Yep, I'd be more than happy with that Mark.

You did that justice without a doubt!

Cheers,

Hugh

Mark, nicely done!

Hello,

I just received my package of "Strutz" brass. Thanks for helping me find a supplier, Stephen. Gotta get out the soldering iron.

Posting soon.

Mark

Almost finished with the fuselage decaling........................





More soon,

Mark

Mark,

Looking very good.

Dwayne

Here's an update,

I measured out a brass Strutz piece for the strut. I made it a little long on the top and bottom.



Then I made 7 more using the first to meaure with....



Then I marked each one where they would meet the wing on the top and bottom of the strut so I could dremel a point on both ends to insert into the wings and made a mark 3mm up on one side to create the cut in the top and bottom of the strut.





and made copies......



Next I finished a top starboard wing segment...sanding is not one of my favorite things to do......but I got a nice straight wing.................




The wing is a little short in the scale drawing on my jig but the wings have strut locator marks on the top of the bottom wings and the bottom of the top wings so I'll go by those for the alignment.




I think I just might finish this before the end of this decade.......................

Mark

Mark , beautiful all the way around . Love your wood grain !

Mark i realy want to thank you for that beautyfull presentation of your work,
its the most detailed and most wonderfull model constraction i ve ever seen.
Please keep on doing this good work.
Its real plesure.
I also wish some day hear you plaing your guitar.

Thanks for the comments Terri . I appreciate it.

Your Fokker Dr.1 is a work of art, Dimitris. I'm extremely impressed with the paint job you did on it.

Here's a little more progress, I decided to redo the undersides of the lower wings.



You can see the top of the wing has very thin ridges to represent the internal bracing.



The bottom has nothing....



I made tick marks along the top and bottom of the wings where the rib lines were located then used a square to connect the dots of each rib.......




Then i flipped the wing over and lined up the lines with the tick marks on the bottom and taped the wing down.....



....then carefully lining up the square to the lines on the paper and tick marks on the bottom of the wing, I scribed in the grooves to represent the ribs on the bottom of the wing to give it some detail...



the effect is very light and probably won't show up until I paint and weather the wings....




I'm waiting for a new regulator for my compressor to arrive so I can airbrush, so I'll have some more updates when it gets here.

Mark

I've decided to replace the raised detail on the top of the wings. I've lost a little detail due to sanding and the raised ribs weren't equal in width and height anyway so here's how I did it.

Here are the tools........and a strip of Scotch tape.....



Measure a thin strip of the Scotch tape with the metal square and using a new blade in the exacto cut several out.............



Make tick marks along the front and leading edge of the wing for each rib. Scrape or sand off the existing rib detail. Line the tape up with pre-drawn tick marks.




Cut the edges with a rounded exacto blade and there you have it. Cut more strips than you need so you can use the ones that turn out more equal in width.



Sorry for the poor pics but I was taking them as I was working. I think they're clear enough to get the point across.

It doesn't really take that long and is an easy and cheap way to replace bad or sanded off detail.

Mark

Mark,

This is a project that just keeps on giving and will be a great resource for those of us who will tackle a full vac-form build for the first time. I really like your method of restoring the rib detail, very clever indeed!

Dwayne

Thanks Dwayne, here's the fuselage completely decaled. A few coats of Future and it'll be done.






Thanks for checking in.

Mark

Most impressive Mark! This has become one of the best tutorials on site. Model On!

Thanks, Stephen, I'm having a blast with this build and sharing it with everyone on the site.

I finished brushing on a few coats of Future to the fuselage. Next I turned to the cockpit opening. The cockpit had an edging or piping along the top of the opening as you can see in this pic.



The cockpit didn't look right to me without it so I ran a piece of .015 rod along the edge while supergluing it in place.







Then I painted it flat black..........





Next I'll be getting the jig ready for the lower wings.

Mark

Amazing how a good eye and a little extra detail makes such a difference. Smashing work and I'm enjoying following it.

Thanks JP, here's a better shot of the wing with the Scotch tape replacement ribs. I gave it a few brush coats of Future right from the bottle to smooth it out.



More soon,

Mark

Hi Mark!

This will be a fantastic model once finished! Keep the updates coming...

Jean-Luc

Here's some progress on the jig.

I think of the jig as a model in itself. The alignment of the wings are as important as the right color scheme and markings. Take your time with your jig, not only does it provide alignment but also support while you're rigging the model.

We have certain limitations when matching a model up to a scale drawing. I've never built a plane that exactly matched the scale drawings in every aspect. So be easy on yourself, give yourself a little (but not very much) wiggle room with the measurements.

First I checked the wing with the scale drawing......



Then I measured the leading edge of the lower port wing on the scale drawing once near the wing root and once near the tip............




1.5 cm all the way across.....now for the models wing...........



About 1.4 cm...not bad. I'll adjust the wing mount to the fuselage just a little.

