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Joined: 2/13/2004 From: Zentsuji, JAPAN Status: offline
I've been messing around with a mock-up of the top decking and cowling. My usual practice here is to tape on a sheet of paper then roughly sketch the shape in place. Next I transfer this rough outline to thicker paper and do another rough fitting. Next, I make sure everything is symmetrical (if it's supposed to be). And just keep fitting and editing until I have something that looks pretty good, at which point I'll do a test cutting out of ply. Often this is good enough but sometimes I'll find problems at this stage so have to do a "next draft."
The decking will be of 1/32" ply and we're still working on the forward cowl. Chris hopes to have one molded of polycarbonate very soon. I wouldn't mind trying to experiment with doing theim in aluminum sheet.
These photos are of "second generation" outlines. And obviuosly these are just "basic surface" patterns and the top cowl will need channels for the guns and the rear portion is actually asymmetrical such that you only have "half a cockpit" on the port side and the typical full round cockpit cutout on the starboard side.
I sure wish I could just go stare at one of these cowlings somewhere!
< Message edited by abufletcher -- 11/18/2006 1:17:51 PM >
Posts: 5011
Joined: 2/13/2004 From: Zentsuji, JAPAN Status: offline
And as long as I'm shooting mock-ups, I might as well go ahead and post a couple of the cowl. I reworked the angle and shape of the bottom cutout a bit and also added the two inspection holes on the starboard side.
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Joined: 2/13/2004 From: Zentsuji, JAPAN Status: offline
When attempting a scale model it's always good tto keep going back to the original! Here's the tail skid from Barker's Snipe. I'll try to detail as much of this as possible.
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Joined: 2/13/2004 From: Zentsuji, JAPAN Status: offline
Here's a further photo study of the panel and cowling layouts. Chris and I have been working quite intensively on the shape of the top cowling. There's not a lot of information on this and the available photos don't show this area well at all. About the best view we have is from a close-up of a plastic kit. Many of the available drawings (including the Nieto drawings in the MAN book) are awful to just plain wrong in this regard. Actually, I wish I had the Replicraft Snipe drawings -- but part of me is afraid I'd go "scale crazy" if I bought them. Best to stick with a scale OUTSIDE here!
Anyone have a photo of this area of McDermott's Snipe?
There's a lot of complicated geometry that has to be just right up front. If you get one thing off (i.e. in a non-scale position) it can end up effecting lots of other lines. We want to make sure we work these things out now.
I hope to be able to get on with the build of the wing center section in the next couple of days.
< Message edited by abufletcher -- 11/20/2006 3:10:46 PM >
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RE: CD ScaleDesigns Sopwith Snipe build - 
