Author Topic: Meikraft 1:72 SPAD XIII, Frank Luke (Read 9123 times)

mgunns · « **Reply #15 on:** March 06, 2014, 05:02:39 AM »

Hello Ian:

Good to see you back on with the Luke SPAD. What you have done with this kit is a testamony to your patience and skill. I like the look of it and seeing you progress through.

Best

Mark

IanB · « **Reply #16 on:** March 10, 2014, 10:53:46 AM »

I got a good bit more done today, lots of small stuff but close to getting the upper wing on now!
I finished the exhausts, rigged the cabanes with .004" stainless wire, made and added the windshield (although I may remove it and improve the fit a little), and made and painted the inner interplane struts. I think I'll drill these for the landing wires and run the flying wires either side of the strut, adding the cross-brace at the end.

Ian

IanB · « **Reply #17 on:** March 14, 2014, 11:30:31 AM »

Due to the unusual nature of the rigging I've had to rethink my methods (drill and thread), so here's the plan:

Cabanes have been rigged with .004" stainless wire. The outer interplane struts have been drilled through fore/aft (at the top and bottom of each strut) to accept the cross-bracing. The inner interplane struts have been thinned in the middle (fore/aft) and drilled from side to side to accept the landing wires.
I will mount the fuselage/lower wing in the Aeroclub jig and attach the interplane struts to the lower wing only, using the upper wing just to get the angles correct. When the struts are dry, the upper wing will be removed and the landing wires, which have already been attached to .010" X .030" strip (for the bracket at the bottom of the outer strut) will be attached and threaded through the middle struts, leaving the inner (upper) ends loose until the top wing is attached. The double flying wires will be attached at the inner (lower) ends and routed fore and aft of the centre struts, (via the narrowed part in the middle) followed by the centre strut brace and rigging (.004" stainless wire again). The upper wing will then be added and the rigging completed by threading as usual. I will then add some liquid filler to the outer struts to blend the rigging wire to the strut top and bottom and paint this part to represent the brackets! The aileron actuators will then be added with brass wire/plastic strip.
Then I'll have a few beers!

That's the plan, anyway - you'll see very soon whether it works or not.....all the detail on the upper fuselage is done so hopefully this weekend I'll attack this...

Ian

RAGIII · « **Reply #18 on:** March 14, 2014, 11:39:59 AM »

Looking forward to your progress on the rigging Ian! As I have stated elsewhere the rigging on the 1/32nd SPAD VII has vexed me

RAGIII

Epeeman · « **Reply #19 on:** March 15, 2014, 08:39:06 AM »

Ian,

Your doing a great job on this kit (is this one brush painted? - looks excellent) and good luck with whatever method of rigging you settle on.

Regards

Dave

IanB · « **Reply #20 on:** March 15, 2014, 01:12:53 PM »

Step one complete....

The final alignment of the struts will be done when the upper wing is permanently fixed...I hope!

Dave - it's airbrushed.
I started with the small areas, (black first), masked them, then sprayed the next largest area and so on. The masks were made by cutting out the shapes from the 3-view artwork in "French Aircraft of the First World War" (Devilla & Soltan) and transferring them to masking tape.

Ian

Zabu · « **Reply #21 on:** March 16, 2014, 05:17:21 AM »

Well done Ian.

Wont be easy to rig that one.

Cheers

davecww1 · « **Reply #22 on:** March 16, 2014, 06:47:27 AM »

Looking good Ian. I just finished the Eduard 1/48 kit, much easier build than your old Meikraft kit, but yours looks nice. A couple of notes on your colors, on the light green mix whatever color you started with with aluminum in equal amounts, this will grey it down and give the realistic fish scale appearance as described by Alan Toelle. Also the dark green should be a more green color, it looks like straight olive drab on my monitor. But great work on this rough kit, you have made it presentable and equal or better than the Eduard 1/72 scale kit.
Dave

Ernie · « **Reply #23 on:** March 17, 2014, 03:26:57 AM »

I really have to hand it to you, Ian. I can't get over what a beautiful
job you are doing on something so tiny. I have to agree with Zabu...
I can't picture how to rig something that small, but this is fascinating
just the same. Well done!

Cheers,
Ernie

IanB · « **Reply #24 on:** March 24, 2014, 03:28:05 AM »

This is progressing very slowly - two steps forward, one back!
I think my basic plan was good, but the task order needed refining. In the end the progress has gone in this order:
1) Drill the four inner interplane struts and thread with mono for the landing wires. The mounting bracket at the outer end of the rear landing wires was also attached to the mono prior to mounting the struts. ( These wires will not be secured until after the upper wing is in place).
2) Attach all the struts. (Jig not needed as the one good thing about the SPAD is that all the struts are vertical and parallel)
3) Attach the inner flying wires (by inner wires, I mean the rear one of the front pair, and the front one of the rear pair) to the fuselage/wing attach points and super glue them to the rear face of the front centre strut and front face of the rear one as appropriate.
4) Fit the cross-braces on the inner struts, trapping the landing wires between the strut and the cross-brace.

The next step will be to repaint the cross-braces and a bit of touch up elsewhere as needed, rig the inner interplane struts with stainless wire, then attach the upper wing. When all that is dry, the rigging will be completed and tightened if necessary with heat.

Thanks for looking in!

Ian

IFF1418 · « **Reply #25 on:** March 24, 2014, 08:48:52 PM »

Hello Ian,

Great respect and admiration for what you have accomplished yet. I can't imagine how you can produce such a fine build in that scale. You are almost there now.

Kind regards
Patrick

IanB · « **Reply #26 on:** March 30, 2014, 06:18:07 AM »

Nearly there!
Upper wing is on and all the rigging in place. I broke one outer strut where I drilled it a little off centre so I've made a replacement and I'm almost ready to fit it, then the wing rigging will be complete apart from tidying up the ends.
The plan worked well, apart from not securing the inner interplane rigging well enough and one or two pieces popped off. They were a pain to refit with the wing on so I justified my plan of using wire and adding it prior to wing fitting.

Ian

RAGIII · « **Reply #27 on:** March 30, 2014, 09:01:28 PM »

Looks great! I still don't know how you do this in 1/72nd

RAGIII

mgunns · « **Reply #28 on:** March 31, 2014, 08:01:36 AM »

Quote from: RAGIII on March 30, 2014, 09:01:28 PM

Looks great! I still don't know how you do this in 1/72nd
RAGIII

I concur!! Amazing and it looks great!

Best

Mark

davecww1 · « **Reply #29 on:** March 31, 2014, 12:00:39 PM »

That style of rigging scares me, drilling through a nicely painted wing and strut and threading the rigging all the way through... that's the British style for sure! Unfortunately it won't work for me since i always paint and decal the wing upper and lower before rigging, but whatever works for you is fine