Vacforming and accessories

[Rebel21]

Hoping the hive mind can help, anyone taken over the aeroclub mantle as regards there fine white metal 1/72 scale accessories especially props and engines or can others suggest anything else. copious searches on the interweb have found very little and what there is is very expensive. thanks all in advance and happy modelling (trying my hand at some rareplanes vacforms, sopwith 1/12 strutter and snipe, wish me luck).

[Paul Thompson]

Basically, no. There are an increasing number of suppliers of guns and engines in resin, or 3D printed, but mostly not in 1/72nd scale. For wheels, Scarff rings and  all the little things you never realised you couldn't live without until you saw them in the Aeroclub catalogue, you're largely on your own now. That said, Aeroclub items turn up frequently on Ebay, but personally I find the starting prices usually unrealistic, and the ending prices even more so. You know, offhand I can't think of anyone producing propellors for WW1.

 

I don't recall Rareplane ever doing a Strutter, although they did do a Snipe (as Warbirds). Ask about and you should be able to find the Part PE set meant for the Toko Snipe, many of the bits there are useful. There used to be a set of generic WW1 bits produced by Extratech that was also very useful, now produced by someone else, possibly Brengun but I'm not sure. Useful for throttles, seatbelts, control horns and the like. Eduard do (or did) a set of PE seats in 1/72nd, and over the years have had several stabs at the seat belts of various countries. The latest iterations are pre-painted.

 

Late addendum, I've just remembered that Barracuda do resin seats in resin, with or without seatbelts.

 

 

Paul.

[Black Knight]

There are photo-etch sheets of seats, control horns, wire-wheel centres, scarff rings and guns and other bits. Hannants keeps them

Some kits. afair Roden and/or Toko supply extra parts in their kits. Extra parts such as extra mgs, extra props even extra seats.

 

Hannants;

Scarff rings; https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ED72333

Spandau; https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ED72422?result-token=EIClO  https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/MINA7213?result-token=EIClO

I can't find the other p/e sets on Hannants, must be OoS

 

I've started to fashion my own masters and am moulding up copies. So far, only seats done, wheels and mgs ready for rubber moulds. Tis the other way round for my 1/48 bits though. Next up is to maybe do some rotary engines and the ubiquitous  Mercedes D.III engine, although this is already available in resin ( https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ED672223 )

 

As Paul says, Aeroclub parts come up on ebay. Sometimes at high prices but I've bought props and engines from sellers who did not know exactly what the parts were or the maker. To find them I use multiple search terms, such as 'engine', 'metal', 'unknown' in the Toys & Games section of ebay. Not too long ago I picked up a couple of Aeroclub RAF No.4a (Aeroclub E-028) engines for about £1 each by this way. 

Also, keep an eye on Kingkit. He gets in 2nd hand Aeroclub items and sells them at reasonable prices (usually) a packet 

 

A handy web site for seeing what Aeroclub parts looked like is below. I find it handy as some ebay sellers will list the item as 'Aeroclub G004' and not say what that is cos they don't know. I've linked to the 1/72 props page but you can travel from there

http://www.joesmodels.com/AEROCLUB_72_PROPELLERS.htm

 

[Rebel21]

Thanks to Paul and Black knight, managed to get a lovely set of Lewis guns with scarfe rings from miniworld and a maxim got the seats from barracuda and managed to cobble together PE from lots of spare sets but looks like i will have to make engines and prop myself or get some donor kits (defeats the object a bit). But thanks folks for all the gen

 

[Paul Thompson]

13 minutes ago, Rebel21 said:

Thanks to Paul and Black knight, managed to get a lovely set of Lewis guns with scarfe rings from miniworld and a maxim got the seats from barracuda and managed to cobble together PE from lots of spare sets but looks like i will have to make engines and prop myself or get some donor kits (defeats the object a bit). But thanks folks for all the gen

 

Good donor kits for British parts in 1/72nd, Roden Camels. The original issues I have are uniformly good quality plastic and (except once) useless decals. The Camels have a plethora of spare engines and weapons. So do the Nieuports because they include one of the Camel sprues. Robbing the Camels will still leave you with a buildable Camel. Previously, Toko Strutters were also a good source for guns. All of them come up at decent prices eventually, here and there.

 

Paul.

[Paul Thompson]

31 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

There are photo-etch sheets of seats, control horns, wire-wheel centres, scarff rings and guns and other bits. Hannants keeps them

Some kits. afair Roden and/or Toko supply extra parts in their kits. Extra parts such as extra mgs, extra props even extra seats.

 

Hannants;

Scarff rings; https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ED72333

Spandau; https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ED72422?result-token=EIClO  https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/MINA7213?result-token=EIClO

I can't find the other p/e sets on Hannants, must be OoS

 

 

 

DIdn't mention the Eduard Spandaus because I was only thinking RFC/RAF. Of course when you get to 1/48th you're spoiled for choice for guns. Gaspatch 3D printed ones, most sorts, are very good value for money. In both scales Part used to do PE Lewises and Vickers for the absolute masochist. Totally PE, so much lamination, including the ammo drums, but the results were really good. Oh, Parabellums too.

 

For some reason I'd got it in my head that the 1/72nd Scarff rings were OOP. I've used a few, and highly reccommend them.

 

31 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

 

A handy web site for seeing what Aeroclub parts looked like is below. I find it handy as some ebay sellers will list the item as 'Aeroclub G004' and not say what that is cos they don't know. I've linked to the 1/72 props page but you can travel from there

http://www.joesmodels.com/AEROCLUB_72_PROPELLERS.htm

 

 

Or find a copy of one of the later Aeroclub catalogues. I have one and always keep it by me when scavenging bits on the interwebs.

 

Paul.

[Paul Thompson]

24 minutes ago, Rebel21 said:

Thanks to Paul and Black knight, managed to get a lovely set of Lewis guns with scarfe rings from miniworld and a maxim got the seats from barracuda and managed to cobble together PE from lots of spare sets but looks like i will have to make engines and prop myself or get some donor kits (defeats the object a bit). But thanks folks for all the gen

 

Glad to be of service (damn Sirius Cybernetics Corporation). I'm intrigued. What kit is the 1 1/2 Strutter you have?

 

Paul.

[wavanberkel]

Have you checked enginesandthings.com?

 

Willem

[Rebel21]

Thanks to Paul and Black knight, managed to get a lovely set of Lewis guns with scarfe rings from miniworld and a maxim got the seats from barracuda and managed to cobble together PE from lots of spare sets but looks like i will have to make engines and prop myself or get some donor kits (defeats the object a bit). But thanks folks for all the gen

 

 

More info its a CLASSIC PLANE SOPWITH 1 1/2 STRUTTER very basic just the 1 sheet of vacform and some ropey plans and the WARBIRDS 1/72 SOPWITH 7F.1 SNIPE Same again, going to do the snipe as a 19sqn aeroplane as I had the privilage of serving havent decided on the strutter yet.

[Paul Thompson]

19 minutes ago, Rebel21 said:

 

 

 

More info its a CLASSIC PLANE SOPWITH 1 1/2 STRUTTER very basic just the 1 sheet of vacform and some ropey plans and the WARBIRDS 1/72 SOPWITH 7F.1 SNIPE Same again, going to do the snipe as a 19sqn aeroplane as I had the privilage of serving havent decided on the strutter yet.

Right, the Classic Plane stuff varied from okay to awful, with one or two quite good thrown in for good measure (later kits sometimes had the odd resin bit too, usually quite reasonable). I don't know about their Strutter, never had one. All the  Warbirds (Rareplane) kits were considered excellent at the time, the alternative being to hack apart several Airfix and Revell kits and possibly use up a lot of balsa wood too. They still make up into very accurate models and it isn't their fault that there are better choices available now, to the extent that so long as you can handle vacs, already have the kit and can already or are willing to learn how to make struts, there is little point swapping it for the more modern alternatives. Well, except the Gotha, the Roden kit is much, much better. IIRC Ray Rimell used either the Snipe or the Pfalz D.III in an early Windsock or a late Scale Models in an article about how to start making WW1 models from vacform kits.

 

Paul.

[Black Knight]

10 hours ago, Rebel21 said:

 but looks like i will have to make engines and prop myself or get some donor kits (defeats the object a bit).

If you get into WW1 and interwar types its worth looking for 'scrap' kits on ebay.

Also ask some 2nd hand dealers if they have 'scrap' kits. Sometimes when they buy a collection they get kits which are missing parts or decals, which they cannot sell on that way but they may part with a number of them for a small amount.