Re: Lone Modeller's Tray
Posted: September 1st, 2017, 11:44 pm
And now for something a little different......... This project is being built as part of a Flying Boats Group Build on another site. I usually make small models because I only live in a small house and do not have the space to display large ones. Stevehed introduced me to prototype German giant aircraft of WW1 with his DFW R1 scratch build a couple of years ago, and last year I discovered the Siemens-Schuchert Werke Rs I while looking through photos on the net. I discovered the subject of this build at the same time and knew immediately that I wanted to give it a try. Fortunately the internet has made access to information on these early types much easier than it used to be: in addition there is a Windsock DataFile (no 136) which also contains information and drawings, although the drawings for the machine that I wish to model are at 1/144 scale so I have had to enlarge them to the Correct Scale i.e. 1/72. My intention with this build, as it is with all of my builds, is to demonstrate what can be done by an average modeller with simple tools and a minimum of expensive equipment, and limited skill but some patience! I hope to shape and scrape my way to something that will resemble this:
http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contribut ... /8377L.jpg
http://flyingmachines.ru/Images7/Putnam ... s/65-1.jpg;
My apologies for not providing a photo but I am not sure about copyright restrictions and I do not wish to bring problems to the site by using pictures without prior permission. These were taken in November 1916 at the Zeppelin shed at Seemoos, Lindau, on Lake Constance where the aircraft was built. I intend to make a small diorama based on the turntable and slipway in front of the shed as shown in these photos so that I can display what will be for me a large model. (The wingspan is approximately 17 1/2 inches: 44 cm and the length 13 inches: 33 cm). I will provide details of the diorama build in the appropriate part of this site in due course. Incidentally the figure in the Homburg hat at the bottom right of the first photo is Claudius Dornier.
I write "resemble the above" because the picture shows the Rs II in its final form with the engines in cowlings and a simple tail unit. I intend to model the machine with the engines in cowlings but with an earlier version of the tail which looked something like this:
http://flyingmachines.ru/Images7/Putnam ... s/63-2.jpg
Note the large fins and rudders and the biplane elevator. Here the engines are without cowlings: these were added later because the engines ran too cold. The building in the background is the Zeppelin shed at Seemoos.
C. Dornier was working for Graf Zeppelin when in August 1914 he was charged with the design of a number of large flying boats for the Imperial German Navy: the flying boats were to be used to monitor Scapa Flow which was the principal base of the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet. His Rs I design was a huge biplane with a wingspan of 43.5m: it was constructed largely from steel alloy using airship construction practices. This machine was one of the first all-metal aircraft to be built and flown, when most aircraft were made from wood and linen held together with lots of wire, but it was wrecked in a storm on Lake Constance on 21 December 1915. Dornier's second design was very different from the first and incorporated features which were to characterise subsequent flying boats from this team. They included a very broad hull and a low aspect ratio main plane which was mounted parasol fashion high above the hull. Although the first version had three engines in the hull, these were quickly increased to four and mounted in tandem between the hull and wing, driving push and pull propellors. Small stub wings were fixed to the rear of the hull: on later designs these became full sponsons. The tail unit was on booms which were left uncovered to avoid damage from spray when taxiing. The early booms were made from lattice girders but these were quickly replaced by stronger large diameter steel tube, and the original central fin was replaced by a pair of fins and rudders. The elevator was of biplane form. In the final version of the Rs II the tail boom, rudders and elevator were simplified and it only remained for the design team to change the boom to a single fuselage mounted above the wing on the Rs III for the basic shape of the classic Dornier flying boats of the inter-war and wartime periods to emerge.
Here is my kit for the build: it is not quite complete as I am sure that I will require additional items as I go along:
It includes basswood for the hull, plastic sheet of various thicknesses, assorted strip, wood for the propellors, brass rod for the booms and copper wire for the rigging. I will write the instructions as I go along as usual. Additional materials will be required for the base but that need not distract us here. The first stage was to make up units which will become the hull, wings and engine nacelles. The engine nacelles are to be made from three pieces of 60 thou card and one of 20 thou which have been laminated.
