(another) White Knight - Knight Twister Imperial

[greggles.w]

Hello all, hope this might interest some.

 

I started posting some WIP on another platform (which shall remain nameless) but I've found it doesn't have the same 'thread' logic which this forum has provided.  So forgive me eloping - I'm back, suitably humbled.

 

This is a new 'quick' (for me) project.  Selected because it's small, white (still got some paint from the last project), interesting & - importantly - a biplane without bracing!

 

The Knight Twister - a kit design dating back to the 1920's - in much modified "Imperial" air racer form, as built & competitively raced by former WWII B-24 tail-gunner C.D 'Don' Fairbanks.  As a racer it follows that the little plane was constantly tinkered with to improve or maintain its competitiveness.  So there are many variations throughout the photographic record, and as now fixed for perpetuity in a Museum.  I'll be working to represent one of the earliest incarnations (1971ish), mostly because this most closely aligns with the configuration offered in the kit.  Photos here show that phase:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[greggles.w]

And here's the kit:

 

Lawrence Designs & Models (L.D.M) 1:48 white metal kit from the early 1980's - a legitimate 'Britmodel'! - bought second hand when encountered by chance browsing online from Japan for a bargain price.

 

 

 

On the plus side:

Beautifully cast white metal parts, fine engraved lines, subtle fabric / metal skin texture contrast, very logical parts breakdown,

.. & options: with pilot (my choice) or without & early-narrow turtledeck (my choice) or late-wide, as seen here:

 

 

Challenges:

Kit is without instructions (no big deal) or decals (bigger deal!), and the vacformed canopy is quite jaundiced (however in any case it is the later, larger format.), a few parts need to be massaged back into alignment (particularly the 'knock-kneed' undercarriage struts! & lower wings have acquired marked dihedral which is not present on the real thing).

 

Other than that, details to tinker with are not really the kit's fault, more me being fussy.

 

Here is a dry fit:

 

 

 

Edited June 18, 2021 by greggles.w

[greggles.w]

OK, first phase of works starts at the pointy end.

 

The kit includes two exhaust configurations:

1. NACA duct type in the sides of the cowl (they were lined with titanium sheet apparently!) which were a later modification, so I'll fill those; &
2. more 'steampunk' direct pipes out the bottom of the cowl like some inverted Schräge Musik weapon.  These are what I will be replicating, based on the photos above.

Choosing the latter triggers a adjustment to the cowling panel arrangement, but also a need to open the back of cowling 'gills' which let cooling air escape after passing over the Lycoming engine.  As seen here:

 

 

So I got stuck into sawing the lower cowling off the bottom kit fuselage half ... 

 

 

... which revealed one hell of a task to thin down the rear wall of that cowl casting!!

 

Alternating tasks, I worked on the cowling nose, with various intakes to be opened up ...

 

 

As I intend to show in-flight I lopped off propeller blades, then stuck the spinner in the hobby-drill, wedged the drill between my knees & using needle file as a cutting edge I had great fun 'machining' the spinner on this lathe until 'made good'!

 

 

... then bring them together, & scratchbuild a front-bank of boxer engine cylinders from spares-box parts ...

 

 

 

And here they all are with the bottom half of the cowl - now ground thin, fixed to the upper cowl, seam & NACA exhaust ducts puttied up - and a 'firewall' of sorts to rear fuselage to compensate for thickness of saw-cut:

 

 

... scribed new panel lines on top of cowling.  Scribing into white metal was a new experience ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[greggles.w]

Upper wing next:

 

Will be finished in this flamboyant scheme (shown here on later, wide turtledeck version, but wing remained a constant):

 

 

The upper wing has a unique, tough 8G construction: two spars bridged with ply skin top & bottom forming a box, then fabric on framing for the trailing portion.   Here's someone else's home-built project under construction showing this:

 

 

This gives a varied surface texture as seen here in the museum display:

 

So I had a bit of Archers raised 'piano hinge' decal left over from the last project, & it seems to fit the part ...

 

 

 

 

Seems to look the part, next!

