pheonix

Rigging looks very good. The undercarriage could still be a problem as it has to splay outwards slightly when viewed from the front, and the main struts are angled slightly forward, but if you have a secure location on the nacelle it should work out. Time and patience are winners in these situations in my experience. Good luck with the last parts. P

Excellent work so far: with reference to the rudder, try drilling the top and bottom and add two short pins to the holes. The pins can then be set between the rear of the booms and will provide a quick and secure mounting. I frequently us that method when I build pushers with the boom arrangement of the FB 5. P

Peter, A long time ago I scratch built one of these in 1/72 scale, and some time later another in 1/32 scale. I have also scratch built a few other pushers in the meantime and find that if the outer struts are in place and secure, and the rudder is in place between the rear of the booms, it should be possible to handle the assembly to put in the inner wing struts and boom struts without tears. I can provide links to some of my builds if you wish, or alternatively look through the scratch builds section of ww1aircrafftmodels.com and you will find build logs there under Lone Modeller. Best of luck with the continuation of the project - it looks first class too me. P

As usual Frank both your model and photography are brilliant. Like Viking I thought that the first photo was of a real Camel so that we could compare it with your model! P

Evening All, The second subject for the Gordon Bennett racers of 1911 is the Bleriot XXIII. This is causing me a few problems because only two of the type were constructed, (they were built as racing aeroplanes), and apart from a handful of photographs, I have little information about them. There are no drawings that I am aware of. I have a dimension for the wingspan, (17 feet), which is incredibly narrow, and a wing area, so I think that I can calculate the chord. Sources state that the wings of the original design were longer but were reduced by approximately 1 metre before the Eastchurch race. I also know the length of the aircraft and that they were powered by 100 hp Gnome Double Omega engines. Photographs show that the original wingtips were rounded, but for the race they were square. The fuselage seems to have been developed from the earlier two seat XXI, although the latter had a much shallower fuselage, especially at the rear. Both types had a large horizontal tail surface and a rudder but no fin, although the shape of the rudders was different. I am therefore making my own drawings and writing the assembly instructions at the same time.... I make no claims to accuracy of these models - they will be the best that I can do given the source material available. However I am pretty certain that there is nobody who can challenge the overall shape even if some details are not 100% accurate. I am making two models to represent the two aircraft but as with the Nieuport IV I am only illustrating the build of one model: I will show photographs of both when they are complete. I have started as usual by cutting the wing blanks from 30 thou card bent in hot water in a pipe with 10 x 20 thou Evergreen strip for ribs. The strip was sanded almost flat and the Mr Surfacer added to smooth the edges. I have made the rudders in the same way from flat card. The fuselage sides, top and bottom were cut from 30 thou card and pieces of scrap plastic added to keep the joints square. I added some 10 x 20 thou strip to represent the frame in the cockpit area, I have cut a floor and painted it wood, and made a control yoke from 20 thou and 80 thou rod. The engines were made from thick sprue for the crankcase with 30 thou rod for the cylinders. I have painted this assembly but not added the push rods yet: The seats were made from scrap card for the base and 10 thou card with holes drilled for the back. I am carving the propellors from hardwood using plans from the DataFile no 108 of the Bleriot XI at War. I cut the wood into strips of suitable length, marked on the shape of the propellor and filed the shape that I wanted. I will add bosses later from thin card: I shall use the DataFile plans to make the undercarriage and to help with the shape of the fuselage as the XXIII was clearly derived from this earlier design. Thanks for looking: more to follow when I have made more progress. P

