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Scratchbuilding a 1/32 1927 Ford AT-4 Trimotor


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Hi Mike,

Oh my,......you don't do things by halves do you? :pray:

This is a fascinating project. I love the corrugated metal panelling and can't wait to see you apply the sheets to the airframe.

Your threads are always informative and interesting so thanks for taking the time to detail the processes involved.

Great stuff, I'll be following along if I may?

:rofl:

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Mike,

This is going to be ana exacting AWESOME project and you

certainly deserve the accolades of being the MASTER of SCRATCHBUILDERS..

Love your fine detailing on the seats./... STUNNINGand cleverly made.... and you are continuing to hold MY attention

as I love the detail work that you produce each time I come here.

Your threads are always very thorough and filled with information and helpful advice..GREAT to see...thank you :taunt:

HOLMES.. :worship::yahoo:

Edited by HOLMES
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OK let's try this again. This is my second attempt at doing this reply. 3/4's of the way through the first one I get the dreaded "Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and must close" message, and all my typing was blown to oblivion. Hopefully it'll last this time.

Just an idea about the wicker, have you thought of using doilys stained with tea?

Hiya Richter. That would be a good method if I only had one chair to do, but I have to make 4, and I don;t think I could keep them consistent, one chair to the next. Thanks for the suggestion just the same though.

Extremely interesting project Mike.

I love scratchbuilding and even though I build mostly on the "opposite" side (1/144) I really enjoy watching masters build in large scales. Please keep the photos coming

rpeck Posted Nov 20 2009, 10:16 AM

Looking good. I learn more from scatch builders than other modeler's,not sure why? Thanks and will be watching the rest of this build.

Rick

Hawkins Posted Nov 20 2009, 09:16 AM

Gorgeous work, Mike!

Following closely!

Cheers

Emil

Thanks for following along guys. I appreciate your comments and suggestions.

Great stuff, I'll be following along if I may?

Hiya Guy. I'd be disappointed if you didn't. I always respect your comments and constructive suggestions. Thanks for following along. I hope you enjoy the ride.

This is going to be ana exacting AWESOME project...

Hiya Holmes. Thank you for your always enthusiastic support. Not sure about exacting, but close enough. I did have to make a few concessions, the biggest being the scale accuracy of the corrugations. They should be roughly .040" in spacing, but all that is available is .060 and .030, so my corrugations are a bit "tighter" than what they should be, but to me it's a small concession, otherwise it wouldn't get built if it bothered me that much.

To quote Ron White..."It was a good day 'Tater." Today I managed to actually get something finished on it. It's nice to be able to say something is done for a change, instead of constant fabricating and mocking up. The fin and rudder are done with functional hinges, and I plan on doing the same with the stabilizer and elevator assembly. IF I think it's feasible, and IF I can engineer the components and make them work reliably, and IF I get the ambition..lol... I will make the control surfaces functional and connected to the flight controls so they operate in the correct manner. For now though they just move, and may eventually get fixed in place. Below is the steps I took to get these components finished today.

Trimotor30a.jpg

This is what the hinges started out as. 1/16 and 3/32 square, telescoping brass tubing, and .032 brass wire.

Trimotor31a.jpg

Trimotor32a.jpg

First step was to file the ends to a half-round shape, and to remove the webbing in between. The top picture shows the ends being rounded over, then a flat file was used to remove the material in between, as shown in the lower picture.

Trimotor33a.jpg

After the ends were done, a .032 drill bit was used to drill a hole through the top and bottom of both pieces. This the hole the wire will go through to form the hinge.

Trimotor34a.jpg

Here's the three components dry assembled before soldering. A trick to making small parts like this is to not cut them to length before you do any machining. A full length piece of brass is much easier to hang on to than a piece 1/8 of an inch long.

Trimotor35a.jpg

After applying a drop of solder to the one end, the soldered joint was dressed with files and Emery boards to represent a scale hinge bolt. The top one is a wee shorter because the fin is shorter in the area it has to be mounted to.

Trimotor36a.jpg

Holes were drilled in the fin/rudder, and the hinges are inserted to the proper depth. Aerodynamic gap seals are unheard of on this airplane. There's spaces big enough to put your hand through on the real airplane. Filling and sanding of seams is not required on this model..lol

Next post will cover the covering of the fin and rudder.

Cheers

Mike

Edited by Skyking
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OK let's move on to covering the parts with the corrugated aluminum.

Trimotor37a.jpg

I cut each "skin" to roughly the correct size. I'd rather have them a little larger than needed, as it's easier to remove material than it is to add it.

Trimotor38a.jpg

A Popsicle stick is used to smear 5 minute epoxy to the surface of the core. I used epoxy because it gives me some time to fudge the skin around to final position, and it also smooshes into the corrugations on the back side to fill them in and help prevent them from getting damaged. This aluminum is quite soft and susceptible to damage. The epoxy backing gives it a little more strength. I mask off the very edges so epoxy doesn't ooze out and get all over my fingers as I work the skin in place. After I am happy with the positioning, I use an old Ex-Acto knife blade to squidge thick CA between the skin and core. That seals the edges and also locks the skin in place while the epoxy cures.

Trimotor39a.jpg

About an hour on each part, and the results are shown here. I used a pounce wheel to do the horizontal rivets, the verticals were done with a straight edge and blunt burnisher, every other corrugation, just like the real aircraft. The caps on the lead edges is aluminum adhesive backed plumbers foil I picked up at the local Hardware store. It has a tenacious adhesive on the back, is about the same thickness of the corrugated aluminum and burnishes well.

