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White Knight - Short Crusader


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  • 10 months later...

For those whose memory of & interest in this build has not completely diminished ..

 

I can report opportunity has allowed for it to be brought interstate with me & onto my current workbench.  I’m looking forward to moving this along in parallel with my Curtiss CR-3:

 

Crusader & CR-3

 

Taped to those jigs they’re looking like two sorry patients in traction in hospital ..

 

I hope to have a further update of substance soon !

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Oh yes, I remember it well...............

Have to say that even in it's convalescent state it's looking great and much more convincing than the original kit.

Beautiful work!

 

Dave

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A very interesting build, love it.

I was planning on getting the 1/72 offering of the Short by Karaya and is described as a Schneider plane. After reading your into at the start of this build implies wrong engine, ergo cylinders covers? Just wondering if your work needs to be repeated in 1/72...scary. 

 

Stuart

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/9/2018 at 4:26 AM, Courageous said:

Just wondering if your work needs to be repeated in 1/72...scary.

 

Hi Stuart, yes this is the Karaya kit at 1/48 - I can’t offer an opinion on the 1/72 offering as I haven’t seen that other than the adds online.

 

As to ‘need’ to repeat this work .. need in this hobby is very much in the eye of the modeller.  See what you think, but I can only imagine it would even more challenging down at that scale!

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.. sand, sand, sand ..

 

& snap!!!

 

ah, sgn&$%^, I had just finished a serious session of blending in the lower surface, wings to wing roots, & was ready to congratulate myself .. when the bond broke down the fuselage centreline!

 

Luckily I hadn’t got around to stripping the layered dihedral jig off my slab of stone.  So back on it went, a generous bead of CA down the joint & a scrap strip for reinforcement. Ugly, but out of sight.  Putty slathered on to blend the upper wing to wing roots next..

 

BM_Crusader_wing repairs

 

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What a klutz I am!

 

With the centreline seam fixed, I set about blending in the port upper wing to wing root.  Again I was as good as done, held it up to the light for a last check .. & dropped it!!

 

😬

 

The good news: the new centreline seam held. The bad news: port wing snapped off (cleanly, thankfully) AND part split lengthways ...

 

Repaired overnight.

 

Not inclined to post any images of such a debacle.

 

Equally not interested in hearing any reference to ‘bad things come in threes’ ...

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Back on track!

 

These butterfly wings are now blended together, at least as best as my eye can tell against the high contrast grey & white.  Feels smooth to my fingertip.  However primer will tell.

 

I’ll be away from the bench till next week, so that will need to wait.

 

Upper:

 

BM_Crusader_wings

 

Lower:

 

BM_Crusader_wings

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

wing works.

 

First adding sheet styrene, top & back to reinstate that which was lost when sawing the wing roots out of the fuselage:

 

Wing works

 

Blending in & cutting back:

 

Wing works

 

Bringing the sandwich together for more finishing:

 

Wing works

 

Then - at long last - a first coat of primer:

 

Wing works

 

Wing works

 

The results best described as ‘humbling’!  I’m happy with how the curved fillet to the trailing wing root has settled in ... but those full width-wing splices have quite a bit more work to go before they are integrated.  

 

 

 

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Thank you all above for your encouragement, much appreciated.

 

A public holiday long weekend here, time which I’ve been able to put to good use!

 

Today: wing surface oil coolers .. at least that’s what I believe they are from my research.  They can be seen underwing here:

 

EB4 - Copy

 

There are the main rectangular panels, & an additional narrow band across the centre of each which wraps up & over the wing.  No idea how it works!

 

After yet another round of post-primer Mr Surfacer & sanding, I decided that the wing to wing-root joints these oil coolers straddle are blended as well as I can get them.  So, first a guide, no plans of these available so my best inference from limited photos:

 

Oil coolers?

 

Drafted onto adhesive - removable adhesive! - paper, to fix like so:

 

Oil coolers?

 

Then slice & scribe out the perimeter frame ..

 

Oil coolers?

 

.. before scribing the parallel lines to the infill ..

 

Oil coolers?

 

My tool is a slice of a sacrificed microsaw gripped in the knife handle, seen above.  It generates about 6 lines in a parallel band about 3mm wide.

 

With that done:

 

Oil coolers?

 

Oil coolers?

 

... next the bands, in the thinnest of styrene..

 

Oil coolers?

 

Wrapped around, up & over, then sanded as thin as possible, & scribed ..

 

Oil coolers?

 

Oil coolers?

 

I would have liked to finish up with a light prime .. but the day ran out.  Luckily a public holiday tomorrow!

 

Ready to go ...

 

Oil coolers?

 

 

 

 

 

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Impressive work their Gregs and looks great under the primer but I have a query. I'm a little confused, you've wrapped the chord 'coolers' around the leading edge of wing and across the wing but I haven't seen any images to show such. Just asking, as hopefully I'll be getting Karaya's 1/72 offering at Crimbo and obviously I would like the major bits to be there.

 

Stuart

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Hi Stuart, only 85 days ‘till Christmas!

 

54 minutes ago, Courageous said:

you've wrapped the chord 'coolers' around the leading edge of wing and across the wing but I haven't seen any images to show such.

 

I understand this machine went through a few phases of modification (see one of my very first posts) and these coolers were not there initially.  Perhaps they were one of the strategies to respond to an acknowledged early cooling problem?  I find they are definitely not present in any photos of the earliest wooden-propellor phase.  There is no contemporary text I have found that mentions them specifically, but later metal-propellor phase photos do suggest they wrapped up & onto the upper wing surface.  But it’s not so easy to see ..

 

Here are the better examples, the image & a cropped close-up in each case:

 

Coolers up & over?

 

Coolers up & over?

 

Coolers up & over?

 

Coolers up & over?

 

Coolers up & over?

 

Coolers up & over?

 

& at least one set of plans agrees:

 

Plans

 

Plans

 

Hope that helps?  I don’t claim to be authoritative, merely outlining how I came to my conclusion!

 

 

 

 

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