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#2 Curtiss F6C Schneider Racer - 1926 ****Aborted***


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Well done Stuart

 

I got one of these many many years ago after the previous owner threatened to turn it into fishing weights  ! :surprised:

 

I've often thought of building it unpainted and trying to polish the metal so it looked like one of those desk ornaments from years ago.

 

Best of luck with this one.

 

Cheers Pat

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Well this is different. Best of good luck with it Stuart as I'm sure it has the potential to look great with a little bit of work and the correct techniques :) 

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Thought I'd better get going on this as I think this'll take a bit of effort.

 

20220926-172207.jpg

A quick check of parts but I have very little if anything to go as we'll see in a minute. Besides a thorough clean-up, need to fix the propeller as it has a broken blade and it looks it looks like I have one float support missing and two angled struts also missing from the float arrangement.

 

20220926-172227.jpg

And these are my instructions and of limited use so I'll be using 'Curtiss Navy Hawks in Action' by Squadron as my main source of help. So, let's get busy.

 

Stuart

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One thing I forgot to ask you on Sunday was, could you use solder to fix this together? I remember our Bob Brough had a metal kit of a train that he used solder to fix together. Don't know if he ever finished it though! 😉

Don't think I'd be as brave as you to even think about tackling a metal kit! 

I'm sure it will look a real gem when it's completed.

 

Martin 

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9 hours ago, Lightningboy2000 said:

solder to fix this together?

It's worth investigating but I don't have a solder station...

9 hours ago, Lightningboy2000 said:

I'm sure it will look a real gem when it's completed

I wish I had your confidence but I'll give it a go.

 

Stuart

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3 hours ago, Courageous said:

It's worth investigating but I don't have a solder station...

I wish I had your confidence but I'll give it a go.

 

Stuart

I've got a soldering iron & some solder. Not sure if it's the right sort of solder for the job though. Norm would definitely be the one to ask.

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Hi Stuart,

 

I built some white metal loco kits years ago and considered soldering but decided I would need a new low temperature iron and solder or I probably would melt the metal. In the end I used 2 part epoxy glue and that worked well, but of course they were nowhere near as flimsy as a biplane. I also was given a Merlin R-R armoured car by Pat a while back and built that using gel type superglue without any real problems but the same caveat applies - the struts will be the main problem on your kit I suspect. I asked Heather @Heather Kay about soldering brass a few months ago as she builds a lot of metal models, but again I suspect they are mainly brass.

 

Given how bendy white metal struts are you may perhaps be better substituting plastic ones if you are going to use glue. Good luck anyway.

 

Pete

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A nod to the cockpit...

20221003-091615.jpg

I knocked up something that looked like an F6C cockpit. Not much in there; throttle block, fuselage tubing, peddles, some black mounts for the six or dials as the I/P. Added some lap belts to the seat. Stick will go in later. Interior is mainly aluminium, so that's it got painted as.

 

20221003-092459.jpg

Sides fitted with a good a good dose of CA. Not much of the little detail will be seen once the light is removed but at least something is in there. Now, once that CA has cured the fuselage is going to have to be sorted :weep:.

 

Stuart

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On 26/09/2022 at 20:09, Shorty84 said:

Cool, full metal kits are rarely seen being built. So I'll take a seat and enjoy the show :popcorn:

 

Cheers

Markus

 

Can't wait to see the arc welder in action, then on to the anvil before finally being quenched in water.

 

This is going to be spectacular :popcorn:

 

 

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13 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

This is going to be spectacular 

I wish I shared your confidence. There have been a few occasions where I was ready to throw in the towel, this kit is so bad and with little knowledge of working with this stuff, I'm constantly thinking about how to resolve an issue. This isn't enjoyable at the moment but the stubbornness in me says NO and I'll battle on. Anyways...

20221004-141245.jpg

The top seam is slowly getting there. The metal is rather think where that filed area is, so some way off before I break through.

 

20221004-141209.jpg

The bottom seam went much better and filed fairly flat. The wing roots were all over the place being too long and overly thick but using the lower wing as reference I was able to correct it enough. The air intake box under the chin was rounded and needed to be square, so that's what I done but the metal was obviously a little thin...

 

20221004-140929.jpg

The nose section...what a mess. The chin intake needs to be built up for a start but the major annoyance is the front face where the propeller hub faces, it's meant to be round. My thinking is to make/get/fix a 6mm metal disc to that face and fill and shape around it...we'll see.

 

Stuart

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3 hours ago, MARADER said:

I think - this model is for those who love masochism.😊

I have assembled several white metal models. This building is not fun.😉

 

Don't spoil the surprise for him :giggle:

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12 hours ago, MARADER said:

I think - this model is for those who love masochism.😊

I have assembled several white metal models. This building is not fun.😉

So you're saying you did it more than once? 🤔

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