Scratch Build Partial Strip Down Vickers FB 5 Gunbus

[pheonix]

Evening All,

 

Due to the fact that I had left my manners by my breakfast plate when I last posted, I forgot to thank those of you who dropped by and left encouraging comments: I do appreciate them despite my lack of acknowledgement at the time.

 

The saga continues.... watching paint dry is not the most exciting aspect of modelling but a necessary one. Especially when, as I do, a modeller uses acryllic paint and a hairy stick, and builds up several layers of very thin paint to try to get a perfectly smooth finish. 13 - 15 coats in this case on the wings. I took the precaution of masking the fuselage nacelle in a plastic bage to prevent any accidental brush strokes going astray. That was followed on the lower wing by the markings which in this case consist of a large white square, (which on the original aircraft covered an earlier Union Jack flag marking), and then a roundel which I had printed myself.

 

 

Holes were drilled in the lower wing for struts and rigging. I have not drilled the holes for these features in the upper wing yet as I want to make absolutely certain that I get them in the right place first time. I intend to use white glue to hold the wing struts in place and then mark the locations for the holes in the top wing later when I have made the struts. The next step was to solder a length of brass rod to the rear spar to represent the boom which supports the tail. 4 ribs were slotted on to the spars first - these were pushed close to the nacelle so that they would not melt during soldering operations: they were pushed into place and CA'd afterwards. I anticipated that the soldering would be difficult because I had to get two orientations exactly right:

the angle of the boom to the thrust line: it has to rise from the rear spar towards the tail;

the angle in relation to the fore-aft line as the booms converge on to the rudder post.

This was made relatively easy by inserting the boom into the rear of the starboard wing and resting it on a block of wood behing the wing and fuselage sub-assembly. I cut a piece of rod to the exact length of the port (left) boom and supported the front end against the back of the rear spar while resting the rear of the boom on the wood making sure that it touched the end of the opposite boom. This assembly was sitting above the scale plan so that I had an additional aid to get the alignment correct. Application of heat and solder followed and when it had cooled I found that the boom was just 0.5mm to far towards the wing tip! I can live with that....so after I had cleaned up the soldered joint with a file I added the remaining spars to the wing and CA'd them into place. I had to re-mask the fuselage nacelle and the starboard (right) wing with a plastic bag because I had to prime the brass bar of the wing spars and rod of the boom strut and I did not want to spray the wing and nacelle at the same time! I also added the strengtheners at each end of the trailing edge of the wing inboard of the aileron.

 

 

 

Priming followed and then I removed the rear of the spars where the aileron will be and set these on one side as I will make both ailerons later. The wing leading edge bar was made from 40 thou plastic rod and the riblets from 10 x 20 thou strip as per the test piece described earlier.

 

 

 

Painting followed with Revell Ocker (88) which had been watered approx 50:50. One coat was just right. Black was used for the reinforcement rods as these were metal on the original aircraft. To complete this stage of construction (but not the whole wing structure - that will come later), I added the rigging. The black line on the right of the second image is the frame of the nacelle.

 

 

 

And now I can do all of this again on the top wing....

 

Thanks for looking.

 

P

 

 

Edited November 18, 2018 by pheonix

[Brandy]

Coming along beautifully P. There's something about a stripped down wing with all the internals on show.....

 

Ian

[Andwil]

Amazing work!

 

AW

[pheonix]

Evening All,

 

Thanks Ian and Andy for the encouragement - I have been in need of that recently as I have just completed what up to now has been the most difficult part of this build. I will try to explain why and how I have succeeded in solving a particular problem.

 

Some of you will be aware that I have considerable form when it comes to building pushers, albeit in the True Scale. My preferred method is to attach the tail booms to the wings, put the top wing into place with the rudder post in support at the rear, and then add the boom struts. In this way alignments are very much easier to achieve and the modeller does not have to handle two fragile structures while trying to attach them to the rear of the wings and align them correctly with the rudder post. I am using my tried and tested method on this model. However there is a big difference with this model because it is a larger scale and I have to solder 2 of the 4 booms to the rear spars of the wings which means that the boom alignment has to be very accurate or the structure will simply look awful or worse. I have been giving this problem considerable thought for some time but I could prevaricate no longer.... so I consulted William Heath Robinson for advice which he generously gave to me.

