Author Topic: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat  (Read 7257 times)

Offline lone modeller

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1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« on: March 11, 2016, 07:01:39 AM »
Evening All,

This project was inspired by Ninetythirdliberator's (Dan Smith's) build of the Joystick vacuform of this type on this forum. I have not built a flying boat before, but the clean lines  caught my attention. Dan has very kindly sent me a copy of the drawings so I have some reference material to start with. It also had not passed me by that it is a pusher.. but one without booms and therefore complex rigging, so it has everythingl going for it as a scratch build project. Having had a particularly busy time of late I decided that it was time to get back to some modelling again to take my mind off other things, and that this would be a relatively quick build (well for me at least). I have not done very much yet but I have made a start: I have cut pieces of 60 thou card to laminate in order to make the floats and I have cut out the wings and horizontal tail surfaces from card bent in hot water, shaped the tips and added the ribs from 10 x 20 thou Evergreen strip - something quick with results instantly visible. I already feel better!





Thanks for looking.
« Last Edit: July 29, 2017, 07:54:21 PM by lone modeller »

Offline Des

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2016, 07:18:32 AM »
Excellent work so far Stephen, looking forward to seeing this one come together.

Des.
Late Founder of ww1aircraftmodels.com and forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com

Offline xmald

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2016, 08:27:22 PM »
Stephen,  it's going to be a very interesting project! The wings are looking very good already!
Best regards
Filip

Offline IanB

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2016, 04:38:58 AM »
Popcorn and chair acquired....

Ian

Offline RAGIII

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2016, 09:23:12 AM »
It looks to be another magnificent scratch build from your talented hands! I am looking forward to your progress.
RAGIII
"A man has to know his limitations": Harry Callahan

"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler

Offline radio

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2016, 06:02:26 AM »
Great beginning.
Cheers
Martin

Offline lone modeller

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #6 on: March 20, 2016, 07:11:35 AM »
Evening All,

Thanks to Des, Xmald, IanB, Rick and Martin for the encouraging remarks - I have just had a week when I needed them!

This model is a test of concept for me - can I build a flying boat? I have always considered that the fuselage would be the biggest problem because of the shape, especially the curves in the nose area and getting sharp edges at the top and bottom of the the sides. I now know (thanks to Malaula) how to get the latter correct (as I did on the Ago nacelle), but those nose curves look to be a different ball game. Anyway I thought that I might build up the sides, stepped bottom, and top rear from 30 thou card as box sections and mould an upper front fuselage with the curved section for the wings in the usual manner. I set out to do this and carved a male mould for the upper forward fuselage but then realised that in front of the cockpit there is a small vertical section through which the m/g's protrude and moulding this by pushing a mould vertically was not going to work very well. I could perhaps do it if I then put some thin stretched sprue around the top edge and used filler but it was going to be a fiddle and might not work after all. A bad attack of cold feet meant that I went back to start and thought again, demonstrating by the way the advantages of scratch-building. I had not glued any of the fuselage pieces together so I am able to use them elsewhere, in this case some of the cockpit details were made from some of the pieces.

Second attempt at the fuselage/hull: I decided that I would go for the traditional method with fuselages and mould it in two halves. Then I would cut away the bottom so that I could insert two pieces, one in front of, and a second to the rear of the step. The step would be a former inserted into the joined halves. This would give me a stronger fuselage assembly and square joins along the edges of the lower fuselage. The top edges could be dealt with by using sprue and filler as per the Ago. This also would give me the curved vertical face in front of the cockpit. The problem with this approach was that for a push mould this is both rather large, and thin at the rear end and I was concerned whether the balsa wood would have the strength to enable me to get the necessary moulds. Well I gave it a go and found that the size was a bigger problem that the strength of the wood - I have had to make more moulds to get two decent two fuselage halves than any other moulding that I have made so far. I am not disappointed if I have to try two or three times but on this occasion it took 5 attempts to get one of the sides and four for the other - I was beginning to run out of 30 thou card! The problem was that the male mould would not fit squarely into the female and I kept getting distorted shapes. In the end I heated the plastic a little more than usual and then pushed the male into the female with fingers from each hand at both ends of the male mould while supporting the female over a large basin. Even then the mouldings are not the best and have needed a considerable amount of filler as the accompanying photos show, but in profile and plan they are very close to the drawings so I am happy with what I have got. If anyone wants to take a micrometer to the completed model and tell me that I am 0.5mm long/short/wide I will be happy to let them do so ………….. and then ask if they can do better?



