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Howard Morey's Pennco Flyer (JN-4D "Jenny")


billn53

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11 minutes ago, opus999 said:

Good to hear it all worked out.  I tried using aqua gloss in my airbrush once and no matter what I tried it just turned into "aqua flat", so I just hand brush it.  

I need to ensure my last coat is a “wet” coat, otherwise it won’t get the gloss. 

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While waiting for the oil on the bottom of the wings to dry, I went to work on the landing gear. I did the simulated wood treatment and then commenced detailing. The most tedious part was wrapping the gear struts with fly fishing thread to simulate the strengthening ropes on the real aircraft's legs.

 

I then taped the cross piece to my gridded work mat, carefully lined up the fuselage, made a bunch of measurements to ensure everything was square, and carefully applied CA glue to glue everything together. When the CA had hardened, I removed the assembly from the mat and then applied additional CA to reinforce the weakest points.

 

51575849990_c1666ac7ff_c.jpg 

 

Here's how the landing gear look now (wheels added temporarily for photo purposes):

 

51575606934_2cce730989_c.jpg 

 

There's cleanup to be done, in particular to fill in the holes on the fuselage side where the struts attach. I also need to add rigging between the struts (holes have been pre-drilled), but that's for another day.

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2 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

All looking fantastic! You are adding so many details on this build. Looking forward to seeing it all built up!

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thank you, Adrian. Adding details should be included in my personal list of deadly sins. I see something in a photo and think: “I could do this, or at least come close.”  And, next thing I know, hours have passed by. That’s one nice thing about working in the gentleman’s scale! This kit being 1/48, the temptations are harder to resist….

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The oil on the undersurfaces was dry when I checked this morning, but I had to run off to classes and didn't get a chance to spray the protective clear coat until I got back home, late this afternoon. While the clear coat was drying, I worked on a couple of small items I had left hanging...

 

I opened up the hole in the radiator grill, and lined it with a thin section of brass tubing:

51579656043_76035c5cee_z.jpg

 

A while back, Clive reminded me that I should drill out or otherwise open the ends of the engine exhausts. I elected to replace the end of the exhausts with a short section of brass tubing, to which I added a bend and also flattened the opening. I've seen exhausts like this on photos of real Jennys, and since I have no good idea what the Pennco Flyer's exhaust looked like, this is what I'm going with:

 

51579425876_2003133285_z.jpg  51579425691_d4b0ac9db0_z.jpg 

 

By the time I had finished the above, the clear coat was dry and I could start working on the wings again. My goal was to do as much as I could to get the lower wings ready for installation.

 

Clive has suggested I add pins to the lower wing's attachment point, to strengthen the join.  I thought that a splendid idea, and set forth to implementing it:

51579656163_19f2174e05_c.jpg 

 

I had to drill corresponding holes in the fuselage side for the pins to go into. I held my breath the whole time I was drilling, imagining the drill going too deep and thoroughly trashing my scratchbuilt interior! Thankfully, I got the holes done without any incidents.

 

My next problem was deciding how I am going to attach the wings to ensure they are correctly aligned, with the proper dihedral. I first thought about using this device:

51580131859_29f30e4feb_c.jpg 

 

but couldn't see any easy way to make it work for this problem. In the end, I went with the tried-and-true Lego jig:

51578609307_eb4993f4e8_b.jpg 

 

That's my plan, and I'm sticking to it! But first, I have a few little things to do with the wings before I'm ready to glue them in place. Stay tuned!

 

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As I mentioned, I had a few things to do with the lower wing before attaching it to the fuselage.

 

First, I recently read that not all Jennys had the wingtip skids installed. I checked my photo of the Pennco Flyer and could not see any evidence of the skids being there, so decided to leave them off. (Just as well, for the kit parts are terribly warped). That meant I had to fill in the mounting holes in the bottom of the wing:

 

51583339974_a5b94044ab_c.jpg 

 

I'll try to paint these to better approximate the wing color, but I'm not expecting to get a perfect match.

