Sm Tall alk W
ell, I had planned to go fly the latest design this morning, but woke up to 4 inches of snow and blustery winds, so thoughts quickly turned to building rather than fly- ing. But that’s okay; I like both just about equally as well, so as long as modeling is in- volved, life is good. When it comes to build- ing and finishing your latest project, the easier it is, the better we like it, and this month we have a couple of things to offer that might do just that.
And as long as we’re on the subject of building, one of the things you’ll need to frame a model is a good building board that will easily accept pins to hold the parts in place as the frames are constructed. I am al- ways on the lookout for different ways of do- ing things, and while at a fly-in in Tucson last weekend, I had the opportunity to visit with friends, Tom and Gretchen Schafer, over dinner and some good conversation. Tom is the in-house boat and airplane de- signer at Dumas Products, and Gretchen is a school teacher, and also an avid modeler, and a good one at that.
Tom and I go with the more conventional board flat on the table method, but Gretchen uses an artist’s easel to hold her board in what appears to be a far more comfortable set-up than bending over a workbench for hours at a time. Though there are lots of op- tions, Gretchen made her board from a cou- ple of layers of white Styrofoam with a cork mat for the actual contact surface. Map pins are used to hold the plans and waxed paper in place, and T-pins hold the parts in place for gluing.
There are several other options that can be used as well. For the smaller projects I have a 13 × 36-inch balsa board that came from Aerocraft Models nearly 20 years ago that has held up very well over time. For the larger projects I use a 24 × 48-inch board made from two layers of Celetex ceiling tile. If you need something even bigger, the same type material is available in 4 ×8-foot sheets at the local home supply outlet that
by pat tritle You can reach Pat Tritle at 10313 Snowheights NE, Albuquerque, NM 87112 or via e-mail at
patscustommodels@aol.com
PHOTO: PHILLIP AGNOLETTO
Phillip Agnoletto modified the Nieuport 28 from the original 3-channel R/C Dumas kit setup, by reducing the dihedral to scale and added ailerons. Cover is Microlite with graphics from Callie Graphics.
allows you to cover your entire bench top, or custom size a board to best fit your special needs. Both of those materials can be lami- nated into double thickness as well, and that will allow T-pins to be pressed in deeper than a single layer will allow. Meanwhile, I know that modelers are by nature a pretty creative bunch, so drop a line, I’d be real in- terested in hearing about what you might be using.
Great stuff from the building board
This month is pretty well loaded up with good stuff, so let’s get rolling. First up, Bill Bosco has had a pretty productive last cou- ple of months. We’ll start with the 31-inch span Fokker Dr.I built from the Dare kit. Here’s what Bill has to say: “My Fokker Triplane came out great. I am enjoying building toward a scale appear- ance. Here are some extras I added to the Dare kit: pilot, machine guns, leather cock- pit combing, lathe-turned balsa and ply wheels, foot steps, wire handle for lifting
rear fuse, landing gear and wing strut fair- ings, lower wing tip skids, water slide decals printed on my printer and covered with Japanese tissue. It is powered with a GWS gear drive with inrunner motor.” And next up is Bill’s Bellanca CD Tractor biplane. The 28-inch span model was built from the R/N kit, covered with Japanese tis- sue and dope. The R/C conversion was done using two sub-micro servos, and a 10-gram outrunner motor with a 250 mAh 2S Li-Po battery. All up, she tips the scales at around 5 ounces and not only looks good, but flies good too.
And if that’s not enough, Bill also reported in with a Fokker D-VII—see, I told ’ya that Bill has been a busy guy. This one was also built from the 36-inch span Dare kit, but modified to 4-channel R/C. It also appears that the fuselage was shortened back to scale length. Covered in tissue and dope, the model flies beautifully, and makes a terrific addition to Bill’s ever growing collection of WW I models.
As long as we’re in a WW I vein, we’ll have
PHOTOS: BILL BOSCO
Bill Bosco added lots of scale details to his Fokker Triplane(at left) built from the Dare kit. The model was finished in tissue and dope with homemade graphics. Bill also built his Fokker D-VII (above) from a Dare kit. The highly modified model was covered in tissue and dope, and among the mods are the addition of ailerons with scale dihedral and shortening the fuselage back to scale length.
24 MARCH 2013
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