Lone Modeller's Tray

[Lone Modeller]

Evening All,

Many thanks Stuart, Jim and BB - your comments are much appreciated.

I find that once I have the spare wing(s) on my models, the rest of the build frequently goes much more quickly and this one was not an exception. First parts to go on were the propellor shafts and their supporting struts, followed by the chain drives. These had to be inserted before the inner interplane struts because they would not have been accessible otherwise:



(NB the tweezers are the pair that my father gave me 60 years ago - I use them all for the time!)

The innermost interplane struts followed, and the the main undercarriage legs. The latter was made from 20 x 30 thou strip cut to size - it was not filed to aerofoil section as contemporary photos show that the sections were square. The skids were curved by running the plastic strip between the edge of a knife blade and my thumb. The axles were wire cut from a paperclip:





The tail skids were also made from strip and CA'd to the rear. Rigging of the wings and boom followed, then the fins on the undercarriage and struts. The elevator was added and rigged almost at the end to save me knocking it off when handling the model. Finally the undercarriage was rigged and the wheels added. Final details included the propellors, what I think is an early form of pitot tube to the left of the pilot, and a gauge on the pilot's platform and cable from the engine from stretched sprue.



More pictures will be posted in the completed models section shortly.

Thanks for looking.

[iggie]

Another fine build, and another that personifies the spirit of the old classic 'Those magnificent men and their flying machines'!

You can almost smell the castor oil and nervous fear, and hear the tearing of linen and splintering of wood...

[Stuart]

That's just amazing LM - very fine work. Tbh, until you started posting all of these scratch-builds of yours, I hadn't realised there were so many Edwardian era aircraft.

[TeeELL]

Those early aircraft were very innovative and your models really bring that home, LM. Lovely work as always.

[wokka]

Such delicate work, something very few of us can produce.

[Lone Modeller]

Many thanks gentlemen for your kind comments.

Stuart: I barely scratch the surface of the Edwardian types! There were many of which I am as ignorant as the next person - it is a specialist field in its own right. Some of the designs were bizarre - it was a time of experimentation, trial and error - which makes them all the more exciting!

[iggie]

Somewhere about the place, I have a book about the early aircraft races held at Doncaster racecourse; there should be some good inspiration (if needed) in that should you like to have a look at it...

[MoMil]

My gob is, yet again, smacked!brilliant work LM

[Lone Modeller]

Evening All,

Now that my modelling sanity has returned and I am back to building models of real aeroplanes, I have started on my next project, which, like the Gordon Bennett racers, was another pioneering type for a number of reasons, the most important of which was that it was the first aeroplane to take off from a ship in the UK, and only the second anywhere in the world. In addition the same feat was performed shortly afterwards when it took off from a moving ship: these events took place in 1912. The aircraft in question was the Short S 27 Improved: it was also known as the S 38. The original S 27 looked like this:


(published with kind permission of Eastchurch Aviation Museum, copyright reserved).

A replica of the S 38 is in the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton:


(photo: Wikimedia Commons)

It was a design based on the Farman MF 7 so it consists mainly of struts and wires with a spare wing, engine and elevators - in other words an ideal subject. I will use a Barracuda wicker seat for the pilot (although the pattern is not strictly correct), and a Small Stuff engine. I intend to show the aircraft on a wooden platform above the front turret of HMS Africa and HMS Hibernia - the two warships from which the aircraft took off in 1912. There are no kits of King Edward VII class battleship main gun turrets in 1/72 scale so I will scratch build one of those and the wooden platform and part of the wooden runway. There are many photographs of the platform and runway, the aircraft being loaded on to and sitting on the platform on HMS Hibernia, and of the aircraft after take off. This is one source among many:

https://www.maritimequest.com/warship_d ... bernia.htm

This is a photograph of the aircraft at the start of the take-off run on the platform:



The flying surfaces are easy to make on these types: just some 30 thou plastic card cut and sanded to aerofoil section:



The booms and fore-booms on these aircraft were square section, so I used brass bar for these parts. They were CA'd to the wings and held by my highly sophisticated and expensive method of jigging as I have described in other builds of pushers:



When the CA had set I soldered the horizontal bars to the rear of the booms:



I made the flotation bags from some 1/4 inch (6mm) dowel. I turned the dowel in an electric drill and sanded the ends with coarse grade glass-paper, and finished by hand with fine grade glass-paper. I do not have drawings or the exact dimensions of the floatation bags so these are a best guess:



They will be treated with talcum powder and dope grain filler/sealant later.

Thanks for looking.

[skypirate]

Wonderful project, LM!
Struts, wires, spare wing and battleship turret! Hooley Dooley!

David

[wokka]

Interesting, a nice bit of history with it as well.

[Andy Dighton]

You're creating some wonderful models LM.

[Softscience]

I'm loving this latest batch of aero-machines you're building. The one you recently finished looks basic enough that I might even give scratchbuilding one a spin. Are there plans available?

[Lone Modeller]

I'm loving this latest batch of aero-machines you're building. The one you recently finished looks basic enough that I might even give scratchbuilding one a spin. Are there plans available?

If you are referring to the Wright Baby there are no plans that I have been able to find: I made up my own. However there are planes for the Wright B flyer on which it was based, and the Nieuport II. The Bleriot XXIII also lack plans - again I had to make up my own.

There are other early types for which there are plans on the net and which might be a bit simpler than the Wright - have a look around to see what takes your fancy and good luck if you do give one a try.

[JamesPerrin]

Having built the similarly laid out Boxkite. I can appreciate what you’ve got ahead of you. Though mine was from a kit and in 1/48 scale. Cap well and truely doffed!