 

First I masked the solid part of the wing with a plastic bage and then laid the assembly on the plans and aligned them.

 

 

I placed the fuselage nacelle/lower wing assembly over the top wing:

 

 

 

The position of the boom/rear spar joint of the lower wing could be copied on to the rear spar of the top wing. This was essential because the two booms must align exactly even though they are not in the precise position over the plan (they are approximately 0.5mm too close to the fuselage nacelle). The lower wing assembly was set aside and the top wing laid on a block of balsa which will be the base for the soldering process. The balsa block was placed on the plans so that the wing is directly over the plan as allowed me to use it to align the brass rod which I will use for the boom. A second block of wood was laid on the plan with the edge along the leading edge of the horizontal tail unit. The brass rod was laid so that one end touched the rear spar and the other was resting on the second wood block and was over the boom on the plan. To get the correct height at the tail end of the boom I had to add some pieces of plastic card:

 

 

I will briefly explain the simplicity of this method which I have used many times - I have converted or scratch built 10 pushers this way so far, and have not had a problem yet. Tail booms have to conform to two angles as explained in an earlier post. Aligning the angle in relation to the vertical centre line is easy - just lay the wing and boom over the plan. The angle in relation to the thrust line can be achieved by using the height difference between two easy-to-measure  points on the boom:

 

 

The diagram above shows the distance 'a' between the trailing edge of the wing and the leading edge of the horizontal tail unit. The height 'b' is calculated from the side elevation of the aircraft in question by drawing a line (2 on the diagram) which touches the leading and trailing edge of the wing and is continued under the leading edge of the tail. Height 'b' is the distance on the plan between line 2 and the boom on the plan (line 1). Therefore the rear of the boom resting on the wood block has to be the equivalent of height 'b' above the balsa block on which the wing assembly is resting.

 

To lift the boom rod so that it made good contact with the centre of the rear spar I used a file and then held it in place with paint pots as advised by H R:

 

 

 

I checked the alignment with the lower wing assembly by placing the latter over the former:

 

 

I removed the lower wing assembly, put flux and solder paint on to the boom-spar joint, and after checking and adjusting one last time to make certain all was in its correct position I heated my soldering iron and used solder wire to reinforce the joint. The result when  I placed the lower wing over the new upper wing and it looked like this:

 

 

The remainder of the top wing assembly followed the procedures I have already described.

 

 

and the two wings look like this:

 

 

I have still to make the ailerons and add the trailing edge and tip wires to complete these structures.

 

Unfortunately this is as far as I will be able to take this project for the time being as I now have to go on one of my periodic journeys, this time for an undetermined period. I simply do not know how long it will be before I can pick it up again but I am hoping that it will only be 2-3 weeks: fingers crossed. Until then I hope that you all have an enjoyable time with your own projects.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

P

 

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2018 by pheonix
spelling error

[k5054nz]

Thank you for sharing this build P. While I'm disappointed there's now a break in production I console myself with the knowledge I can reread progress so far and enjoy it all over again!

[Brandy]

I hope your travels are not too arduous. Looking forward to the continuation of this mini epic! 

 

Ian

[heloman1]

Just found your build thread P, amazing work, I'll be watching with interest.

 

Colin

[TheBaron]

Immaculate and patient work P.  Most marvellous structures emerging here in ever-greater detail. Good luck with the migration and look forward to your return!

[pheonix]

Evening All,

 

Thanks k5054nz, Ian, Colin and Baron for your kind comments. I have returned and restarted the project with a couple of relatively simple structures to get my eyes and hands used to working together again! I found that just before I departed I knew exactly what I wanted to do and how to do it but when I returned I had forgotten most of it, despite having written some (by now) cryptic notes.... (Note to myself, make notes more explicit next time).

