Cessna Floatplane: Plan A Monogram c.180 Conversion

[Mjwomack]

I think something's adrift before we even start...

 

Here is my first, and if all goes to plan only entry to this GB. Come what may I intend to have a Cessna floatplane by the end of it and this is plan A, there's also plan B and if all else fails a scramble to get Plan C to the jetty come early January

 

 

 

Now, the eagle eyed amongst you (everyone except me in other words) will see a fundamental flaw - it'll never fly float, but...

 

Hang on lads, I've got a great idea

 

I'll copy the original and convert it to a floatplane. For those you want to make an original

wipaire.com (no commission in it for me) make the original floats. According to Scalemates, my boxing dates to 1970, but the moulds go back to 1957 and it shows with amazing rivets, panel lines and a hinged doors.

 

It (re)occurs to me

 

That Monogram's boxing only describes it as a 'scale model', but Scalemates is bold enough to say it is 1:41 and I don't know why such a useful scale didn't go on to be a commercial standard. But Scalemates are right and measuring it out it is as good as 1:41 as I can measure to all good. Oh except that scaling the 3 view drawing from Joe Christy's Complete Guide to Single-Engine Cessnas you end up with a gruesome recurring decimal which the copier can't cope with. Purists look away now, sorry that should always be fist with any of my builds. Still it's not far out, except..

 

Honeybun, we've all got our faults...

 

Some lines aren't angled enough

 

 

 

 

Oh and the dorsal needs some bulking out to cope with those tricky crosswinds on the lakes

 

And yet some places are far too curvey

 

Good Lord, just seen the camera shake on this, but concentrate on the wingtip like I did and I'll be back after I've taken my meds.

 

 

 

[Mjwomack]

That's better, and washed down with some red wine which I find helps (that is a joke and do not do that on the basis that you read it on the internet). now where was I?

 

Send for WALT Disney

 

 

 

Clearly copyright is Walt Disney Productions. I've not read this book, but my guess is that the franchise was getting a bit tired by then. For the educationalists amongst you, We Are Learning To... This projects learning outcomes are

 

Building the undercarriage as in a fit of enthusiasm I've offered to build a trestle viaduct for a model railroad

Work with expanded foam material- in another fit of enthusiasm I also offered to help with the scenery for the above mention

 

The voices urge me on...

I think this chap is the big hillbilly cousin of the lads in the original Airfix B17

 

 

And he's begging me to perform some plastic surgery and make me look like this...

 

 

But that's not going to happen, so he might have to settle for closer to this...

 

That's the pilot btw, there's no way I'm converting a C180 into a C172!!

 

OK, in just over 3 hours we can get started, but I'm not promising to wait up specially.

 

Let's all have fun splashing about in the water eh?

 

 

[jrlx]

Hi Mjwomack,

 

Welcome to the GB and here we have another scratch building project, right?

 

I wish the best of luck, as there's a mix of courage and madness in all projects with a lot of scratch building

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

[Mjwomack]

Well thank you and somehow the description of courage and madness has been applied to me before. Seriously, to call this scratch build is far too generous, some folk are doing more work tidying up a straight kit. This will be pure kit-bashing, and spoiler alert if I end up on Plan C then it is a frantic t'internet shop for a OOB floatplane.

 

I am though really looking forward to this GB, I had no idea there were so many drop dead gorgeous aquatic aviators out there.

[Mjwomack]

Still afloat?

While some people are airborne and away- I keep expecting to see a post in the gallery section whenever I log on, I'm put-putting around on some Canadian lake. Can't give rhyme or reason but I've imagined this as a Canadian bird. Anyhow, as I'm now away for 2 weeks, I thought it might be wiser to reassure our lovely hosts that I haven't sunk without trace.

 

I'd rather hoped that I could get the main a/c finished before going away and then get to work on scratch-building the floats when I got back, but I seem to be swimming against the tide on that one.

 

Here then is a single pic of bits and pieces- I'm pretty optimistic that they'll be a growth spurt in the middle of October as a lot of things will come together like the Severn Bore.

 

Henri's Happy

The pilot is starting to get some colour in his checks, arms and even his trousers. He's also got a name now - Henri (French Canadian).

