a couple of visiting cards stuck on them than anything else”! Hamel crashed and did not complete the race: some sources say that it happened when turning around a pylon on the first lap, another stated that he crashed when flying low in front the crowd before the race. Fortunately he escaped almost unhurt although the aeroplane was wrecked: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) 6. Alfred Leblanc who flew the second Bleriot XXIII, also had the wingspan reduced. Like the Wright Baby these machines were built as racing aeroplanes: in May 1911 Leblanc had set a new world speed record in Paris and he had been a favourite to win in this race. However following the reduction in the wingspan of his aeroplane and the crash of Hamel he seems to have been more cautious and did not push the aircraft to its limits: he came second in the race with an average speed of 75.9 mph (122.1 kph). 11. Eduard Nieuport competed in an aeroplane of his own design: the Nieuport II with a 70 hp Gnome rotary engine: This engine was larger and of a different shape to engines fitted to earlier models of the Nieuport II so the nose had to redesigned with a cowling. Although the machine had been designed as a racer it was not fast enough to catch the 100hp powered aircraft, so he came third with an average speed of 74.9mph (120.6 kph). 12 Louis Chevalier also flew a Nieuport II but with a 28 hp flat twin cylinder engine of Nieuport design: Chevalier actually flew two aircraft in the race but neither finished because of engine failure. In May 1911 one of these aircraft had set a speed record of 74 mph (119 kph), so if he had been able to finish he would certainly have beaten Ogilvie and may have had a small chance of being third in place. The Gordon Bennet races stopped in 1920 after France won in three successive years (1912, 1913 and 1920). Short Brothers moved their factory to Rochester in 1917. Eastchurch airfield was requisitioned by the Royal Navy after the outbreak of the first world war in 1914 because it had been used as a training ground and base by the Naval Air Service from 1912. In 1920 the Admiralty bought the site from the Royal Aero Club and it remained in military use until 1947 when it closed. Today there is a small aviation museum on the site where the above display can be seen. The model aircraft, sheds, score board and pylon were scratch built, the figures were Langley Models Victorian/Edwardian standing figures and Dart Castings. There are build logs for the aircraft models. Individual build logs for the aircraft models can be found in the "Under construction" section of this site. Thanks for looking. P Edit 5. 4. 24: After I had handed the above display to the museum I realised that I had made serious errors with the models of the Bleriot XXIII's. I have explained the problems in the thread on these models in the work in progress section of this site and will not repeat them in full here, but these models were based on photographs and published data as there are no plans available. In short the wingspan was too narrow and I have corrected this - hence the discrepancy between some of the photos of the museum display. The photos of the individual models and those in the display showing the longer spans are correct. In addition I have added the guards on the leading edges of the wings which protected the pilots from oil and exhaust fumes: these were not clear on the photos that I had when I made the original pair of models. They only became clear when the museum showed me the photo of Hamel in front of his machine (above), after I had made the original pair of models.

First class in every department Dave. A different and interesting colour scheme. P

First class model on an equally stunning base. I abhor vacuforms and admire greatly anyone who can make one as well as this. Many congratulations. P

A superb piece of scratch building. My hat off to you sir! P

Another of those engines with wings and floats attached! Looks very good to me. P

What a superb model. I especially like the slightly irregular edges to the stripes - very realistic as they were put on in a hurry on the original aircraft. P

I had not seen this thread until now - sadly I do not get as much time to follow as I used to do - life etc. I have just spent a long time reading most of this and am even more lost for words than I had previously been when reading your threads. This is truly model engineering rather than modelling! Absolutely mind blowing - ingenious, daring, perfectionist, brilliant..... I have run out of superlatives because I am not very literate. Do keep up the good work and I must look in much more frequently in future. P

