Steve's Models

[Sailor Steve]

Finished the cockpit. All that remains there are the pilot and observer.

The rib lines on the wings are a lot crisper than the other kit, so I used a brown Sharpie to "paint" the ribs. Then I sprayed the whole assembly with Testors 'Radome Tan', which is a good substitute for clear-doped linen. Next I painted and mounted the interior parts, then painted the wood decking. This involves a technique known as "dry-brushing". The lighter undercoat is either sprayed or brushed on, and allowed to dry, then the darker topcoat is dry-brushed on. This involves dipping the brush in the paint, then painting it onto a piece of cardboard or paper until it's almost dry. What's left is painted over the lighter color, leaving streaks that hopefully look like wood grain.

Sorry there are no intermediate pictures, but once I get started I tend to forget stuff like that.

From the front: Engine mounted.


Right quarter view: An idea of what's inside.


Rear view: Here you can see the instruments (only two of them - altimeter and airspeed indicator).


Close up quarter view: On the left side of the cockpit you can barely make out the spark-control lever. Rotary engines didn't have a throttle. The engine was either on or off.

[Buddahaid]

I don't know how you work in such small scale and especially the rigging.

[Sailor Steve]

I don't either. It just happens.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I don't either. It just happens.

Well, keep it up. When I get back at the end of this week I expect to be amazed.

I'm sure you won't disappoint since what you have already is awesome.

[Jimbuna]

Looking good Steve

[Sailor Steve]

I got the pilot and observer painted and installed this morning, then mounted the upper wing. That was a nightmare that lasted more than four hours. They provide nice little mounting holes for the struts. It isn't until you get them glued in that you discover that the nice little mounting holes are all in the wrong place! The inner struts are supposed to butt right up against the body, not stand a scale six inches away from it! I kept looking at photographs of the real machine, and looking at proper 3-view drawings - the ones that come with the kit aren't even right.

The resin struts seem kind of delicate, and I was preparing myself for another few hours ripping them out and starting over again with brass wire, but once the cross-pieces were in it's really quite rigid.







Tomorrow comes the rear open frame for the tail section, and maybe the wheels.

[Sailor Steve]

It only took about two hours of fiddling, fidgeting and fighting to get the tail boom straight. I made the booms out of square brass rod and the tailplane attachement pieces out of a thin brass strip. The forward struts are from some plastic aerofoil stock I puchased decades ago. The after struts are spare plastic cut to shape. Oddly, the lower boom mounts to the bottom of the big tailplane attachment, but the upper boom doesn't mount to the top. Instead it mounts to the tailplane itself, leaving the top of the attachment to be braced by a rigging wire. There are other small support struts that go from the bottom wing to the lower boom, but those will come tomorrow.

[Sailor Steve]

The main assembly is done. All that remains are the wheels and rigging and some touch-up. It's hard to see, but one of the finest pieces of detail work I've ever done is on this model. They give you a pair of nice little resin pieces for the wheel supports, with replica coil springs and all. Once they were glued to the top of the lower skid I started to worry about how easily they could break off. I looked at a bunch of photographs and found that while the real ones were bolted to the skid, they were also supported by a thin rope running over and under the axles, three times each. That gave me the idea to do the same with the thin monofilament line I use for rigging. It wasn't really all that hard, and it adds strength to the axle support as well as to the appearance. There's no way they're gong to break off now, and they look cool. Tomorrow's first job will be to paint them white to match the rope in the photos. Also invisible are the many holes I drilled for the rigging wires. Very visible is the tube for mounting the model to the stand. I'll paint it to match the linen when I do the final touch-up.

[Buddahaid]

I love those old aeroplanes and what a nice comfy seat for the observer. What is that scale anyway 1/144th?

[Sailor Steve]

Twice that size - 1/72.

[Sailor Steve]

Well, it's done - The Caudron G.III - and I'm very happy with it. The final clear coat is still drying. The rigging looks complex, but in fact it's not random. Every wire actually goes somewhere. It's funny; when I do this I tend to collect dozens of pictures. On YouTube there is a guy flying his full-size replica, at least for short hops. He says he doesn't like the feel of the wing-warping, so he only made one real flight. Still, it's an awesome thing to see.

Anyway, this is my tiny version.











And, as advertized, the resin wing is thin enough that you can see the ribs and the markings from the underside.


Now to make a place for it in the carrying case and I'm off for a night of gaming!

[Jimbuna]

Awesome mate

[Red October1984]

I was right. I am impressed.

Good work Steve!

[Sailor Steve]

I finally finished the ships I was working on. The British Leander class light cruisers of 1885 were similar to the Iris class of 1879, the difference being an armament of ten modern (for the time) 6" breechloading guns and an armoured deck over the engine and boiler rooms.

[Red October1984]

Your modeling skills are amazing!