 

Next, I added a bunch of very tiny eyelets to the wing's upper surface for the rigging. Twenty four, in total (even more will be needed for the upper wing). These are from Bob's Brackets and are extremely small (the hole in the eyelet is a mere 0.003-in diameter). It was eye-watering work, but I managed to get them all in without becoming a blathering idiot in the process. My pet carpet monster, I'll add, now has quite a few snacks to tide him over for the night!

 

51583574425_9c009c2a72_z.jpg 

 

The time had finally come to install the lower wing! :yahoo:

 

First, I had to set the proper dihedral in my Lego jig by adding shims under the wingtips. This is my dihedral measuring stick: the lower mark is the height of the wing's leading edge at the root, the upper mark (about 1.6-mm higher) represents 1-degree dihedral at the wingtip:

51582668531_875cac0788_z.jpg

 

I used 30-minute epoxy to give me plenty of time to adjust the wings to their proper position. You can see below how I've weighted down the fuselage with a bag of lead shot.

 

51583340009_f9c282715b_b.jpg 

 

When the epoxy has fully set up, I'll go over the joint with gap filling CA (if needed). Once I'm confident the wings are firmly attached, I think I'll add the fuselage decals and spray the fuselage & lower wings with a satin clear coat, before tackling the upper wings.

 

:pilot:

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The Pennco Flyer is out of the jig and my homemade decals are on! When I took it off the jig and set it on it's legs, I found that one wing was seriously lower than the other. I traced the problem to the landing gear, which were not as square as I had thought. In retrospect, it would have been better to wait until the wings were on before adding the landing gear -- it would have been much easier to get them properly aligned. To fix my mistake, I had to partially disassemble the gear, in situ, and shave down the leg on the high side until the wings would sit level. Not the best solution by any means, but the lesser of two evils and an expedient compromise.  Lesson learned!

 

51584435866_4e06426f02_b.jpg

 

I also printed decals for the bottom of the wings, to simulate the topside text showing through the linen. I'm mostly satisfied with how they turned out, but if I were to do it again I would use a slightly lighter shade of gray:

51585336395_9d57779926_b.jpg

 

 

That's it for now! 

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Wow this looks flippin awesome,  love the translucent effects and the reverse decals on the undersides of the wings look fantastic,  the details you have added, spoked wheels and decalling is making this rather splendid.  I use Bob's buckles eyelets and tubes, they are very handy. 

Great work 

Chris

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The next meeting of the Mad City Modelers is this Saturday, so I've been working hard to get a much done as I can before then, for the "show and tell". Not that I'll be finished, by a long shot!

 

I rigged up the landing gear, more as an experiment than anything else. I'm happy with how it turned out:

51590448458_31b56ab19d_z.jpg 

 

I did a test fit of the upper wing and discovered the cabane struts are a hair too short, and don't reach the holes in the side of the fuselage that they are supposed to fit into. This is most probably because I had straightened the wing very early in this build (remember that?), to reduce the kit's dihedral to the correct 1-degree. My solution to this fit issue was to slightly elongate the holes. effectively raising the attachment point. The difference is very slight and will not be noticeable.

51590890849_6001460c18_b.jpg

 

Next, I installed my scratchbuilt control horns. They are much narrower than the stock items, and I had to add plastic shims to create a tight fit:

51590230796_ce7b4ac5c1.jpg  51591125290_1f7cb4d7d3.jpg 

 

After painting, they look much better than the stock horns:

51590890609_dc174510fd_c.jpg 

 

Next, I added the various rigging eyelets to the upper wing. Total count: 42! I intend to double-up the flying wires, so that adds to the number of eyelets needed:

51591125380_de6b435cd5_c.jpg 

 

I also have a set of Gas Patch metal anchors (eyelets), which are "beefier" than the ones from Bob's Brackets, and I thought would look good for the drag lines that attach to the Jenny's nose:

51591125375_46f1eaf66d_z.jpg

 

Finally, I finished up the rudder and applied the last of my homemade decals. I really love the advertising here!

 51590230891_774cdeced6_c.jpg

 

Sunday I'm off on another week-long trip, and I don't have much free time before then. The next big step (after I return) will be installing the upper wing. Before doing that, I will attach as much of the rigging as I can to the wing. I also need to add the windscreens and a couple of other items, while the top of the fuselage is still accessible.