Evening All, Now that my modelling sanity has returned and I am back to building models of real aeroplanes, I have started on my next project, which, like the Gordon Bennett racers, was another pioneering type for a number of reasons, the most important of which was that it was the first aeroplane to take off from a ship in the UK, and only the second anywhere in the world. In addition the same feat was performed shortly afterwards when it took off from a moving ship: these events took place in 1912. The aircraft in question was the Short S 27 Improved: it was also known as the S 38. The original S 27 looked like this: (published with kind permission of Eastchurch Aviation Museum, copyright reserved) A replica of the S 38 is in the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton: (photo: Wikimedia Commons) It was a design based on the Farman MF 7 so it consists mainly of struts and wires with a spare wing, engine and elevators - in other words an ideal subject. I will use a Barracuda wicker seat for the pilot (although the pattern is not strictly correct), and a Small Stuff engine. I intend to show the aircraft on a wooden platform above the front turret of HMS Africa and HMS Hibernia - the two warships from which the aircraft took off in 1912. There are no kits of King Edward VII class battleship main gun turrets in 1/72 scale so I will scratch build one of those and the wooden platform and part of the wooden runway. There are many photographs of the platform and runway, the aircraft being loaded on to and sitting on the platform on HMS Hibernia, and of the aircraft after take off. This is one source among many: https://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/great_britain/battleships/hibernia/hms_hibernia.htm This is a photograph of the aircraft at the start of the take-off run on the platform: The flying surfaces are easy to make on these types: just some 30 thou plastic card cut and sanded to aerofoil section: The booms and fore-booms on these aircraft were square section, so I used brass bar for these parts. They were CA'd to the wings and held by my highly sophisticated and expensive method of jigging as I have described in other builds of pushers: When the CA had set I soldered the horizontal bars to the rear of the booms: I made the flotation bags from some 1/4 inch (6mm) dowel. I turned the dowel in an electric drill and sanded the ends with coarse grade glass-paper, and finished by hand with fine grade glass-paper. I do not have drawings or the exact dimensions of the floatation bags so these are a best guess: They will be treated with talcum powder and dope grain filler/sealant later. Thanks for looking. P

Evening All, The Wright Type R was also known as the “Roadster” and the “Baby Wright”. Two aeroplanes were built, one for the English flier Alex Olgivy. He flew it in the Gordon Bennett air race at Belmont Park New York in October 1910, where he managed to achieve 3rd place with an average speed of 55mph (88kph). The second machine was taken to the race by the Wright Fliers (the Wright exhibition team), powered by a V8 engine: it was called the “Baby Grand”. It had a second pair of wheels attached to the front of the skids. This machine was smaller than Olgivy’s and consequently both faster but less stable. Orville Wright managed to achieve 70mph, (130kph), on 25th October and it was in line to win the race. However on 29th October Walter Brookins was flying the machine when it suffered engine failure and crashed, causing much damage to the machine and keeping it out of the competition. Later the machine was rebuilt with longer span wings and Brookins flew it for exhibitions. A. Ogilvy had his machined shipped to England where he flew it frequently at Camber Sands in South Kent. In 1911 he took it to the Short Brothers factory at Eastchurch where they fitted an NEC 50 hp 4 cylinder two stroke engine: many variations of radiator arrangements were also made. Ogilvy also invented the first practical airspeed indicator which he seems to have tested on this machine and used in the Gordon Bennett air race of 1st July 1911 which was held at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppy, Kent. It can be seen in contemporary photographs mounted on the interplane struts next to the pilot’s seat. In the race Ogilvy knew that he could not win, but he participated nonetheless: he had to stop for 30 minutes during the race to refuel, thus increasing his time and reducing his average speed of 51mph (82kph). Ogilvy’s lack of success with his biplane in the competition against the smaller and faster monoplanes confirmed that the future of high speed flight would be with the latter. Thanks for looking. P

Evening All, Many thanks BB, Stuart and the rest for following along - much appreciated. I find that once I have the spare wing(s) on my models, the rest of the build frequently goes much more quickly and this one was not an exception. First parts to go on were the propellor shafts and their supporting struts, followed by the chain drives. These had to be inserted before the inner interplane struts because they would not have been accessible otherwise: (NB the tweezers are the pair that my father gave me 60 years ago - I use them all for the time!) The innermost interplane struts followed, and the the main undercarriage legs. The latter was made from 20 x 30 thou strip cut to size - it was not filed to aerofoil section as contemporary photos show that the sections were square. the skids were curved by running the plastic strip between the edge of a knife blade and my thumb. The axles were wire cut from a paperclip: The tail skids were also made from strip and CA'd to the rear. Rigging of the wings and boom followed, then the fins on the undercarriage and struts. The elevator was added and rigged almost at the end to save me knocking it off when handling the model. Finally the undercarriage was rigged and the wheels added. Final details included the propellors, what I think is an early form of pitot tube to the left of the pilot, and a gauge on the pilot's platform and cable from the engine from stretched sprue. More pictures will be posted in the RFI section shortly. Thanks for looking. P