 

I am approaching the stage that I have been delaying for some time i.e. how am I going to put the top wing on? So to avoid having to tackle that particular problem I distracted myself by making some small structures as referred to above. I started with the ailerons on the port (left) side which are represented by the frames. On my first attempt I tried to use 20 thou card for the hinge section and spar and 40 x 125 thou strip for the ribs. I drilled a small hole in those ribs which had been hollowed to save weight and then enlarged the hole with a sharp craft knife:

 

 

The ribs were cut in half and assembled. However the 20 thou card is too thin and warped when I used the cement to join everything up:

 

 

Start again. This time I used 40 x 125 thou strip for the hinge section and 30 x 125 for the spar with much more satisfacrory results. Rod was used to represent the bracing:

 

[

 

 

The slight curvature seen on one of the ailerons will be eliminated when it is finally glued to the wing. Control horns were made from 20 x 30 thou strip and added after the above images were taken.

 

Next came some control details. The control column was mounted on to a hollow bar through which the aileron wires were passed. The column was brass rod with a piece of bent plastic CA'd to one end to represent the yoke which joined it to the bar. The bar is brass tube - the column was CA'd to the tube. On the bar there were two small pulley wheels which carried the control cable: the latter was attached to the column on the aircraft, so I represented the wheels with discs of 10 thou card and drilled a hole through the brass rod column. After painting I threaded a piece of monofilament thread and CA'd the ends to the wheels. I also made up the rudder bar from rod and 10th card pedals:

 

 

 

Seat belts are a difficult topic on these very early machines - some pilots used them, others did not. I chose to make one for the pilot only and based it on photographs posted on this site of a belt from a BE 2c, a contemporary type: it is the best information that I have on this subject. A piece of 10thou card was cut to size and painted to represent canvass and leather with metal fixings :

 

 

Finally I have started to make the horizontal tail unit. One half is solid so that was easy to make - take a piece of 30 thou card, shape it, add ribs as per the wings and...... it was too thin! The booms which support the tail passed through the horizontal surfaces and as my booms are made from brass rod the 30 thou card was too thin, so I made another surface from 80 thou card. By carefully laying the top wing and right boom on the plans I was able to mark on the tail unit where the boom would have to be inserted. The tail unit was cut and then the edges filed until I could get the brass rod boom to lie between the two tail pieces so that the leading edge of the tail was paralled with the trailing edge of the wing. This assembly was CA'd together and the grooves filled and sanded:

 

 

 

The next step will be to add the tail unit spars of the uncovered port (left) side of the horizontal tail unit by cutting slots in the solid half of the tail and inserting two 30 x 80 thou strips. More on that in the next post. I have also been giving thought as to how to mount the top wing and whether or not to attach the tail unit first. Given the size of this model, and the absolute requirement that everything must be square and true, I am probably going to have to build a more rigid jig than usual. I am also still undecided about whether to use plastic or wood for the struts - both have advantages and problems. So if there is a longer than usual delay before my next post it is because either I am still trying to solve a problem or I have completely failed to do so and have given up.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

P

[Brandy]

Nice to see this one back P! Hopefully we'll get another update fairly soon....

 

Ian

[pheonix]

Evening All,

 

Thanks Ian for your kind comment: here is another update but not quite as I had planned as I have still to put the top wing into place. I am working on this but before I could do so I found that I really needed to add most of the remaining details to the cockpits and finish off some other items, so this is a short summary of those aspects of the build.

 

First I had to add the spars to the horizontal tail unit and paint the whole. This is because I may have to add this when I put the top wing on: it is all about getting alignments correct as I will explain later. Anyway here is the completed horizontal tail section with the spars: the ribs will be added after this has been attached to the wing and port (left) upper boom and rudder post.

 

 

The holes in the spars are where the port boom and a bracing strut will be inserted later.

