Three interwar biplanes: Avro 504N, Airco DH9, Vickers Vildebeest -now THE END!

[JWM]

I made some firs sanding of filled openings for wires

 

And started work on u/c.

I took some struts from old Russian model of Po-2

 

I cut them and made out of them a rear part of main u/c

 

Meanwhile I am also continuing build of Aero A 100 and A 101 on WIP - so no 3 interwar  biplanes but 5!

To be cont

Regards

J-W

 

 

[JWM]

_Hi,

_{I did some work on restoring wings surfaces after riging}

 

_{And further work on scratch build u/c}

 

To be cont.

Regards

J-W

 

 

[Grandboof]

Awesome work Great rigging  

Martin H

[Giorgio N]

On 7/9/2018 at 8:31 PM, JWM said:

 

This is because of EZ! But wait a second! - who told that it was easy? I took me some 10 hours,. in practice whole Sunday with a break for UK GP in Formula 1...  

Cheers

J-W

 

 

That makes sense ! My few experiences with rigging brought me on the verge of mental breakdowns... 😁

Still, you sure know how to do this very effectively, the restoration work on the upper wings also resulted in some very neat surfaces.

This thread also reminds me of how little I know of interwar types and how these are instead very fascinating subjects

[JWM]

Hi,

I worked on main u/c. Wheels are from a-model Fury (I converted it to Dannish Nimrod II on skis once, so wheels left in drawer)

 

As one can notice bottom sides are painted alu dope (Humbrol 56 with some white)

To be cont

Regards

J-W

[JWM]

Today in my home town Krakow played jazz master, saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders with his quartet. A great concert!  I was there and now in late evening I made some more riging - this time on u/c. I made also skid and auxiliary skids below bottom wing.

This is not end of riging!

To be cont.

Regards

J-W

 

[JWM]

12 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

Still, you sure know how to do this very effectively, the restoration work on the upper wings also resulted in some very neat surfaces.

Giorgio, tmany thanks - his is my secret weapon for riging:

small electric driller with down to 0.4 mm drills and nail sanding machine - the latest I used for coarse restoring of upper surface after using putty, then I follow it with delicate wet sanding be a sanding paper 600 rounded on back (handle) of brush

 

Regrads

J-W 

[Giorgio N]

That nail sanding tool looks interesting ! I remember seeing them for sale in "pound shops" and thinking about it I actually have one but never really used it (mainly bought it for the tips to use in my drill). Good to know, I'll have to check if mine still works

And watching Sanders play... that is something I'm envious too ! 😃

[Possibly Apocryphal]

Very nice work on the rigging!  I've been preparing for that ob with the Fury, getting my holes drilled now.  I'm using a .3mm bit in a hand operated pin vice and it flexes so much I cant imagine using a powered drill that size without constantly breaking the bit.  You must have a very delicate touch.

[CliffB]

Nice work on the N's undercarriage.  It's such a distinctive feature of the aircraft.

[JWM]

6 hours ago, Possibly Apocryphal said:

Very nice work on the rigging!  I've been preparing for that ob with the Fury, getting my holes drilled now.  I'm using a .3mm bit in a hand operated pin vice and it flexes so much I cant imagine using a powered drill that size without constantly breaking the bit.  You must have a very delicate touch.

Actually I've broken two 0.4 mm drills with this Avro ... But I've bought set of 10 for about 1 GBP (for set), of course you know who produced them,  so I do not expect their long life...I found 0.3 mm a bit too narrow for EZ. BTW - once in Belgium I've bought 0.3 mm drills with only drilling part so narrow (the part you put into driller was about 2 mm diameter) - that were nice drills.

J-W

[JWM]

Hi,

I did the remaining riging or rather control surfaces cables. The most strange are those going the ailrons - they go on top of upper wing  and on bottom sides of bottom wings, not inside!
 

 

I've painted propeller

 

Please note on presented before photos that Belgian 504 N had  different  (rounded) windscreens, not the flat windows of 504 K or early 504 N. I made them from some plastic garbage.

 

Time to think about decals. I did not found Belgian one in my drawer, so I use early style Romanian roundel from Mmasterkit PZL P7 and repainted inside dark blue by black

 

The sides roundel is very small.

I realized that I have Hasegawa P40 E with strange scheme having small insignias of all countries where P 40 served

Please note red/yellow/green roundles (Bolivian I think)

Again I have painted green centres black

Isterted to apply decals.

Due to control cables I have to cut each wing roundel into two pieces

This is not finish yet

To be cont.

Regards

J-W

 

 

[JWM]

It looks that I have finished Avro 504 N

 

Numbers came from drawer (white 43 was from LS Ki-67 if I recognized correctly - so it was 40  years old and in good shape). Black 43 I did from Supermodel CR 42 4 and 14 from I guess some old Heller decal . Avro No43 and immitation of dato on weight for rudder are hand made (with needle) and pinguins are als hand paint wit  00 brush. The cabrio roof is made of alu foil and steel wires.

