Search the Community
Showing results for tags '1/72 Scratch build'.
-
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
-
Evening All, Those familiar with the designation of German aircraft types of 1914-1918 will know that a C type machine was an armed two-seater. Albatros built a series of these starting in 1915 with the CI which was essentially an armed version of their successful BII type of 1914. However the next type to see extensive service was the CIII and ia had long wondered why there was no Cii. A few years ago I found out why: only one CII was built and that was a pusher: all of the other C types were tractor biplanes. Cue for me - need to build one. There is little information published on the type but recently P Herris has published Albatros Aircraft of WWI. Volume 1: Early Two-Seaters /Centennial Perspective/ (1) which has 5 photographs taken at various times outside the Albatros sheds near Berlin. These can be seen at https://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft25754.htm I cannot find any drawings of the type but close examination of the photographs show that CI wings and undercarriage were used and the front end of the fuselage was reversed so that the engine became a pusher unit and the cockpits of the pilot and observer were in the correct positions. The new front end of the fuselage was rounded off and the tail unit and booms were designed from scratch. I have the dimensions of the type and the DataFile of the Albatros CI so I can construct my own drawings. So something a little different. I will be building this alongside a current project: a scratch build 1/32 scale B.E. 2a. I do not normally build two models at the same time but progress on the BE has been very slow for a number of reasons, but I hope that the new project will perhaps give a little impetus to the old one. Just a quick preview of my kit: P
-
I generally make small models because I only live in a small house and do not have the space to display large ones. Stevehed introduced me to the DFW R1 in his scratch build a couple of years ago, and last year I discovered the Siemens-Schuchert Werke Rs I while looking through photos on the net. I discovered the subject of this build at the same time and knew immediately that I wanted to give one a try. Fortunately the internet has made access to information on these early types much easier than it used to be: in addition there is a Windsock DataFile (no 136) which also contains information and drawings, although the drawings for the machine that I wish to model are at 1/144 scale so I have had to enlarge them to the correct scale ie 1/72. My intention with this build, as it is with all of my builds, is to demonstrate what can be done by an average modeller with simple tools and a minimum of expensive equipment, and limited skill but some patience! I hope to shape and scrape my way to something that will resemble this: http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/SavinCristian/8377L.jpg My apologies for not providing a photo but I am not sure about copyright restrictions and I do not wish to bring problems to the site by using pictures without prior permission. Incidentally the figure in the bottom right of this photo in the Homburg hat is C. Dornier. I write "resemble the above" because the picture shows the Rs II in its final form with the engines in cowlings and a simple tail unit. I intend to model the machine with the engines in cowlings but with an earlier version of the tail which looked something like this: http://flyingmachines.ru/Images7/Putnam/German_Giants/62-1.jpg This shows the first version of the machine with three engines buried in the hull driving the propellors by shafts: this method was found to be unsatisfactory so the hull was redesigned and four engines mounted above the hull as shown in the first photo above. Both photos show the machine on a turntable at the old Zeppelin shed at Seemoos, Lindau on Lake Constance. The second photo was taken in May 1916, the first photo in November 1916, so the changes were made very quickly. I intend to make a small diorama based on the turntable and slipway in front of the shed at Seemoos as shown in the photos so that I can display what will be for me an outsized model. However I am sure that I will not have time to complete the diorama: I will focus on the aircraft for this GB and provide a build log for the base in the appropriate section of this site later. Claudius Dornier started the design of his first large flying boat in August 1914 because the Imperial German Navy wanted to know what the British Grand Fleet was doing: in particular the Germans wanted to keep an eye on Scapa Flow which was the Grand Fleet's principal base. His Rs I design was a huge biplane with a wingspan of 43.5m: it was constructed from steel alloy using airship construction practices. (Dornier was working for Zeppelin at this time). This machine was one of the first all-metal aircraft to be built and flown, when most aircraft were made from wood and linen, and held together with lots of wire, but it was wrecked in a storm on Lake Constance on 21 December 1915. Dornier's second design was very different from the first and incorporated features which were to characterise subsequent flying boats from this team. They included a very broad hull and a low aspect ratio main plane which was mounted parasol fashion high above the hull. Although the first version had engines in the hull these were quickly moved to above the hull, and drove push and pull propellors. Small stub wings were added to the rear of the hull: on later designs these became full sponsons. The tail unit was mounted on booms which were left uncovered to avoid damage from spray when taxiing. The early booms were made from lattice girders but these were quickly replaced by stronger large diameter steel tube and the central fin was replaced by a pair of fins and rudders. The elevator was of biplane form. In the final version the tail boom, rudders and elevator were simplified even more and it only remained for the design team to change the boom to a single fuselage mounted above the wing for the basic shape of the classic Dornier flying boats of the inter-war and wartime periods to emerge. Here is my kit for the build: it is not quite complete as I am sure that I will require additional items as I go along: This includes basswood for the hull, plastic sheet of various thicknesses, assorted strip, wood for the propellors, brass rod for the booms and copper wire for the rigging. I will write the instructions as I go along as usual. Additional materials will be required for the base but that need not distract us here. This will be a large project so I have made a very small start already in the form of laminating pieces of wood for the hull, and plastic for the wings and engine nacelles so that I can start marking out and the scraping and shaping some of the larger parts. These will be the engine nacelles: they are three pieces of 60 thou card and one of 20 thou which have been laminated. [ The hull is going to be made from 2 pieces of 1.3cm x 16.6cm x 6.3cm basswood with a sheet 0.7cm thick between. The wings will be made in two sections from from three sheets of 60 thou card, laminated, shaped and then butt joined, reinforced with metal pins. The wing and hull blocks now look like this: ......which means that I can now spend many happy hours scraping and shaping.........but I can assure all of you that I will be nowhere near completing 20% of the model, or even anything approaching that by the start date in a few days time because I will not have the time to get very much done before then. Thanks for looking. P