Now measure the trailing edge of the wing............................



.9 cm all the way across......now the trailing edge of the model wing....



That worked out well. I'll get the trailing edge firmed up first. I cut a piece of balsa to 1 cm and tapered the top of it from 1 cm to about .8 cm. then you can just slide it under the wing to the correct height (.9 cm).



Next I cut supports for the leading edge. One support for near the wing root and one for futher out on the wing just inside where the wing float will be attached so the support doesn't get into the way. 1.4 cm is as close as I could get to the actual 1.5 cm measurement without some major reworking of the hole drilled into the fuselage for the wing so I'll be fine with it at 1.4 cm.




With the leading edge supports in place I measured the trailing edge near the wing tip to make sure it's .9 cm all the way across the trailing edge.



Next I use a right angle to check the scale drawing to the model wing to make sure they will match for later when I attach the wing premanently to the fuselage.





I glue the supports down while the wing is in alignment with all 4 supports.





The most important thing is to carry these measurements to the starboard wing exactly so that both wings are equal.

To be continued.......

Mark

One more post for the day...

Here's the starboard wing in alignment, I won't go into the whole wing alignment.....it's just like the port wing. Remember to match the measurements up.




Now both of my lower wing leading edges are at a consistent 1.4 cm straight across.



I see an airplane!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mark

Mark , I've use tape before for doing rib tapping but not with clear tape . I always used masking tape which always seem to be to thick . I have some white decal sheets for printing you own . Would this work as well for that ? I'm working on a vac kit from Toms Model Works and the wings are bad ! Lots of small bumps and sink holes so from sanding all the rib detail will be lost . It looks like the clear tape will be fine in 172 , but for 1/48 .........

Hi Terri,

Here's what I used for my rib tape experiments. Remember that the Grigorovich M-5 I'm building is 1/48 and not 1/72. The magazine scale was 1/72 but I enlarged the plans to 1/48, so even though you see 1/72 in my pictures, it's actually all 1/48. These are the 4 different tapes I tried....

1. Scotch tape
2. Tamiya tape
3. RC Car Pin Striping
4. Graphic Art Tape




Here they are painted over...............



Here's what I found out.

1. The tapes get succcessively thicker from #1 to #4.
2. Tapes 1 and 3 have smooth surfaces.
3. Tapes 2 and 4 have rough surfaces.
4. Tapes 1 and 2 would work OK with 1/48 scale and up.
5. Tapes 3 and 4 might work with 1/32 but would have to be checked for thickness.

For you Terri, the scotch tape might work but I've found one tape that is a little thinner than Scotch tape but more tacky..........packing tape....



I would try this for 1/72 (packing tape). Decal paper might work but I'd think it would be too thin. Try a few strips on a blank sheet of styrene

If you don't want to apply putty to the smaller sink holes you can try putting regular White-Out in and over the holes. I've used it before to fill rigging holes in wings.

While I'm on experiments.........here's one I tried with Future........

Here's Tamiya Red Brown brushed onto a wing and then Futured, given a wood grain decal and then futured again.



You can see I was experimenting with nail markings along a seam. I didn't like the effect. So I thought I'd try to darken a panel by tinting a coat of Future............

A little Future.............



A little tamiya semi-gloss black



Mix it up, one light and one darker..............




Here's the piece with the lighter tint on the right and the darker obviously on the left....



The best advice I can give you Terri, is to take a piece of blank styrene sheet and treat it as your wing and experiment with a few options. I actually do a lot of experimenting that I don't post for times sake. Only you can decide which result is good for you. And one other thing, take pictures and notes as you go so you can reference your experiments for later builds.

I hoped that helped. If you need more info, just let me know.

Mark

You have been most helpful with my question . I went and tired a few and found the packing tape will work the best . Thank you for your time and posting pic's to help me understand the whole thing a little better .
Cheers to you !

Glad to help.

Mark

Hello all,

I needed to get a better, more sturdy, wing to fuselage connection. So today I stopped by the local hobby store and picked up some aluminum tube.



It's soft and easy to cut with an exacto knife...just roll the knife and rod across a flat surface and the knife will start to sink into the tube..............



...then snap it apart at the knife seam.....................



I put a smaller brass rod (the same that's in my wing) through it to hold it while I painted it flat black.



I drilled the holes in the fuselage a little larger to accept the tube then inserted the tube and rod all the way through................



I removed the brass rod and did the same with the other wing hole...........




Now the wings will remain in the correct position without drooping.....then I re-checked each measurement after installing the wings..........excellent fit.




More soon,
Mark

Hello all,


I'm giving the top wings the same treatment as the bottom with Scotch tape ribs and I've removed and will be repositioning the ailerons......




My airbrush regulator is supposed to be here tomorrow so hopefully I'll get to some painting on the wings while I'm constructing the engine support struts. Fingers crossed.

More later,
mark