Author Topic: Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48, Upd 10.10.2020 Rigging  (Read 15211 times)

Bughunter

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Deperdussin Monocoque 1912  
AJP Maquettes, 1/48

Some years ago I built the Demoiselle from a 1/48 kit of the french company AJP Maquettes. Today I would like to show you another AJP kit that contains everything - but no plastic!




I didn't know the name Deperdussin for a long time, until a friend mentioned it. Then there was a special offer at AJP and this little racer appealed to me.

The original was a French racing monoplane. It was the first airplane that flew faster than 200 km/h. It was already impressively modern for its time. The fuselage was a light shell construction made of wood, wings and tail unit covered with fabric. It was equipped with a 160 HP 14-cylinder rotary engine, which is composed of two 7-cylinders.

More about the original can be found at Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deperdussin_Monocoque


Box contents: 


Let's open the flat cardboard box!

A thin, translucent cover paper:



White metal parts, the quality was worse on the other kit. Probably won't use much of it anyway.



Further in the material mix, aluminium foil, windscreen foil, "Piano-wire" (great material, stable, but can be soldered) and a nail?



Cowling made of resin. Not a great cast, irregular, not round at the back. Hole in front not centered. I will probably have to make a new one.



The highlight: a relatively large PE sheet 0.2mm thick. Unlike the Demoiselle kit normal alloy, which can be soldered :)



Cleanly etched on both sides:



A manual as 8 pages A5 booklet, french/english, black/white, but with red tension ropes.
An extra page about the history is unfortunately only available in french.



A small printed picture in color, how the plane could look like.



And where is the fuselage, in case anyone wondered?

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This is also a highlight!
A "turned" piece of beech wood - not really turned, because the tail is not round. The slot for the tailplane and the many mounting holes are already made, although a bit larger than necessary.
The small part is an optional headrest.



From the front the fuselage is drilled out for the interior and the cockpit opening is also milled out. As the wall is very thin, the area around the holes has been reinforced with epoxy or similar, but only from the inside! So a stain outside should not be a problem.



This real multimedia kit has light and shadow! The etched parts and the wooden hull are certainly the highlight, other parts can't keep up. Had I perhaps only had luck? In an older report a wooden hull was mentioned, on scalemates a resin fuselage was reported.


The reference situation is also difficult. Unfortunately I can't access the Flightglobal Archive :(
There are different variants, with many differences in details, span and shapes. There is still one original in a french museum, the kit seems to be close to this version - but it is painted over everything! I would be tempted to leave the fuselage wooden, with translucent canvas, but the pictures of it look a bit different.
If necessary I will build a WhatIf :)
So, if anyone has any information, please speak up!

I think I need to scratch some parts and add some accessories ;)
Someone like to follow this build?

Cheers,
Frank
« Last Edit: October 11, 2020, 05:32:51 AM by Bughunter »

Offline RAGIII

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Re: Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2020, 04:34:21 AM »
I will certainly follow along. Rough looking kit but I am sure you will make it look Brilliant!
RAGIII
"A man has to know his limitations": Harry Callahan

"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler

Bughunter

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Re: Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2020, 04:39:58 AM »
Rough looking kit
From the price point of view is should look very, very fine :-\

Cheers,
Frank

Offline kensar

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Re: Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2020, 10:38:12 PM »
Well, this should be interesting!  This kit must have been made in the stone age (before 1970  ;D ).  I suppose the thin translucient material is to be glued onto the photoetched frames for the tail and wing surfaces?

I think the Deperdussin designs look quite interesting.

Offline lone modeller

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Re: Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2020, 08:10:49 AM »
I will certainly be intrested in following you Frank. This looks to be an ideal kit for you - the basic parts are there and you can work your usual magic in making the rest!

Stephen.

Offline Alexis

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Re: Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2020, 12:49:47 PM »
Different , got my attention . Tagging along ...


Terri
Hurra ! , Ich Leben Noch
Body and life is a vessel we use to travel the planet . Femininity is the gift , The miracle comes from what we do with it .

Bughunter

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Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48 - References
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2020, 04:36:58 AM »
Welcome to the show Ken, Stephen and Terri!

I suppose the thin translucient material is to be glued onto the photoetched frames for the tail and wing surfaces?
Yes, that is thin paper. It looks great with light shining through (same as the linked Demoiselle), you only have to take care, that both sides do not touch while glueing.


References


Wikipedia has an article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deperdussin_Monocoque

Some pictures in Wikimedia:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Deperdussin_Monocoque


Allegedly the plane in the French Air and Space Museum in Le Bourget is an original.

There are some good pictures in good quality, here an overview picture, the hull is painted.

Source: wikimedia.org

The kit parts, e.g. the upper struts, correspond to this variant.


