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Santos-Dumont Demoiselle 1908, AJP Maquette 1/48


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After the fantastic feedback of this great community here, and especially for Jessica (she asked for it), here comes a model finished end of 2015.

The model was created from a kit of the french company AJP Maquette http://www.ajp-maquettes.com/ of the Santos-Dumont Demoiselle in 1/48. The kit contains mostly PE, some other metal parts like propeller, piano wire and also thin, light yellow paper.
The piano wire is for the stringers, but since the were made from bamboo, I simulate the knots of the bamboo with thin copper wire. The rigging was made with help of Gaspatch turnbuckles and for this model I made my first wooden propeller!But the scratch work with the most effort :mental:was the engine, which I turned from brass and aluminium on my lathe, because the PE engine was hard to build and looks different to my reference picture (comes later). So here it is:

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The fuel tank was turned too. The PE were soldered and painted in a wood color to avoid a golden brass shine trough the paper.

 

So, enough words - have fun with the pictures! I hope you will like that model too:heart:

Frank

 

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A size comparison:

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Luckily I found a fantastic picture of a original airplane in Le Bourget in wikipedia, which helps me a lot regarding details:

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For higher resolution please see here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Demoiselle_de_Santos-Dumont_Musee_du_Bourget_P1010409.JPG

 

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That's really awesome!

Santos Dummont was a very rich Brazilian living in Paris and one of the most important aviation pioneers.

He is credit with the first documented heavier than air fly on the Champs Elisier in 1916 with 14bis.

He believed the aviation should be available for everyone so he never patented his inventions and airplanes. You could copy the plans and construct your own Demoiselle in your back yard if you wanted to.

He also holds the first ever pilot licence issue by the French Air club.

It's an amazing story if you would like to read more.

Cheers

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I can't decide who's most insane; the men and women who flew those things or the men and women that attempt to model them. How DO you build something that's mostly air with a bit of wood, canvas and wire thrown in, seemingly, at random??!! Gorgeous. Thanks for sharing...

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Fantastic work Frank, and that engine is amazing. I love the subtle engine exhaust staining on the wings, that's attention to detail.

 

I see AIP Maquettes has a whole line of pre-1910 aircraft, including Santos-Dumont's 14 Bis, his first airplane. @ArmouredSprue the year was actually 1906. By 1916 people were shooting each other out of the sky in airplanes, something which upset Santos-Dumont deeply.

 

Cheers,

Wlad

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Thanks Wlad, you're absolutely right. My big mistake.

The WWI and how the airplane was used was one of the reasons SD committed suicide later in 1932.

Cheers

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Your certainly know your history Paulo. Great background info for this beautiful build.

 

Cheers,

Wlad

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Excellent model , this is true modelling - completely scratch built !

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Thank you very much for your fantastic feedback! :worthy:

 

21 hours ago, ArmouredSprue said:

He believed the aviation should be available for everyone so he never patented his inventions and airplanes. You could copy the plans and construct your own Demoiselle in your back yard if you wanted to.

That's true, but that is a problem for the modeler. There are many variants known from pictures, with different wing span and different engines. So you have to decide for a specific one and try to build that. I tried it as far as possible the kit allows it (e.g. I have not replaced the wings).

There is a great article about the Demoiselle available in the magazine "Flight" in October 1909 (All "Flight"s are available online as PDF).

 

21 hours ago, Newbie(kinda) said:

How DO you build something that's mostly air with a bit of wood, canvas and wire thrown in, seemingly, at random??!! Gorgeous.

Try to follow the manual of the kit, but replace the parts you want to scratch at the right step:coolio:

 

16 hours ago, Wlad said:

I see AIP Maquettes has a whole line of pre-1910 aircraft, including Santos-Dumont's 14 Bis, his first airplane.

 

Yep, but I want to build only models, which I can put in my wall mounted glass cabinet. It is huge (and has a lof of free space!) but due to constraints only a limited depth of around 24cm. So I cannot build some interesting models like Bristol Boxkite, Antoinette .... and in general WnW. But I have enough 1/48 models to build which will fit.

 

One interesting thing with such PE models covered with paper is the care you have to take. Some flow of wet air or of different temperature can deform your model!

 

Stay tuned for more :waiting:

Frank

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That is another superb model Frank. I have one of these lined up to scratch build in 1/72 eventually...... I too have a space constraint imposed by my cabinets but building in a smaller scale I can still model some of the larger aircraft.

 

Really looking forward to seeing more of your masterpieces.

 

P

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On 04/05/2017 at 4:06 PM, ArmouredSprue said:

That's really awesome!

Santos Dummont was a very rich Brazilian living in Paris and one of the most important aviation pioneers.

He is credit with the first documented heavier than air fly on the Champs Elisier in 1916 with 14bis.

He believed the aviation should be available for everyone so he never patented his inventions and airplanes. You could copy the plans and construct your own Demoiselle in your back yard if you wanted to.

He also holds the first ever pilot licence issue by the French Air club.

It's an amazing story if you would like to read more.

Cheers

 

For those who are interested in further information on this very interesting pioneer of aviation, and for film of a replica constructed and flown in Brazil, there is an interesting film on You Tube: Wings of madness: Santos Dumont. The film also contains original footage of his dirigibles from the early 1900's, and contains much interesting material about the man and the challenges that he overcame in his quest for flight.

 

P. 

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