This was the fuselage after I had filled the depressions in the upper rear - I had not started on the nose at this point! The cockpit opening was also cut out.

After filing, filling and sanding I managed to get my fuselage/hull and with some care marked out which parts of the lower fuselage to remove.



I had deliberately made this section too large with every intention of cutting away part of it to bring it to the correct dimensions, which is what I did next. I could then insert some stiffeners into the hull and at the step in mid fuselage. I also painted the interior of the cockpit sides and put in a plate at the rear of the cockpit - I actually think that there should be a fuel tank here but I cannot find any details so I left it blank - it will be difficult to see on the finished model anyway so I will overlook that detail.



I have constructed a simple cockpit which I will insert from below before I put on the bottom of the forward section of the hull.



In all a tricky week but I am getting there: that is the difficult part over for now - the next one will be fixing the top wing but that is a long way off at the moment and in the meantime the next operations should be straightforward. Next week I will be on my travels again as it is Easter in this part of the world so there may be a pause before the next update.

Thanks for looking.
« Last Edit: July 29, 2017, 08:00:08 PM by lone modeller »

Offline IanB

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #7 on: March 20, 2016, 07:25:31 AM »
That's quite an acheivement, looks great! Have a happy Easter!

Ian

Offline Des

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #8 on: March 20, 2016, 07:35:22 AM »
You have done a marvelous job so far Stephen, looking forward to seeing further updates.

Des.
Late Founder of ww1aircraftmodels.com and forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com

Offline xmald

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #9 on: March 21, 2016, 04:45:14 AM »
Stephen that`s what I call great modelling! Looking great!
Best regards
Filip

Offline RAGIII

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #10 on: March 21, 2016, 08:04:41 AM »
Outstanding work on the fuselage and interior! As always scratch building at its' best!
RAGIII
"A man has to know his limitations": Harry Callahan

"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler

Offline lone modeller

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #11 on: April 03, 2016, 02:34:21 AM »
Evening All,

Many thanks to those who have dropped by and left such positive comments - I really appreciate them.

I have managed to do a little more on the fuselage - and used a great deal more filler into the bargain! I think that I have used more filler on this model so far than on the previous three or four put together. The reason is the need to square off the edges of the fuselage sides and smooth off the front sides of the hull where the underside was fitted.

The front underside of the hull was curved along the lateral profile but also was slightly concave - I presume to try to make it aquaplane and reduce drag but I do not really know and as I am not a hydro-dynamic engineer I am simply guessing. In any event it had to be moulded. To do this I had cut off the lower part of the fuselage as shown before, and then carved a piece of balsa using the hull to get the correct curvature for the sides. Then I could shape the wood to give the concave curve of the hull bottom. This resulted in a double curved male mould: the female was simply cut to the plan shape of the forward fuselage and was straightforward. Moulding this piece was much simpler than the fuselage halves and when cut out the piece fitted very closely. I inserted the cockpit assembly from below and then glued the new hull bottom into place.

This is what it looked like from below before I trimmed and filed it to match the fuselage.



From above it looked like this:



I cut off the excess plastic and filled the gaps between the bottom and sides. I then glued small strips of stretched sprue along the top edges of the front and rear fuselage and when these were dry applied filler to fill the gaps along the pieces of sprue. When all of the filler was dry I could sand it down to get the square upper corners of the fuselage and the square sides for the forward parts of the lower hull. Finally I took some 10 thou card and scored it to give a keel and glued this to the lower part of the rear fuselage.





Usually when I am scratch building I do not expect to use much filler but this has been the exception. At least the sides of the fuselage are now square and sharp and the top rear is flat as it should be.

Thanks for looking.
« Last Edit: July 29, 2017, 08:03:44 PM by lone modeller »

Offline Ernie

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #12 on: April 03, 2016, 03:08:12 AM »
Beautiful work, Stephen!  Your attention to detail is amazing.  No wonder
all your creations are special, my friend. :D

Cheers,
Ernie :)
The new old guy, take two...

Offline RAGIII

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #13 on: April 03, 2016, 03:29:02 AM »
You may have used a lot of filler but the results are AWESOME!
RAGIII
"A man has to know his limitations": Harry Callahan

"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler

Offline lcarroll

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Re: 1/72 Phoenix Type A flying boat
« Reply #14 on: April 03, 2016, 03:33:46 AM »
   More real modelling from your desk, Stephen, always a pleasant experience to follow your projects. Great attention to detail which is what makes your work so special, I'll be tagging along as you take this subject to completion!
Cheers,
Lance