 

 

 

Edited June 20, 2021 by greggles.w

[greggles.w]

As stated, I intend displaying this ‘in flight’. The LDM kit, being white metal, is quite heavy for its size, so I thought I ought to make robust provision for mounting, specifically close to the C of G.  Setting about the task I discovered the ‘makers mark’! A tiny engraved signature ‘L . D . M’ … those letters are only slightly more than 1mm high!

 

 

Didn’t seem right to obliterate those, so I’ve cut a slot that lets them stay … but who knows if they’ll survive the prime & paint process!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[greggles.w]

Another use for Albion Alloys - making a canopy!

 

The kit vacformed canopy is not usable:

1. it’s gone yellow over time;
2. it’s the later, more enclosed, and wider arrangement which was substituted when the later ‘fat’ turtledeck modification was made.

So I only need to match the early simple windscreen.  It struck me that the geometry looks relatively simple - a portion of a cylinder perhaps …?

 

 

Colossal coincidence: Albion Alloys packaging near perfect dimension! Here the beginnings of a jig …

 

 

Angle to match the junction with the fuselage

 

 

Cut! I deliberately used the tube end with the fixed cap, to help hold the curve.

 

 

And here we go after fettling, trimming, notching & sliding it back & forth over a little micromesh fabric wrapped around the fuselage to finesse the curve …

 

 

 

 

Trimmed & working on the styrene framing ...

 

 

 

... and thinned down & blended in with a little Mr Surfacer 500 ...

 

 

Just need to come back & polish the clear ...

 

 

What a little sweetie this is!

Edited June 18, 2021 by greggles.w

[greggles.w]

A little jig of sorts, to hold outward canting interplane struts in place while CA glue sets.

 

Cardboard upper wing has holes drilled to match kit part, & underside guidelines extend down to meet fuselage centreline.

 

Ply & bulldog clips prevent the lower wing from re-acquiring dihedral ...

 

 

 

 

 

[greggles.w]

OK, with this last post I'll have brought myself up to date with this WIP!

 

Another cardboard jig, more elaborate but still diminutive, to hold top wing in alignment, so I can fix the tiny cabane struts.  Here's the base:

 

 

… slots hold bottom wing in place …

 

 

… in background is removable upper part of jig …

 

 

… fits like so …

 

 

 

 

… seems to work, things look parallel…

 

 

 

So somehow I’ve got to get into that less-than-1cm gap to fit the cabane struts. A task for another day.

Edited June 18, 2021 by greggles.w

[Malc2]

Fantastic, great to see you posting here again.

I built one of these when they first came out, and always wanted to make a flying scale peanut model, but was put off be the lack of wing area.

You are right to make a stand, as over the period of a few weeks (months?) on the shelf, the U/C legs of my completed model gently collapsed, bending outwards under the weight of the model🤣!

 

Malc.

[Gene K]

12 hours ago, greggles.w said:

I started posting some WIP on another platform (which shall remain nameless) but I've found it doesn't have the same 'thread' logic which this forum has provided. 

Not only that, but my impression is that the BM folks are more helpful, better educated on their subjects, and just plain friendlier!

 

Gene

 

[greggles.w]

47 minutes ago, Gene K said:

Not only that, but my impression is that the BM folks are more helpful, better educated on their subjects, and just plain friendlier!

 

Gene

 

 .. which is lucky & genuinely appreciated by those prone to social faux pas such as I!

 

 Thanks for voicing that which would otherwise seem taken for granted!

[greggles.w]

4 hours ago, Malc2 said:

Fantastic, great to see you posting here again.

I built one of these when they first came out, and always wanted to make a flying scale peanut model, but was put off be the lack of wing area.

You are right to make a stand, as over the period of a few weeks (months?) on the shelf, the U/C legs of my completed model gently collapsed, bending outwards under the weight of the model🤣!

 

Malc.

Thanks for the welcome back Malc, & that’s quite the cautionary tale re the undercarriage!  Can’t say it was wisdom on my part to have made allowance for that … 

[greggles.w]

Well @Malc2, your tale of wilting undercarriage sat with me & began to worry me a bit.  As per a prior post above, I had prepared a slot in the belly of the fuselage ready to support the finished 'airborne' model ...

 

 

... one, singular, tiny slot ...

