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Evening All,

 

Those familiar with the designation of German aircraft types of 1914-1918 will know that a C type machine was an armed two-seater. Albatros built a series of these starting in 1915 with the CI which was essentially an armed version of their successful BII type of 1914. However the next type to see extensive service was the CIII and ia had long wondered why there was no Cii. A few years ago I found out why: only one CII was built and that was a pusher: all of the other C types were tractor biplanes. Cue for me - need to build one.

 

There is little information published on the type but recently P Herris has published Albatros Aircraft of WWI. Volume 1: Early Two-Seaters /Centennial Perspective/ (1) which has 5 photographs taken at various times outside the Albatros sheds near Berlin. These can be seen at https://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft25754.htm

 

I cannot find any drawings of the type but close examination of the photographs show that CI wings and undercarriage were used and the front end of the fuselage was reversed so that the engine became a pusher unit and the cockpits of the pilot and observer were in the correct positions. The new front end of the fuselage was rounded off and the tail unit and booms were designed from scratch. I have the dimensions of the type and the DataFile of the Albatros CI so I can construct my own drawings.

 

So something a little different.

 

I will be building this alongside a current project: a scratch build 1/32 scale B.E. 2a. I do not normally build two models at the same time but progress on the BE has been very slow for a number of reasons, but I hope that the new project will perhaps give a little impetus to the old one.

 

Just a quick preview of my kit:

 

36732357362_668a8ac759_k.jpg

 

P

Edited by pheonix
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Thanks Mark for the encouragement.

 

In fact the Germans used several pusher types, of which the Gotha twin engined bombers are perhaps the best known. They also used a small number of Otto Doppeldekkers at the start of the war, and later Ago pushers in 1916-1917. Naturally I have scratch built the latter types even though there are vacuform kits available. (I do not like vacuforms).

 

P

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This promises to be a fascinating thread where we can follow your scratch-building techniques :thumbsup:

 

7 hours ago, Thom216 said:

But how did the box open, from the top or the side..?

Let him make the box first ;) 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Evening All

 

A belated thanks to Thom, Col and Stuart: I hope that the final result will meet with your expectations.

 

Well Thom I decided not to make a box after all - I just put the materials in a drawer and pull them out as and when needed...!

 

I have cut the wing blanks as I have accurate plans for these so they are straightforward to make. 30 thou card inserted into a waste pipe and very hot water poured in. Drain the water and after 20 seconds pull out the card - it has the right curvature to represent the aerofoil of the wings. Blanks were cut from the card and ribs added from 10 x 20 thou Evergreen strip. When this is set I sand down the ribs so they are almost flat on the wing surface. The three stages are shown below:

bottom right: the ribs have been added but not trimmed

bottom left: the ribs have been trimmed but not sanded

top: ribs sanded and the trailing edge of the wing sculpted with a round file.

 

52413897608_f89ef9cf1b_4k.jpg

 

Sanding and filing is causing problems with my shoulder so progress will undoubtedly be a bit slower than usual. In addition I want to try to keep on with the BE 2a which I am making - hopefully this will improve my motivation which has been lacking of late.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

P

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9 hours ago, Col. said:

So that's how it's done. You make it all sound so simple but I suspect that's more of a testimony to your skill.

It really is quite simple Col. If you can trace and cut out a part from plastic sheet, mark the rib spacing and apply the strip with liquid cement, and then sand gently you can make wings without many problems.

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2 minutes ago, pheonix said:

mark the rib spacing and apply the strip with liquid cement, and then sand gently

Will be interesting so see how this turns out. I've just removed all the ribbing from my metal-winged F6C to sort out all the pitting and was wondering how to reinstate the rib lines if at all?

 

Stuart

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If you do use the strip method as described, it is worth running some cement over the strips after they have dried to make sure that all parts of the strip are properly fixed. In the past I have not done this and found that in places the strip was not firmly held and started to lift when I sanded it.

 

P

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  • 2 weeks later...

Evening All,

 

The wings are now pretty much finished - the ribs have been rubbed down and primed to make sure that all is ready for painting later. I have not taken pictures as there is little to show.

 

I have carved a male mould for the fuselage nacelle from balsa. I used plywood for the female mould (basically a hole cut to the shape of the side profile), and made the nacelle halves from 30 thou Evergreen sheet styrene:

 

52457164722_69210fa215_4k.jpg

 

As the shape is simple it did not hurt my shoulder too much! In the above image I have cut one half of the fuselage from the sheet - the other has still to be cut out. You can see that it is very much like a vacuform and requires similar techniques to cut out. After sanding the edges of the halves I was able to achieve an acceptable pair of nacelle halves:

 

52457164577_502dd4c1e5_4k.jpg

 

52458218093_5668d74bb1_4k.jpg

 

The second image shows that the joint underneath is good enough and will only need a small amount of filling and filing. The cockpit interior was basic as I have no details of what it was like - it is loosely based on an Albatros CI from which the nacelle was probably derived. Everything was made from card. The interior of the cockpits was painted in brown as the nacelle was made from wood, the rear was black because the engine will occupy that space and nothing much will be seen. The cockpit openings were cut with a knife and finished with a round file. The small pieces of plastic on the bottom are to help join the nacelle halves and fill the minor gap in that area:

 

52457164672_725685c0f7_4k.jpg

 

I have also scratch built the cylinders for the engine and added a valve cover on the top, and cut an exhaust mainfold from card:

 

52457955724_6f4a9152d4_4k.jpg

 

The next steps will be to assemble the nacelle and clean it up, instal the engine and fit the lower wings to the nacelle.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

P

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another nice build from your workbench! One can feel that you love God's own scale.:coolio:

 

I  was not aware of this type had a look in my type book and yes: that type is listed with a picture.

