Avro 504K, 1/32, Scratchbuild

[k5054nz]

On ‎3‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 1:57 AM, Bandsaw Steve said:

Agreed, it seems a strange omission especially since there is at least one fully restored and airworthy example in New Zealand.     

I’m guessing they’ll get to it one day.

And that example is owned by Sir Peter, so one would think so...likewise the BE.2 series and DH.4!

 

I'm quite fortunate to live 90min from where ZK-ACU is based so I can see it during the summer. Here's some boasting inspiration from early last year:

40C03A2E-6985-464B-BCA5-59A90F3EBE2C_zpswwm2yyal by Zac Yates, on Flickr

9E79A267-4113-485D-98E3-D1BD0EC94651_zpsarzio2mq by Zac Yates, on Flickr

 

She really is a lovely old beastie. Best of luck with your build! A real old-school approach!

Edited April 4, 2018 by k5054nz

[Nigel Heath]

Nice historical reference work from Tomoshenko. 

 

Very interesting project which I will be following closely.

 

Things can only get better from here:

 

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Courageous]

Bandsaw by name, bandsaw by nature, and away we go. 

...just don't forget your AE2, we need it finished. 

 

Stuart

[Bandsaw Steve]

Don’t worry Courageous, @albergman has been reminding me of the same thing! In any case AE2 must be finished this month. I Have been working on it most evenings and am making quite good headway.

It’s the poor old Avro 504 that’s being ignored at the moment. Sorry aviation fans - that’s just the way it is, but around about the start of May, we can expect that bandsaw to be furiously hacking out a fuselage!

[Bandsaw Steve]

Thanks also to @k5054nz and @Tomoshenko for taking the time to add those images and videos. I’ve never seen that book before but am going to hunt down a copy as soon as possible. It looks brilliant!

[Bandsaw Steve]

On 02/04/2018 at 04:17, AdrianMF said:

Looking forward to this. Personally, I would be tempted to build up the box fuselage and just do a solid bit where it goes curvy at the front... I guess I've been using too much plastic!

 

Regards,

Adrian

I have heard of this ‘plastic’ stuff Adrian but don’t know much about it. I believe it’s some sort of wood substitute? Perhaps you could send me some details.

[malpaso]

The "Aircraft in Miniature" book is absolutely fantastic, really recommended and well worth the five quid or so you can usually find it for.  I also have the two Christie's catalogues for the sale of Doylend's models in the 90s, which is full of nicely composed professional colour photos of the models - all 1/72 and some sold for thousands of pounds each! 

He generally used beech (according to the catalogues, not so clear in the book apart from NEVER balsa*) for fuselage and wings, everything else came from household bits and pieces, apart from perspex offsets to carve the canopies from solid.  He built everything from BE2 to MRCA with the same methods; from his and other period "solid modelling" (as it was then known) books I think that you had "arrived" when you created either a Supermarine Southampton or a Boulton Paul Overstrand!  Not many of either of those have been suggested for BM RAF100 GB...yet?

 

Looking forward to how the Avro progresses, I really liked your submarine thread.

 

Cheers

Will 

 

 

*works for me, but needs a lot of grain filling and rubbing down

[Nigel Heath]

Quote

I believe it’s some sort of wood substitute?

 

Indeed it is and its use helps to save trees but maybe not the planet.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Ooh, did someone say Overstrand?  Back in the mists of time when I joined this illustrious forum (5 or 6 years ago, at a guess), I have vague memories that someone was building an Overstrand.  The General?  Hendie?  Can’t remember.  But not out of wood!

 

Edit: it wasn’t as long ago as I thought: @general melchett, a vacform, 2014.  Not (as far as I can tell from the thread) finished, but a mighty fine piece of modelling.

 

Nudge.

Edited April 6, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Bandsaw Steve]

Ah.... Too good to resist.  I know it's still very early in the build but the compulsory Roxy Music moment (there's one in every thread) is right here - right now...

 

There's a new sensation
A fabulous creation
A danceable solution
To teenage revolution
Do the OverStrand love
When you feel love
It's the new way
That's why we say
Do the OverStrand...

 

Hope you enjoyed that as much as I did!

[general melchett]

Quote

it wasn’t as long ago as I thought: @general melchett, a vacform, 2014.  Not (as far as I can tell from the thread) finished, but a mighty fine piece of modelling.

Oh dear, guilty as charged M'lud. It was dragged up from the wine cellar at Christmas for its yearly dusting and liberally squirted with silver paint (in a doomed effort to coax it into completion, almost worked too). It's now ready for a spot of decaling and rigging, I'll dig the old bus out and get it finished (off).

[Bandsaw Steve]

I have a plan...   (Seven of them in fact)

 

Just a minor update as 'proof of life' for this project.  Here's another plug for 'aeroplans.co.uk' - great product, great variety and great service - I will be using this service again one day, perhaps for a set of their Supermarine Southampton plans!

 

Len at aeroplans e-mailed a high definition 1/32 scale PDF to me and my draftsman mate at work has very kindly run off seven full-size copies for me - one of which I have had laminated.  Here's the result, one laminated, one not laminated and five more sets rolled up alongside. 

 

In the past I have learned a few things about plans:

• Try to get the correct plans for what you intend to build - obvious statement really,  but perhaps you haven't read my AE2 thread. Here I was caught out over and over again by subtle differences between the mid-war E class submarine for which I had plans and the pre-war vessel I was building. 
• Get lots of copies made.  Building this way cuts through plans (literally cuts through them) very quickly. Get more than you think you will need and be ready to go and get more when you eventually run out anyway.
• Get one set laminated and pin it on the wall.  I've done this with the AE2 plans and it's surprising how often I refer to this set. It's very convenient knowing at all times where to easily access a complete and tidy set of plans.

