Knoll KN-1 Biplane , Scratchbuilt 1/72 1928

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

A build form 10 years ago:

 

How could anyone resist the temptation of modeling a 1928 small blue and orange cabin biplane that has three doors and Felix the Cat painted on it?

When I found the Knoll biplane on Aerofiles, I immediately fell in love with it. Later on I found more information on the Net at http://www.pknoll.net/knoll_aircraft/knoll_kn1.htm

Where there was –a rare case with these odd balls- enough documentation to build a model.

You will find that there were three versions:

Knoll KN-1: three doors on the left hand-side, matching painted surfaces on the right hand-side.

Knoll KN-1 modified with only two doors and inline power plant (Hispano-Suiza) (Reg. 8861)

Knoll KN-3 with open cockpit on the upper aft fuselage and two doors. Louvers on the engine cowling.

And I don’t need to repeat here what you can read there if you like to explore further.

The Mattel vacuforming device provided the fuselage shells made upon a Sculpey master previously fabricated. A reasonable interior was also scratched and the flying surfaces were built using the time-honored method of suffering. Some wire and metal “Strutz” were also used, wheels came from Aeroclub. I started to chop down the nose of the model to create the space for the engine, making and correcting many boo-boos in the process. I temporarily sandwiched the engine between two thin layers of Milliput  and pressed all the involved parts together to represent the neatly faired cylinder openings of the original. Any squeezed-out material was then removed and the parts later smoothed out. What can I say…: “-Kids, don’t try this at home”.

A note for the younger among us: Felix the Cat, the cartoon character represented on the plane and model, is not the brother of “Hello Kitty”, nor is he Barbie’s pet. And since you are so savvy with the computer you can google him to learn who he was.

I made the drawing of Felix myself, which was a pleasure and an honor given the immense amount of joy I had as a kid watching his cartoons.

Accompanying images will give an idea of the building process as usual, although bloody pictures and violent scenes that portrayed what occurred during the building process have been removed for the benefit of the impressionable audience.

After all photos were taken fellow modeler Alain Bourret made me notice that the wheels seemed aluminum color, which were therefore painted over with that color. Tail regs were also added, because they were not any good still on the decal sheet, were they? I made those of a goldenish color, and you can see those additions in the very last photo.

And which do you think was Mr. Knoll’s first name?

See you in the sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pheonix]

Sadly I do not have your artistic skills to be able to drw anything looking even remotely like Felix the cat! But I do enjoy looking at your drawing and even more the model on which it is found. That is quite a shapely aircraft.

 

P

[JWM]

Very nice model! Interesting cartoon hero presence as logo.

However, on photos in your link there are inscriptions on tail: registration on rudder and "KN-1" on fin, both looks like the same colour like doors, so orange. Why you skip them, if I may ask?

Right above looks like orto film maybe...

Regards

J-W

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

8 minutes ago, JWM said:

Why you skip them, if I may ask?

Well, it will help if you read the post, you know 😉

Look at the last lines of the introduction (and the last photo of the model).

Cheers

 

 

[Baldy]

Another beauty. A lovely looking design it is too - another one of those attractive aircraft with a face. Interesting design - it certainly maximises the use of the available space in the fuselage and it looks like it flew pretty well (according to wiki)

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

[JWM]

55 minutes ago, Moa said:

Well, it will help if you read the post, you know 😉

Look at the last lines of the introduction (and the last photo of the model).

Cheers

 

Indeed, you have it on last photo, and it can be seen there if you are awared about it

But I have read text again I did not found this info... Maybe this is between the words and for me as not English native speaker  it is not visible...

Anyway thank you for your education in history of aviation. Keep on going!

Cheers

J-W

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

28 minutes ago, JWM said:

Indeed, you have it on last photo, and it can be seen there if you are awared about it

But I have read text again I did not found this info... Maybe this is between the words and for me as not English native speaker  it is not visible...

Anyway thank you for your education in history of aviation. Keep on going!

Cheers

J-W

 

Previous to the last lines of the intro:

 

"After all photos were taken fellow modeler Alain Bourret made me notice that the wheels seemed aluminum color, which were therefore painted over with that color. Tail regs were also added, because they were not any good still on the decal sheet, were they? I made those of a goldenish color, and you can see those additions in the very last photo."