1/32 Morane Saulnier L - scratching an itch

[RLWP]

This has been nagging at me for years, ever since I came across Harry Woodman's book

This is a wing for a Morane Saulnier Parasol, it's pretty much pure Harry Woodman:



Terrible image. That's a scribed 0/010" skin on a 1/16" balsa core. The only deviation from Harry's method is that I sprayed the balsa with grey primer rather than 'paint it with thin cement'

To get the camber on the wing, I made a balsa former and taped it to a build board:



I must sort my lighting out

The wing isn't perfect, it's good enough to encourage me to carry on

Flushed with success, here is the fuselage:





Now, I can see how I'm going to tackle the engine, I have a WNW one from a Pup. I've ordered an armaments sprue to provide the Cooper bomb rack. Harry covers how to make the control surfaces, I'm OK on the cockpit details

Where I can see me getting stuck is on the struts and undercarriage. Any advice?

Richard

[Borsos]

Hello Richard, what a joy to follow your scratch build! It looks very nice! It is going to be a fantastic parasol.
When it comes to struts I stick to my albion alloy's 'the strutter' tool, that helps you, using a vice, to squeeze brassrod into strut shape. I insert steel wire in it and - voila, you even can solder it...
Best regards
Borsos

[RLWP]

Hi Borsos, is this the tool?

http://modelskills.co.uk/tools/45-the-strutter.html



Richard

[Borsos]

Exactly!

[RLWP]

That looks promising, making brass tubes that can be soldered would suit the Parasol very well

How do you decide which tube to use, and do you use the wire to make the tube the right width?

Richard

[Borsos]

Just trying what fits the scale plans. I always have a selection of brass rod from 0,2 mm to 1,5 mm width at home to try it out. Normally I use 0,5 or 0,7 mm wire. As you can sand these struts quite well you can shape them, reduce thickness or make two pairs more similar to each other. I know some people dislike that way of making struts as there actually is some sort of guesswork in it. But with some practice you can create quite regularly shaped struts and I don't know any better way to make strong and easy workable struts. There are people that cast their struts in resin using wire as a core but oh, casting resin, that's not my cup of tea....
Borsos

[RLWP]

That all looks like my kind of technology, I'll get some tube

Meanwhile, this evening's fun. This is my rusty trusty, vacuum cleaner powered vacuum forming kit!:



I turned up this from a bit of scrap aluminium:



and vacuum formed this:



I used 0.010", which is really a bit thin. 0.020" would have been better:



Richard

[lone modeller]

Richard,

I regularly push mould parts for my 1/72 scale models and I find that 030 thou card is the best because it makes forms which take a shape well but also have strength and are easier to finish. 020 card also works well but I would really hesitate to use 010 card - it is just too thin and flimsy.

This is a super project and of course of an aircraft which is unlikely to be released as a kit. Great to see some scratch building in the larger scale - I will be following with interest.

Stephen.

[Juan]

Wow Richard, really looking forward to your project progressing.

[Bluesfan]

Will also be glued to this one, looks like a great subject for a scratch build
Really like how you did the cowling 

Mark

[lcarroll]

Wow Richard, you are doing some "real" modelling here! I'll be following and learning from your progress.
Cheers,
Lance

[RLWP]

Richard,

I regularly push mould parts for my 1/72 scale models and I find that 030 thou card is the best because it makes forms which take a shape well but also have strength and are easier to finish. 020 card also works well but I would really hesitate to use 010 card - it is just too thin and flimsy.

This is a super project and of course of an aircraft which is unlikely to be released as a kit. Great to see some scratch building in the larger scale - I will be following with interest.

Stephen.

Looking back - as always - I remember trying to use 0.010" before and failing. Next time I used 0.020" for this:



That is much more manageable. Naturally, I forgot and used 0.010" again. I think I have got away with it:





Richard

[Manni]

Fantastic skill, Richard!Looks great.
Bye,
Manni

[Des]

I love scratch building so this build of yours has caught my interest greatly. What you have achieved so far is looking excellent, I will be following along closely.

Des.

[RLWP]

I love scratch building so this build of yours has caught my interest greatly. What you have achieved so far is looking excellent, I will be following along closely.

Des.

Your enthusiasm for scratch building shows in your models, Des - it's very inspirational

The Parasol is an aeroplane I always associate with Cecil Lewis, from reading Sagittarius Rising. There's a lovely description in the book of what happens if you land without remembering to wind in the radio aerial

He's in one of the BBC interviews, there's a fascinating bit at around six minutes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01tczfx/the-great-war-interviews-4-cecil-arthur-lewis

Richard