 

I added the control column to the pilot's cockpit and have cut two horns for the elevator, but not added the latter yet as they are very likely to be knocked and damaged if I do. I have also made a seat cushion for the pilot from resin and added this and the seat belts before putting the seat into the cockpit - I am not sure whether I could do this with the top wing in place.

 

 

The wheel on the left of the image above is for the gun mount. Early gunbuses had a curved mounting with a bracket and short post for a Vickers m/g: this was moved by turning a wheel which engeged with a toothed mechanism which in turn moved the gun from side to side. The front bracket on which the gun mounting was fitted looked like this:

 

 

 

This was painted and then fixed in the nose with two support pillars from brass rod. Then the nose area was rigged:

 

 

I also added the port (left) side panel to the pilot's cockpit. The outside of this will be seen so I fitted the fuel pipes and a fine adjustment valve; again these had been left off for as long as possible so that I did not knock them off or damage them when handling the model.

 

 

I have been painting the fin and rudder while all of this has been going on, together with trying out various ideas for a jig with which I can fit the top wing. I am hoping that having cleared away all of these fiddly bits I can now proceed with turning this monoplane into a true biplane, and be hopeful that I am not going to knock anything off or find that I still need to add some fine details in a wholy inaccessible place in the future. If all goes according to plan my next post will show the top wing and booms in position and the jig that I will have used to get them there.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

P

Edited January 27, 2019 by pheonix

[pheonix]

Evening All,

 

Well I have got there at last - I now have a pusher biplane in 1/32 scale....well almost! Actually I have a nacelle, two booms and two wings and struts, but not all of the struts are in place yet. However I consider that I have taken a big step forwards in this project and am hoping that I now do not drop it or cause damage in some other way. There are still lots of challenges ahead, not least the rigging, but I will deal with those later. In the meantime I am enjoying the moment.

 

First I painted the serial and added a Union flag transfer to the rudder, but because it is half of the structure, the serial and Union flag will be visible as shadows on the reverse side so I painted the serial in reverse and put on a Union flag in the respective places before painting over with several thin coats of paint. The serial was hand painted as I could not find a suitable font to print from.

 

 

 

To complete both the rudder and fin I added the ribs from 10 x 30 thou strip on the inside surfaces:

 

 

I then realised that I had overloked the roundel on the top wing! This was printed and added and a shadow roundel painted on the undersurface of the wing. I only paint using a hairy stick, so the shadow effect was achieved in the same way as the serial by painting the base colours with thinned acrylic paint and then overpainting with several thinned coats of CDL until I had something that looks vaguely like a shadow:

 

 

Now I could set up the jig ready to put on the top wing. I model on a shoestring and small tray so making a suitable jig required some thought. I settled on this design:

 

 

which consists of a piece of wood which I found in my garage and was originally intended to be used as part of the base for the Dornier Flying boat that I scratch built last year, with 4 nails driven in to hold the lower wings rigid. Two supports for the ends of the wing were cut from cardboard. These latter went through several variants before I found a shape that would hold the top wing in place and not allow it to move about while I fitted the struts - these supports were used at each tip of the wings and a small piece of scrap plastic was placed to hold the trailing edge of the solid wing at the correct height:

 

 

After many trials and failures I managed to get this highly sophisticated and expensive piece of equipment to work i.e. I was able to start to add the struts to the wings so that they were square and properly upright. I had already drilled holes in the wings to take small wire pins on the ends of the struts. The struts were carved from basswood strip because this is more rigid than plastic, but I painted them with Revell Ocker because I could not find a suitable woodstain that woud give me the correct colour for  varnished pine. I also only used pins on one end of the struts because otherwise I could not get them into the holes in the wings. All is held together with CA which is strong enough to hold things together until I can add some rigging and thus strengthen the whole structure. The port (left) side struts were added first as these were easier to reach:

 

 

and here you can see the full jig in action:

 

 

The starboard (right) side was also added more easily than I had anticipated and the completed structure could then be lifted out of the wood jig:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am rather keen to tie up and secure a lot of those threads because they keep getting in the way, but I am hoping that when in place they will provide extra strength for what is still a rather fragile structure. I have decided to defer adding the remaining booms and tail structure until I have rigged the wings because of the strength problem and also because of the need to be able to get into awkward places. Consequently it may be a little time before I return with the next update: this is only the second time that I have rigged a biplane model with thread and so this is yet another of those steep learning curves which I keep having to climb.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

P

[Brandy]

Beautifully done P!

