Encore 1/32nd SE5a 56 Squadron: 4891 JTB McCudden

[dtomko]

That looks great, Rick.  Those Americal booklets are treasures. Dr. Merrill usually seemed to come to sensible conclusions.

Drew

[lcarroll]

Rick,
    The "bulge vs. no bulge on 4891" debate is, to me , akin to the PC10 debate. We just can't be sure...........  I did her with the bulge per my interpretation of the photos. The popular shot of 4891 in all the books, a 3/4 left front shot (Pg15 Osprey SE5/5a Aces, P79 No. 56 Sqn RAF/RFC, and most clearly reproduced in SE5/SE5a Squadrons by Albatros Pubs, Photo 56/7) appears to have the bulge however is this aircraft 4891 (Coded "6") or 4863 ("G") with the headrest removed?? The only thing were sure of is........were not sure, as I love to say! I tend to lean towards the info presented by Albatros as Ray does his homework, perhaps he could comment here? I am, given your comments on Dr Merril's conclusions, now totally unsure again!
   Other then being as correct in your assumptions and conclusions as anyone the model is coming along beautifully. I still have the Encore Kit and have another WNW in the stash, I think I'll do Tony Rhys David's standard with the latter and possibly a night Fighter version with the Encore.
   I'm enjoying your progress here, keep at Her!
Cheers,
Lance

[coyotemagic]

Rick and Lance, everything I've read on all of McCudden's kites, from "Flying Fury" to the various Osprey books to the Albatros Datafiles and Specials, indicate that they were all works in progress.  Our Jimmy was a skilled mechanic, a tinkerer and an aviation visionary and continuously improved his mounts.  Therefore, I contend that at any given time, you could both be right.
Cheers,
Bud

[lcarroll]

Rick and Lance, everything I've read on all of McCudden's kites, from "Flying Fury" to the various Osprey books to the Albatros Datafiles and Specials, indicate that they were all works in progress.  Our Jimmy was a skilled mechanic, a tinkerer and an aviation visionary and continuously improved his mounts.  Therefore, I contend that at any given time, you could both be right.
Cheers,
Bud

   Thanks Bud. That's basically what I was trying to say in my own jumbled way. The 3/4 front view is captioned as both 4891 and 4863 between all the References I have, and it's not a great shot due to no serials or markings being visible. I suspect your theory related to McCudden's work on his various aircraft is a very likely possibility. One thing for certain, you need to be very careful of your references. Some of the profiles in the Osprey Series are at total odds with the written descriptions or known facts.
Cheers,
Lance

[RAGIII]

Thanks all for the comments. I greatly appreciate the input. Lance, I am not convinced that the shot you are referencing is 4891 as in all other publications it is captioned 4863. I know the ailerons look to be the narrow cord but I think that is perhaps an optical illusion. I even checked the huts in the picture to see if the location could be determined from the airfield drawings in HITEB. My determination was that it could be Estree Blanche (SP) As for shots of 4891 the Absolutely most clear shot of the right side of 4891 with the spinner et all is in many books but the best is in the Windsock Aces and Aircraft series on McCudden. It is printed larger and more clearly than in the many other pubs including HITEB. This and another shot from HITEB are the ones I have studied under the Magnifying glass.   I have come to the conclusion that the bulge was not there. MY personal opinion of course, and as stated open for debate like PC10    Like I said I trust Dr. Merrils research and consider his conclusions on the same level as Rays at Windsock. JMHO,
RAGIII

[Dal Gavan]

It's looking really good, Rick.  I agree with your decision, mate.  There's only so much evidence about most of these aircraft.  Nobody was thinking much about doing walk around studies in 1917- even if the technology was up to doing so.  So you go with your best guesstimate, based on extant evidence.

Then some $%&(* will publish new photo's, proving you wrong, 30 seconds after you post a photo' of the finished build.....

Cheers.

Dal.