Evening All, Tanks Adrian and Stuart. Yes the remainder will be a large amount of struts and rigging, plus osme other minor details like a seat for the pilot.... Stuart: carving propellors is no more difficult than scratch building an engine or the pilot's seat on this model - all are a bit fiddly but with patience can be achieved. I have been away from home recently, and in addition managed to make a set of booms which were too small so I had to make a second set! This time I decided that I would make the upper and lower sections from brass bar and join the cross pieces in the middle and rear, also from bar, before I epoxied them to the wings. In the past, (and on the first attempt), I just epoxied the booms on to the wings and then soldered the cross pieces on afterwards, at the risk of melting the plastic of the wings. Much easier to make the booms separately first: After priming these were epoxied to the wings. The engine and radiators were attached to the lower wing and pipes joined the engine to the radiators. I cannot see the exact arrangement of the pipes from the photos that I have - they are either in shadow or in one photo which was taken from the rear, someone was standing right in front of the engine blocking the view! What is clear however is that the radiators on the day of the race were not where they had been when other earlier photos had been taken: this aircraft seems to have been in a continuous state of change. With the engine and radiators in place it was time to put the top wing on. The outer wing struts were set on to the lower wing and while they were still moveable I put cement into holes in the upper wing and gently lowered it on to the struts. Now the tricky bit: I had to cut to length two struts to fit at the rear of the booms and CA them into place. The structure was supported by my standard mk. 1 jig of paint pots while the cement set overnight: As shown in the photos, the structure is quite stable and strong and can be easily handled without fear of collapse or damage. It was now quite a simple process to add the remaining boom struts and the inner bay struts: I have left off the innermost pair of struts as I need space to be able to add the drive chain covers and propellor shafts: Thanks for looking. P

Actually the three Nieuport models were very similar, so it made sense to make them almost at the same time. Ditto the Bleriots - but for them I lacked plans so I wanted to focus on them first. The Baby Wright was based on the Wright B for which I do have plans, but there are also many photographs which are making life easier, I do not anticipate that it will be any more difficult than the others as I have scratch built many pushers already. P

Evening All, AT LAST! I am now back into my comfort zone building a model of a real aeroplane ie a pusher! It has been around 20 months since I completed one, so it is high time that I started another and got back to normal. Pushers are basically wire entanglements with an engine and undercarriage attached, which makes them simultaneously simple to make the parts for, and interesting to look at. In terms of scratch building they have few complex components and are interesting to assemble. Only the rigging presents a challenge but even that can be overcome with a systematic approach. The 6th machine to compete in the Gordon Bennett air race in 1911 was a "Baby" Wright model R. Only two of these machines were built: the first, also called the "Roadster" was constructed in the USA in 1910 for racing. A. Ogilvy flew it in the Gordon Bennett air race held at Belmont Park in New York and then had it shipped to the UK where he flew it from his private landing ground at Camber in south Kent, and later in the GB race at Eastchurch in July 1911. A second smaller variant called the "Baby Grand" was also built by the Wright brothers for the Belmont race but it crashed and was wrecked at the end of October 1910. It was rebuilt with longer span wings and a 4 cylinder inline engine and flown for exhibition shows. Originally the "Baby" Wright was powered by an 8 cylinder engine, but after Ogilvy brought it to the UK he replaced the engine with a 50hp NEC 4 cylinder V two stroke engine. It was with this engine that he flew it in the 1911 Gordon Bennett race. Like most aeroplanes of this period changes were regularly made and this, combined with a lack of drawings, makes building a model a little tricky. However there are several photographs of both machines, but importantly there are sufficient photos of Olgivy's machine taken at Eastchurch to make it possible to build a reasonably accurate replica. Photographs of the Roadster and Baby Wright can be found at: https://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Airplanes/Model_R.htm and of Ogilvy's machine at Eastchurch at: https://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft28506.htm I started as usual by cutting out the wings and tail surfaces from 30 thou plastic card whcih had been curved by immersing the card in boiling water in a length of pipe: The propellors were a strange shape so I experimented by carving one from plastic strip, and then from a scrap of wood to ensure that my method worked. Finally I cut two lengths of wood to carve the propellors for the model: I made the tyres for the wheels by winding some 25 thou rod around the handle of a small paintbrush. The diameter of the handle was slightly smaller than the wheel disc so that the tyre will spring on to the disc. The rod was immersed in boiling water for about 10 seconds. When the plastic has cooled it can be removed from the handle and cut to the required length: I cannot find a clear photo of an NEC engine so I am using what information I can glean from photographs and modellers license. I have made an engine block and added the cylinders as a start: more details will follow: Thanks for looking. P

I am not sure what the answer to that question is! I think it may have to do with the light and camera angle, but that is only a guess. I can assure you that the cockpit opening remained unchanged and open when I took the photos. P Thank you gentlemen for the kind comments - they are apprecaited. P

Yes, all of my builds are scratch builds. This pair is part of a group that I am building which will represent all of the machines which took part in the race. I have one left to build - a Wright Baby Grand, and a build log will feature in the work in progress section shortly. P