Evening All, Recently I completed a scratch build of the Nieuport IV flown by C. Weymann in the 1911 Gordon Bennett air race at Eastchurch Kent. When I started the build I thought that two Nieuprt IV's had participated in the race when in fact only one did so. I was therefore left with a half built model and rather than throw it away I decided to complete it. Research led me to a machine operated by the 2nd Company of the Air Battallion of the Royal Engineers in 1911. It carried the serial B4 and later became 253 when the Air Battallion became 3 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps on 13 April 1912. It was one of the first aircraft to be bought by the British government for military use. The key difference between Weymann's aircraft and the aircraft flown by the RFC and air units of other countries was the engine: Weymann had had a 100 hp Gnome Omega Omega fitted to his machine, whereas other aircraft were fitted initially with 50hp Gnome Omega engines, although these were later replaced with more powerful rotaries of between 70 and 100 hp. The type first flew in 1911 and was designed primarily as a racing machine, but it was bought in small numbers by Spain, Turkey, Sweden, Japan and Argentina. France had a squadron of Nieuport IV M's and operated some of them in the early months of WW1 until attrition reduced their numbers to zero. Italy bought "several" and Russia undertook serious production - between 280 and 300 machines were built and delivered to the Imperial Russian Air Service where they saw service on the Eastern Front in World War 1. On 14 February 1912 B4 was flown by Lt.B.H.Barrington-Kennett for a record setting 4 hours and 51 minutes covering 249 miles and 840 yards winning the £500 Mortimer Singer prize – at that time a world endurance record in a closed circuit. It is not known exactly when B4/253 was stuck off charge, but it was not with 3 Squadron in 1914. Early aircraft had relatively short service lives because of wear and tear by pilots, rough landing grounds and the limited engine life of these machines. Lt Poytor Nesterov was the first pilot to loop in an aeroplane on 27 August 1913 over Kiev for which action he was promptly placed under arrest for "undue risk to government property". When Adolphe Pegoud repeated the performance a few days later in France Nesterov was released, awarded a medal and promoted! Thanks for looking. P

Yes it is 1/72. I have amended the title to show the scale. P

Thank you all for the kind comments - much appreciated. Andy: it would seem that there is a connection - see https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/gordon-bennett.html P

Evening All, The Gordon Bennett Air Trophy was started in 1909 and was an international racing competition for land planes. The first country to win the race in three successive years would be the outright winner and keep the trophy. It had similar rules to the Schneider Trophy for float planes: the competition was to be held annually in the country of the previous winner. The country which won the competition for three successive years would become the outright winner and keep the trophy. The race consisted of competitors flying over a set distance and the times measured and compared to find the winner. The 1910 competition was won by C. Graham-White so the 1911 competition was held in Britain. The site chosen was Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent as this was the home of the Royal Aero Club and the site of the Short Brothers aircraft factory. A light railway ran nearby so aircraft could be transported by rail and if necessary serviced and repaired easily on site. There were 6 entrants to the 1911 race from France, Britain and the USA.The US competitor and winner was C. Weyman who flew a Nieuport IV with a 100 hp Gnome Omega Omega two row rotary engine, with a speed of 78.1 mph (125.69 kph). The Nieuport IV was designed as an air racer but was bought for military use by several countries before the outbreak of WW1 and was used by France and Russia in the early months of that conflict. There is a kit of the Nieuport IV by Amodel but I chose to scratch build mine using plastic sheet, rod and strip with wood for the propellor. The tail number was drawn and printed by me and is based on a photograph taken at Eastchurch during the competition. Thanks for looking. P

An interesting WIF - even more so as it is scratch built. P

Another super model from your bench Dave. The rigging and painting are forst class. Looking forward to seeing this for real shortly. P

Evening All, Making two models at the same time does slow things down a bit, especially when something does not work properly. I had to replace one of the pairs of wings after I had fixed them to the fuselage as they were so distorted that they looked horrible. So while I continued with one model I made a second set of wings for the other one. I have now finished one model and the second is a little further behind but should not take too long to get finished. I will post the build of the first model only here - photos of both will follow when I can photograph them in daylight. The wings were glued to the fuselage - it is a butt joint but I have found that if the surfaces are smooth and clean a good strong joint can be achieved. I had to support the wing tips with one of my highly technical jigs while the cement was drying to ensure the correct anhedral was achieved: Painting duly followed: the CDL was a mix of white with a small touch of Revell Okre (88) acrylics. I dilute the paint mix with water and apply as many coats as necessary to hide the filler and any other contrasts in the underlying surfaces - between 10 and 15 coats usually does it. The aluminium nose had an undercoat of gloss black followed by 2 or 3 thinned coats of Revell aluminium. Note that before I painted the nose I inseted the engine and small nose bracket that held the engine and propellor shaft steady: The undercarriage consisted of two pairs of V struts, one at the front and one at the rear, with an inverted A strut in the middle. These were attached to a central bar which had paddle-like ends and a leaf spring axle in the centre. I decided to make the support struts from plastic strip and the central bar and axle from brass rod. The axle and bar were soldered together. The wheels were spoked without covers and were very small. I made the centres from 30 thou clear acetate sheet and scribed on the spokes. The tyres which were also narrow I made from rod wrapped around a thin paint brush handle immersed in near boiling water for about 10 seconds: The struts were fixed to the underside of the fuselage and alignment checked by holding the central bar against them before the cement set. The struts were allowed to dry out thoroughly. The central strut which ran from the front fuselage to the rear of the undercarriage bar was a piece of plastic rod. All the undercarriage parts were painted as were the tyres: The wheels were CA'd to the axle before the central bar was CA'd to the undercarriage legs. It is noteworthy that the wheels splayed outward at the bottom when the aircraft was on the ground so allowance had to be made for this. The pylon on the upper fuselage was made from rod. The number on the rudder of Weyman's machine was drawn by me based on a photograph taken at the meeting at Eastchurch. I made up two transfers and sized them before printing on my computer. After printing I varnished the transfers to seal the ink: The model was rigged with rolled copper wire and the propellor fitted last. Photos of the model of Weyman's machine will appear as soon as I can take some photos. The other model will be photographed and posted in a few days. Thanks for looking. P

