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Macchi Castoldi M.33: Schneider Trophy Cup: empennage


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While waiting for suitable weather to prime the M.39, I started work on another Macchi, the M.33 flying boat, that I had been thinking about building.  Using enlarged drawings from the Web and contemporary photos, I started by carving and sanding balsa into the wing shape.  The shaped wings will be covered with styrene in much the same manner that I used on the M.39.  The fuselage and outrigger floats will be plunge moulded and empennage shaped around balsa cores.  

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.33

 

Thanks for your interest.

 

Dennis

 

 

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6 hours ago, Courageous said:

Another excellent subject started.

Thanks, Stuart.  Yes, 1/48.  

  

5 hours ago, matti64 said:

Looks good so far, what are she spars made from?

Thank you, spars are ice lolly sticks.

 

Cheers, and thanks for your interest.

 

Dennis

 

 

Edited by DMC
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I enjoy making and carving laminate wooden props.  Thin veneers of different woods glued together and shaped make realistic looking early props.  I glue the small “planks” together using fish glue.  I learned about fish glue many years ago when I had an interest in model ships.  It was used by a professional ship modeller who’ book I had and he used it for rigging, planking and spar assembly.  Really good stuff, extremely sticky, quick drying and water soluble.  Luthiers use it also.   I used it to rig a WWI biplane with stretched spru some years ago.

 

Not readily available, however, and expensive. There is a listing on eBay as we speak

 

I had only a few scraps left to make the prop for the M.33 and might get a sample pack and re-carve the one I made as it is a little short.

 

The large, unfinished, prop was for a 1/28 Camel.  The smaller is on a 1/72 Camel.

 

Laminate the selected slips of veneer together and make a pattern for the prop of your choice but with only one blade.  Trace the blade on one end and then rotate it and trace it on the other.  Using the pattern, establish the shape — outline — and then carve the blade angle.  It would have been easier to trace the outline if I’d made the this one a little wider.  Also a lighter piece on the outside would have shown up the tracing a little better.

 

Thanks for your interest.

 

Dennis

 

 

http://woodenpropeller.com/

 

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8 hours ago, fj55mike said:

Nice work.  Are those scale drawings available anywhere?

Thanks, Mike.  Try Bing images, plans, for the subject of your choice.  Aero Fred offers free downloads.

 

Dennis

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Love the props, particularly the one for the Camel. I recently discovered that you can get good results with paper, Also in smaller scales there is less grain than using actual wood.

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For my (future) Brandenburg DI

 

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And on my DFW Floh

 

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7 hours ago, Marklo said:

Love the props,

Thanks, Markle, much appreciated.

7 hours ago, Marklo said:

I recently discovered that you can get good results with paper

Paper! I would never have thought of that.  Do you saturate it with anything? Epoxy, etc.

 

Liking your builds.

 

Dennis

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Preliminary carving done on the fuselage.  On a mould that will be split into halves, I glue a thin slip of wood — veneer — at each end.  Shaping done, it’s a simple matter to separate the halves with a blade. 

 

Thanks for for your interest.

 

Dennis

 

 

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“Moving right along on this build.  Fuselage hull carved and split.  Next I’ll rig the halves for plunge moulding and make the female mould.  

 

Thanks for for your interest.

 

Dennis

 

 

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Early on in this plunge moulding business, I learned that cutting out a pattern from a solid plank of balsa was not that easy.  Dividing the plank into halves and then cutting out the pattern was much easier and more accurate.  I attempt to leave 2 or 3mm clearances around the edge.  Any more and the styrene spreads out and doesn’t hug the male mould.  

 

This is one is one of my better efforts as the space is pretty consistent around the edge.

 

Next: taking the plunge.

 

Thanks for your interest.

 

Dennis

 

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19 hours ago, Moa said:

Shaping great!

Thanks, Moa, not bad I think.  Moulding the fuselage in halves enables me to put a little cockpit detail (spurious) in there, but I’ll need some sort of liner to butt them together.  Not really a problem, however.

 

Dennis

 

 

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This why I've moved to Basswood and vacforming. Although the Bristol racer plunge molded easily.

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The Bristol as of this morning. A mix of fabricated, plunge molded and milliput.

 

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My Horsa, I find I still need a lot of milliput, not half as neat/patient as DMC

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20 hours ago, Courageous said:

To me, that's impressive, a skill that I need to acquire for those elusive sunjects.

 

Stuart 

 

Thank you, Stuart, you can do it.  Not that difficult, just a bit of practice required.

2 hours ago, Marklo said:

not half as neat/patient as DMC

Hi Marklo

 

I take a lot of time with the moulds, male and female.  I agree, however, that sometimes vacuum forming is the best option.

In the photo, upper left, the float keels for the M.39 were plunge moulded.  Not concave enough.  For the M.67 floats — WIP — I refined the M.39 floats a little and vacuum formed the keels.  Much better but a little work still needed to sharpen them up.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

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Lovely work, Dennis. 

I got some satisfaction from doing my own decals.... So moulding your own kits must be "off the scale"!! 

There's one Italian flying boat that has fascinated me and that's the big twin - hulled Saia Marchetti S55. 

 

 

 

Just sayin..... 😇

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That is lovely work DMC. I can see how making a finer mold and a better molding pays later on in the build.  I tend to get close enough and then make up the difference in the finishing.

 

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The Gamecock took a bit of careful filling and sanding. Balsa and plunge molded. I covered the fuselage in lined 10 thou card to get the rib effect and the panel lines btw.

 

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I am getting better at it. I reckon the Snark will go together better. I used basswood for the molds on this one and vac formed
 

With the Horsa I need to be neat as the thing is so small and there is limited scope for filling and sanding to get geometry, particularly on the fuselage.

Edited by Marklo
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11 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

Lovely work, Dennis.

Thank you, Rob, means a lot.

11 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

got some satisfaction from doing my own decals

Yes, I took note of your decal work on your “Twins” build.  I’m going to need to simulate the cooling slots on the M.39 wing radiators somehow.   Very narrow and there are hundreds.  Decals might serve but I’ll have to bone up on how-to a little.  An S.55?  Then you have no doubt seen StephenCJ’s WiP.

 

3 hours ago, Marklo said:

That is lovely work DMC

And thank you, Marklo.   Nice work!  Perhaps I spend too much time on the moulds (I’ve saved them all and have a couple of shoeboxes full). Seems to pay off, however.   I have little experience with basswood.  All my mould are of balsa as they are meant for one time use.  I expect something more durable would be needed for multiple moulding.

 

Thanks again guys.

 

Dennis

 

 

 

 

 

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Although the basswood is more sturdy I find that  the main advantage is  that it is much finer grained and doesn't need so much filling. If you look very carefully at some of my balsa molded parts you can actually see the wood grain in the part (the canopy on my MIG21 for example. It probably doesn't matter too much for a fuselage as it's easily sanded off.

 

No I must admit I have a massive stash of Balsa at this stage and do do the odd plunge mold or two (the bristol racer for example) the Basswod is way more expensive, I think I paid about €10 for a 50mm x 300mm x 600 mm piece, but that said I've gotten three projects out of it and not even used up half of it.

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Plunge moulding, or vacuum forming, thin styrene (.030) doesn’t leave much of an edge to butt join.  To get a solid join on this fuselage hull I plunged a mould that would give me an insert that fit just inside the nose.  For the tail section I was able to cut down one of the float “fails” from the M.39 build.  Just need to tart the cockpit up a little and I’ll be ready to close the fuselage up.

 

Thanks for your interest.

 

Dennis

 

 

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