1/33 ModelArt Morane-Saulnier Type L Parasol, paper kit

[rhallinger]

Greeting fellow WWI modelers!  After a multi-year absence (work obligations and life in general), I am modeling again, although I've been watching regularly here during the hiatus.  I have been particularly intrigued by the paper model builds by Dan (NinetythirdLiberator), and his tutorials on YouTube have prompted me to have a go at a paper kit.  Years ago I bought a couple of them with the intention of using them as templates for plastic scratch-build projects someday, so now I am just going to try to build them in their own right!

I have selected a Polish paper kit in 1/33 scale of the M-S Type L Parasol flown by Sub-Lieutenant Reginald Warneford, RNAS, when he destroyed German Airship LZ37 by dropping bombs on it near Ghent, Belgium on 7 June 1915.  He was awarded the Legion of Honor by France, with General Joffre awarding the medal 10 days after his feat, on 17 June 1915.  Sadly, Warneford was killed in a non-combat flying accident that same day, while preparing to ferry an aircraft back to England.  He was 23 years old.  Warneford was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his action in destroying LZ37.

Here is the kit:







The instructions are in Polish, so I'm relying on the illustrations and Dan's tutorials.





I'll update on progress later.  I've been at it for three weeks, and it's going well so far!  Thanks Dan, for the inspiration and guidance.

Best regards,

Bob

[rhallinger]

I am using the Windsock Datafile for the M-S Type L, which includes cover art of Warneford in action against L37, and a number of fairly good photos of No. 3253 for reference.  The ModelArt kit includes a second fuselage option for a French aircraft.  Apparently, these aircraft were delivered to RNAS by Morane with French cockades on the wings and no national markings on the fuselage.  In the case of No. 3253 (and perhaps other aircraft), the RNAS added British cockades to the fuselage sides.  This aircraft also had the cowling and wheels painted white. 

More later.

Bob

[NinetythirdLiberator]

Hello Bob!

That looks great "in the box".  Can't wait to see it all built up.  Maybe we'll get a nice little following over here now that we have a lock on all the 1/32nd models out there...

Looking forward to this...Dan

[Alexis]

Impressive kit , looking forward on seeing this come together .



Terri

[rhallinger]

Thanks Dan and Terri!  I'll try my best to make something of this.  It's looking good to me so far, but I'll roll it our with a little deliberation. 

First things first, being a neophyte at paper modeling, before I started cutting out parts I went back and re-read Dan's construction threads for the Avro Spider, Aviatik Berg and Nieuport 24, which were very helpful.  Thankfully, I noticed the link in the Nie.24 thread to Dan's YouTube tutorials, and I watched each of them a couple of times.  Invaluable, both for skills learning and confidence-building.  Great resource Dan!  Thanks.

So, with Exacto knife, a supply of #11 blades, steel rule, sharp craft scissors (small and large), tweezers and tacky craft glue, I set about cutting out cylinders, crankcase, etc. for the 9-cylinder Le Rhone engine.

 



This work can be a bit tedious, so I would do a few and then take a short break.  Before I knew it, I had the base engine together.



I added wire lift rods and fashioned the copper manifolds from styrene rod.  I am pleased with the result, and it should look fine under the half cowl of the Type L.




That's enough for now.  The cowling is next, three paper parts.  Here I followed Dan's lead from his Nieuport build.  More to come soon.  I'm having lots of fun with this!

Best regards,

Bob

[RAGIII]

The engine turned out great! Like I always say, hard to believe it is paper!
RAGIII

[rhallinger]

Thanks Rick.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out, being paper after all  , but I am happy with the overall impression and the way it went together.  On to the cowl.

The Parasol has a half-cowl similar to a Nieuport 11.  The kit has three pieces.  In order to provide rigidity for the cowl during finishing and handling, I used the circle cutter to cut a backer from plain card stock, and it worked well.  Here is the basic cowl assembled (the foam is just to give some support during handling):



I then followed Dan's process and applied modeling putty to the seams and sanded, then repeated sprays of auto primer and sanding to get a smoother surface:




Warneford's Parasol had a white cowl, but the kit provided a silver finish, which was not a problem since it would need paint over the primer anyway.  Here is the finished cowl painted white, M-S logo plate in place, with the engine installed:



You can see some other components in the last photo, but they are for a later installment.  I am very happy with the cowl.  So far, so good!

