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Piaggio P.166 1:48 Scratchbuild


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Have recently kicked this scratchbuild off - after thinking about doing it for a decade or two, and waiting for it to be kitted in 1:48.   RELIABLE PREDICAITON: a 1:48 kit will be released just after I finish this..... 

 

At this stage I have largely completed the plug for moulding the fuselage. And the basic flying surfaces have been formed up  (main wings will be 'gulled' at a later step). The NACA23017 profile is one thick wing!!

 

The Aviation News drawings are a bit average - but have been able to crawl all over a real P166 and have 4 other sets of plans of varying degrees of average to help arrive at my own conclusions. 

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Any chance of getting copies of those assorted plans? That's a favorite airplane of mine, as well. Something about the gull wing and pusher configuration. I have a 1/72 Broplan kit of its amphibious cousin, the P.136L, an aircraft which was sold/manufactured in this country back in the 1950s as the Trecker 'Royal Gull."

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9 hours ago, Moa said:

P/S: an impertinent and nosy question: why not a boxed spar?

Oooh hadn't thought of that.   I've done a tapered spar from laminations (cos that's what I've always done?).  It looks pretty rough and ready at the moment but will show what it looks like after I've taken to with the sander.  On reflection, a boxed spar would have actually been a FAR neater solution.  However I am not starting this one again - but will definitely try that technique on my next build. Thx!

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44 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Am especially interested to see how you go about making the cabin. Will you make it hollow or just ‘paint’ the windows on?

Ah sacrilege! Most definitely hollow.  The fuselage at the moment is simply the plug for moulding.  I will plunge mould a conventional left half and right half from white styrene. Then I will mould (maybe vacform) a single large top section in clear - extending from just in front of the front windscreen to just in front of the wing leading edge - ie as mocked up in the image below (sort of like a giant glasshouse section ?).   This will allow me to fit out the interior without visible join lines etc then mask and paint.....   (did a similar technique for a 1:48 DH Heron)

Untitled

 

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I like your choice of subject - I remember the Snowy Mountains Authority operated one of these from Polo Flat airport NSW in the 1960's - my memory is of it being very noisy on take off - will follow your build with interest

CJP

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On 3/12/2019 at 6:38 AM, CJP said:

I remember the Snowy Mountains Authority operated one of these

Funnily enough - that's the exact scheme I'll be doing! It's not that exciting a scheme - but I've done quite a few of the Snowy Mountains Authority aircraft and feel duty bound to add to that collection.... You can see the Piaggio up the back of this collection of SMA aircraft https://goo.gl/images/rBkY6E

 

Geoff Goodall has compiled a great history of Piaggio's in Oz

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Will be watching. Looks good so far.

 

I've only ever scratch built tanks or WWI subjects so will be interested to see how you handle the wings (someday I want to do a 1/48 Gloster whittle or possibly an MB5) 

 

What material did you use for the fuselage blank, I've only ever used wood.

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19 hours ago, Marklo said:

What material did you use for the fuselage blank

The 'core' of the fuselage is a skeleton of cut-to-size styrene sheet - ie a series of formers for the fuse cross sections - combined with a top section and side section spine?  ie a skeleton of the fuselage built up from styrene.   This then filled up with "bog" - the putty used by car panelbeaters (which is actually 25% styrene).  Putty requires a repetitive build up process but your finished shape is defined by your 'skeleton' so is in my view an easier process than cutting down a block of wood?

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Putty requires a repetitive build up process but your finished shape is defined by your 'skeleton' so is in my view an easier process than cutting down a block of wood?

I usually end up doing both

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Styrene skeleton with wood infill and putty over the top. Now for my last ouiting I didn't use the formers and used Basswood which didn't need as much filling. But I think I prefer my older method.

 

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  • 1 month later...

A busy day of moulding on the 1/48 Piaggio P.166 scrtchbuild.   Two fuselage halves first - plunge moulded in 30thou.

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Cut them out using a 12V power tool with cutting wheel

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and trim them up - pretty happy with the way they turned out when shape compared vs original plug - not 100% on fuselage underside but that fits OK with planning. And obviously there's no clear bits at this stage..

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Because I've cut the master around the rear bulkhead of cockpit so I can VACform a canopy. Using a home made vacform (too 20 minutes to make) and the vacuum cleaner (that's the purple nozzle from the vacuum cleaner). 

 

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And here's all the bits I need for the basic airframe (but lots of other bits too).   More later!

 

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I'm not familiar with the P.166 but it's an impressive start. The landing gear arrangement looks like it's going to be fun to get to grips with?!

Thanks for sharing,

P. (... 1127... not 166)

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Time to gull the wings.  Cut out some wedges from the formed wing - and string them on a cut to size spar to ensure correct di-an-hedral.

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A bit of glue and let them set before trimming/smoothing (upper wing surface entirely covered by engine nacelle in due course)

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Repeat for the other wing and very happy with the result (yes they need cleaning up - but exactly what I was hoping for). In the background is the front cabin section being built up with floor, nose wheel well, bulkheads and lead weight. The entire upper section of front fuse will be clear - obviously masked off and painted. This approach does make detailing of cockpit/cabin so much easier than the 'ship in bottle' approach. 

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Still working out approach to attach wings (at least there is a spar) and deal with the pesky main wheel wells

 

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14 hours ago, ianwau said:

Time to gull the wings.  Cut out some wedges from the formed wing - and string them on a cut to size spar to ensure correct di-an-hedral.

 

Diane Hedral – the Patron Saint of gull-winged aircraft.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spent a day in the cockpit....

 

The 'glassed section' of the fuselage is effectively a separate pod. I'm going to cut off the rear fuse (you can sort of see the vertical cut line in the foreground assembly?  So I've elected to use the sacrificial styrene moulded front fuse section as the basis for the INNER cabin surfaces - a bit of cutting out involved with assistance from drills and cutting wheel...

 

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this will all make sense after this photo.... (I think!). Cutouts look a bit rough - but this is straight after popping out the openings...

 

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So the cabin sides from the above fettling are now cut-out and inserted inside the pre-existing cockpit  'pod'. Oh, and an extra  bulkhead.... this pod will be biologically sealed from the rear fuse section - to make sure there are no loose styrene shavings flying around the cabin...

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Still some cleaning up to do - but here's what it looks like with the clear section loosely sitting on top.... This big plus of this approach is that the join-line of upper clear section against lower styrene section will not be internally visible if peering thru the windows. And I am getting the right scale thickness of the fuselage (and I can dress up the internal window surrounds etc without having to worry about masking etc.  

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And now pushing ahead with the interior - instrument panel etc....

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