 

A clipped wing Cessna

No, I quite understand there's no wiffery allowed. I've cut off the overly curved wingtips (one left in the photo for a sort of WIP within a WIP); starting work on corrected tips with straighter end, this is going to be a laminate so I can include locating lugs to slot into the ends of the old wing.

 

Hyper-realism or impressionism? It leaves me in a spin

Much as I admire the hyper-realism and detail on many of the models on this forum, I'm more of an impressionist in modelling myself. This isn't just an acknowledgement of my cack-handed, shaking hands meets poor eyesight but because I think models are representations and so an art form, and I think all art is ultimately impressionism. Right end of my rambling no the philosophy of modelling, what's happened to the propeller?

 

It's a before and after! The propeller in the kit is massively over-size even allowing that the floatplane has a 90" diameter compared to the standard version's 82". I pondered long about what to do- the impressionist in me thought that the oversize original would help draw out one of the distinctive features of the floatplane- OK the floats themselves are probably quite a give-away. In the end I decided to trim it to the correct size, but Ii slipped! So we're going to end up with a standard prop on a float-plane which, all in all, gives the wrong impression completely!

 

Not going to plan

I'm sure we all know the importance to doing thorough research. I was disheartened that the plans have distinctly sharper cone for the spinner than Monogram supply. I really didn't fancy reshaping the spinner but ploughing through pictures (John2031.com has an amazing archive of Cessna 180 pics) shows that it is closer to a 50:50 split on the spinner shape so nothing to see there and I'm leaving well alone.

 

Another thing I didn't fancy was cutting in the cabin roof windows that are on the plan but missing in the kit, again no need to as it is very rare to find an a/c with them fitted (phew).

 

There is a wide array of cabin interiors from amazingly preserved/ restored to pimp my cabin all leather; I'm going for a middle order cabin- Henri's a tidy guy but he can't spare a lot of money for all that fancy-stuff!

 

Start me up

There would be a lot of fun to be had in this curious scale detailing the engine which is reasonably represented in any case. But I'm not opening up the cowling so've just slapped some paint on the basic so that something can be hinted at through the vents etc.

 

I can see right through you.

Henri is going to stand atop the float on the pilots side which means it doesn't have to fit so finely. Which is a huge relief as you can see daylight through the 'seal' otherwise- plenty of filler to come later on the other side, along with taking off the crude toy door handle and removing the even cruder working hinges.

 

Hopefully no sting in the tail

The best progress to date is on correct the tail-plane. Again a before and after shot with the port on trimmed back to the correct shape for it's greater part though there will be a bit of infilling needed next to the fuselage to correct the profile there. Correcting this was also a chance to sort out the trailing edge which was far from aerodynamic before!

 

Rivetting stuff

I sense another impressionism/ realism conundrum coming along tempered by practicality. Yes, there are enormous rivets and panel lines. One thought is to leave them on as a nod to the basic, utility nature of the real thing. But equally it feels a disservice to what are well made and generally smoothly finished a/c. On top of this comes the practicality that straightening out the trailing edge has already started to remove the rivets and they'll be more of the same as the new wing tips go on etc. For now, I'm sitting tight and seeing how it goes.

 

One thought is to give Henri's plane the name Rivets the Frog.

 

 

 

 

Stick to the plan

In summary, progress is not as much as I'd hoped but good enough and I don't feel the need to ditch this for Plan B, let alone Plan C yet.

 

Thanks for stopping by, apologies to any purists I've offended, but I'm happy in my little lake in the mountains! See y'all in a couple of weeks

Michael

[jrlx]

Good exposition of building considerations, Michael. Looking forward to the next instalment.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[Mjwomack]

It's ok, I haven't drowned (yet), long gap from the serious stuff because life got in the way. Hopefully not so much life for a couple of months and I can crack on with the serious stuff.

 

will try to get some photos up soon, but this evening saw work on the corrected wing tips which is going better than expected. To keep the snakes and ladders of it all though, I've dry fitted the nose and the fit is horrendous, one things for sure I'll be well practiced in sanding and filling by the end.