Now she's really starting to look like a Gunbus. I'm sure a man of your skills will quickly master the rigging using thread, and yes, it will hugely improve the rigidity and strength.

 

Ian

[pheonix]

Evening All,

 

Thanks Ian for the kind comment. I hope that in this post it will look even more like a gunbus, as I have added the other booms and part of the tail structure.

 

The first thing to do after the top wing was in place was to add the cabane struts and sort out the rigging - I had many lengths of monofilament thread hanging from the starboard (right) top wing and parts of the fuselage nacelle and these were constantly getting in the way. The double rigging wires were difficult because some of the threads would not pass through the lower wing - the brass spars were in the way. Also attaching the cabane strut wires into the underside of the top wing was a problem because I could not drill holes all the way through the hollow wing and be sure that the ends of the thread would pass through. Well all of that got sorted out eventually, (after a delay caused by a back problem which meant no modelling for nearly a week), and I riggied the port (left) wing at the same time. Now I just have the anti-drag bracing wires which run from the forward outer wing struts rearwards - they are currently wound around the wing tips. The elevator control wires ran parallel with and outside the lift wires at the rear of the inner bay of the wings - effectively this meant that I had to add the pulleys over which the wires passed. These were fixed to plates at the wing root and at the top of the inner rear struts: ading the extra control wires to run parallel to the lift wires was fun....! The rigging took three evenings by the time I had corrected various mistakes on the way. I have learned several things from this exercise for future reference if i ever choose to build another 1/32 model.

 

Now I could add the other booms and the horizontal tail surface that I had constructed some time ago. This was a simple procedure when compared to the rigging and a good deal quicker. I had already drilled holes in the rear of the starboard wings to insert the ends of the booms, so a mixture of 2-part epoxy provided the sticky bit to hold them in place and in they went. The upper boom needed support because of the weight of the horizontal stabilizer: to stop it from drooping and make sure that it was properly aligned with the rest of the structure I used a modified mk 1 jig and left the assembly to cure. A dob of CA at the V of the upper booms also helped to hold that part in place:

 

 

 

 

 

The set square to the left of the model is there to check that the booms and rudder post were vertical: they are and the upper and lower booms are directly in line. I was relieved that the structure has set like this - I have repeatedly been checking these alignments because if any of them is ever so slightly wrong the whole model would be a fiasco. I can live with errors of 1mm but I seem to have been able to reduce them to less than this. Yippee!!!!

 

The resultant structre was stronger than I had anticipated and allowed me to move it about freely ready for the next steps: adding the rudder post and lower boom cross bracing.

 

 

 

The rudder post is brass rod. I used CA to fix it to the upper boom because the presence of plastic precludes any idea of using solder. The addtional advantage was that the rudder post was held in place so that when I soldered the lower joint I did not need any extra support. The cross bracing between the lower booms was also brass rod - I held that in place using two pieces of blue-tack on a wood block:

 

 

 

Finally I added the horizontal bracing strut in the port horizontal surface from brass rod and soldered one end to the boom:

 

 

 

This structure is strong: there was no danger of anything becoming distorted by an accidental knock. To finish the boom structure I could add the struts - these were carved from thin basswood sheet like the other struts, sealed with talcum powder and dope mixture and painted. The horizontal tail surface structure was made up from 20 x 30 thou strip and the leading edge wire between the boom and starboard side was from a piece of telephone cable wire. I have not completed thie remainder yet as it is rather exposed and liable to damage while I still work on other parts of the model. I have however painted the booms and wood structures:

 

 

 

 

Now as is usual with scratch builds, I have to make up and finish some more parts including the fin and rudder, undercarriage, etc. I am also trying to work out how much of the boom I should rig before proceeding to much further with construction. In addition I have to be away from home again for an uncertain period so the next update will probably have to wait for a time until I can do more on the model and have something to report on.