Best regards,

Bob

   

[smperry]

Bob, that is just great. I took a 1st Out of the box with a Type L, (old Eduard kit). I think your's looks better than the plastic and PE engine I built for mine. I am in awe of how you smoothed out the cowl. I would have probably grown a crop of sanding fuzz and had to paint it green and tell everyone it was a Chia - cowl.
sp

[RAGIII]

Outstanding work on the cowl! Together with the engine it looks superb!
RAGIII

[rhallinger]

Thanks for your kind comments sp and Rick.  I am simply a marginally competent student in this case.  I just followed the method suggested by Dan's YouTube tutorial and build thread on his paper Nieuport 23, and it really worked!   Who knew?  I appear to be somewhat trainable.

I am finding that a nice thing about these paper kits is that once you get past the nitty-gritty small parts like the engine components, the main air frame goes together relatively quickly, and it's already painted and lettered!  So, we shall continue.

A la Dan, I built a 1/32 balsa bulkhead structure for the rear fuselage, using xerox copies of the fuselage parts as patterns, to give the fuselage some rigidity.  This particular kit has very little in the way of bulkheads, so I added some where I could.  The long open cockpit limits that option for the forward fuselage, so I relied mainly on the kit cross members in that area.  The bottom and sides of the fuselage are interesting, as they are comprised of an interior and exterior piece for each component.  The interior piece of the bottom is slightly smaller than the exterior, providing a tiny "shelf" to create a reasonable joining surface to the side pieces.  Here are the photos:









The rudder and elevator went together easily, and are shown in the last photo.  The fuselage interior is pretty much straight from the kit.  Sparse is fine for an early aircraft like this, and I decided not to venture into more detail as this is my first paper build and I am going for an overall look and feel rather than detail, and just hoping to get it all together in a presentable form.

The two-piece wing is up next.   

Best regards,

Bob

[NinetythirdLiberator]

Holy Buckets...I'm not here for a couple of days and WHAM!  This looks so nice, Bob.  Really looking great.

I too like your engine and the cowling looks super too.  Interior was fast!

I'm glad those builds and videos are helpful.  That was the intent but I'm never sure if they are actually useful.  Great news.  I think you'll like the balsa.  Just a bit beefier and gives me more confidence than cardboard.  Just make sure your formers are the correct thickness!  I've had to sand some balsa down since in some cases, the thickness doesn't seem like much, but then when you try to skin a side of the fuselage etc. things won't fit and it's because you are several 1/72nds thicker over several formers which adds up!   

Can't wait to see this one further along.  Neat job.

Dan

[rhallinger]

Thanks for your kind words Dan!  I don't think I ever would have ventured into this realm absent your build threads, beginning with the Avro Spider and Pfalz Dr.I, followed by all the rest.  The recent videos were really the icing on the cake.  As noted, I got a couple of these years ago intending to use them as patterns for plastic scratch build.  You have demonstrated to me that just building them as paper kits is actually easier and even more enjoyable!  I am finding them to be quite addictive, with the added benefit of kits for rather obscure types that will never be kitted in plastic in large scale.  I just got a Wektor Aviatik B.1 Austrian 2-seater, and have a Friedrichshafen F.33 inbound.  I think I'm hooked!  I will still build in plastic though as well, with this nice diversion on a regular basis I think.  Thanks for all of your help with this effort Dan.

By the way, I am not really moving quite as quickly as the posts would seem (although the kit has gone together much more rapidly than a plastic counterpart, in my experience).  I started about 26 days ago, and it is very nearly complete (another day or two), so say four weeks, which is very quick for me to finish a model.  I'm just rolling out the construction in small doses.

The wing is next. 

Cheers,

Bob       

[rhallinger]

Speaking of the wing, here it is.  I substituted a 1/32 balsa "spar" for the paper one in the kit, adding a bit more rigidity.  Much of the work on the wing was curling it (both top surface and bottom) to the correct airfoil shape (a cross-section is provided in the instructions).  Part of the fun here is finding cylindrical object to roll/burnish the curve into the paper.  For a broad curve like the wing, I fount a spent neon light tube from an old aquarium lamp, about 1" in diameter, worked very well.  The two sides of the wing were curved, glued and joined rather quickly. 









I plan to use weathering chalks to add rib shading and tone down the brightness of the French cream color and cockades.  There are some good photos of this particular aircraft in the Datafile that will help with that.

Now the major components of the air frame are done, so next is some assembly.

Cheers,

Bob 

[rhallinger]

Of course, attaching the wing via fairly complex strutting looks a bit intimidating:



I'll save that for later, and do the tail feathers first, then the landing gear. 

Best regards,

Bob

[RLWP]

It's a pretty strong structure, even if it doesn't look it:



The undercarriage is scarier!



Richard