Levasseur Pl.8, L'Oiseau Blanc

[Borsos]

What an impressive monster! But I am sure you‘ll build a wonderful model!
Andreas

[KiwiZac]

I did not realise just how big she was. Quite the graphic illustration. I'm very keen to follow along with this one.

Pierre Levasseur took just 6 weeks to build L'Oiseau Blanc, it will probably take that long just to clear and organise my bench.

[RichieW]

What an impressive monster! But I am sure you‘ll build a wonderful model!
Andreas

It's colossal, a single engined, single bay biplane with a 15 metre wingspan! I really hope I can nail this one as a tribute to the illustrious Frenchmen and to repay the tremendous amount of help with research I have received.

I forgot to mention, a big part of the reason for setting the BE2c aside is that I have finally quit smoking and need to keep my hands and mind occupied. It being the weekend (a dangerous time) I made a start.

Due to limited space caused by my work place being littered with BE2c parts  I decided to make the tail plane first. There was something I was keen to try too.

 

I cut the outline from styrene sheet then made 2 more progressively smaller shapes and stuck them together.

 
20230714_111958 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

The same was done for the elevator flaps. To make life simple and help with symmetry I made this as a single length. The separate  flaps will be cut out and shaped much later. It's a big single piece and harder to lose!

 

The steps were then fill with UV resin

 

20230715_094236 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

With the elevators I was trying to achieve a thin trailing edge and the shape hinted at by the feint shadow halfway along the flap in this photograph. This is why the thickest styrene layer sits on top and ends at the midpoint from the cut out. This is where I am guessing a spar would be. Sorry for the rubbish little photo, if you can zoom in you might see what I mean!

 

lOiseauBanc by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

After  curing, a spot of filing, sanding and a little filling later the elevator segment looked like this;



 
20230715_131656 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

Much careful measuring and drafting onto 0.13mm styrene later the rib details were embossed with a ball point pen.

 
20230713_224414 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

The top side only is skinned because the ribs do not tend to protrude on the lower wing surface surface of fabric covered wings, if anything I have noticed that the covering usually sags between the ribs.

 

I checked the symmetry of the wing tips by simply drawing round the wing, turning it over and drawing round it again. This revealed a little segment that needed refining.

 20230714_231005 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

A shot of car primer later shows nice thin trailing edges and very little more touching up to do.

 
20230715_192511 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

That's as far as I got today. There was a lot of touching up and filling of dimples in the skin caused by too much solvent but it kept my hands occupied and my lungs smoke free. Best of all I've had great fun and feel very motivated by this aircraft and the mystery of where the last flight of Nungesser and Coli's ended.

 

Many thanks for looking in.

Richie

 

 

 

 

[lone modeller]

What a super start to this ambitious project Richie. That tail really does look very realistic and already gives an idea of how large this model will be.

Great news about giving up smokoing - I hope that you can keep it up in future.

Stephen.

[KiwiZac]

Congratulations on kicking the habit - quite aside from any health benefits you'll now have more money for models and supplies!

[Davos522]

Beautiful, Richie, and congrats (on the progress and the other thing too!). I need to look into this UV resin thing, another innovation that came sneaking along, apparently, while I was letting the spiders have free run of my workbench!

You're out of the starting gate, have a good run!

Dave V.

[Borsos]

I fought against this bad habit so many lost battles. I finally quit then before my 2nd child was born. Two great things at a time…
I keep my fingers crossed for you!!
Andreas

[Rookie]

Hi Richie,

This is a very interesting aircraft, more so with the history of Nungesser and Coli attached.
It has a serious footprint, and you’ll need some serious space on your workbench, and a place to display it when it’s done. I’m sure, with the experience of the BE2c, you will make this one too into a stunning model.

You are making good progress already. It’s funny to see you starting with the tail plane too. Looks like top notch work so far, and sandwiching the thinner styrene sheet between two thicker styrene sheets to get a nice thin edge for the elevators makes perfect sense.

Good to hear you quit smoking. I’ve tried several times, but haven’t succeeded so far.
I’ll be following this build closely!

Cheers,
Willem

[RichieW]

Thanks so much Dave, Stephen, Zac and Willem. This quitting smoking is going well my lungs have been smoke free (if that's possible in London) for 12 days and yes I have saved well over £100 to spend on modelling stuff. That won't be possible for a few days because I lost my wallet in the park after playing cricket yesterday.

Well enough of the smoking update, I got a little bit done today. I had to cut the little scalloped notches in the elevator trailing edge. To do this accurately and evenly I needed to make a very complicated tool dedicated to the task. I'll show you that bit of complex engineering shortly.

I taped over the ribs and masked a boundary edge 1mm from the edge. The mid point of each section was then marked and a triangular file used to make a starting cut.

Trailing edge notches by Richard Williams, on Flickr

The new tool consisted of a Tamiya paint jar with sandpaper CAd to it. Like most simple solutions it worked a treat.

Trailing edge notches by Richard Williams, on Flickr

I thought I had the surface ready for paint but a coat of white Mr Surfacer 1500 revealed a few horrors that needed work so that's where I have left it for tonight. I'm wondering how others get a perfect painting surface. I'm beginning to think the best way for me to do it is to take off my glasses and look at my work in dim light. Despite this I am having so much fun with this project already and have learned so much about aviation history from it.

Thanks for dropping by, Special thanks to Dave V for helping with the research.

Richie

[RAGIII]

First Congratulations on the Smoking thing. Hang in there and don't give in!! I quit One year and almost one Month ago.

As for the Model that was incredibly Fast and Really well done on your start!  Excellent skills!!

RAGIII

[DaveB]

Your off to a good start already, Richie -

An interesting (and very different) project too.

Regards

Dave

[RichieW]

First Congratulations on the Smoking thing. Hang in there and don't give in!! I quit One year and almost one Month ago.

As for the Model that was incredibly Fast and Really well done on your start!  Excellent skills!!

RAGIII

Thanks Rick, 2 weeks today since my last cigarette. Keeping occupied seems to be the key and a new project like this is just the ticket.

Your off to a good start already, Richie -

An interesting (and very different) project too.

Regards

Dave

Thanks Dave, I'm having great fun with it. It's a perfect subject for a scratch build although rather massive!

Richie

[lone modeller]

Keep up the good work on the smoking Richie - we are all supporting you.

Excellent piece of high tech engineering for sanding the elevator - just the sort of thing that scratch building is really about! It looks as though you are going to finish this one before the B E 2.

One answer to the surface problem is to use lots of coats of thinned paint - applied with a brush of course (forget those d...d spray gun thingys). I do this regularly now and find that it works really well.

Stephen.

[kensar]

Great start on this ambitious project!  Looks like you're moving along nicely.
What ideas do you have about making the fuselage (if you won't be divulging any trade secrets  )?

[Tim Mixon]

Very nice start to this most interesting project.  I wasn’t aware of this flight and the fate of the crew.
Good luck with the Be2 completion and of course, kicking the cigarette habit!

All the best,
Tim