1/32 Scratch Build Parnall Peto

Evening All,

The subject of my next project is the Parnall Peto floatplane. What I hear you ask? I too was a little baffled when a fellow modeller asked if I would build one for him in 1/32 scale. He had seen my Short S 38/HMS Africa model and it reminded him of an experiment carried out by the Royal Navy in the mid-1920's with aircraft carried by submarines. Briefly the Royal Navy had 18 very large (K class), submarines built during WW1; three others were completed as M class vessels. The original M class had a 12 inch (305mm) cannon mounted on the fore deck but after M1 was lost in an accident in 1925 the other two were withdrawn from service, the cannons removed and replaced by a hangar. The Parnall Peto floatplane was designed to be put into the hangar and launched from a hydraulic catapault so that the submarine had an independent aerial observatory. Experiments were successfully carried out but sadly M2 sank with the loss of all hands in 1932 and the project was subsequently abandoned.

My modelling friend wants to build the foredeck and catapault of the submarine and will make a sea base for it: I am to build the floatplane which will be mounted on the catapault, so I am being dragged well outside of my comfort zone to build an aircraft which flew at least 10 years after the time period of my usual subjects for modelling! I have found some drawings which I have scaled to 1/32 and have made a slow start to building one of the two Peto aircraft using the usual scratch building materials: plastic sheet, strip and rod, basswood and brass rod. I have been given an old radial engine and a seat to help with my part of the build.

I started by laminating two sheets of 80 thou card for the wings:

The strange markings on the plastic were where my friend's children had been playing with printing stamps - the inks were later removed in the filing/sanding processes of shaping the wing profiles. When the profiles had been shaped I added the ribs from 10 x 30 thou strip which was sanded and then covered in Mr Surfacer and smoothed off. The ailerons were scored with a knife and one has already been cut with a razor saw for re-attachment later. I have also cut and shaped the tail surfaces from 40 thou card:

The rear fuselage was made from 30 thou card for the sides and bottom with 40 thou formers added. The upper rear decking consisted of flat surfaces and will be added later from plastic card cut into strips:

Before I cemented the sides to the bulkheads and bottom I ran the rear sections between the blade of a pair of scissors and my thumb to make the plastic curl so it better fitted to the curved fuselage bottom. The nose of the Peto consisted of a support for the upper wing and a semi monocoque front end which I inted to file to shape from basswood. A block of basswood was found and filed to slide beteen the forward fuselage sides, and some of the facets of the front were marked on to the wood:

The engine was a 5 cylinder radial which was in a cowling at the front of the fuselage: I glued two pieces of basswodd to make a suitable block which can be filed to shape:

I have cut the facets of the front fuselage basswood block and marked the shape of the front and rear of the cowling for the engine so that I can file and sand the pieces to their final shapes:

I will add cockpit details before I fix the front fuselage wood permanently, so some modellers licence and imagination will be necessary to construct a plausible pair of cockpit interiors as I cannot find any information on the interior of this aircraft.

Thanks for looking.

Stevef.