Scratch built 1/72 Voisin Delagrange (1910) biplane

Evening All,

Modelling time has been severely restricted of late - a busy schedule of family visits and consequent travel have left me with little time or energy for the serious business in life - modelling - but I am participating in a GB on another site so I am having to get on with things or the GB will be over and I will not have made anything.

My chosen subject is a Voisin Delagrange biplane from 1910. The specific subject will be based on J. T. C. Moore-Brabazon's "Bird of Passage", which he bought in Paris in 1910 and learned to fly in it. Later he brought it to Britain and flew it at the flying ground of the Aero Club at Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey: other members of the club were allowed to fly it and some even had early flying lessons in this machine. I have commissioned a set of transfers from Arctic Decals for the name and other lettering on the tail surfaces.

This is a link to a site which has photos of the type as I suspect most people will not have heard of it:

flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft28330.htm

This will be a scratch build because as far as I am aware there is no kit of this particular type of aeroplane. I have started by cutting all of the flying surfaces from 30 thou plastic card and have added strips of 10 x 20 thou plastic to represent the ribs. The strip will be gently sanded and the coated with Mr Surfacer and sanded again:

Thanks for looking.

Stevef.

Evening All,

I have finished filling and sanding the ribs on the flying surfaces and the vertical surfaces which were called curtains: they were between the wings and horizontal tail surfaces. I cut a slot in one of the lower wings and filed the leading edge so that I could attach the spars which were made from brass rod.

A slot and filed edge was also made on the other lower wing - here they are with the completed upper wing:

I made the nacelle from 30 thou plastic card: the sides were roughly cut and then finished with a file. Holes were drilled through the horns at the front to take the bar for the front elevator, and in the sides to take the front spar of the lower wing. The plastic strips which protrude from the rear of the nacelle will be engine bearers:

The engine was made from laminated card for the engine block and card and rod for the cylinders. Rod was used for the exhausts. A radiator was cut from 40 thou card and scribed on both sides to represent the grilles:

The engine may look a bit crude but on the completed model it will be difficult to see, and given its very small size I am happy with what I have done.

Thanks for looking.

Stevef.

Evening All, 

Attaching the lower wings to the fuselage meant that I had to drill a hole though the fuselage nacelle to take the front spar. The rear spar passed just under the rear of the fuselage frame. Having inserted the front spar of the starboard wing and attached it with superglue I added the port wing to the ends of both spars and superglued them in place. Filler and files smoothed the joints:

The booms and rear horizontal surfaces were fixed in place on both upper and lower wings: the brass rod booms were inserted into slots cut into the trailing edges of the wings and attached by indents cut into the to the tail surfaces. All joints were secured with superglue and cleaned up with filler and files:

Now I have to paint everything and make an undercarriage which will be strong enough to carry the weight of the model.

Thanks for looking.

Stevef.

Evening All,

I have painted and decorated the main parts of the model as it exists at the moment, which means the flying surfaces and struts. I used a mix of Revell beige (314) and white - mostly the latter with a small amount of the former. For the struts and booms I used Revell SM 382 enameI. I have also added the transfers to the fins: those were custom printed for me by Arctic Decals:

I have made the undercarriage from soldered brass rod because it needs to be strong enough t carry the weight of the model. It was a rather complex affair on the original, which incidentally was also very strong having survived over 100 landings without damage or breakage. The springs at the top of the undercarriage legs were from thin copper wire wound around a piece of brass rod. The axle was also brass rod - the tyres were made from plastic rod wound around a paintbrush handle and immersed for a few seconds in boiling water. The spoked centres were Eduard photoetch. The brackets on the axles were bent from brass rod - two have been attached with CA - the other two will be attached later so that I can get the correct angle between the pairs when the undercarriage is installed on the model:

The photo shows the components before painting and final assembly - hopefully the way the system worked will become clearer when it is assembled with the rest of the model.

Thanks for looking.

Stevef.