 

In the meantime, thanks for looking.

 

P

 

 

 

 

Edited February 24, 2019 by pheonix
spelling error

[Brandy]

P, this is just sublime. Far and away your best yet, and yes, I know I say that with every one.

 

Ian

[TheBaron]

I've been entirely remiss in not keeping up with developments here Pheonix.

This:

sums this build up for me in terms of dedication and elegance.

I envy your skills. (In a nice way!)

Bravo!

 

[pheonix]

Evening All,

 

Many thanks Ian and Tony for your very kind comments.

Tony: I think that our respect is mutual because when it comes to modelling skills I envy yours too. I know we chose different subject material but your own builds are truly inspirational.

 

I have not reported much of late because I have not had too much time for modelling owing to life issues which keep getting in the way. Added to that I have reached a stage where I seem to spend a great deal of time achieving very little - or a least very little to show. I am desperately trying to avoid adding parts which I will inevitably knock off at some time in the future, and almost every operation seems to require much time and patience. However here is some of the progress that I have made to date.

 

I have made the undercarriage skids and axle and completed this sub-unit. The skids are carved from thin basswood sheet, and the axle is shaped 60 thou card. I bound the axle to the skids with sewing thread which is about the correct colour: this represents the bungee cord which was used as a spring for the axles. I also added the metal bracing from thin wire:

 

 

I tried to make my own wire wheel but after several unsuccessful attempts decided that life is too short at the moment so I bought one of the superb Gaspatch sets instead. I used the tyre from one set and made my own disc from plastic card which had been laminated and the filed to shape, while I used the other unit from the kit. I painted the spokes black and tyres grey:

 

 

The marks on the disc are where I wanted to add the threads which held the canvass covers to the wheels but my first attempts to achieve this have not been successful either.... Looking at photos of the machine that I am trying to depict the threads are not very prominent so I may not bother after all.

 

The undercarriage legs have also been made and await being attached to the skids and nacelle, but not just yet as I am not ready to do so.

 

Another important step was to add the trailing edge wires to the exposed control surfaces, wings and tail unit. These were made from telephone wire which had been rolled with a brass strip and then carefully bent to shape and C A'd in place:

 

 

 

When the wires on the ailerons had been painted the units were put on to the wings:

 

 

I have been using EZ line for the first time for the control wires. I am using it because I know that I would not be able to get a consistent tension if I were to use monofilament thread as I am on the static rigging. The rudder wires were double on British machines and I have also added the elevator control horns and control wires to the pulleys at the rear of the wing. This means that the rudder bar has also been put into the cockpit, but it is very difficult to photograph:

 

 

 

 

The last image shows the rudder wires running between the two sets of pulleys at the trailing edge of the wing.

 

The engine was finished by adding EZ line for the wires to the spark plugs:

 

 

and then the engine was fixed to the rear of the nacelle:

 

 

I have rigged the first bay of the boom but more importantly I have put in the horizontal bracing in front of the tail: this is formed by 4 wires attached to a small ring. Once again EZ line came to the rescue so that I could get two symmetrical and even patterns:

 

 

Finally I have been working on the machine gun. This is a Vickers from Gaspatch, but unfortunately the guns used on FB 5's were of a slightly different pattern to that depicted by the AM issue, so I have removed some of the moukding and made an ammunition box and receiver for discharged cases as per a photo in the DataFile:

 

 

This will be painted later and will be one of the last parts to be added to the model.