[RAGIII]

It's looking really good, Rick.  I agree with your decision, mate.  There's only so much evidence about most of these aircraft.  Nobody was thinking much about doing walk around studies in 1917- even if the technology was up to doing so.  So you go with your best guesstimate, based on extant evidence.

Then some $%&(* will publish new photo's, proving you wrong, 30 seconds after you post a photo' of the finished build.....

Cheers.

Dal.

Thanks Dal! By the way you are probably right about the "New Photos" appearing as soon as I am done. That being said there is already a probability that Lance has things right!
RAGIII

[Des]

Which ever way you go Rick it is going to be a spectacular looking model.

Des.

[lcarroll]

"I am not convinced that the shot you are referencing is 4891 as in all other publications it is captioned 4863"

........and me too, Rick. It's all very fuzzy and mud covered, that's a great part of the fun in my perspective. Your Build here has me thinking I'll do a "refit" on mine, it was only my second or third Build when I got back into the Hobby about 4 years ago and moved to 1:32 Scale. I'd like to try to get some pastel post shading on it as learned from following Bud's Builds. Ray at Albatros is quite busy dealing with the unfortunate loss of his Father, perhaps when he's back we can pick his brain a little on this question. In the meantime, keep that great looking model coming along!
Cheers,
Lance

[RAGIII]

Which ever way you go Rick it is going to be a spectacular looking model.

Des.

Thanks Des, I can only hope you are correct! I was thinking that perhaps I should describe a little more thoroughly  what "I" did to ruin the resin bulged cockpit. As seen in my earlier photos I added some formers behind the cockpit opening and about where the tank and ammo cans are located. I reinforced these sheet plastic formers with copious amounts of SUPERGLUE! I used a tool that I can never remember the name of consisting of a bunch of wires that conform to the shape of the object you use it on. ( I will photograph this tool later to illustrate). The issue with this was that the resin cockpit/coaming was stretched outwards and I didn't realize this until I dry fitted the part. It was spread out enough that the fit to the fuselage sides was affected. So.... I began to remove the former. I cracked/broke the resin part and decided to use just the bulges grafted to the roden plastic part. Like I said earlier the first one worked well but I somehow screwed up the second side. So again I want to emphasize that the issue was self created and no Fault of the Encore kit! This led me to looking more closely at all of McCuddens birds photos and I decided to substitute 4891 sans bulges.
RAGIII

[Ssasho0]

excellent cockpit, I like it!

[Dal Gavan]

By the way you are probably right about the "New Photos" appearing as soon as I am done.

Whoever wrote Murphy's Law really needs a good kicking, don't they?    I spent months illustrating some flags from the mid-1700's, only to receive photo's of surviving relics that showed how much I got wrong- after the illustrations were published.  Now I can redo them and get them right. 

Not to worry, Rick.  It's a fine build, mate- you're setting the bar higher, yet again.  I agree about the look of the IP, too.  I wonder if WNW will update some of the parts, should they decide to release a Viper version?

Cheers.

Dal.

[RAGIII]

Not to worry, Rick.  It's a fine build, mate- you're setting the bar higher, yet again.  I agree about the look of the IP, too.  I wonder if WNW will update some of the parts, should they decide to release a Viper version?

Cheers.

Dal.

Dal, One other note is that if Roden had included Instrument dials as decals even their original panel would be better than WNW without the Encore/Eduard PE. That being said I am going to have to get some PE Bezels before I do the WNW panel.
RAGIII

[BigBlue]

It looks awfully good to me Rick.  Good to see you back at it.

Chris

[RAGIII]

excellent cockpit, I like it!

Thanks Sasho! I appreciate the comment! I have pretty much finished the interior. I have cleaned up the cockpit side of paint where the glue will need to set up a good joint with the upper section. I have added the seat back cushion, and the headrest cushion. Next up gluing the upper cockpit section to the fuselage.
RAGIII

encorese5a 008 by ragfokker, on Flickr


encorese5a 005_crop by ragfokker, on Flickr

I also cobbed together a representation of lap belts from wire and paper.


encorese5a 004_crop by ragfokker, on Flickr