Lee-Richards Annular wing 1914, Avis 1/72 injected kit

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The strangest thing happened.

A knock at the door that was more like a knocking-down the door preceded the appearance of this... tin can? walking kettle? who proceeded to state -in a rather metallic voice:

"Greetings from @Martian Hale,my Master in Mars. He sends you this present. It represents the flying saucer into which he made his first solo flight (he is very old, when he was young, eons ago, our technology wasn't as developed). If you don't build it soon we will come back and administer cruel punishment and brutal and merciless retribution."

I pleaded: "Oh barbaric entity at the service of Mars' low ends, does your master know that I scratched -if in a rather clumsy way with my limited skills then- this very noble vehicle at an early age, 14 years ago?:

But the red glow in the eyes of the mechanical spawn told me that appeasing words were useless, thence encouraged by the effective stimulus or unavoidable chastising, I immediately opened the box to show my compliance.

 

 

A resounding round of applause to Avis for venturing where no one has gone before (besides me) and regale us with this wonderful, unusual, whimsical kit, in line with their latest welcome civil releases that have provided many of us with hours of solace and fun.

 

In revising the kit the first thing noticed is that the area on the fuselage bottom immediately below the rotary engine should have a cut out (the original plane did, as photos prove) of one bay, to help with cooling, and there is no engine. The prop looks a bit wonky compared to photos.  As with my scratch, I immediately thought about showing the rotary engine inside the fuselage (it had an extension to drive the prop), for which I raided my supplies and found a suitable Aeroclub one, but I also ordered the proper Small Stuff engine in case I wanted to go bananas. Three laminated wood props were carved to chose the best among them.

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow, with daylight, photos of the kit and more details.

 

 

 

[StephenCJ]

Where do you get the time for so many kits, Claudio?

I am trying to work out Tuckman's theory of group behaviour, without wandering off track.  Don't forget KPIs.

 

Stephen

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

7 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

KPIs

 

Does this relate to the "Kipples" in Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"? (on which the movie Blade Runner was based)

 

7 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

Where do you get the time for so many kits, Claudio?

It's not where, it's how (you deaI with it): I unfold it carefully and it extends at least three times over.

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

 

The sprues:

 

Nice surface detail:

 

The top deck, cleverly, is presented as one piece instead of being part of the split fuselage sides. It's much easier to tidy a seam at the bottom thatn at the top.

 

Interior wall detail, nice:

 

Small bits with a little flash here and there, nothing annoying, though:

 

 Subtle and well executed rendition of the wood/canvas fuselage bays:

 

 

The instructions sheet:

 

 

 

[shortCummins]

wonderful aircraft, it looks as if's its from the set of "those magnificent men in their flying machines"

 

I'm looking forward to this

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The cuts under the fuselage for the rotary engine are made:

 

Here the Aeroclub items you may use and my props. The original prop seems to have been a Chauviere. I believe I have a logo for it somewhere:

[Unkempt]

I just started one of these too, but mine has some serious mould misalignment going on with the smaller parts (and I suppose the larger parts too, though it's less noticeable). Looks like yours has some of that too but it doesn't look as bad as mine:

 

 

I'll probably have to replace some struts and things with, I dunno, something or other. I'm sure you'll be doing that anyway. Lovely looking props there.

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

56 minutes ago, Unkempt said:

I just started one of these too, but mine has some serious mould misalignment going on with the smaller parts (and I suppose the larger parts too, though it's less noticeable). Looks like yours has some of that too but it doesn't look as bad as mine:

 

 

 

I'll probably have to replace some struts and things with, I dunno, something or other. I'm sure you'll be doing that anyway. Lovely looking props there.

 

 

I see it.

Yes, less in mine.

Small parts in short-rum kits is something that I often replace too.

The shock-absorbing legs are not really accurate and will need replacements or additions.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

2 hours ago, shortCummins said:

"those magnificent men in their flying machines"

rgds

John(shortCummins)

Indeed, John.

I absolutely love this kind of unusual approach to the task of flying. So diverse, so inventive, so out of the party line.

