WW1 Aircraft Modeling > Pre and Early 1914 Aircraft Models

Pugnacious Ponnier in 1/48 scale

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ColonelKrypton:
My interests in model building have always been outside of the mainstream, early aviation, WW I, racers, prototypes, and early experimental jets.

I always liked the Ponnier D.III. It looked compact and purposeful, everything a purpose built racer should be.

Ponnier D.III https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponnier_D.III



Entered in the 1913 Gordon Bennett aeroplane race it placed 2nd behind Deperdussin Monocoupe averaging 198km/h over the 200km course.

Since this is my first post with an attempt at including images I will end my first post here. More to follow

cheers, Graham

ColonelKrypton:
That seemed to work OK, so onwards ...

 was fussing over whether to build yet another kit of something or spend some time on quick scratch build in 1/48 scale so I could decide whether or not I would build a more detailed version in a larger 1/32 scale and to experiment with some new building techniques.

 I found four different three view drawings all of which were different in one aspect or another. The half dozen pictures I have managed to find are not much help either. The pictures showing different features are no doubt the result of a continuous development process where changes and additions were added or removed.

I did not take much in the way of work in process photos but these show where I am at the moment.  Built mostly from 1mm plastic card. The cowl area with it's multiple compound curves was attempted first by making a form and trying thin sheet aluminum which sort of worked but I wasn't really happy with the result. After trying to smash form a plastic cowling from the same form and not being any much happier with the result, I simply filled the front are with some pieces of sheet plastic and Bondo. After many putty - sanding rounds, I finally ended with a shape and form that I felt was as correct as it was going to get.

The forward fuselage aluminum sheeting on the real aircraft was done with aluminum duct sealing tape.  A bit thicker than scale thickness but not by much but it did allow me to create overlapping seams as seen in a couple of the few pictures I was able to find.  I used a total 7 pieces of aluminum tape - one for each side, one underneath, and four in total for the top. Bottom and sides where easy but it took several tries to do the top, especially those compound curves at the front. Since there were so more differences in details between the drawings and pictures I did have to resort to a bit of creative license to decide just what looked right.

First photo shows generally where I am. The undercarriage is made from micro brass tubing and the wheels are just some generic early aviation style wheels that I cast in resin. Canadian penny for size reference.



Next two photos show the undercarriage in place with wheels and a piece of paper for the tail pieces just to try and put things into perspective.



Not much to the interior cockpit area, little more than a seat and stick and of those you can only really the seat if you look close straight down as the cockpit opening is quite small.



I will be continuing with this build but only a bit at a time. I still sitting on the fence whether or not I will pursue a larger scale version but at the moment I leaning towards the no side.

 
cheers, Graham

Alexis:
Must say that I have never heard of this type and not sure what to really make of it . Does seem to interesting and I will follow along as time permits . I also see you have a Canadian penny , haven't seen one of those in a very long time !  ;)


Alexis

Bughunter:
Great work so far, watching! Those old racers are often very interesting.
This would be a nice addition to my recently finished Deperdussin Monocoque, also in 1/48.

Cheers,
Frank

RAGIII:
An interesting and unusual aircraft. Your build thus far looks Fantastic! The compound curves on that cowling came out great.
RAGIII

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