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Wow, Bill, this looks fabulous with the decals on.  The reverse decals on the bottom were a nice touch!  I didn't think about seeing the lettering from the bottom until I saw that.  How did you print the decals? is it just decal paper and an ink jet or something different?  How does it work for you?  I hear mixed reviews about self-made decals so I'm reluctant to try, but it would be a nice tool to have in the tool box.

 

Looks like the control horns were some sort of thin metal... they look miles better than the ones in the kit, which IIRC, were pretty bad.

 

The test rigging looks great too, I suspect when it is fully rigged it will be stunning (not that it isn't already! ;) ).

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4 hours ago, opus999 said:

How did you print the decals? is it just decal paper and an ink jet or something different?  How does it work for you?  I hear mixed reviews about self-made decals so I'm reluctant to try, but it would be a nice tool to have in the tool box.

 

The decals are printed by my laser printer, on clear laser decal paper from Experts-Choice. I've used an inkjet printer before (on inkjet decal paper), the main difference is that the inkjet-printed decals require a clear coat to seal the ink. With the laser printed decals, the clear coat is optional. I create the artwork using PowerPoint. There are more sophisticated graphics programs, I know, but I'm familiar with PowerPoint and it's done the job for me so far.

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A couple more things done this morning, which will probably be my last until I'm back from my upcoming trip.

 

Made and installed the windscreens using clear acetate film. This turned out to be more difficult than I had anticipated. The little clear pieces like to fly off my tweezers and, being clear, are difficult to find. Getting the curve in the windscreen was hit-or-miss, and I made multiple attempts before I was satisfied (well, maybe not satisfied, but definitely tired of trying!). Don't look too closely or you might notice the windscreens aren't identical, and maybe a bit lopsided to boot!

 

51591580977_ee330ca780_z.jpg

 

 

I also added the fuel level gauge immediately in front of the forward windscreen, and a fuel filler cap in front of the gauge:

51593297740_db978ea51c.jpg

 

 

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I got home from my trip last night, and after doing a few errands this morning I found some time to start on the Jenny's rigging. 

 

After a couple of hours work, I had attached a total of 34 lines to the eyelets I had added to the upper wing and struts:

 

51623791215_dc40e213fd_b.jpg 

 

51622928841_e253eba21f_c.jpg 

 

It was very tedious work, and I did a little bit at a time. During one break, I scratched up a pitot tube assembly for the starboard-outboard wing strut:

 

51623151313_1dec81c466_c.jpg 

 

For  this build, I'm using Infini Model's Aero Rigging. I've not used this product before, but I find it is very much like the Uschi rigging (which I do have some experience with). 

 

51623577429_1f62c5ae5e_c.jpg 

 

I'm very close now to adding the upper wing. All I need to do before that is to install a few pullys for the aileron cables.

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On the real plane, the aileron control wires run from the side of the fuselage to a pulley near the leading edge of the upper wing, and back to the aileron control horn:

 

51625049543_7c9d1185a5_c.jpg 

 

There are also a pair of pulleys on the upper wing, with a wire that connects the two ailerons:

 

51477732867_8dea3a3b25_c.jpg

 

 

I used a punch to build the tiny pulleys, and glued them to the upper wing:

 

51625067981_94d6f3f281.jpg 51625927545_dd9cbfc353.jpg

 

 

It was now time to glue the wing struts to the wing:

 

51625927575_b8fdf4765c_b.jpg

 

 

I had attempted to color-match the brace between the struts to match the wing color. I'm a bit disappointed about the fit, as you can see in the photo below. In retrospect, it may have been better to glue the struts in place, fill in the gaps along the brace, and then paint the wings... 

 

51625832010_efa730016a_z.jpg

 

 

(You can also see that I didn't do a perfect job of filling in the mold marks under the wing. This is definitely not going to be a show-winning build!)

 

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7 minutes ago, billn53 said:

You can also see that I didn't do a perfect job of filling in the mold marks under the wing. This is definitely not going to be a show-winning build!)

Personally I tend to work in the basis that if you can’t see it it’s ok. While the build may not be show winning it’s certainly extremely good. The rigging is particularly impressive, making me start to consider returning to using eyelets.

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