To all of you who compete in scale competitions, I have a question. The 3 views I am using to build my new aircraft from show gun channels on the top of the front of the fuselage. Imagine an FW 190. Well, my aircraft actually did not have these, as can be documented by actual photographs of the aircraft. How do you proceed with a situation like this? Do I submit these photos during static to confirm my model is accurate without the gun channels?

Thanks for any ideas, Rich

Photographs take precedent. So you can show the normal 3views for outline etc and offer the pictures for your specific plane.
Not an issue.

Awesome, that is what I thought. They seem to take some artistic license with some of the drawings. Thanks for the info.

Hey Rich,
Usually when you set your model up on the judging table and give the outline judge your 3 views he or she will ask you if there are any differences between your model and your outline you presented to them. At that time is when you point out the photo's and let the judge know about the differences, As long as your model is built as the version in the photo's and not the 3-view you are good to go.

You will find that if you get 4 or 5 different 3-views and compare them you will get 4 or 5 different measurments from each one, it can be really frustrating trying to build a model from 3-views!

Larry B

I have a Stuka under construction as well. Having acquired many, many books on this airplane, including a very nice plastic model, they all show (the 3 views), the ailerons tapering at the tips. There are many actual photos of the stuka clearly showing the ailerons a constant chord. This is a well known error, but something that would have to be addressed for competition. Again I suppose it is not how actually scale you airplane is, but how accurately it matches your documentation.

You hit the nail on the head! The judges are suppose to only go on the documentation that you provide, and for the most part I have had no bad experiences with judges (except for one contest). If you build your Stuka with tapered ailerons and only use your 3-view for accuracy of outline then you will not get downgraded any for your model having tapered ailerons. I am currently finishing up a 1/4 scale 109E that I did from several 3-views. For my documentation I'll use the 3-view that I used to get the primary outline when I did the fuse molds and wing cores. The 3-view that I'll use does not show the fuse cross sections which I obtained from a different 3-view, but the judges don't really care about cross sections so it doesn't matter. It is really wise to have your documentation in hand before you ever start a model, then as you build you can make the changes to the kit to match your stuff.