Another known machine is a replica:

Source and more pics: https://hiveminer.com/Tags/deperdussin%2Cmonocoque


Another wooden machine, but there are many parts again completely different:

Source: airliners.net


In the Owls Head Transportation Museum Maine there is also a replica (with ailerons ;), see here:
http://owlshead.org/collections/detail/1913-deperdussin-gb-racer

Source: owlshead.org

With this replica the winding is also nice to see:

Source: owlshead.org


Regarding the fuselage I have found another great photo, seems to have been very light:

Source and full resolution:
https://archpaper.com/2017/07/va-exhibit-plywood/workman-carrying-a-complete-deperdussin-monocoque-fuselage-deperdussin-factory-pari-about-1912-musee-de-lair-et-de-lespace-le-bourget/


Cheers,
Frank

Offline gbrivio

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Re: Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2020, 07:11:14 AM »
Extremely interesting build to follow, I'm grabbing a good seat!
Ciao
Giuseppe

Offline RAGIII

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Re: Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2020, 08:06:27 AM »
Excellent reference photos Frank.
RAGIII
"A man has to know his limitations": Harry Callahan

"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler

Offline Alexis

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Re: Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48
« Reply #9 on: February 24, 2020, 10:24:29 AM »
She does have a centen appeal to her .


Terri
Hurra ! , Ich Leben Noch
Body and life is a vessel we use to travel the planet . Femininity is the gift , The miracle comes from what we do with it .

Offline fredjocko

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Re: Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48
« Reply #10 on: February 25, 2020, 01:12:09 AM »
That certainly definitely looks old school. Very cool and interesting build. I cannot wait to watch your progress.

Bughunter

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Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48, Update 24.2.2020 Some brass
« Reply #11 on: February 25, 2020, 03:20:01 AM »
Thank you all for your comments, highly appreciated!

Very cool and interesting build. I cannot wait to watch your progress.
Ok, then lets start with ...

Brass


Just a few etched parts separated from the frame and bent when the soldering iron was hot.

The cockpit frame:




I soldered the fuel and oil tank, the fit was quite good:



Looks good, but then I noticed that you will hardly see any of it in the finished fuselage!



The seat is also bent and soldered, I only cut the belts before. There is still something of HGW or something like that.



Then I also made a dry fit of the etched parts, the drillings did not fit completely. And I had to sand the tail heavily, until the elevator fits.



And then I made a big mistake, I stained the fuselage.
Before that:


After, from the top it still works, better than without stain:


But on the side, the rings are much more visible >:(


I will think about it ...

Cheers,
Frank



Offline RAGIII

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Re: Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48
« Reply #12 on: February 25, 2020, 05:28:37 AM »
As always your PE and soldering are first class Frank! I wish I had some magical answer for the large grain swirls.If it were mine  it would probably come down to sealing the wood and using oils or a wood grain decal  :o I am sure you will find your own Best solution!
RAGIII
"A man has to know his limitations": Harry Callahan

"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler

Offline Thumbs up

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Re: Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48
« Reply #13 on: February 26, 2020, 08:52:47 PM »
Seems to me that French aviation went backwards after this baby!

Bughunter

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Deperdussin Monocoque 1912, AJP Maquettes, 1/48, Upd 26.2.2020 Lambda-Lambda
« Reply #14 on: February 27, 2020, 04:25:25 AM »
Gnome Lambda-Lambda


No, I didn't mistype the headline! ;)
There was a 7-cylinder rotary engine called Lambda with 80 hp, which was the production engine of many models, including the Sopwith Tabloid.

Source: wikimedia.org


Much more powerful engines are not available, so they came up with the idea of using two rotary engines one behind the other, which resulted in the Lambda-Lambda with 160 hp.

Source: wikimedia.org

This engine is also available from Small Stuff. As with the original, many parts are the same as the Lambda, only the central part and the manual are new.

This time I had a hard time with the construction!

To put the cylinders into the housing was still quite good.



You can see the offset for better cooling and push rods.



Besides the engine, all small parts were painted with Alclads.



Here I used Dark Alu, Steel, Exhaust Manifold and Hot metal sepia, and pale gold for the brass parts.



The brass-painted bushes still worked, but in the front cylinders you can hardly get the spark plugs in.
Some valve levers did not want to go into the cylinders, or did not hold.



Although I had tried to insert the bushes at a slight angle, the pushrods on the rear cylinders are problematic.



The next day I repaired the mishaps with some Alclad brush painting and took images in day light.



Here you see 71 parts together, more then most of my kits have!


I define my first Lambda-Lambda as finished, except for the ignition wires and washing.
Light years away from the two cast metal lumps in the kit.


Cheers,
Frank