 

I am still struggling with errant lengths of thread which will be attached as anti drag wires eventually, but cannot be fixed at present because they will get damaged if I do. So, ever so slowly and in a crabwise manner I am getting nearer to finishing this project. I do not know how long that is going to take but I will probably wait until I do before I make the next post. Hopefully that will not be too long now.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

P

Edited March 24, 2019 by pheonix

[TheBaron]

Glad to see that you've been able to get time on the 'bus again Mr. P. 

I had to go and check in your title what scale you were building this at again because I've come to realize an odd cognitive thing about your work (in a good way!): perhaps it's something to do with the range of materials you work in (not to mention the skill they are worked 'with') but I never feel that your work is at a particular scale.

 

Does that make sense?

Possibly not.

 

I think what I mean is that the diversity of materials and techniques used creates such a rich and compelling impression of the individual aircraft as a physical presence, that the usual factors of scale melt away in sheer enjoyment of what the eye discovers in your work.

 

Much respect.

[Brandy]

I couldn't put it any better than that. This really is inspiring and very, very, well executed.

 

Ian

[Putty Animal]

This is tremendous.  It's incredibly inspiring.

[Jonners]

This is simply exceptional, Phoenix. Those rings in the tail bracing really sum up this creation. 

 

“I have not had too much time for modelling owing to life issues which keep getting in the way.” Yup, I hear you!  Unfortunately, looking at your superb build and then contemplating my life-conflicted modelling desk (and long list of other ‘to-do’ projects...) makes me wonder why I bother!  Mind you, the main reason that I chose 1/144 for scratchbuilding obscure biplanes was so that I wouldn’t feel obliged to add all that detail!

 

Keep it up; it will look spectacular when finished.

 

Jon

[heloman1]

Excelent work, coming together very nicely.

 

Colin

[pheonix]

Evening All,

 

Thank you Tony for the very generous comments: I really appreciate them as they come from a modeller who I am certain all of us regard with the greatest respect. That is praise indeed.

 

Thank you too Ian, Putty Animal, Jon and Colin for your kind remarks - I also appreciate them as they too come from modellers whose work I consider to be of the very highest order. 

 

Well the crab has stopped moving sideways, and after a minor scare when one of the wheels dropped off and the tail skid broke away when I was trying to fit the wheel for the machine gun mounting, (necessitating a couple of hours of very delicate repair and recovery, and some unrepeatable language), it finally jumped to the finish line and my dream has materialised.

 

I C.A.'d the tail skid to the base of the rudder post and made a spring from thin copper wire wound around a piece of brass rod. This was then assembled as per the plans and photos. Then I could fix the rudder and add the control cables, followed by the elevators and their control wires:

 

 

 

I followed up with the undercarriage unit. The legs were C.A.'d to the skids and when these were set I could CA the whole unit to the underside of the nacelle. This was left overnight as it seemed to be rather fragile: the following day I added the bracing from EZ line which seemed to make the assembly considerably stronger.

 

 

 

The propellow was next as I was concerned that I might not be able to reach into the rear without breaking something off:

 

 

The step to the cockpit was made from 20thou sheet - it too was C.A.'d in place - again care was needed not to knock this off twice - yes I managed to do so once!

 

 

Final details were the pitot tube on the front inner port (left) strut, the wing skids and picket rings, wheels and last, the machine gun and mounting and wheel for moving the mount.

 

The project is finished and I have completed my first pusher biplane in 1/32 scale, (I have built 14 others as kits, conversions or scratch builds in 172 scale), - it was not a pushover but it did not push me quite as far as I had anticipated except at the very end when as described a wheel and the tail skid broke off when I was trying to fit the machine gun wheel. So the sting was in the nose and the tail of this project.

 

 

 

My thanks to all who have followed this marathon and left supportive and encouraging comments on the way. I will post photos of the completed model in RFI later when I have a little more time.

 

So if you have been, thanks for looking.

 

P

 

 

[John Masters]

That really nice.

[Brandy]

That is just stunning, no other words for it! Fantastic work P!

Are you going to Telford this year? It would be lovely to see it "in person", although I fear it may be a little fragile to transport.....

 

Ian