So I potting some 4 takes to gallery and more to RFI

DH-9 will be next here

To be continue (with two others)

Cheers

 

J-W

[Giorgio N]

That is a great looking model, really well done ! Loved the rigging advice that you gave us and also how you sorted the decals. A good spare decal bank is always useful to a modeller !

Congratulations for having completed the first model in this GB ! Now looking forward to the others

[JWM]

So I am back with DH9 work on. I did not like the way how linien wing was reproduced by Maquette. So I filled all speces between ribs using epoxy body putty (designed for repair of car bodies)

and sanded

of course needs some next work on this. 

 

To be cont.

Regards

J-W

[Grandboof]

Great work on your 504

Martin H

[JWM]

Hi,

I started the most serious work on DH-9. Remastering of wing and tail surfaces.

Similar to wing I filled "valleys: on fin and tailplane

 

Then I covered them with thin layer of Tamiya putty

 

Similar work with wings. First glue ribs than cover with thin layer of putty. The ribs are 240 pieces to glue...

 

 

Then will be wet  sanding and new layer of putty, than agin wet sanding...

To be cont.

Cheers

J-W

 

 

[JWM]

Hi

DH9. Wings looks like ok after wet sanding with "600" paper. So I glued lower wing. Before it I restored ailerons

 

 

I made also base of engine

 

It is heavy raining already second day in Krakow, and I have days off ( summer holidays) so today I spent some 12 hours with models... Therefore a big progress with DH 9 was possible...

To be cont

Regards

J-W

 

[Giorgio N]

I can see how 12 hours may have well been spent sorting all the rib tapes... this is another task that I don't envy to biplane enthusiasts...

Your models and Possibly Apocryphal's Fury are showing me a side of aircraft modelling that I knew little of, I sometime complain about kits of modern subjects and the difficulties in getting certain details right, but these earlier machines introduce a whole new lot of challenges to the modeller.

[AdrianMF]

The Avro 504 is lovely. The wings on the DH9 have come up very nicely! 

 

When I did a DH9 a few years ago I started with an Airfix DH4 and followed an old Alan Hall Airfix Magazine conversion article. That gave me wings of the right chord for a DH9. Back in the 1960s if you wanted a DH9A you added the wings from a FROG Westland Wallace to an Airfix DH4. The Westland Wallace was designed back in the 1920s to use as many DH9 components as possible.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[JWM]

Thanks Adrian!

You are right! There are many ways to do DH-9. I am awared about wings of DH4, but currently Airfix DH4 is difficult to get. I know also about possible use of Wallace wings for this conversion. Moreover, there is available (though expensieve) kit of DH 9 (with another engine anyway) - it is resin very nice kit by Ardpol, company located in my home town and I have a e-mail to them... One can see at that kit here

http://www.karaya.pl/pl/ardpol/4/airco-dh-9-a72-008.html?ref=%2Fpl%2Fardpol%2F4%2F1%2F1%2Fitems.html

It is really very fine model. But I will have to change front of fuselage anyway. 

So it is mostly about possibility (challange and fun) that I am doing those conversions (Avro 504 N is also produced in resin by more than one company)

 

Cheers

J-W

 

 

[JWM]

Hi,

I wanted to see how it looks in details so I have painted thin layer

 

I am rather satisfied with result...

Next - drilling for riging

Regards

J-W

[JWM]

Hi 

I am appraching to glue top wing on position. After drilling holes   for riging and some additionas sanding I glued struts. 

  

Perhaps here you can see some restoring of surface (panel lines) on engine

Ok , I have to make this photo in better light,,,

The u/c needs some changies, It is moved backward a bit and the angle is different so I started to work on those changies. One of leg has broken 0 okastic of this model is hard but it therfore braks easily. 

 

I drilled openings in the end of fuselage and in skid

 

To be cont.

Ragards

J-W

 

 

[JWM]

Hi

Today, in the early afternoon I put upper wing on position

And glued undercarridge

 

I let it dry till 8 PM and after it I started riging wings.

I often use a kind of "needle" made of streched sprue which I glue with CA glue to EZ cable. Sometimes it helps since you can press or pull it for forcept (pincette).

I was trying to do photo of it but here it ius not well visible

Opening are 0.4 mm only, so the sprue must be about 0.2 mm to left room for glueing EZ to it.

 

Just after midnight I have finished main part of riging of the wings

Remains some more riging...

The tube seen in engine is a handle from lolipop, which is a nice tube made of some similar to teflon (regaring the smoth surface) plastic . I use it as bearing for propeller.

To  be continue

Cheers

J-W

 

[zebra]

Nice work - superb rigging!