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De Havilland Chipmunk - 1/48


wellsprop

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Hi all,

 

Following my unexpected 1/48 Fairey IIIF CAD build and 3D print, I'm confident that I am able to design and print model planes! 🛩️

 

I've always been a fan of the Dh Training aircraft and the Dh Chipmunk is on my "trainer collection" build list - however, there is no kit - so, guess what?

 

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It sort of looks right. I bet Airfix will release a 1/48 Chipmunk next year, after I've managed to build my own :shrug:

 

Watch this space :)

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I must admit, I'm feeling a little proud of myself this morning...

 

I played around with the wing last night and came up with a main wing I'm happy with, however, I couldn't manage to get the awfully complex blend into the fuselage and rear gull wing correct - see the image below, uploaded to the walkaround by @Julien

 

chip%252002.jpg&key=0c6bf4f0f46bdced3443

 

After an hour or so of projecting compound curves onto a surface extruded from a compound curve, I think I've managed to get something which looks about right.

 

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I can live with that. The horizontal tail is far too fat at the moment, I'll get round to sorting that out shortly.

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7 hours ago, Kushan_Farsight said:

great progress. You'll be printing trial parts by the weekend at this rate!

I was surprised how this gentle trainer was used in some quite risky ways! Low level convoy escort and secret reconnaissance over Berlin. pretty cool! 

http://octanescalemodels.com/model-archive/gatow-chipmunk/ 

 

 

I've always wanted to do this scheme, don't know what to do for this kit.... Fantastic history though!

 

 

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Ok, so I'm feeling even more smug now.... After putting in the little fillet on hte trailing edge of the wing, I was unable to get CATIA to blend the wing root join as it should be.

 

So I gave up trying to get CATIA to do it and instead did all through surface modelling by projecting the profile onto the fuselage then creating a multi-section surface in the shape of a fillet.

 

It's not perfect, it does go a little bit wobbly at about 2/3 chord, but it'll do!

 

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Ben

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I went to the De Havilland museum yesterday, a 300 mile (6 hour) round trip from here in rural Somerset, but well worth the trip!

 

THREE (YES THREE!) Mosquitos, and, pre-lockdown, they opened a brand new hangar housing mainly some of the civilian aircraft - it was excellent, highly recommended :)

 

I got a good look over the Chipmunk and Tiger Moth too - I also never realised the Chipmunk was a designed in Canada (although the UK version was manufactured under license)! 

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A little more work this morning...

 

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I played around with the fuselage wing fillets a little more, I don't think I'm able to get them any better now.

 

I'm happy that the overall design is complete now, however I have a lot of detailing to do;

  • Panel lines,
  • Anti-spin strakes,
  • Intakes,
  • Undercarriage,
  • Control surface lines,
  • Cockpit,
  • Prop.

The good news is, I've got the hand of building these now and it's only taken me 10 hours so far. Hopefully I will have everything else complete within another 20 hours.

 

Ben

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4 hours ago, LostCosmonauts said:

Anti spin strakes? Nice potential market as so many on here will have flown in this as their first flight experience with the AEF 

 

Oops, forgot to say I was working on those.

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A little more work this evening...

 

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Added the anti-spin strakes, main air intake, cylinders and one of the smaller air intake bulges.

 

A few more detailing bits to go and then the panel lines (I'm not looking forward to the panel lines...

 

Ben

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I managed a little work yesterday evening and early this morning...

 

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Intakes and anti-spin strakes complete. The main undercarriage is mostly complete (aside from a landing lamp), the tail and and all the wheels need completing.

 

The larger jobs left are; panel lines, cockpit, canopy, prop.

 

Ben

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37 minutes ago, flarpen said:

About panel lines, I've always wondered how the best way is to do that.

Do you have any good receipt?

 

There are a few ways I use, depending on which is most convenient for the geometry.

 

Method 1;

I create new planes, set away from the model's surfaces (imagine the model is in a box, the faces of the box are the new planes). I then sketch the panel lines onto the planes before extruding/padding them onto the surface and I apply a 0.3mm limiter (so the pad extends 0.3mm into the model's surface). I then use a Boolean subtract to remove the panel lines from the model.

 

Method 2;

I take the fuselage surfaces and offset them by 0.3mm (so I have a smaller fuselage) before turning this into a solid and then hiding it (we'll come back to it later). I take the solid fuselage (not the offset one!) and cut panel lines right the way through the model,. Following this, I simply add the offset fuselage to the normal fuselage which has had all the panel lines cut into it.

 

Method 3:

I create planes and sketches as in method 1, but I then project them onto the surface of the model and either extrude them into the model, or use them as guide curves for grooves (created by sketching the panel line normal to the end of the guide curve).

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A bit more work done this morning, it's hard to get enough time on this whilst working...

 

I'm happy with the external look, although I still have to complete the tail-wheel, add a small intake at the front and complete the wing tip lights.

 

I have added the undercarriage, landing lamp, prop and control surface lines - I might add a few more details, like the fuel filler caps.

 

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Getting there slowly...

 

I need to complete the cockpit and do a fair amount of work on the canopy (I'm going to use it as a vacform mold).

 

Ben

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Cockpit detail added, wingtip lights added, and that strange very slightly raised wing panel (I think it's for a fuel tank) added :)

 

To be honest, I'm satisfied that it is now ready for printing - I don;t intend to make any changes to the main aircraft.

 

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Only cockpit seats/sticks and the tail-wheel to go... Oh, and building a vacform machine and completing the canopy (I've got a vacuum cleaner, some sheets of wood and some bulldog clips - that'll do).

 

Ben

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4 hours ago, Paul Thompson said:

Very interesting. Just one small point, there is actually a kit, but now hard to find - Aeroclub did an injection moulded plastic one with white metal detail parts and a nice decal sheet.

 

Paul.

As did Heritage Aviation Models - I've had them on ebay alerts, as well as checking the usual places, for about 6 months but haven't found one yet!

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1 hour ago, wellsprop said:

As did Heritage Aviation Models - I've had them on ebay alerts, as well as checking the usual places, for about 6 months but haven't found one yet!

Aaagh. Clean forgot that one (but then, I never had one, while I do have the Aeroclub kit).

 

Paul.

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Ok, the test print is ready to go in :D The biggest hold up at the moment is the printer workload, it's been going almost non-stop since I got it working a week and a half ago!

 

I intend to only use two print files for this, the first prints the entire airframe, whilst the second prints the cockpit and undercarriage.

 

Hopefully about this time tomorrow, I'll have a complete Chipmunk airframe test print.

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I'm calling this one done!

 

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Yes, the fuselage is lacking a little surface detail, but I'm afraid I'm not going to model every rivet! I may, over time, see if I can add some panel lines - the trouble is, the real aircraft doesn't have particularly distinctive panel lines...

 

As with my Fairey IIIF - I intend to offer this as a limited production kit for those who are interested (still need to sort out a vacform canopy!). It's intended for the fairly dedicated builder who can provide decals, and doesn't mind putting in a bit of effort - I'm an amateur after all and these are literally made in my garage.

 

Ben

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19 hours ago, wellsprop said:

As did Heritage Aviation Models - I've had them on ebay alerts, as well as checking the usual places, for about 6 months but haven't found one yet!

Hi there

 

The Heritage kits been reissued by Coastal Craft Models. They don’t have a website but you can contact them at [email protected]  

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