A WW1 Albatros aircraft has been added to the Turkish forces and a S.E.4a is being made for the Commonwealth forces. I am continuing with a scratch building approach for the various vehicles I plan for this project. This time I am using balsa wood and wire.
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| Latest addition to the Turkish forces |
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| A side shot. The fuselage took a while to shape. |
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| A view from the top. |
To help get the right shape, particularly the wings, I printed off a couple of copies of blueprints grabbed off the internet. These are sized to 1/72 scale (or as near as possible) before printing. The wings and tail pieces are cutout and stuck to 1 mm sheet balsa wood. Once dry these are cutout.
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| Blueprints from the internet proved very useful. |
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| The printed blueprints were cutout at stuck to a sheet of balsa wood. |
The most time consuming part of making these models is the shaping of the fuselage from balsa wood. The blueprints help as the shape is gradually carved out. When attaching the wings I cheat somewhat and use some balsa wood to pack the gap between the top wing and fuselage. This adds to the model's strength and wire is used for the struts between the top and bottom wings.
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| Shaping the fuselage takes time. |
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| Wings and tail pieces are added. |
The propeller is a disk cut from 1 mm balsa wood sheet. This is much easier than making a propeller, but take I bit more to paint later on.
The whole model gets a think coat of PVA glue followed by artists gesso primer. The model is then ready for painting.
Next up will be some scratch built palm trees.
Peter, your ability to seemingly scratchbuild ANYTHING is amazing.
ReplyDeleteThere were one or two points in the process where I was thinking, why did I not spend the money on a kit. It all turned out ok in the end though.
DeleteSuperb work - and great to see the scenarios and action hitting the table too.
ReplyDeleteWorking on some simple rules to include aircraft. Thanks.
DeleteFinally, adding a touch of class to a vulgar brawl! Super job and probably more robust than plastic kits.
ReplyDeleteThank you. The Ablatros should make a good robust wargaming models.
DeleteThat Albatros is really effective - you've captured the distinctive shape of the fuselage.
ReplyDeleteIt took a couple of attempts to get the correct shape. Thanks.
DeleteVery impressive Peter, a magnificent flying machine if ever I saw one.
ReplyDeleteThe biplanes definitely have a charm about them.
DeleteAnother lovely model Peter!
ReplyDeleteThanks. I am very happy the way it turned out.
DeleteAn elegant little model.
ReplyDeleteThanks. All being well a SE4a will roll off the painting table.
DeleteGreat scratch building once agian Peter. It does make we want to try and make some for my games, although a bit trickier for 1/144th scale, but not impossible. Time to search for some plans...
ReplyDeleteThanks. With 1/144th scale I have made biplanes using stiff card for the wings and balsa wood for fuselage. For the struts I used one piece of balsa wood along the length of the wing painted it grey and painted on the plane's struts. A bit of a cheat, but ok for wargaming.
DeleteExcellent mini! Question: is there an advantage to using the balsa disk for the propeller rather than an acetate disk?
ReplyDeleteI wish I had thought of using an acetate disk. Although the balsa disk does hide the way I have attached the top wings to the fuselage.
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