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The hull is going to be made from a sandwich of 2 pieces of 1.3cm x 16.6cm x 6.3cm basswood with a sheet 0.7cm thick wood between.
The wings will be made in two sections from three sheets of 60 thou card, laminated, shaped and then butt joined, reinforced with metal pins as on the SSW.
The wing and hull blocks now look like this:
......which means that I can now spend many happy hours scraping and shaping.........
Thanks for looking.
http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contribut ... /8377L.jpg
http://flyingmachines.ru/Images7/Putnam ... s/65-1.jpg;
My apologies for not providing a photo but I am not sure about copyright restrictions and I do not wish to bring problems to the site by using pictures without prior permission. These were taken in November 1916 at the Zeppelin shed at Seemoos, Lindau, on Lake Constance where the aircraft was built. I intend to make a small diorama based on the turntable and slipway in front of the shed as shown in these photos so that I can display what will be for me a large model. (The wingspan is approximately 17 1/2 inches: 44 cm and the length 13 inches: 33 cm). I will provide details of the diorama build in the appropriate part of this site in due course. Incidentally the figure in the Homburg hat at the bottom right of the first photo is Claudius Dornier.
I write "resemble the above" because the picture shows the Rs II in its final form with the engines in cowlings and a simple tail unit. I intend to model the machine with the engines in cowlings but with an earlier version of the tail which looked something like this:
http://flyingmachines.ru/Images7/Putnam ... s/63-2.jpg
Note the large fins and rudders and the biplane elevator. Here the engines are without cowlings: these were added later because the engines ran too cold. The building in the background is the Zeppelin shed at Seemoos.
C. Dornier was working for Graf Zeppelin when in August 1914 he was charged with the design of a number of large flying boats for the Imperial German Navy: the flying boats were to be used to monitor Scapa Flow which was the principal base of the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet. His Rs I design was a huge biplane with a wingspan of 43.5m: it was constructed largely from steel alloy using airship construction practices. This machine was one of the first all-metal aircraft to be built and flown, when most aircraft were made from wood and linen held together with lots of wire, but it was wrecked in a storm on Lake Constance on 21 December 1915. Dornier's second design was very different from the first and incorporated features which were to characterise subsequent flying boats from this team. They included a very broad hull and a low aspect ratio main plane which was mounted parasol fashion high above the hull. Although the first version had three engines in the hull, these were quickly increased to four and mounted in tandem between the hull and wing, driving push and pull propellors. Small stub wings were fixed to the rear of the hull: on later designs these became full sponsons. The tail unit was on booms which were left uncovered to avoid damage from spray when taxiing. The early booms were made from lattice girders but these were quickly replaced by stronger large diameter steel tube, and the original central fin was replaced by a pair of fins and rudders. The elevator was of biplane form. In the final version of the Rs II the tail boom, rudders and elevator were simplified and it only remained for the design team to change the boom to a single fuselage mounted above the wing on the Rs III for the basic shape of the classic Dornier flying boats of the inter-war and wartime periods to emerge.
Here is my kit for the build: it is not quite complete as I am sure that I will require additional items as I go along:
It includes basswood for the hull, plastic sheet of various thicknesses, assorted strip, wood for the propellors, brass rod for the booms and copper wire for the rigging. I will write the instructions as I go along as usual. Additional materials will be required for the base but that need not distract us here. The first stage was to make up units which will become the hull, wings and engine nacelles. The engine nacelles are to be made from three pieces of 60 thou card and one of 20 thou which have been laminated.
[
The hull is going to be made from a sandwich of 2 pieces of 1.3cm x 16.6cm x 6.3cm basswood with a sheet 0.7cm thick wood between.
The wings will be made in two sections from three sheets of 60 thou card, laminated, shaped and then butt joined, reinforced with metal pins as on the SSW.
The wing and hull blocks now look like this:
......which means that I can now spend many happy hours scraping and shaping.........
Thanks for looking.