According to that book the military serial is C 27/16, used a 150hp Benz Bz III and appeared to use  C I wings and undercarriage.

 

Have fun!

Frank

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Thanks for the comment Frank. The information you have matches my own, it is the fuselage which is my area of uncertainty. Looking at the photos, (I can find no drawings), I think that the designers used a CI fuselage too. They appear to have turned it through 180 degrees so that the pilot sat in front of the engine and the observer in the front of the nacelle, and the sliced the old rear of the fuselage off. That at least is how I have built my own nacelle and it seems to match the photos pretty well. The booms and tail I am having to guess, based on the known dimensions. I am therefore not claiming 100% accuracy: I am not sure that anyone can given the information available.

 

P

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Evening All,

 

One of the minor problems which resulted from moulding the fuselage was the rounded corners on the lower sides. These corners should be square. To remedy this deficiency is simple: I glued some stretched sprue around the edges which need to be squared off. When this was dry I applied a liberal coat of plastic putty over the sprue, waited for that to set and then sanded the corners until they were square:

 

52489300354_7fe9207142_4k.jpg

 

52489570138_bcaa37ec04_4k.jpg

 

I learned this from another modeller who makes vacuforms where the same problem frequently arises.

 

The lower wings were cemented to the nacelle one at a time. The first was attached, supported with a sophisticated jig, and allowed to set overnight:

 

52488908828_c09bd35402_4k.jpg

 

Next day I repeated the process with the other lower wing.

 

With the wings in place and any small imperfections filled I was ready to fix the booms to the lower and upper wings. I have made many pushers and developed a simple technique which requires the same level of sophistication of jig manufacture as that required to fix the lower wings in place. First I use the side elevation to draw a line under the wing which touches the leading and trailing edges and continues to the rear beyond the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer. Now measure the vertical distance on the plan from the new line to the leading edge of the rear horizontal stabilizer (distance a).

 

I use florists wire for the booms on my True Scale models and attach it to the wings by using the end of a round file to make a groove in the top or bottom surface of the rear of the wing. To locate where to file the groove, I place the nacelle and lower wing, or top wing, over the plans and trace the line of the booms on to the rear surfaces of the relevant wings. I measure how far forward the booms fit on to the wing - that marks the forward and deepest point of the groove. The florists wire is placed on the plans and four suitable lengths cut, two for each wing. (I know that this method is not 100% accurate but it is close enough in this scale that it does not matter if a boom is a couple of mm too long or short). The front ends of the booms are filed to make them flatter and thinner to achieve a larger surface in contact with the wing and allow the boom to taper forwards. The rear ends of the booms are filed to make a neat V when viewed from above and make a better mating surface.

 

Now make the jig. First lay the nacelle and wings over a copy of the plans so that the wings align with the plans exactly and lie flat on the bench.  Take some scrap plastic/wood/card and make a support which is the same thickness as the vertical height (a) and place it so that the leading edge sits directly over the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer on the plan. I use two part epoxy to attach the booms to the wings as this gives me a bit of wriggle time. When I am happy that the booms are properly set and aligned on the wing and are resting on the rear support I apply a small drop of CA to the V joint at the rear. This helps to stabilize the structure while the epoxy cures overnight.

 

52487865132_2685d8368d_4k.jpg

 

52488360411_549340589a_4k.jpg

 

Repeat the above operation with the top wing.

 

52488828305_05aa9b633a_4k.jpg

 

The booms should now be at the correct angle in relation to the wings. The upper and lower parts of the aeroplane are now ready for painting.

 

I have made the wheels using another simple process. Cut the wheel discs from circles of 60 thou card: I cut out squares, trim the corners and finish with a file. I also file down the edges until they are about half the thickness of the card. Take a length of 60 thou rod, wind it around a paintbrush handle which is a slightly smaller diameter that the wheel discs, and immerse for a few seconds in boiling water. Remove from the water and plunge into cold water to set the plastic and leave a spiral. Cut off a length from the spiral which is slightly too long to fit over the disc, pull the ends of the cut plastic together to make them meet properly and place over the disc. By careful trimming of the end of the plastic rod a tyre can be cut which will sit tightly on the wheel disc. Hold in place with liquid cement and when dry clean up with filler and glass paper as necessary:

 

52488908388_68a21b677d_4k.jpg

 

I know that in the above image I have a tyre from red rod and a spiral from white: I used the last of an old spiral to make the first tyre.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

P

Edited by pheonix
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