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


billn53

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8 minutes ago, Marklo said:

Personally I tend to work in the basis that if you can’t see it it’s ok.

Yeah, that’s pretty much my philosophy, too. Nearly all of my builds have “mostly hidden unless one looks closely” flaws. They bug me when I think about it, but would be more work to correct than I’m willing to do. 

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1 hour ago, billn53 said:

Yeah, that’s pretty much my philosophy, too. Nearly all of my builds have “mostly hidden unless one looks closely” flaws. They bug me when I think about it, but would be more work to correct than I’m willing to do. 

Seconded! :) 

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Rigging has begun!

 

My eyes are killing me, and my fingers are trembling, but I've built confidence that I can rig this thing. This is how far I have progressed so far:

 

51625621617_4d03b33ffa_c.jpg 

 

By my estimate, I'm about 20-percent done with the wings, not counting the various control cables.

 

I cheated a bit on the flying wires (the wires that run from lower left to upper right in the above photo)... On Jennys the flying wires were doubled-up. Instead of running separate wires (which would have increased my rigging effort by twelve lines and a same number of eyelets), I instead installed two eyelets side-by-side on the upper wing, but only one at the lower attachment point. I tied a single, long string to one of the upper eyelets, threaded a turnbuckle through it, passed the line through the lower eyelet, added another turnbuckle, and terminated the line at the second upper eyelet.

 

Here is a photo of the lower eyelet, with the flying wire passing through it and two turnbuckles in place either side of the eyelet:

 

51627310370_b67298b4c9_c.jpg 

 

I've already made a couple of mistakes. First, I pre-colored the rigging with a silver marker. Unhappily, because the rigging line is elastic, most of the silver has already flaked off. What's left on isn't pretty 😭. Not much I can do about that now, other than re-silvering the lines after they are in place.

 

Here is my other error, which I will not repeat. The landing wires (running from upper left to lower right in the first photo above) should pass between the two flying wires. I knew that but simply forgot to do it in my excitement :banghead:  I'll try to remember when I rig the rest of the wing.

 

At this rate, I should have the wings rigged in a couple of days. Stay tuned!

 

 

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After getting home from class I managed to finish up the rigging on the wings. All that is, except for the kingposts and upper-surface aileron cables. I want to postpone those until later so that I can, if necessary, put the Jenny on her back without worrying about damaging anything on top of the wings.

 

51629480433_7f631fb1d4_b.jpg 

 

I did run the aileron control wires that go from the fuselage to the pulleys beneath the wing. Here are a couple of pics:

 

51629480328_1a9cbef33f_z.jpg   51629278541_1b94f06e80_z.jpg 

 

Some touchup painting is still needed, but I'm pretty burned out and getting prone to clumsy mistakes, so I plan to shift gears and work on this, instead:

 

51628452382_341e29b71d_c.jpg 

 

Yes, it's a 1/48 1925 Ford Model T, which should fit in nicely alongside Howard Morey's Pennco Flyer (flown in the 1925-26 timeframe).

 

51629503873_77bd100f0d_b.jpg

 

 

 

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I assembled the tail feathers "off-model" for ease of access:

51632792322_f9a0c1f4a3_c.jpg 

 

I had to fettle the mounting area to get the horizontal stabilizer to sit horizontally 😉  That meant, sanding down the left side and adding a shim on the right:

51632792282_2c96083523_z.jpg 

 

Tail feathers glued in place:

51634270014_b3389d3d7c_b.jpg 

 

I also spent some time with the propeller. The kit's prop is much too broad, what I want is to model this Jenny "toothpick" propeller:

51632362682_a837a9e86d_c.jpg 

 

I re-shaped the kit propeller to match the photo above. I'm also trying my hand at scratch building a prop from laminated wood (middle) and, as well, laminated paper, per this article:

 

https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=8688.0

 

 

51633618971_f5b4d8f843_z.jpg

 

We'll see how that goes :shrug:

 

Last, but not least, the companion Model T is coming along nicely:

51632792302_11ed351375_c.jpg 

 

In 1925, Model T's were still available only in black. My challenge is to keep this from looking boring. So far, I have about a half-dozen different shades of black in play!

 

 

 

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The Jenny looks beautiful,  and is really coming together splendidly.  It is wise to take it steady at this stage.the Modrl T is really coming on too, should look great with the plane.  Prop experiments look interesting too, good luck with those  is the real prop shown in your marvellous mancave ?

Great work 

Chris

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1 hour ago, billn53 said:

No prop in my mancave, but one would certainly look great there. Hmmm... 💲💲💲

Yes certainly would be, I don't have room in the mancave but was lucky enough to inherit a Tigermoth propeller from SWMBO'S step grandfather who was an assault glider trainer, he cut it into three to get it into his case when demobbed.  It's lovely and will be mounted on the wall in the dining room.   

Chris

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902df832-6e8d-457e-aa45-5b8ad1bb9b05.jpeI find paper works best. The problem with laminated wood is in getting a scale grain and also in getting the right layer thickness. I find if I use 80gsm paper I can layer the colours to get the correct thickness  easily.

Edited by Marklo
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Speaking of which, I finished up the Model T this afternoon. Built nearly entirely out-of-the-box, my only changes were to thin-down some of the overly-thick pieces (fenders, windshield frame) and/or replace with scratch items more in scale (windshield, engine crank):

 

51636166171_15dbfa87c8_z.jpg   51636166216_8db3a50c8c_z.jpg 

 

51637019670_71f02c3e6e_z.jpg  51636166221_92a62cd658_z.jpg

 

Right now, the "T" looks showroom-clean. I may decide to give it a bit of weathering, later on.

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Tail feathers are rigged:

51637827881_2e38f78527_c.jpg

 

and then, the next few steps went really quickly. Added the drag wires, engine, engine cowl, and radiator:

51638906835_5385569a16_b.jpg 

 

That's obviously the kit propeller test-fitted in place. I've started carving the laminated wood prop, liking what I see so far...

51638058126_977185ba0b_z.jpg 

 

 

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16 hours ago, dnl42 said:

The excellent work continues.  :worthy:

Love the Model T as an addition.

 

A good source of such period vehicles is the O-scale section of Wiseman Model Services.

 

16 hours ago, dnl42 said:

The excellent work continues.  :worthy:

Love the Model T as an addition.

 

A good source of such period vehicles is the O-scale section of Wiseman Model Services.

Another good source is the Renwal series of 1/48 vehicle kits. Produced in the ‘60s, they can now be found on eBay at reasonable prices.

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