forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com
WW1 Aircraft Modeling => Completed models => Topic started by: torbiorn on January 22, 2023, 01:22:40 AM
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From the ceiling in a room filled with rotary engines and airplane models at the Landskrona town museum hangs a small biplane of 1918 vintage. The room displays a small exhibition dedicated to Enoch Thulin and his Thulin works (AETA) - a short-lived aviation company which went bust after Great war surplus flooded the marked and the demand fell. Despite its relatively short lifespan, Thulin laid the foundation of Swedish aviation industry, produced a dozen or so types, some license-built, some own designs. The preserved plane in the ceiling is the Thulin NA, the last of the lot.
Only one prototype was built. First flight in April 1919, made a respectable 215 km/h powdered by its 9-cylinder Thulin G rotary. A bare month later, Thulin crashed fatally during a practice flight with an older design. With the market saturated and Thulin dead, the company was gone within a year. The NA ended up in the Landskrona museum as one of a few preserved Thulin aircraft.
Also preserved, in the Stockholm technological museum, is the single prototype of type N, from which the NA was derived. The planes were likely built towards an expected procurement of scouts for the Swedish army aviation that never materialized. The N first flew in 1917, just prior to the government competition that was eventually cancelled. No one seems to know why the type was further developed into the NA the following year.
The N had a rather sleek, rounded fuselage of plywood on wooden frames, while the NA had a lighter and stronger metal skeleton but a less sleek appearance with a rectangular linen-covered aft fuselage. That and improvements of the 9-cylinder Thulin G engine (itself a development of the Le Rhone rotary) gave the NA a top speed of 210+ km/h compared to some 160 km/h of the N. Another difference was that the NA had ailerons on both wings. Of some inexplicable reason the NA was made into a two-seater with a ridiculously cramped observer’s seat.
Apart from engines and wheels from the spares box the models were put together from mostly styrene sheet and strip. Struts from pressed styrene rod or metal, while large round shapes were plunge moulded.
Thulin N and NA, ledt and right respectively:
(https://i.imgur.com/DeiGggT.jpg)
The N had a fuselage covered with varnished plywood…
(https://i.imgur.com/knmrCFs.jpg)
…while linen covered the NA, maybe to save weight or hours:
(https://i.imgur.com/JIPAfIH.jpg)
The empennage were otherwise very similar:
(https://i.imgur.com/pYpSTA4.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/BMc01hn.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/CZCeyVJ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/FV2Lr3G.jpg)
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Cracking pair of models and good to see something a bit different :)
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Always nice to see scratchbuilds, great to see exotic types!
Too rare for Björn Karlström, so did you prepare your own drawings?
What did you use for the rigging, it looks very fine and close to scale.
Greetings Joachim
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Always nice to see scratchbuilds, great to see exotic types!
Too rare for Björn Karlström, so did you prepare your own drawings?
What did you use for the rigging, it looks very fine and close to scale.
Greetings Joachim
Thanks! Karlström made drawings for most of Thulin’s types and the N model was indeed built after that, but not the NA. In 1973 the museum ordered drawings from measurements of the NA. These are now publicly available:
https://digitaltmuseum.org/search/?q=thulin+na
Rigging is hair and the thickness should be to scale within a factor of 2 (no, I haven’t actually measured, but it’s ”thin” as far as hair go). I also have some so-called nano-wire which can be split into almost invisibly thin strands, which sometimes I use for thinner control wires or inner bracing, but not this time - these are actually too thin for wing bracing wire even in 1/72.
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Congratulations on completing a pair of beautiful scratch built models. These are new aircraft to me so as well as getting to see these beautiful models I have learned something too.
Richie
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Super pair of scratch builds and all the more interesting as they are types which few of us have ever heard of.
Stephen.
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Lovely models torbiorn, well done!
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Outstanding work on two little known subjects!
RAGIII
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Quite nice builds of unique subjects. Thanks for sharing.
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Damn, I just got a haircut! :o What glue do you use and how do get those hairs tight?
Those drawings are really great, thanks for the link. I have one swedish model,
a Tummelisa, converted from Revell Sop Triplane long ago. Omitting the center wing was easy!
Greetings Joachim
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How beautiful! What delightful little replicas, congratulations!
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Fantastic models and good scratch building work on another unusual subject matter.
Regards
Dave
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Thanks for the nice comments, all.
Damn, I just got a haircut! :o What glue do you use and how do get those hairs tight?
Those drawings are really great, thanks for the link. I have one swedish model,
a Tummelisa, converted from Revell Sop Triplane long ago. Omitting the center wing was easy!
Greetings Joachim
I’m stealing the hair: I haven’t got enough myself, neither long enough or, well, enough of it. I dip the hair in CA and stick it into pre-drilled holes. Then fill the hole with CA or carpenter’s white glue. The other end goes through a hole going through the entire wing, and simply pulled taut while gluing (again CA, followed by filling the hole). I hold it taut either with pliers or, if doing several at a time, heavy clothespins+gravity. This makes the wires structural and the result is surprisingly sturdy. I’ve even dropped one or two from shoulder-height without damaging the wings or wires.
I saw the Tummelisa, but it looks more like scratch then cpnversion :)
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Very exotic subjects and quite fine scratch building results. Thanks for sharing this two little ones.
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I am in awe of those of you that can scratch-build these things. This is wonderful work you've done here.
Warren