Fokker F.32, the Mighty Behemoth - Modified Execuform 1/72nd vacuform

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

3 minutes ago, busnproplinerfan said:

. Ever see any Boeing 80s around? Thought of one for a future build. 

Indeed it is one of my cherished projects.

The high price and low availability of the 1/72 Broplan vac kit had made it inaccessible to me, though.

Surely next week it will be released in injected form and sold for 20 dollars

[busnproplinerfan]

7 minutes ago, Moa said:

Indeed it is one of my cherished projects.

The high price and low availability of the 1/72 Broplan vac kit had made it inaccessible to me, though.

Surely next week it will be released in injected form and sold for 20 dollars

Start building one and then it’ll come out.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

If doing the WAE livery, it may be considered that there are contemporary accounts of the F.32 company planes depicted as "maroon and silver". That is, WAE's color may have not been a vivid or medium red, but more of a deeper red, as in this 1940 ticket book:

 

 

This ad describes it as "maroon":

https://www.picclickimg.com/d/w1600/pict/303551568913_/1930-Aviation-Aircraft-Plane-Pilot-Fokker-F32-Murphy.jpg

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

I couldn't find a Murphy color chart, but found on the Net a sample book from them called "Murphy Vehicle System", perhaps associated with cars, but there is a burgundy red that interests me there, as possible for the WAE color of the time:

https://content.invisioncic.com/r277599/monthly_2019_01/258974239_DSC00827(Large).thumb.JPG.9816f584d45cf1d734d62b00664fb8f5.JPG

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Now that looks compelling to me.  I double-dog-dare you to build a Revell C-54 as a Western Airlines DC-4!  I think it would neatly push the boundaries for you (between the Belle Epoche and modern eras of flight) without your having to scratch-build everything, and I think you'd do a beautiful job.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

2 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

Now that looks compelling to me.  I double-dog-dare you to build a Revell C-54 as a Western Airlines DC-4!  I think it would neatly push the boundaries for you (between the Belle Epoche and modern eras of flight) without your having to scratch-build everything, and I think you'd do a beautiful job.

Interesting, but not my area really, or style.

I do have a Heller Connie and a Williams Bros C-46, if one day I feel like it.

Converging evolution means that most cars and most planes and most everything tend to look a bit alike to the inexperienced eye (mine).

I can -and do- enjoy a classic airliner, but mostly build things that are -and look- different. Weird. Strange. Mysterious.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Believe or not, primer was applied to a few small parts.

Part of the building strategy is to get out of the way ancillaries that can be completed early on, so they don't delay final assembly later.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

 

Fine-tuning the wing-to-fuselage interlock took more time than I would have liked. Little by little, I ended up having to pack 2.5 mm* on the right hand-side of the fuselage where the wing seats to get a leveled wing, and modify the kit's engraved airfoil leading edge that I had previously carved out, which was off by a significant way. So subtracting and adding plastic, and checking all the time, the joint is ok now, although some Milliput will be necessary when the real assembly is done.

 

*That is equivalent in the US to about 1/300th of the length of a poor-taste tie used by certain ilk of deranged presidents.

 

 

 

I know it doesn't feel like much progress, but these little shenanigans take some time to fix.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Continuing with the search for the Murphy lacquer sample of the red/maroon tone of the Western Air Lines livery, I found yet another car chart

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0271/7931/9375/files/1924-murphycarcolors-pg01.jpg?588

[dnl42]

I'm looking forward to your interpretation of that interior!

 

20 minutes ago, Moa said:

Continuing with the search for the Murphy lacquer sample of the red/maroon tone of the Western Air Lines livery, I found yet another car chart

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0271/7931/9375/files/1924-murphycarcolors-pg01.jpg?588

Yoiks! Maroon it is. 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

39 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

I'm looking forward to your interpretation of that interior!

 

Yoiks! Maroon it is. 

 

I will posit a theory about the color, that involves certain degree of association.

I think -as said above somewhere- that the Western Air Lines color used then was on a deep side of red, or burgundy, a color in a way somewhat similar at that used on the Latecoere monoplanes.

Now, as an artist, I used many times what is called "Indian Red", a maroonish hue of red:

 

Perhaps the company associated that color with the Native American Indian of their then logo, in a way reiterating the original equivocal reason of why native Americans are called "Indians", as the Spanish explorers were looking for a passage to India, in Asia, as it is universally known.

 

The truth is out there...

 

[Courageous]

Lots of niggly work there Moa. Good team effort to sort the props, they look great, all you've got to do now is fit them in the right place . As an artist, you shouldn't have any problems with the paint. Good work.

 

Stuart

[Bengalensis]

Good progress, it all looks and reads very promising!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Sometimes pictures reveal especially important information for the modeler, if they are taken from infrequent angles. In this case we can see that the blue areas on the side go over the belly and converge on a point mid-line, while on the nose belly they are arched as on the sides:

[TheyJammedKenny!]

How very Art Deco!

[David M]

Experience suggests that "deranged president" is a tautology...along the same lines as "criminal lawyer"?

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

5 hours ago, David M said:

Experience suggests that "deranged president" is a tautology...along the same lines as "criminal lawyer"?

I am thinking of a particular one, though.

Although now that you mention lawyers, there are also some that do not meet the barr.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

 

More details are revealed as photos continue to be studied:

 

NC333N shows a hard-edge colored upper leading edge that was driving me crazy, but now I see it appeared after the company changed name and it's associated with TWA under right wing and Transcontinental Air Transport - Maddux Air Lines and Western Air Express small text on fuselage.

This is most likely also associated with the 7 diagonal stripes on top of each wing.

 

Little by little some of the particularities and timelines are sorted out, which helps when the time comes to chose a specific subject to model.

[bigbadbadge]

Excellent prop work Moa. 

Chris

[Marklo]

1 hour ago, Moa said:

Experience suggests that "deranged president" is a tautology...along the same lines as "criminal lawyer"?

I think the word you want is oxymoron as in military intelligence.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Little by little, more sub-assemblies are readied:

 

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Given the nature of the vac molding, on a male master, we have to take advantage for the cutting of the cleaner angles:

 

 

 

 

More refining will be needed to get those clear panes seating right, and the forward-raking windshield at the proper angle, subtracting and adding small bits of styrene as needed:

[Courageous]

That cockpit glazing area looks a bit tricky.

 

Stuart

[bigbadbadge]

I like the rake of the windscreen makes it look unusual.  I will be keen to see how you glaze it.  The engines look gorgeous too.

Great work

Chris

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

9 hours ago, Courageous said:

That cockpit glazing area looks a bit tricky.

 

Stuart

So it does, Stuart.

But all the panes (4 surfaces) are flat. What could possibly go wrong... 😆

9 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

I like the rake of the windscreen makes it look unusual.  I will be keen to see how you glaze it.  The engines look gorgeous too.

Great work

Chris

Thanks Chris.

A man of faith 😉