Stefanoff Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 (edited) Hello all, Since I was little boy, 8-9 years old, I was very fascinated of the early airplanes of russian aircraft designer A.S. Yakovlev. 30 years ago I was impressed nothing else but the colors of the airpalnes. So colorful - red and wide, stripes...amazing. For my child mind this red-white livery was a symbol of those interwars years light airplanes, so called "avietok". And the fact that every prototype of Yakovlev's airplanes had this livery, made me fall in love with his airplanes. One of this favorite airplanes was the AIR-3. And from this years, up to now, I always wanted to have model of this airplane. 30 years has gone, I grow old and I became a design engineer. Unfortunately, not airplane designer. But for this 30 years no one of the scale model companies doesn't design a kit of this very attractive airpalne. And because my passion to the Yakovlev's airplanes burns still so wild, I decided to use my knowledge in design and together of present technologies to create and build my own model ot AIR-3. have decided that the 1/32 scale will be most suitable and will allow to show the full beauty of this early bird. There is no drawings of this airplane. Only in one old russian magazin Modelist-Konstruktor. Pictures are very few. I have collected all that I can find and started to design. All advices and opinions will be highly apprettiated! To be continued... Edited March 19, 2020 by Stefanoff 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanoff Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 A little bit more pictures: This one is my favorite 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonners Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Excellent, Stafanoff! This will be interesting to watch. That is a nice-looking aeroplane and I agree that the colour scheme is very attractive. How are you going to design and create it? Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanoff Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 I'm gonna use 3D CAD design, 3D printers and hand made details from scratch. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 looking forward to this, interesting aircraft that I've not heard of, one of many I'm sure. rgds John(shortCummins) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 (edited) it’s a very elegant looking airplane. Good luck with the build. With something like this I’d start my getting the overall dimensions. (Wikipedia is surprisingly good for this) you can then CAD up a model using your side view photo to scale features. Then save a CAD image of the same view as a line drawing and overlay it on the photo to check the model. It’s a bit tedious but doable. This was how I was going about making Sopwith Snark drawings, until a kind fellow member actually emailed me a set. Edited March 19, 2020 by Marklo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shorty84 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 It's always nice to hear when someone is following his passion and I'm looking forward how this turns out. With all those different techniques applied it for sure will be an interesting build. Regarding drawings I've found these which dont seem to originate from MK (please ignore if you already have them): http://www.sovplane.ru/readarticle.php?article_id=34 Cheers Markus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichieW Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Very much looking forward to seeing this unfold. Never scratchbuilt anything myself but I love seeing projects like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanoff Posted March 20, 2020 Author Share Posted March 20, 2020 (edited) 14 hours ago, Marklo said: With something like this I’d start my getting the overall dimensions. (Wikipedia is surprisingly good for this) you can then CAD up a model using your side view photo to scale features. Then save a CAD image of the same view as a line drawing and overlay it on the photo to check the model. It’s a bit tedious but doable. Yes, Marklo, I have used this method. Using CorelDraw I scaled the drawings to the needed scale. Also traced all dimensions. But let's go step by step. I've decided to start with the wing. Keeping in mind that the model will become quite big, the wingspan will be 343,75мм, and the fact that the wing have to be carried only from the struts, I strated to worry about masses of the model. Some rough calculation revealed that if I made the wing from solid piece of styrene it will weight about 75-80 grams. Much more that whole ordinary model. This definitely will cause structure problems. The solution is to make the wing as lighter as possible. And I will make it following the real airplane's wing structure - beams and ribs, covered with skin. First made a tryout section. Two beams and few ribs covered with thin styrene, like this: Cuted from styrene beams and ribs, glued in structure and covered with skin. The result is mass ot 3.5 grams. Quite good, I think. Edited March 20, 2020 by Stefanoff 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 Wow that is real model engineering. I’d have just gone for a balsa core and skin it or mold it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 Excellent work there Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanoff Posted March 25, 2020 Author Share Posted March 25, 2020 On 3/20/2020 at 2:22 PM, Marklo said: Wow that is real model engineering. I’d have just gone for a balsa core and skin it or mold it. Yes, you are right. This is the easiest way, but what accuracy we will get in this way!? I have used another approach. I made the design of the wing. It will be separated in 5 parts. Ailerons will be separatelly. Inner part will be from 3 assemblies: Centre: And two halves: Ribs were cut and whole construction is glued together: The construction is very strong and rigid and very light. And after that it was covered with thin styrene: To be continued... 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanoff Posted March 25, 2020 Author Share Posted March 25, 2020 Side sections. If you pay attention you will see the differeence between the ribs. We have 3 types of ribs - "fish" and "half fish" for central section: And "fish" and "eaten fish" for side sections: The ribs follow the real step, which I know from the decriprion od the wing. That will help for cover sag later. Well, the side sections are ready as well: And assembled with the center section: 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanoff Posted March 25, 2020 Author Share Posted March 25, 2020 (edited) And all assembled together. As you can see, thanks to the CAD design, all fits perfect and everything is smooth. Some filler has been used for some dents I've made by accident. And at the end the cover sag was made. Loogs little bit exaggerated, but this is OK I think. To be continued... Edited March 25, 2020 by Stefanoff 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, Stefanoff said: Yes, you are right. This is the easiest way, but what accuracy we will get in this way True, your approach is meticulous model engineering and looks amazing. What are you using to cut the parts? Also can you give a bit more detail on how you got the skin to sag between the ribs like that? To me it looks extremely realistic. Edited March 25, 2020 by Marklo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanoff Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 The ribs are 3D printed. Actually I used "cut" out of place. As I said, the distance between ribs follow the step of the ribs on the real aircraft. And this was made for the sag indeed. The sag is made after covering the wing with thin styrene. Gently and carrefuly push between ribs. This makes the styrene to expand a little bit and drops between ribs, which forms this realistic sag. This was the initial idea behind the whole this structucture of beams, ribs and skin. I think it works perfect. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 2 minutes ago, Stefanoff said: The ribs are 3D printed What printer are you using, I presume it’s an SLA type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanoff Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 2 minutes ago, Marklo said: What printer are you using, I presume it’s an SLA type. To be honest....I don't know! I just send the 3D models to a company and they send me back the printed details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 Ah ok. Are they expensive. I’ve used 3D printing services professionally and tbh would be Way too expensive to use for modelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanoff Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 (edited) Today there are quite wide range of 3D printers and printing materials. Some of them are really expensive, but the quality hits the sky. Other are cheap, rough and with low "resolution". I use combination of both, for details like ribs, which will be hidden at the end, I use more rough printing. For visible details - more fine and with high resolution. They are much more exprensive, of course. But at the end, how much can cost the realizing of a dream model? Edited March 26, 2020 by Stefanoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanoff Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 (edited) Let's move further. The central part of the wing is ready, it's time for end part. Here I have changed the aproach. I have designed the parts as assembly of 4 details instead of the kit of beams and ribs. Semihollow shells with integrated ribs. ( I can't figure out more complex explanaition ) Edited March 26, 2020 by Stefanoff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanoff Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 (edited) Parts are printed and assembled. Different material, more rough and needs some filling. But easy for sanding. Edited March 26, 2020 by Stefanoff 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanoff Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 Parts were covered with skin and the skin sag was made. I have to mention that the hard shell is more comfortable for work. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanoff Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 (edited) Two more pictures from the center part, I really like the result, looks like real wing: Edited March 26, 2020 by Stefanoff 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonners Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 This is very impressive indeed, and makes my scratchbuilding look completely amateur! I particularly like "eaten fish" ribs... Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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