Ford Trimotor - modified Airfix 1/72 kit

[heloman1]

Lots of work going on here, I'm liking the way you are tackling this build. Thanks for the reference pics.

 

I'll be following your work.

 

Colin

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Tabs are added for strength, since work needs to be done on the other side later on:

 

More reinforcements:

 

The other mail hold part is cut to obtain the size needed for this specific build:

 

The "leftover" section is glued to the wing:

 

It should look like this, but the modified area has to be blended-in, which is going to be quite the challenge:

 

A tab on the part that holds the kit part that poorly represents the sides needs removal:

 

There. The new side frames and wire net need to be added, plus some ancillaries missed by the kit:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

By the way, I removed the first pair of louvers from the nose on each side, as they weren't present on this plane.

[billn53]

2 minutes ago, Moa said:

By the way, I removed the first pair of lovers from the nose on each side, as they weren't present on this plane.

I’m so, so tempted!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

8 minutes ago, billn53 said:

I’m so, so tempted!

You, cheeky monkey! 😝

I must add that the pair of "lovers" were transported to facilities more according to their endeavors. No "mile-high" activities here, this is a family forum 😉

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The flange on the cut side had to be recreated, removing a narrow band of corrugations:

 

The hold was boxed with styrene sheet, and as a "roof" corrugations were made and glued to the other wing half:

 

 So this is how it will look (all this will be barely visible once the mail "drawer" is in):

[Graeme H]

Very impressive, and we all now know it's there

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The bar and lock are replicated:

 

They go in that area:

 

Sections intended to hide the kit's mail hold demarcation are prepared:

 

The frame to substitute the kit's crude part (in the foreground) is in progress:

 

Once the glue sets the netting will be added:

[Andwil]

Impressive work on the mail hold.  I trust you lined up the concave and convex corrugations on the interior to match the outside 

 

AW

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

43 minutes ago, Andwil said:

Impressive work on the mail hold.  I trust you lined up the concave and convex corrugations on the interior to match the outside 

 

AW

Well of course! but it will be difficult to see it from Australia.

[Space Ranger]

5 hours ago, Moa said:

 No "mile-high" activities here, this is a family forum 😉

I thought that's what the toilets were for!

[72modeler]

@Moa

I can't wait to see the 1/72  packages and mailbags that you are going to put in the mail hold; also can't wait to see what 1/72 twine and postage meter stamps look like! Going to use a piece of ladies hose for the netting? 

Mike

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

6 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

@Moa

I can't wait to see the 1/72  packages and mailbags that you are going to put in the mail hold; also can't wait to see what 1/72 twine and postage meter stamps look like! Going to use a piece of ladies hose for the netting? 

Mike

Didn't you hear? the Post Office is being sabotaged by the administration for nefarious ends, producing long delays and undelivered mail as a result.

I am afraid there was no mail to carry!

Instead, Argentinian coconuts will be loaded. I can only image the noise they will be making rattling around in that tin can.

They will be the uninvited maraca to that tango.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

And here is it. The tailwheel, by the way, had spokes on this one, so an O ring is separated:

 

The SACO plane had a strange feature in the left wing, a cone in the shape of a fish mouth, perhaps another light (the Wylam plan has a signal light there, but no protruding faring), maybe an air intake. Whatever it is, is reproduced:

 

 

The tail parts are drilled for the rigging. Their coarse control horns are re-shaped and thinned-down:

[billn53]

Moving along nicely! But, you left me hanging with the tail wheel... after the o-ring, then what?
 

I can’t wait to see how you handle the cable guides on the rear fuselage sides.

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 minute ago, billn53 said:

you left me hanging with the tail wheel... after the o-ring, then what?

P.E. spokes and a scratch structure. This is becoming fast a forking paths nightmare. One little bit leads to five others. Drat!

I just looked at how the tailwheel really is. I shouldn't have!

Cable guides: pft! easy-peasy; small diameter alu tube sections mounted on thin steel wire lengths. It's all wonderfully simple in my mind.