Trimotor40a.jpg

Yep the hinges work. Nice scale like effect to them also. I had some mixed feelings about this assembly when I first looked it over after completion. The Model builder in me goes "yuk" when I look at the edges. There's wrinkles, waves, small dings and dents and other irregularities, that most modelers take pains to eliminate. But my artistic side likes the effect. Real airplanes have wrinkles, waves, small dings and dents and other irregularities, so it has a look of realism that I am quite happy with. Only time will tell if Judges agree with me...lol.

Thanks for tagging along. I hope you found the post informative and as always, comments and critique are always welcome.

Cheers

Mike

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That's just plain nuts, Mike! You're really pulling off another amazing feat of scale modeling here. Wow!

I think I'll have to look in to some square brass tubing for the 410 project- thanks for jogging my tired little brain!

chuk

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Thanks for the comments every one. I appreciate them.

I now have a conundrum on my hands. I am building 1077, a 4_AT as she appears today as a restored airplane. I love the polished look with dark blue trim. However... this morning, while I was googeling Trimotor, I happened across this website:

History of 1077

Upon reading the PDF's, I stumbled across this picture:

trifloat.jpg

So now I am in a real pickle. Do I build her as the land based restored airplane, all shiny and pretty, or as a dull, utilitarian float plane as she appeared in 1927? I'm leaning toward the bling... but wow it would be impressive on floats.

Cheers

Mike

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...So now I am in a real pickle. Do I build her as the land based restored airplane, all shiny and pretty, or as a dull, utilitarian float plane as she appeared in 1927? I'm leaning toward the bling... but wow it would be impressive on floats.

It's going to be impressive even if you mounted it on a wheelbarrow :bandhead2:

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Alright... listen up here SkyKing guy...

You're the one that started this. You got us hooked and all hyped up on this project. Now, WHERE the hell is the update? I check everyday! twice!

I've got a withdrawl thing happing here. Lets get moving guy...

Geez, have a little consideration would ya? :thumbsup:

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Alright... listen up here SkyKing guy...

You're the one that started this. You got us hooked and all hyped up on this project. Now, WHERE the hell is the update? I check everyday! twice!

I've got a withdrawl thing happing here. Lets get moving guy...

Geez, have a little consideration would ya? :doh:

Yeah!..what he said! :D

My $0.02 Mike,........go with the clean and restored look. ;)

:D

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Thanks for the comments every one. I appreciate them.

I now have a conundrum on my hands. I am building 1077, a 4_AT as she appears today as a restored airplane. I love the polished look with dark blue trim. However... this morning, while I was googeling Trimotor, I happened across this website:

So now I am in a real pickle. Do I build her as the land based restored airplane, all shiny and pretty, or as a dull, utilitarian float plane as she appeared in 1927? I'm leaning toward the bling... but wow it would be impressive on floats.

Cheers

Mike

My opinion... everyone has one on wheels.

No reason why it can't have bling on ski's...

Edited by Miccara
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Hey everyone. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving that celebrate it. Just chiming in to respond to you all. I should have another build update later this evening or tomorrow.

It's going to be impressive even if you mounted it on a wheelbarrow

LOL. Best response yet Karl, and I think yours kind of pushed me over the edge, along with what Gil Hodges said over at HS regarding what I would be most happy with in the display case.

Bling bling bling all the way I think. I'd personally really like to see that corrugated foil in all its (shiny) glory

Thanks for the feedback Papa. I have decided to do the restored airplane on wheels. It's just too pretty to not build.

Alright... listen up here SkyKing guy...

You're the one that started this. You got us hooked and all hyped up on this project. Now, WHERE the hell is the update? I check everyday! twice!

I've got a withdrawl thing happing here. Lets get moving guy...

Geez, have a little consideration would ya?

Lol.. Sorry about that Miccara. I hope to have a fix for you later this evening or tomorrow. I might even have something with a splash of color on it.

My $0.02 Mike,........go with the clean and restored look.

Hey there Guy. Fab work on your T-Cat by the way. I agree with your opinion and am building the "new" airplane. However.... :bandhead2: ... that doesn't mean I may not build a second one on floats....

My opinion... everyone has one on wheels.

No reason why it can't have bling on ski's...

You make a good point Miccara... but I've decided to go with the newer restoration. Depending how this one goes though, I still will have the masters, artwork for the PE and whatever else I need. It wouldn't be difficult to make a second one on floats.

You know you wants the floats, Mike.... ;D

Hey Chuk. Yeah I do, but I want the shine one more..lol. Thanks for the input.

I can see a diorama!

On floats on the water under power. There is no reason you can't put some small motors in there to spin the props. Have her up on the plane about to lift off. It would be breath taking!

Curt

Hey Curt. That's not a bad idea actually. If the time comes when I do the second one, I may just entertain that thought. Thanks for the feedback.

Like the great Bob Beary said to me:

"Pete...Mike's assembly jigs are better than our models."

This is an extreme talent we're dealing with here people-

Pig

Hey Pete. Hope you and the family had a great Thanksgiving. I'm pretty positive that's not true but thank you for the compliment just the same. Now if we could talk Bob into actually putting those motorcycles of his together all the way...lol. Your Viper is coming along famously, but I'm really digging you getting back to the '38 soon.

Thanks again everyone. As I've stated, I've decided to go with the restored airplane for now. IF this one goes together well, and IF I can find more references for the floats, and ID I can muster up the ambition..lol... I will do a second one, of the same airplane 1077, on floats as she appeared in '27.

Cheers

Mike

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