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Scratchbuilt 1/72 Fournier RF-5


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Good evening, sirs.

A friend of mine here on BM asked me to post some of my models.

Here is a scratchbuilt 1/72 Fournier RF-5. The original belongs to a friend and my son had his first flight ever on this plane.

Thanks for watching.

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What a lovely build of a lovely aircraft.

I have always had a soft spot for the Fournier, I remember watching the Fournier Duo perform at Yeovilton in the mid eighties to Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond. They made a deep impression on me. Flying has now been part of my life for twenty eight years!

Regards

Darren

Edited by Blogs On
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What a lovely build of a lovely aircraft.

I have always had a soft spot for the Fournier, I remember watching the Fournier Duo perform at Yeovilton in the mid eighties to Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond. They made a deep impression on me. Flying has been part of my life for twenty eight years!

Regards

Darren

I was just about to offer the same memories. Superb display team and one of the most original acts to grace the UK circuit.

Great model btw.

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What a lovely build of a lovely aircraft.

I have always had a soft spot for the Fournier, I remember watching the Fournier Duo perform at Yeovilton in the mid eighties to Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond. They made a deep impression on me. Flying has been part of my life for twenty eight years!

Regards

Darren

Double like. Made such an impression on me that I had to learn how to play it on the guitar. Can you let us in on how you built it?

Edited by andy wood
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Thanks, sirs, for your appreciation.
In answer to andy wood a little construction report.
Fuselage.
I made a wooden master of the inside dimensions and cut in 3 parts.
The front one was used for thermoforming the engine cowling, the rear one to be covered in plastic sheets. The central (cockpit) one deleted.
The assembly followed gluing together the parts with bulkheads inside.

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Wings.
They are made of 2 thin sheets of plasticard glued to a tapered spar.
The leading edge is a rectangular profile shaped.
All control surfaces are done the same way.
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Canopy.
Thermoformed like usual. The inside black frames are made of insulating tape and the outside ones of painted decal stripes.

Cockpit. Not much to say: some thin sheet of aluminum for the IP, stretched sprue and all what you normally use to dress it up.

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Main landing gear.
The tyre is a rubber "OR ring" and the strut a mix of aluminum and plastic stripes.
The markings are homemade laser decals.
@giemme "Cremona terra di grandi modellisti, si direbbe" translation: Cremona, land of great modelers.

I do agree; unfortunately I'm not among them.

Regards

Eugenio

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@giemme "Cremona terra di grandi modellisti, si direbbe" translation: Cremona, land of great modelers.

I do agree; unfortunately I'm not among them.

What you mean, you're not from Cremona? :winkgrin::D

Thanks for the WIP photos, great scratch work! :clap:

Ciao

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Eugenio,

Thank you. That is truly superb !

I own a Fournier RF5B, which I share with my partner. She has for quite some time been enquiring about a model of the RF5. Your pictures here may inspire us to try to model our machine. They are lovely aircraft, true sky dancers, though mine is not aerobatic.

Moulding the larger bubble canopy for the 5B will be a real challenge of course, maybe the hardest challenge; it's many years I last tried any plunge forming, which I think may be the same as your thermoforming(?). For this maybe I'd need to build or buy a vacforming machine.

Do you know any of the Italian Fournier Club International folk? We met them a couple of years back on a Europe tour they did. Lovely people - one day we shall fly our machine to Italy I hope.

Regards,

John B

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Eugenio,

I own a Fournier RF5B, which I share with my partner. She has for quite some time been enquiring about a model of the RF5. Your pictures here may inspire us to try to model our machine. They are lovely aircraft, true sky dancers, though mine is not aerobatic.

Moulding the larger bubble canopy for the 5B will be a real challenge of course, maybe the hardest challenge; it's many years I last tried any plunge forming, which I think may be the same as your thermoforming(?). For this maybe I'd need to build or buy a vacforming machine.

Do you know any of the Italian Fournier Club International folk? We met them a couple of years back on a Europe tour they did. Lovely people - one day we shall fly our machine to Italy I hope.

Regards,

John B

Hi John,
Thank you for your appreciation.
Yes, plunge forming was my way to make the canopy. I heated a PVC sheet on a candle, since the small size. I've been doing this way for more than 40 years, and never used vacuum. It shouldn't be difficult to do the same for the 5B canopy.
As regards the Fournier Club, I can send you the email address of the owner of the D-KIND. He is a former Alitalia pilot , great modeler, born in Cremona, now living in Rome.
Regards
Eugenio
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