 

[dnl42]

Fascinating topic!! This will go well with your Caproni Stipa!

 

But, I must say, I find the "annular" nomenclature a bit of a stretch. 

[Martian]

Hmm, a thread poking fun at the Martian? You have so bitten off more than you can chew Claudio. I'm looking forward to this: following!

 

Martian the Vindictive* 👽

 

 *And that's on a good day!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Separation of parts and clean-up. I like the engineering approach, we'll see how it works in reality.

Be thorough cleaning the parts. The top and sides are beveled, so take care that no little bumps are there to ensure a neat contact:

 

The mismatch of some parts is annoying:

 

Here they are more or less cleaned, and those struts that are too flimsy and a pain in the underworld to clean are replaced with stock airfoiled material:

[72modeler]

5 hours ago, shortCummins said:

it looks as if's its from the set of "those magnificent men in their flying machines"

I say @Moa  paints it black with 'Professor Fate' logos and lettering..."That's another one I'd like to see the Great Leslie try!" 

Mike

[Martian]

2 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

I say @Moa  paints it black with 'Professor Fate' logos and lettering..."That's another one I'd like to see the Great Leslie try!" 

Mike

I heard he was going to finish it in black and put Motorhead logos all over it.

 

Martian 👽

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Be warned: the marks for where the landing gear legs are extremely faint.

If you have joined the fuselage and tidied-up the seam, you would have lost them. 

After taking the photo I marked them more clearly:

 

There are some marks inside the fuselage that may have been for the other seat that was there (perhaps eliminated from the kit in the production process). There are also on the instructions:

 

 

Using a very fine drill bit (er... more like three, I broke two) I drilled all the way through the rigging wire locations around the wing:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

18 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

I say @Moa  paints it black with 'Professor Fate' logos and lettering..."That's another one I'd like to see the Great Leslie try!" 

Mike

 

14 minutes ago, Martian Hale said:

I heard he was going to finish it in black and put Motorhead logos all over it.

 

Martian 👽

You heretic, disrespectful satraps!

What would you have said about the other annular creation I modeled:

 

[Martian]

4 minutes ago, Moa said:

You heretic, disrespectful satraps!

Guilty as charged. I should, of course. said to paint it bright yellow with dayglo pink Sex Pistols' logo on it. Apologies for the slip up.

 

Martian 👽

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The kit provides no instrument panel, but I can see instruments in this image:

https://previews.agefotostock.com/previewimage/medibigoff/caf61114c51907c385f478da60960b60/mev-10844556.jpg

[Andwil]

8 hours ago, Moa said:

What would you have said about the other annular creation I modeled:

 

Probably something along the lines of “ Mott the”

 

AW

[AdrianMF]

Looks good so far. It took a while for Mr Slow here to realise that "Only 500 pcs" refers to the number of kits made, not the number of parts per kit! 

 

And sadly, one does have to treat drills for rigging as consumables, not tools for lifelong use. It particularly annoys me when you can't get the broken bit of metal out of the hole...

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Basic tones are airbrushed to the different parts that are needed for the sub-assemblies. There were fabric, plywood and metal areas on the fuselage, which will need further painting:

[Marklo]

Lovely work as usual. Yes I buy my .5mm drill bits in boxes of twenty

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, Marklo said:

Lovely work as usual. Yes I buy my .5mm drill bits in boxes of twenty

These are more like 0.2mm. The buggers.

But I followed your lead and just bought 20 of them.

That'll teach them!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The Small Stuff engine arrived. This is the proper one in case you want to add it. They are little jewels, but sometimes my quickly fading eyesight doesn't allow me to build them, we'll see.
I think that if I leave open only the bottom as it is now, I may do the Aeroclub one, but if I decide to "open" the top fuselage cover I may do this one. The inclusion of the engine mandates that the side fuselage fairings be thinned down, or even be removed and vac thin parts from them.
We live in hope:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

I reiterate that the kit's prop doesn't conform well (to put it mildly) to the shape of the actual one on the plane:

 

That should look like this Aeroclub one, or the ones I carved:

 

Bear in mind that the different successive versions of the annular wing had different propellers.