 

Given your precautionary tale re the soft metal of the undercarriage legs not bearing the weight of the completed kit, I couldn't help compare - as shown in the image above - the scale of the load-bearing undercarriage legs & the slot I've cut.  What if this too, slowly, inexorably distorts the white metal around the slot & whole the thing lists sideways!!?!

 

So I thought it couldn't hurt to provide more 'meat' behind the slot to broadly distribute the load throughout the whole central wing & fuselage area ...

 

 

Chunky spares-box styrene blocks & strip in gloopy, hardened epoxy ...

 

 

Well, that'll have to do!

 

Again, thanks for the heads-up Malc.

 

[Malc2]

No worries! Glad to be able to help before its too late.

I think I still have my model is in a box the loft, I will have to have a look for it.

I hope I stored it upside down!

(Unless it was a victim of 'The Great Parental Purge' of the mid 80s after I left home.....)

 

M.

[greggles.w]

Rudder next.

 

The kit part is cast with an integral tailwheel:

 

 

The real thing was actually mounted off the fuselage with some sort of linkage to the rudder for steering during taxiing (presumably?).  Not only is the detail different, but the kit has the gear compressed under load, whereas in flight the spring-loading saw it extended, like so:

 

 

So, the tail gear was sawn off - a replacement now a future task - & rudder made good.  I also added some Archers finest ‘raised panel line’ decal for the framing, as it’s quite pronounced in the images.

 

Last is readying to mount to the fuselage.  The real thing has a notably separated rudder – you can see daylight through there!  This contrasts with all the other control surfaces. (Later the gap was taped-up):

 

 

So tiny brass spacer-hingey-things added for the slightest of separation:

 

 

Rudder done!

[greggles.w]

Hello there,

 

Cabane struts have been fitted ... with quite some effort!  A tiny gap.  But credit to the master of the kit: when everything was positioned in the jig these pieces aligned just fine ...

 

 

 

Just a little bit of Mr Surfacing to be done at the junction ...

 

 

Edited June 23, 2021 by greggles.w

[greggles.w]

So the last remaining significant part is the undercarriage. Given this is fixed I haven't been able to avoid it by choosing to display in-flight.

 

As with most parts of the real machine the undercarriage evolved over time:

• From an early wide format, shown left below, with top of fairing extending from wing leading edge to back of cowl;
• To a latter narrow format, shown right.

 

The kit part is closest to the former, and this was a large decider in electing to freeze the model at an early moment in the plane's development.

 

The kit part as received is shown in this one photo only, & while the angle is not ideal, even so the bow-legged banana struts are apparent - and this is with no load applied!  No wonder yours gave up @Malc2 the odds were against you.  I have found these parts particularly soft & have worked to limit handling them as doing so seems to always reshape them.

 

 

However, if this is to be the early undercart, one detail missing is this pair of additional inner tubular struts:

 

 

These seem to offer an opportunity to help hold the whole assembly in shape - so to scratch-build them!

 

Nested brass tube, with a music wire core (bad idea) was heated over the gas stove, then slow-cooled to soften, and bent around a nail in this jig:

 

 

The bent brass then reheated & quenched in cold water to reharden:

 

 

That music wire core made for hard work trimming the hardened parts - blunted my tired old hobby razor saw!

 

Some more cardboard-jiggery, the one on the left to set out the desired geometry for the assembly, the one on the right to guide trimming the (hard) rod to length & mitred ends:

 

 

About as good as I could get it, so commit to CA glue!

 

 

Then some slight sanding down of the brass to make it ever-so-slightly ovoid in cross-section, some general clean-up & some effort with a steel kitchen skewer tip to scribe some definition between wheel edge & spats:

 

 

It has at least stabilised!  (rudder fitted now too)

 

That's it for pre-paint construction of sub-assemblies!

 

Just a little more raised decal ribbing to the lower wing under where those bulldog clips are, some miscellaneous ongoing Mr Surfacing, polish windscreen & then time to prime!

[greggles.w]

And to finish tonight, a last indulgent dry-fit with an awkward finger holding that undercart in place ...

 

 

 

[greggles.w]

Initial primer coat - such a stark white!  A few issue to attend to but on the whole heading in the right direction ...