 

having slipped so far behind schedule,I've eased back on my hopes for the cabin and the detailing will be pretty basic now. I'm worried about the deadline and thinking about scouring t'internet for a cessna floatplane and jumping onto plan c! 

 

no progress painting on painting Henri, but his craft now gas a registration of C-FLCY, I figured a nod to london city airport was sort of aquatic! And that registration is unused, so I can't be told off for the gross in accuracy of all this

 

[jrlx]

Good to know you're back on the model. Looking forward to the pictures.

 

Don't stress over the deadline. There are still more than two months to go.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

[Mjwomack]

Some progress made, and out with the filler, like this

 

 

Wind and water would rush in the bad fitting door. Put masking tape on the outside as that's the side I'm really interested in, out or maybe in with the filler and not so much work to do when dry and the masking tape comes off.

 

Also worked on reprofiling the wingtips

 

Old sprue as a spar/former, lower skin in place with wing top and end waiting to go on. I sculpted the end so it flexes a bit. Clamped and taped while it dries and then,yep,out with the filler again

[jrlx]

Good progress and some detailed scratch building on the wing tips!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[Mjwomack]

And who the last minute fast approaching, it's time for the big push. Settled upon pushing on with the conversion rather than splashing (? Point for aquatic pun?)

Cabin coming along, with time a ticking some of the more ambitious detail plans are now swimming with the fishes. Still separated the front seats and making seat belts. But scrapped cargo area detail and multi point seat harness

 

 

Hope to be able to button up the fuselage soon.  But, as we all know one of the special features of old kits are missing parts; this time out 2 of the cabin windows are err,bespoke.

 

Pleased with how the wingtip correction has gone

 

Original alongside for comparison. No photo of the underside as I didn't correct that as well as I'd hoped.

 

 

And so, plucking up courage from the top of the diving board to take the plunge and get into the whole point of this build; the float plane bit

 

 

Who knows,it might really float as the big idea is to take lump of walk insulation on the left and transform it to the floats on the plan to the right.

 

Good news is that I've got plenty of off cuts and it seems easy to work with.

 

Waving or drowning? Its nearly time to find out

 

[jrlx]

Nice progress. Really curious to see how your scratch built floats will turn out. Good luck!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[Grandboof]

Good luck with the floats And thanks for an entertaining WIP 

Martin H

[Mjwomack]

Personally, I'm glad that Christmas telly isn't what it used to be. So I pressed on without distraction from my easally entertained family.

 

Win two

Replacement glazing for the cabin made, it fits as neatly as well as original part; seems I've made it too (in)accurately! Also repeating how I modified the wingtips on the dorsal mod and put in the slot to receive the first of the formers.

 

 

 

Lost one...

 

..no idea what happened because the instrument panel fitted well in the dry fit

 

 

After some enterprising use of a scribing tool (probably very similar to the technique my dentist will be using in 2 weeks time), it's near enough back in place ready for some filler (again, just like my teeth)

 

Giddy with success, and mindful of the ticking clock, I've pressed straight onto working on correcting the dorsal

 

 

Per ardua ad mare, or something on those lines, having lots of fun in my little corner though.

 

PS, Having a browse through the gallery and there are some absolute stunners on display!! Congratulations to everyone who has finished, faster and better than me

 

 

 

[jrlx]

Good progress, pity about the non-fitting instrument panel. Glad to know you sorted it out!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

[Mjwomack]

Scraping the barrel time, and so onto the real point of the build and the floats. Its just as well that my approach to modelling is Representative as there seem to be as many floats out there as planes. Some even look like they have been made by welding barrels together!

Here then is a start at scrapping a float from house insulation board

 

Strangely easy to carve,as its a fine 'grain' but sticks to everything

 

Of course, if you really want to see how to carve your own look at the amazing work of Lord Phoenix of awesome in the gallery! 

 

Mine is a poor attempt, but inspired by the master. One evening later and I've this

 

 

The ticking clock means no prototype or development but the hope is a skin of diluted milliput and some sanding should see me through

 

[jrlx]

The shape seems to be there. Miliput should sort out the rough surfaces. Looking forward to the next installment!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime