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Eidai Cessna 172


Mjwomack

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Flushed with my completion rate in GBs this year (we'll draw a veil over my complete fail in the Bristol GB), I'm feeling positive about entering one I didn't mean to line up for. Not least because it clears out one of the longest residents of the stash.

I'm up for the High Wire High Wing GB with the mass produced and massively overlooked Cessna 172

PXL-20210902-152708559.jpg 

 

Although it's been in the stash a long time, I'm sure I didn't buy it when first released in 1972!

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/eidai-005-100-cessna-172-skyhawk--239238

 

Remarkably, even after all this time no parts have absented themselves

PXL-20210902-152920780.jpg 

It's in that remarkable plastic of its day which probably renders it unworkable to anything short of an arc-welder- we'll find out soon enough. Also they have that curious translucent, slightly flouerscent (I've no idea how that's spelt really) hint that I find slightly unnerving so a grey primer on everything to start things off.

 

The instructions are suitably entertaining

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PXL-20210902-153019002.jpg 

Though I'm not sure how much I'll be referring to them. I'll try referring to my memory and see if I can dredge up what I originally had in mind. I think it was something to do with making it as a tail-dragger, but who knows what'll happen... time will be tell.

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Welcome to the Group Build @Mjwomack :welcome:

It's great that you now have an excuse to grab this oldie from your stash!  The decals look remarkably good for their age and it's interesting that Eidai chose a British aircraft - I wouldn't have expected that.

 

Cheers

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I guess with over 40,000 to choose from you're spoilt for choice and the registration was a lucky dip!

Meanwhile an initial dry fit suggests nothing to scary

PXL-20210907-082432942.jpg

Though after the Eastern Express Canberra anything would be a breeze. Well maybe not anything; as the skunk said when the wind changed direction, 'it all comes back to me now'...

Way back when I was going to build this as a Tanzanian tail dragger 5H-MRX that I was briefly acquainted with back in the 90s. So long ago that I've only got one picture left to work from, so maybe not

But I fancy a tail dragger in some way

 

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No. apologies for the pun because in this build I am very definitely winging it!

I'm aiming for a representation of 5H-MRX based on one photo and memory. The memory isn't too reliable because it was leaving Tanzania as I arrived and so I had more dealings with C206 and C210. 

Means though it has to be a tail-dragger- I've got the Airifx reissue of the Fiesler Storch for wheels which are close enough

Unusually a 3 bladed prop- no idea where to get a 70" diameter one of those, so it might have to be modelled as spinning

An under-belly cargo pod- plastickard at the ready

The harnesses were 4 or 5 point (hazy memory time) but will need masking tape and a way to figure out how to suspend it from the roof of the cabin.

And to round it all off, the crucial matter of markings.

A lot of winging it ahead

To date there's this...

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Not too fussed about the interior because you can't see so very much. But If I go with the spinning spinny thing at the front, I'll need a pilot on board. The pilot off the Storch is all I've got so surgery ahead for him.

 

Strap in because I predict turbulence and tropical storms ahead.

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I should add that for anyone of a normal approach this is a tidy little kit in its own right with pretty accurate dimensions- shame I'm about to spoil all that really. Bu tI don't like the little boots and once I'd decided they were going to come off, one thing led to another.

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On 9/13/2021 at 6:03 AM, CliffB said:

By one means or another, you're going to end up with a unique (and personal), model

By one means or another- it's fast becoming the by another option as the more feasible. Some discoveries this week.

Trying to figure out a multipoint harness was too complicated and the results didn't even come up to my low standards so no harnesses.

What I said about this being a decent little kit, doesn't apply to working out where the cabin sits on the fuselage sides; after several dry runs I figured out what seems to be right.

But it meant that the crude Airfix pilot is way, way too big to fit in so has been dispensed with. Shame I'd spent so long painting him into a civilian pilot before I realised this.

Alas, no pilot makes it hard to justify a running engine so I'm back to making a three bladed propellor somehow.

And still no substantial thoughts on how to go about the markings.

 

The good news in all this though is that there's been sober reflection rather than my usual gung-ho flight of Icarus approach.

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Because the locating lugs for the cabin floor were so feeble, I added my own with a another trip to the Plastrut stash (possibly the most important stash)...

PXL-20210920-173314177.jpg 

 

Closed up and left to dry overnight, now to attend to the fuselage joins which aren't too painful- especially given the age of the kit

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I'm glad I noticed that in time 😳. The main gear on the tail dragger version is in a completely different place; namely in front of the wing struts

Quick fill and drill

PXL-20210927-112931515.jpg 

October at the end of the week I realized so everything is going to have to get a bit quicker 😜

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In all my years working in and around aviation have I ever encountered a C172 tail dragger.

 

Lots of bush flying C170, C180, C185, C206, and C210's however and there was one C150 re-engined with the engine from a C172; now that was a real little hot rod.