Hey, don't grab the model by the fuselag... I told you not to, damn it!

 

[billn53]

1 minute ago, Moa said:

P.E. spokes and a scratch structure. This is becoming fast a forking paths nightmare. One little bit leads to five others. Drat!

I just looked at how the tailwheel really is. I shouldn't have!

Cable guides: pft! easy-peasy; small diameter alu tube sections mounted on thin steel wire lengths. It's all wonderfully simple in my mind.

Hey, don't grab the model by the fuselag... I told you not to, damn it!

 

Not just the tail wheel, but also the tail wheel strut.

 

I tried doing cable guides like you are thinking, but it was too fiddly for my fat fingers. So, I cheated a bit.

 

The control lines back to the empennage are almost impossible to see against the corrugated background, so the danger of grabbing the model by the fuselage is real. Wingtips only for this bird.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

46 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

Going to use a piece of ladies hose for the netting? 

Mike

I am shocked!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

You never know what may turn up from the dungeons: I had yet another kit of the trimotor, also with missing parts. The fact that Airfix then did not bag the contents, the parts would come from the sprues as mature fruit a week after molding, and that the boxes tended to self-destruct, did not help much with kit integrity:

 

If you have found flash in your parts, no worries, a Flash Service is offered. I think it consists of Gumbies coming to your home with sandsticks and hurting brains. But first you have to learn a foreign language:

 

Yet another set of poorly printed decals:

 

The person in charge of quality control was too busy watching "The Avengers" on TV (the real ones, with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, not the shallow, pumped, go-nowhere, produced to fill your head with popcorn) and missed checking the printing color register, that is there to show if things go wrong (they did):

 

 

[dogsbody]

I have two of these Airfix kits. One I had for a number of years but had never checked the contents. When I did, I discovered it had no clear parts. Luckily, I found another one soon after that did have all the parts. Just a years or so ago, I sent a fuselage half to someone who needed it, but I still have one complete kit.

 

 

 

Chris

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

2 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

I have two of these Airfix kits. One I had for a number of years but had never checked the contents. When I did, I discovered it had no clear parts. Luckily, I found another one soon after that did have all the parts. Just a years or so ago, I sent a fuselage half to someone who needed it, but I still have one complete kit.

 

 

 

Chris

Chris: it's telling you in a tiny 1/72nd voice "build me...build me...)

[dogsbody]

5 minutes ago, Moa said:

Chris: it's telling you in a tiny 1/72nd voice "build me...build me...)

 

If I do, it won't be a civilian job, just so you know.

 

 

 

Chris

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

2 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

 

If I do, it won't be a civilian job, just so you know.

 

 

 

Chris

Now it's telling you "I want to go to back to the attic/basement/covert/garage...." (fill the blank) 😝

[dogsbody]

27 minutes ago, Moa said:

Now it's telling you "I want to go to back to the attic/basement/covert/garage...." (fill the blank) 😝

 

Though it was used for fairly peaceful purposes during it's time with our air group.

 

 

The Trimotor was originally purchased for crop dusting experiments in 1929.  For its remaining career, it carried out general transport duties until it was retired in 1937, and sold to United Air Transport as CF-BEP.

 

 

 

Chris

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

25 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

 

Though it was used for fairly peaceful purposes during it's time with our air group.

 

 

The Trimotor was originally purchased for crop dusting experiments in 1929.  For its remaining career, it carried out general transport duties until it was retired in 1937, and sold to United Air Transport as CF-BEP.

 

 

 

Chris

I see you have found two wonderful options: a Cropduster and an Airliner! I am so proud of you!

Here is a PDF with a photo of a trimotor spraying DDT. Those were the days!

https://media.wix.com/ugd/c533b2_5b59f1dd087742349eec8d68fe7c3d1a.pdf

 

For those interested in cropdusting, I found this book followin ghte trail of the Ford (no Ford here, though)

https://archive.org/details/AerialForestInsectAndDiseaseDetectionSurveysInORandWA19472016TheSurveyHighRes/page/n36/mode/thumb