Dan Hayward

I buy .005". nitinol wire from Amazon.com here in the states. It is cheapest when bought in 72" lengths which ships in a long, heavy cardboard tube so that may not be very cost-effective for you. Ian's method using drilled holes and fishing line or invisible thread also works well. I used to do it that way but found I liked nitinol wire better and there are no holes to drill. -Dan

This is a really nice kit which goes together very easily for such a spindly biplane. I borrowed some techniques that I've seen on the forums to replicate the translucent nature of the clear-doped wings and I'm happy with how that turned out. Markings are for a 16 Squadron machine which carried the legend "St. Catherines Ontario" on the forward fuselage. I made decals for that and the tail code on my laser printer, the roundels are from the kit. I rigged the control runs with EZ-Line and the rest of the rigging was done with Nitinol wire. I kept track of how much went into it this time and was amazed to find that I fully used 55" of wire! Hope you like the old bus! -Dan

Thank you all for the nice comments! -Dan

I finished it! More pics in the Ready for Inspection forum. -Dan

I was looking for Breguet XIX kits on ebay last year and got a good deal on a couple of Formaplane vacs, one of which was molded with a cockpit enclosure, wings and other details that meant it could only be built as "Cuatro Vientos", the plane that made the first flight from Spain to Cuba in 1933. The plane disappeared without a trace on the second leg of its journey, enroute to Mexico City. I think Formaplane's kit had its origins as the Hispano Aviokit vac, photos of the parts look the same to me. No decals were provided but Arctic Decals now has a set available, which I used. A few pics of the model which I just finished this morning: No clear parts were provided so I cut away the cockpit enclosure and used it to vac a replacement... I scratchbuilt the interior... The stringer detail on the rear fuselage was pretty bad so I sanded it off and replaced it with skins of .005" plastic that was scored on the inside with a pen... After lots of masking and painting, it's done! Thanks for looking. -Dan

Thanks Tony. I wasn't sure how well that stringer solution was going to work, I'd only tried something similar once before and that was on a much smaller scale. I can't wait to pull the masks off the cockpit enclosure and see how much of the interior is visible! -Dan

Thank you all! -Dan

Definitely a replica, the original was lost somewhere over Mexico. I hope it is somewhat accurate though, I'm basing a lot of the details of my model on photos of it. -Dan

Hello fellow Breguet XIX fans! I apologize for jumping back in here after being away from the thread for so long but I've been busy working on Formaplane's Super Bidon version, "Cuatro Vientos". A few photos to show what I've been up to: After cutting out and cleaning up all the Vac-formed parts, I sanded off the crude stringer detail on the fuselage and made new skins from plastic sheet that was embossed on the inside surface with a ball-point pen to replicate the stringers. The skins were added to the fuselage sides after the fuselage had been glued together and the main seams filled and sanded. I carefully cut away the kit's cockpit enclosure and glued it together to make a form to use in vacuforming a clear replacement for the entire area. I built a cockpit based on my best guess for what it might have looked like. Here are the fuselage skins in place, the photo also shows some of the work done with Milliput to form the wing fillets. White metal landing gear legs and some of the detail added under the nose. It gradually starts to look like an airplane! She looks good in a coat of primer. Even better in white! Lots of masking and careful painting. Paint is done. Decals are now on too, still a long way to go though. -Dan

Count me in! I find both types very interesting and as shown above I've built one version of the Potez so far. As for the Breguet, I've got a very interesting project involving one that I hope to get to this winter. It will utilize a Formaplane vac kit which I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned here yet. I was on an ebay buying spree last year and snapped up two different versions of the Breguet XIX in separate auctions. The first was kit no. E7 which is labeled as "Breguet XIX Military" Obviously not as sharp as some vac kits I've seen but I think it can be built with some care. The second kit is no. E6 which is labeled as a Breguet XIX Super Bidon but closer inspection of the plastic reveals this to be molded as "Cuatro Vientos", the specially built Super Bidon that was flown from Spain to Cuba in 1933 and which subsequently disappeared without a trace en route to Mexico City. Note the cockpit enclosure. The big problem with this kit, at least the one I got, was the lack of decals for the distinctive Cuatro Vientos markings. Most could have been painted on, but the lettering on the fuselage isn't something that could be pieced together from any existing decals. I thought I'd ask around on the Internet to see if any aftermarket decals were ever produced and hit gold at the Wings of Peace Yahoo group. Turns out no decals currently existed but Mika Jernfors of Arctic Decals offered to produce a set and within weeks I had them in my hands. Best of all, they are available to anyone who needs them at his website- http://www.arcticdecals.com/products.html?id=21443/270423 They are beautifully done and this is the project I hope to start on this winter! -Dan

Thanks to all for the positive comments! -Dan

Thanks Convair, the wings are all single thickness. -Dan I'm just the opposite- I like scratchbuilding interiors but hate painting! -Dan

We recently held a memorial group build on another forum in honor of Gordon Stevens, the pioneer of vacuforms responsible for the Rare Plane line of kits. He also mastered the Warbirds line which consisted of the Snipe, Thomas Morse Scout, Junkers D.1 and a Pfalz. I've been wanting to build a 20s-era Snipe for a while so the GB was the perfect opportunity to get it done. I used quite a bit from the PART pe set intended for the Toko kit to detail the cockpit, some of it is still visible! Decals are from one of the Model Alliance "Wings of Silver" sheets and depict a machine from 19 Squadron, circa 1924. Thanks for looking! -Dan

Here's the Libramodels vac kit of the DH 5 that I just finished. I added the rounded fuselage sides just aft of the cowl from scored plastic sheet, and the cowl reinforcing ribs to represent a production machine. The interplane struts are made from bamboo from a chopstick. It's a lot of work to cut and sand it down to size but it's worth it because it is 100x stiffer than plastic of the same thickness. These struts are the same thickness as an X-acto blade and have no flex at all. I "stained" these with a mix of Vallejo sepia wash, Future and water to get a color I liked. I made an attempt at showing the ribs and structure under the translucent clear doped linen undersides. The lighter color was sprayed overall, then the ribs were masked and Tamiya Smoke was sprayed lightly. It adds a lot of interest I think. I used my usual Nitinol wire for the main rigging but tried some Uschi rigging thread for the first time for the rudder and elevator cables, it worked really well for that. -Dan

Quite a few vac kits in the mix, I really enjoy those. Revell F-101B Airfix Tiger Moth Roseplane Spad A.2 Airfix Defiant Joystick Albatros C.1 Joystick Halberstadt CL. IV 12 Squared Loening Racer Italeri OH-58D Hobby Boss EZ Build F4F-3 (with Quickboost F4F-3 wings) Joystick Avro Bison Broplan Potez XXV Airfix A4B Skyhawk Heller Nieuport-Delage 622 Esoteric Nieuport 29 Thanks for looking! -Dan