carrellh

Wow!

I like it a lot. Hope the flight is great.

Red B.

Superb!

How did you do the lettering on the fin? I always find lettering and small insignias to be the trickiest part of building scale models so it would be interesting to learn how you did it..

hammerd

Test flighs went well this morning.
She appears to be a little tail heavy, so I added some weight up front and we'll try again in the morning.
Pretty cool seeing her putt around the field.
The lettering is cut out of vinyl. The other markings were painted on using masks cut on the vinyl cutter.

hammerd

A few shots from this morning:

abufletcher

Gorgeous photos! Great looking location.

Navy18

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Curious, in looking over your pics, what type of glue or CA do you use and how do you apply?

Navy18

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Oh, and where did you find that surly looking pilot figure. Overall, outstanding work... you have talked me into building the Bristol Scout.

hammerd

I use a combination of yellow glue, CA, and epoxy for building.
For CA, I use the small tubes inserted in to the bottle. Mostly thin, but if there is a gap I chase it with thick. I don't use any accelerator.
The pilot is this fellow here: [link=http://www.acesofiron.com/page/AOIW1DP417.htm]Aces Of Iron[/link]
You need to paint them yourself, but he was the most realistic looking one I found in 1/8 scale.

Navy18

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Thanks Hammerd... I have the Scout ordered and this will be the smallest modeling I have attempted yet... appreciate your help. I plan on adding ailerons to the scout. First try at actual WW1 scale.

hammerd

Good luck with the Scout. I concidered it also.
This is my first WWI plane also, and only my second build since I was a kid, so there were a lot of new experiences.

Navy18

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In looking over the thread again, I see I am going to fall short in the landing gear area. Was all that hardware stock? I have very little soldering knowledge. Could you add a picture of your soldering gear/equipment and alittle on the process with such small parts?

hammerd

Navy18, I used silver solder, the low temp (low silver content) type and wrapped everything with copper wire stripped from electrical wire. If you look at earlier pics in the thread, you'll see some shots of the fabrication. I bent all the parts from piano wire. The trick, for me at least, is to build a fixture to hold everything in alignment and clean... clean... clean... everything well. I used a butane torch. Tin everything at the joints, align them in the fixture, and then heat the joints. The tinning will flow together holding them. Then you can wrap the joints tightly with the wire, heat again and add a little more solder to fill the wire wrapping. It's important to get the initial tack, before wrapping, tight so it doesn't move when heated again for the final soldering.
Finished up the wing rigging tonight. I'll probably have to loosen at least some of them to do the weathering and dirt, so I left the screws long for now.
Not exactly scale, but I think it makes a descent impression of what it should look like without being overly complicated or heavy.

Tools:



Random angles of completed work:





I should do something about those aileron interconnect rods. Not too happy with the way they look.

Navy18

My Feedback: (4)

Thank you for the pictures and explanation. I am a much more "roughed" detailer than you... you give me something to shoot for.

hammerd

Got some more flights in over the long weekend.
I added 1-1/2 oz to the nose and she flies very nicely. Elevator not so sensitive. I also re-worked the elevator rigging to smooth it out.
You have to fly her all the time though. Coordinating rudder in the turns makes them look much nicer. I went ahead and mixed some in the radio.
Once you pull back on the throttle, it's like hitting a wall! She slows down right now. I really expected her to float in on landing, but some throttle is required right up to touch down.
She is a blast to do low and slow passes with. Just putting along, she gets a lot of attention.
Already itching to build something else...maybe three wings this time.

Navy18

My Feedback: (4)

you'd do a DR.I proud.... nice job. I have this kit coming but I plan on leaving her bare bones in my study.

allanflowers

Somehow I missed this thread until today. I am glad I found it, you have done a fantastic job on this model.
Really great!

hammerd

It all ended this morning in a mid-air. []

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

I'm really sorry to see that... what a shame. All that work. If it's any consolation, you've probably made a bunch of us slightly better modelers by watching and trying to mimic your techniques...

I hope that the electonics were salvagable, at least. Can it be rebuilt?

Bob

cooper998

ouch[X(]

Don't forget, its all part of the hobby.

cooper998

pmillerusa

After reading this thread so many times and being envious of your talent, it's tough to see this...

very sorry .... [sm=cry_smile.gif]

as N1EDM mentioned above, many of us have certainly higher asperations after seeing your work. Somewhat selfishly I am already looking forward to your future posts on a new model.

One of the best builds I've ever seen regardless of the outcome... [sm=thumbs_up.gif]

iron eagel

So sorry to hear of the loss!

Such a nice airplane to be loss in such a short time!

As the others have said, your work has inspired us to set our standards higher for our own.

abufletcher

Maybe I'm weird, but I don't really care much what happens to a model after I finish building it (and after a successful flight or two). The building is what's really important too me. The maiden is proof it flies. After that, it's all just icing on the cake. In other words, I build just to build, not so I can have a model to fly. And as Bob said, a model lives on if it's been an inspiration to other modelers, as your Pup clearly has been. I'll be borrowing several ideas for my DrI.

So yeah, too bad about the mid-air (I have my own bizarre theories as to why they happen) but it's no less glorious a model just because it's no longer intact. Onward and upward to the next build!!!

abufletcher

BTW, here's my bizarre theory on mid-airs. Actually there's an awful lot of empty air over a flying field even if three or four models are flying at the same time. But of course, not all that air counts as there's a relatively restricted area of it around an imagined line tracing out the standard circuit. But even with this restriction I think it's still somehow unlikely that two models would happen to randomly occupy the same space at the same time.

So here's what I think happens. I think that because of some weird way that the human brain/visual system is wetwired, we pilots almost intuitive head for each other. That's right, we actually (unconsciously) fly our models into each other when in close proximity. So avoiding a midair might require that we somehow go against the grain of our intuition. For example, I'd bet that most flyers, if they actually TRIED to hit another model would miss it every time. But try to avoid it and BAM!

OK. So, I'm insane.

**I don't want to suggest that this is anyone's fault. I just suspect it's just something about the way our brains work. Also I just went back through the whole thread and was inspired all over again.

hammerd

abufletcher,
I tend to agree. I was more shocked than sad over it.
Gives me an excuse to start the next one early.

BTW, glad I could provide some inspiration. That's why I like reading through build threads myself.

carlosponti

My Feedback: (1)

ok this is hilarious and quite well founded at the same time