 

Interesting build, looking forward to seeing it done.

 

cheers, Graham 

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7 hours ago, ColonelKrypton said:

here was one C150 re-engined with the engine from a C172; now that was a real little hot rod.

hopefully the airframe could withstand the forces!

 

Meanwhile, I'm starting on the cargo-pod. If tail-dragger 172s are rare, ones with cargo pods are even more so; and no two seem to be alike. So this is very much being done by eye and in the Impressionist school of modelling.

PXL-20210927-195026425.jpg 

 

More plastrut used. A basic frame for guiding the sides, which are being shaped from some trimmed down angle, which in turn with give some locating pates for the floor. So far so good.

 

Does mean though that sooner rather than later I'll be turning my attention to the really tricky bits of the 3 blade propellor and the paint scheme

On 9/20/2021 at 3:24 PM, Wulfman said:

never came up with a colour scheme so it never got finished.

This could yet be my downfall!

 

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2 hours ago, nimrod54 said:

Good stuff MJ.

 

 Oooopps! Sorry I can't play out anymore. Mrs N has just called me in for my tea. :lol: Catch up again later.

 

John

Tea time? Excellent. Do thank Mrs N and tell her half the message board are on their way over 🤔

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I've a growing optimism that this might just work!

PXL-20211005-152221950.jpg 

Cargo pod fabricated and filled, sanding can start in a couple of days. I'd been pondering how to get hold of a 3 blade propellor of the right size; the problem being that warbirds have far bigger ones. Then I realised that the problem was the solution (deep man, deep) and that the propellor off the Zveda 1/144 Hurricane is only 1mm too small, and as this is in the impressionist rather than realist or pre-raphalite traditions I'm not loosing sleep over that! But it looked tiny next to the Eidai 2 bladed one which I then measured and found is a generous 5mm over-sized, which is odd because the principal dimensions have over wise been pretty good.

 

White rattlecan also restocked so all that stands between me is completion and still having no idea how to do that markings. But there's a month to go yet so plenty of time!

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30 minutes ago, Mjwomack said:

But there's a month to go yet so plenty of time!

 

Two months to go in fact (just in case anyone's starting to panic!). :)

 

Cheers

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28 minutes ago, CliffB said:

 

Two months to go in fact (just in case anyone's starting to panic!). :)

 

Cheers

I'll go back to bed then ☺️. Hadn't noticed the 2 in front of the 8 and thought this GB ended in early November, what a productive day 🤭

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Never knew this kit was a thing. Colour schemes limited only by your imagination. And that’s before you factor in the T-41 Mescalero. 

 

“Impressionist school of modelling” - must remember that👍as I’m a fully paid up member.

 

Trevor

 

 

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I've reached the stage of sand, fill, repeat; but in my Impressionist school of modelling (maybe I'd be better suited to abstract or cubist🤪), it's not so far out. And as a rarely photographed plane from the mid 1990s I think I can get away with it

PXL-20211011-085530147.jpg 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The cargo pod is as good as I"m going to get it. So the wings have now gone on...

PXL-20211030-101343476.jpg 

 

Some more filler going to be used sorting out the rear of the main wing to cabin and then it'll be masking and the rattle-can.

All of which means it's getting ever closer to figuring out how to do the markings. I've got some Crafty Computer Paper for rub-off decals. Very old now and unused- hopefully it doesn't decay quickly. And so into my first foray of graphic design

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/2/2021 at 5:31 PM, Mjwomack said:

 

It's in that remarkable plastic of its day which probably renders it unworkable to anything short of an arc-welder- we'll find out soon enough.

Turns out my fears were well placed: having, to my eyesight, neatly filled where the rear of the wing joins the cabin I was off to the rattle-can shed but after a couple of coats this high wing became a higher-still wing and detached itself. Bodged back together and carried on as if nothing had happened.

But when I came to take the masks off, the whole of the front screen detached itself. Anyhow all back together and looking like this...

 

PXL-20211109-104740291.jpg 

 

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Made a start on DIY lettering and think I can do it, so with the details being painted up it's looking good for completion by the end of the month.

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Hauled myself away from the morbid fascination of the Bunfight to progress this; looking good for completion. The rub down lettering etc is locked away from the cat while it dries and started on some of the easier parts of the lining

PXL-20211114-104149115.jpg 

 

Sierra Oscar in the reference picture is a C206 that I was actively involved in, though this isn't my photo and has the newer logo on the fin that came in after I left.

Printer not being helpful, probably because it's ancient so the red isn't as crisp as it should be; going to say it's all faded in the African sun (and that they used to get washed to within an inch of metal fatigue!) so after a beauty contest rather than a bunfight, Xrtacolour RLM23 Rot (very appropriate) is the closest match I've got.

 

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