 

 

[dnl42]

I love this! 

 

Better late than never 

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Fab stuff! I love the LDM kits they're superb! I was lucky enough to pick up a Comper Swift, Cierva C30 and a Cosmic Wind at the weekend - if you'll forgive the thread hijack I'm after a Chilton DW if anyone fancies a swap for the CW!

 

 

TT 

[bigbadbadge]

This is great, I was wondering if you were going to solder it together ?  But looking at the stand internal structure would likely melt.

 

On 6/23/2021 at 1:35 PM, greggles.w said:

And to finish tonight, a last indulgent dry-fit with an awkward finger holding that undercart in place ...

 

 

 

Now we're you making the obligatory engine noises when you took these???

I wondered what these LDM kits were like, I came across a Tigermoth in a bric a brac shop and they has a sealed one  but tge vendor wanted too much for me to take a chance at the time.

 

Great job on this and sorry I am late

Chris

 

 

[greggles.w]

14 hours ago, dnl42 said:

I love this!

Thanks for the enthusiasm!

 

8 hours ago, TEXANTOMCAT said:

Fab stuff! I love the LDM kits they're superb! I was lucky enough to pick up a Comper Swift, Cierva C30 and a Cosmic Wind at the weekend

 

Agreed, I'm really impressed with the kit: the overall form is quite shapely; the detail is fine but not excessive; the assembly is well thought through; & it just has such a weighty authority!  And there must be some credit for the metallurgy, given it's been sitting around in that box for 40yrs & with just a minimal once over with steel wool & it's gleaming like a trophy - no corroding impurities.

 

For all that I have only one other LDM kit: a Caudron C.460, yet to be built.  Certainly can't hold your breath waiting for them to pop up for sale - especially at a sensible price - you've done well to locate those three.

 

5 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

This is great, I was wondering if you were going to solder it together ?  But looking at the stand internal structure would likely melt

 

Thanks for the interest Chris, no not soldering.  So far the few bits I have joined I've used CA glue, a bit of fast-set Tamiya & slow-set Zap, although for embedding that internal reinforcement I used gloopy 2xpart epoxy, a type of Araldite which won't 'fog' the clear acrylic stand (even though it should be well cured by then).  I'm considering also using that stuff for fixing the main assemblies together towards the end.

 

5 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Now we're you making the obligatory engine noises when you took these???

 

Hmmm, I thought I'd turned the audio off ... must check my IT settings ...

 

5 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

I wondered what these LDM kits were like, I came across a Tigermoth in a bric a brac shop and they has a sealed one  but tge vendor wanted too much for me to take a chance at the time.

 

Yes they are nice, but I agree there are some smarty-pants sellers who over-inflate the pricing.  I saw a few listed on eBay not long ago for starting price £75 - too much for me!  With this Knight Twister I was lucky to see it pass me by online from Japan of all places for a nominal AU$25ish (about £10?).  Couldn't say no at that price, could I?  Of course the postage & buyers-proxy fees quickly turned it into an 'investment' purchase!

[Alan P]

Love this kind of thread; attractive and unusual subject, uncommon medium, ingenuity of the builder and large helpings of infectious enthusiasm 😂👍

 

You should get paid for this mate 😃🍻

[greggles.w]

On 7/7/2021 at 4:41 PM, Alan P said:

Love this kind of thread; attractive and unusual subject, uncommon medium, ingenuity of the builder and large helpings of infectious enthusiasm 😂👍

 

You should get paid for this mate 😃🍻

Thanks Alan, great to have enthusiasm reciprocated!

 

Today, from me, it’s an embarrassed confession, a foolish error!  In attending to the primed fuselage I belatedly realised that while I had thoroughly masked off the windscreen from above .. I had completely neglected to mask the underside!!

 

Top masking has been removed to reveal the damage …

 

 

Hmmmmmm ….

 

How to recover from this?

 

.. some sort of chemical removal, one which will attack the overspray - Mr Finishing Surfacer - but won’t craze the clear plastic? Might need experiment with Mr Levelling Thinner??

 

.. mechanical removal?  But it’s such an awkward tiny space to access ..

 

.. pull it off & scratchbuild & install a replacement .. urgh!!