This is going to be a big model. I've never built anything in 1/32 before and the Avro 504 is a larger aircraft than I imagined with a wingspan of 10.97m. Compare that with a tiger-moth's wingspan of just 8.94m!  Here are the 1/32 scale plans photographed against a standard unit of Britmodeller measurement (a 1/48 scale Airfix Spitfire Mk Xii). Like I say - this is going to be a big model. Nearly as big as Tamiya's 1/48 Beaufighter in fact. 

 

 

Not much of an update I know, but I can assure you that although this project is on the back-burner at the moment, once AE2 is finished this will be getting my full attention. 

 

Stay tuned - about a fortnight from now I reckon we'll be into this good and proper!

 

Steve

 

[Courageous]

Looks rather exciting Steve, looking forward to the starting in earnest but first the AE2.

 

Stuart

[Ted]

I want to get their plans for a Bleriot XI, Bristol Scout, BE2, FE8...

[Bandsaw Steve]

Back again.

 

Following a short delay for the completion of my WW1 Submarine, AE2, I am back again working on the Avro 504.

Now that I have acquired seven sets of beautiful plans, the first thing to do - distressingly enough, is to cut them up into little pieces.

Here is the cut-out of the port side fuselage view.

 

I've been thinking about this job quite a bit and I've decided that I'm not going to try to carve the whole fuselage in one go. The Area in the blue cross hatch shading has to be removed.

 

Here's why. In cross section I've decided that the gently curved top of the fuselage (above the red line) will be added as a separate piece and glued on later.

There are two reasons for this. Firstly, because I think it will be easier to form a nice even curve on a separate piece of wood (probably not Jarrah) and Secondly because I need a nice sharp contact between the top section and the vertical fuselage sides and that will be difficult to achieve by carving alone.

 

So now I'm going to trim off the cross-hatched section.  Notice that I'm also trimming off the top-deck around the cockpit. I've decided to model that separately also.

 

About two years ago during the Mig-15 build some kind soul recommended this stuff to me - Spray on photo adhesive. Finally I've got around to getting some - let's give it a go.

 

Ohhh - nice!

In this case I've sprayed the paper and stuck it onto the wood - but I think it's probably supposed to be done the other way around. This makes for a nice and even adhesive layer and the paper can be moved about without too much difficulty. Should have found this stuff ages ago!

 

The fuselage is going to be made from two pieces of Jarrah glued together - but you might remember that I cut the jarrah far longer than it needed to be.  At this point I'm only gluing the wood together at the extreme ends, beyond the length of the fuselage cut-out. This is because - at least initially, I want the fuselage to spall in half along the centreline.

 

Here are the two pieces of wood going together - note how the glue is only going to stick the surplus wood together, beyond the ends of the fuselage. At this point I'm trying to avoid gluing the actual fuselage halves themselves.

 

Clamp it up and leave it for 24 hours.

 

Now move to the wings. Spray the wood this time not the paper - obviously.

 

Stick the paper to the wood. Not the other way round, which is the stupid way to do things.

 

Repeat the process, because this thing is a biplane.

 

Have a crack at the tailplane also. Note that in this case I've turned the plan slightly off square - that's intentional. It's not square to the block of wood but it is now square to the grain within the wood.

 

And here is an illustration of why I have glued the two halves of the fuselage block together.  There is now a permanent centreline formed that I can use to line up all kinds of things. In this case there is a centreline marked for the wings so this should make getting the wings on nice and square and symmetrical relatively easy.

 

That's about it folks.  Hopefully progress will accelerate from here.  Next up - I think we will get some bandsaw action! null

 

Best Regards,

Bandsaw Steve

 

[bar side]

Nice.  I think single piece of wood for one piece wing is the future.  So much simpler than forming, curving & filling plasticard

[Bandsaw Steve]

1 hour ago, bar side said:

Nice.  I think single piece of wood for one piece wing is the future.  So much simpler than forming, curving & filling plasticard

The devil is in the dihedral!

 

I expect that the wings on this thing  will be ‘challenging’.

[bar side]

15 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

The devil is in the dihedral!

 

I expect that the wings on this thing  will be ‘challenging’.

No one ever said it was going to be easy, as the Inspiral Carpets once sung

[Azgaron]

Looks interesting! Good start!

 

Håkan

 

[Courageous]

Nice to see some woodwork for the Avro. looking forward to see what you so with this.

 

Stuart

[Ted]

 So excited to follow and learn!

 

 

[Scratchbuilder]

Nope, I cannot get Len Whalley's aeroplans to come up on a googly search. Any hints?

 

Martin

 

[Scratchbuilder]

No worry, found it under Images.

Martin

[Learstang]

Good luck indeed with the build, Steve! You know if you left it as is, it would make a reasonable model of the Blackburn Blackburd. General, sir, you mean you haven't finished your Overstrand? For shame, man, for shame! Why even such an inveterate (not to be confused with invertebrate as I am a proud member of the Vertebrata subphylum) laggard as me, your most humble (with a lot to be humble about) servant finished ye olde Esoteric vacuform Overstrand many years ago, and even repaired same a few years ago.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[TheBaron]

Quite charming work to watch emerging from paper to wood.

The very best of luck Steve.

Tony