Armstrong Whitworth 3 seat triplane

[DaddyO]

[quote/]

Not sure there'll be much in the way of interesting techniques to crib, much of my modelling is 'make it up as you go along' school 

....which is the technique that I use all the time. It means that you will probably do something I have not thought about and then I can crib it!!

Stephen.
[/quote]

LOL! 

The time I've had this week has mainly been wing related; I've now got a complete set of three wings wit the the lower sets pinned (0.7mm brass tube) ready for mounting. Ailerons are also pinned (brass wire 0.3 mm) and interestingly there are two control horns on each for which the slots have been cut ready for brass horns to be added later.
There's also been some work on the fuselage (although it doesn't look terribly exciting hopefully it'll make life easier in the later stages) The wing pins were measured and fitted in the same position in each wing using the leading edge as datum which meant that I was able to align the fixing holes using a pencil line around the fuselage - this should in theory give me wing leading edges that all line up nicely when viewed from above.

Looking at the photograph and plan there appears to be a 'natural' break forward of the cockpit so a laminated plastic sheet panel has been added ready for carving. Aft of this I'll probably use the same technique, but may make a 'crash' mould to save hollowing out the cockpit area 

DSC_1641 by Paul S, on Flickr

[NigelR]

Excellent progress Paul, this is starting to look impressively ugly..... Superb scratchbuilding work on this so far.

[DaddyO]

Excellent progress Paul, this is starting to look impressively ugly..... Superb scratchbuilding work on this so far.

Cheers Nigel 
It'll certainly be the ugliest/oddest aeroplane I've built so far

[DaddyO]

Just because the day is full with work related stuff doesn't mean modelling won't be done. A few very early starts (getting up at 5.00) allowed some uninterrupted build time before the normal day starts

Pod shape taken from plan with a few tweaks using the photo. The top will be trimmed later to fit under the middle wing. The side were cut to shape from 10 thou plastic card and then boiling water poured over them to allow them to be curved slightly. Interestingly the side taper inwards so the bottom of the pod is narrower than the top so a couple of tapered formers were glued to the bench to ensure both sides matched.

FK pod by Paul S, on Flickr

Once both sides were glued the front edge was trimmed and a couple of strips of 10 thou card added ready to be sanded to shape

FK Pods by Paul S, on Flickr

The top wing is the only one with dihedral, as I mentioned, so after pinning with brass wire this was glued together using a couple of plastic scraps to get the correct angle. The inevitable gaps were plugged with some scrap 5 thou card and when dry everything sanded ready for detailing.
 
FK top wing by Paul S, on Flickr

Then it was back to sanding the fuselage. The rough shape was hacked out using a scalpel and then on to the sanding sticks keeping everything nice and square at this stage ready for later shaping.

FK fuz and top wing by Paul S, on Flickr

[NigelR]

This is impressive work. The beast is taking shape..... Keep up with those early starts

[lone modeller]

This is looking very promising indeed. The basic shapes are fairly simple but the taper on the nacelles looks interesting. Good to see you are using sophisticated jigs - hopefully others will see that scratch building is not nearly as difficult as they may imagine it to be.

Stephen.

[DaddyO]

This is impressive work. The beast is taking shape..... Keep up with those early starts

Doing my best Nigel  . . . yawn!

This is looking very promising indeed. The basic shapes are fairly simple but the taper on the nacelles looks interesting. Good to see you are using sophisticated jigs - hopefully others will see that scratch building is not nearly as difficult as they may imagine it to be.

Stephen.

Cheers Stephen. 
Nothing too difficult so far (apart from the usual trying to interpret smudgy old black and white photos)

As you say once you start to break it down the shapes are pretty simple and I'm a big fan keeping things simple; hence the quick and dirty jig. I keep telling myself that once the basic shapes are done it's just a question of adding detail as per my usual practice with limited run kits. I intend to concentrate the detailing around the areas where the eye is naturally drawn and am a firm believer in the 'if you can't see it don't waste time adding detail school' 

Paul

ps - managed to get some time in over the weekend mainly sanding and making struts. I'll try and post a pic or two tomorrow when the sun is up

[DaddyO]

As promised here's the sanded fuselage (feels like we're getting somewhere now) Wing attachment holes are drilled ready to plug the wings in and cockpit cover area is removed ready to be hollowed out. For the presumably stringered area aft of the cockpit I'm thinking of adding thin brass wire and the build up with filler, but who knows what I'll end up doing 

FK sanded fuz by Paul S, on Flickr

As per usual struts are all brass which I usually sand from rod (yes it's boring, but I do a few strips at the start of the year ready to be cut to length) These are a tad oversize and need the ends shaping which I'll save for another day. Yes there are really that many of them!

FK Struts by Paul S, on Flickr

And here are the distinctive wing pods roughed out ready to be cut to fit the middle wing

FK Pods by Paul S, on Flickr

Final one for today since I was bored sanding and filling I decided to make a start on some of the details. Undercarriage had large oleo's which were easy enough to shape from a discarded bit of Gotha wing 
For the wheel attachment I wound 15 amp fuse wire round a brass axle and then filled and sanded the gaps. Not much will be seen, but it should be strong enough. Finally the exhausts also came courtesy of Roden's Gotha since there were a few different types on the sprues I simply picked the nearest with 6 inlet pipes and reshaped them to the correct size and style before adding the outlet pipes which were carved from those wing spars you get in Eduards Triplane box (Got plenty of those bits knocking about)

FK Tripe details by Paul S, on Flickr

[NigelR]

This is starting to look really good. Lovely work on that fuselage, you've really got a great result there and very clever scratchbuilding on those details. Can't wait to see more!

[DaddyO]

This is starting to look really good. Lovely work on that fuselage, you've really got a great result there and very clever scratchbuilding on those details. Can't wait to see more!

Cheers matey

[lone modeller]

Got to agree with Nigel - this is shaping up really wel. The engine nacelles are works of art.

Stephen.

[DaddyO]

Got to agree with Nigel - this is shaping up really wel. The engine nacelles are works of art.

Stephen.

Thanks Stephen.
There's a certain boat like quality to the nacelles which makes me want to add a pair of oars (hopefully when they're on the wing the urge will disappear)

[Alexis]

Going to admit , not the prettiest aircraft but totally different ! Love it !!


Alexis

[DaddyO]

Going to admit , not the prettiest aircraft but totally different ! Love it !!

Alexis

Glad you like it Alexis. Got admit it fell out of the ugly tree (and hit most of the branches on the way down)

Slow weekend with not much progress to show (although the hedges have been cut, the vegetable patch is dug and various plants have been potted so the garden is looking a bit more together) 

I managed to cut the cockpit opening in the wrong place on the removable panel (don't ask) and after trying various bodges decided that the best solution was to make a new section and start again. Once this was sanded to shape the opening cut and then the piece carefully hollowed out. The scrap section is laying in front of the grumpy inspector. I also cut out the tail position and engine exhaust slots, which took longer than expected. I added a platform to these so I can slot in the 'engine blocks' with the exhausts attached giving the impression of something going on inside.

DSC_1672 by Paul S, on Flickr

[bobs_buckles]

That there, is some special work. Well done!

BB