Stuart I am making 2 Nieuport IV's simultaneously. I originally thought that two of these machines took part in the race but in fact it was two Nieuport II's that took part. Having started the second N IV I decided to keep going and I will finish it as a machine in Russian service. The Russian machine had the 70 hp Gnome Omega engine which is shown in the photo above. I will not usually illustrate both models in the build log as they are almost identical, but I will put both in the RFI at the end. P

Evening All Thanks Stuart for the kind comment. This should be a relatively simple and quick build, but I am making two models in tandem and as ever they are not quite the same and I have had the usual set-backs that any scratch build encounters from time to time. In this case it was moulding the curved upper section of the forward fuselage. I thought that the shape tapered from front to rear and made male and female moulds accordingly. However when I came to fit the first of the new parts to the fuselage I realised my error and had to carve new male and modify the female. Second time the shape was nearly right - the front of the cowling has parallel sides. The new parts were close enough to put on the model. On the left is the male mould carved from basswood (lime), in the centre a moulded part and on the right the part cut from the plastic sheet and prepared ready to put into place. I am making two variants of the Nieuport IV: one took part in the Gordon Bennett air race and had a rounded cockpit opening. The second was used by military services and had a different shaped cockpit opening. A firewall was added to the fronts of the fuselages from 30 thou card and a hole drilled to take the engine pin later. The Gordon Bennett aircraft was powered by a Gnome Omega Omega 14 cylinder 100hp rotary engine, the military aircraft had a 70 hp Gnome 7 cylinder rotary. Until I started this project I had not known of the 14 cylinder rotary: this was essentially two 7 cylinder engines with the crank cases bolted together with a common crank shaft. The torque of that engine must have been enormous! Both engines were constructed in the same way: I used a piece of round sprue of the right diameter and cut pieces to represent the crank case. The cylinders were pieces of 40 thou rod glued into place over a drawing of a 7 cylinder engine. In the case of the Omega Omega engine I put 7 cylinders in a row first, then turned the piece over and added the second row of cylinders so that they filled the gaps behind the first row. After this photo was taken I added the push rods to the fronts of the cylinders from stretched sprue. I also added the cowlings to the fore parts of the upper fuselages and cleaned up the gaps with filler: The above shows the racing aeropane and the double Omega engine - I have still to trim the push rods. I put a small piece of rod next to the cowling to represent the petrol filler cap and then added the horizontal tail unit. Holes need to be drilled for the undercarriage legs and tail struts and then I can cement the wings into place, Thanks for looking. P

This is an interesting project and the models you are producing really are top notch. I am in the midst of a similar project for the Gordon Bennett trophy of 1911 except that my models are in the Correct Scale and will be scratch built. P.

Like Bandsaw Steve I have just found this thread and have had a most interesting read. I thought that scratch building in God's Own Scale was challenging enough - what you do sis simply modelling genius. My hat is off to you sir - repeatedly! P

Just found this: at last someone is building a real aeroplane (ie a pusher with a spare wing), and best of all, an early one! I converted one of these using the Airfix DH 4 as a donor kit, and built the FB 9 Streamline Gunbus at the same time. They can be found on https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=1886.0 The articles referred to are in Modelling Madness under FB5 and FB9. I will be following with interest and hope to offer more encouragement on the way. P

Super Spad Dave. I do like your turnbuckles which are of an appropriate size and the trigging in general looks good. The finish is like all of your models - first class with just enough oil spill on the underside to make it look convincing. Looking forward to seeing this for real. P

Glad to be of help. If you need any further assistance pm me and I will try to help as much as I can. P

Thanks for the link Ian, that is really helpful and informative. I will not be putting in the interior details as they cannot be seen, and I notice that the cockpit opening will be slightly different to yours as mine will be the racer variant. Other details will be very similar except that I will scratch build the engine so it will also not be quite so detailed as yours. P

Thanks all for the interest in the project. My method is simple: 1. Cut out the wing blanks from plastic card. I use 30 thou as it is robust enough but not too thick. I file the leading and trailing edges to achieve a slightly rounded effect on the leading edge and knife edge on the trailing edge. 2.Mark out the positions of the ribs with a pencil - try to copy straight from the plans. 3. I use 10 x 20 thou strip in 1/72 scale. I apply liquid cement to the surface of the wing and lay on the strip. Make the strip slightly longer than you need - it can be trimmed later. Run some more liquid cement over all of the strips when they are in place - this reduces the chances that some parts are not be firmly attached and start to lift later. 4. Allow the wing to dry overnight. Sand the strips with fine grade glass paper until they are almost flat. Apply Mr Surfacer 1000 over the surfaces of the ribs and allow to dry properly. This smoothes the edges of the strips. Sand the surfacer until you are left with very slight undulations. 5. Prime to make sure you are satisfied with the results. Sand or fill areas where you are not happy. There is some argument about how prominent ribs should be at this scale. Some modellers argue that they can be ignored as on real aircraft they are not very prominent. However IMHO it is worth having a slight variation in height on the wing as it adds interest to what are otherwise flat surfaces: I know that others think otherwise. Each modeller must decide for themselves what they think is best suited to their interpretation of reality in the scale in which they are working. P

For the uninitiated: God's Own Scale is 1/72. All others are either Braille or too large! P

Evening All, In 1911 the third Gordon Bennett air race was held at the Royal Aeronautical Society flying field at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. This was the same place that in 1910 Moore-Brabazon had flown the first mile in Britain in an all British machine - the Short No 2 biplane, which was the subject of an earlier build. There were 6 competitors in the air race, 3 French, 2 British and one American. Four aircraft types were flown, the Nieuport ii, Nieuport iv, Bleriot XXIII and a Wright Type R. Eastchurch is an important site in the history of aviation for a number of reasons which I have described in the build of the Short No 2 biplane, and I am continuing with an Eastchurch theme by building models of the 6 aircraft which took part in the 1911 air race. All of them will be scratch builds in God's Own Scale: I have found drawings of the Nieuport types but am still searching for drawings of the Bleriot. The Wright Type R was a Type B which had a reduced wing span and other modifications: I am having to rely on photographs for the details of this particular type. The Neuport iv was flown by C. Weymann who was the winner of the competition. I have drawings and a photo of Weymann standing by his machine taken while he was at Eastchurch, so this seemed to be a good subject to start with. I cut out the wing blanks, the horizontal tail surfaces and rudder. 10 x 20 thou Evergreen strip was glued to these surfaces to represent the ribbing: (NB the Nieuport IV was a monoplane - I am making tow models of this type at the same time). I applied Mr Surfacer 1000 to the ribs and sanded these down to get a series of very slight ridges to represent the ribs: The fuselage sides, top and bottom were cut from 30 thou card and scrap plastic cemented to the edges to help keep the joints square and provide a surface for adhesion: I made a floor, seat, and control wheel and added some ribs to the fuselage sides from thin plastic strip. The interior was painted in clear doped linen for the cockpit sides with wood for the ribs. Very little of the interior will be visible on the completed model and as I have no photographs of the interior either, I have kept things simple. The fuselage sides and bottom were glued together but the top has been laid on for the moment because I still have to cut out the opening at the front: I now need to make a mould for the cowling and upper front fuselage plate, so that I can make the cockpit cutout the correct size. The engine and propellor will follow. Thanks for looking. P

Keep at it Richie. The translucent effect on the fuselage is really eye-catching and as for the wood under the fuselage - no it does not matter. The engine does though! P

Thank you Richie and Toby for the kind comments: much appreciated. I made the wings in this way to balance the weight on the undercarriage. The part-stripped Gunbus which I made a couple of years ago is lop-sided because all of the weight is on one side. However I agree with you about the aesthetics too. P.