Ol' Scrapiron

In case it helps, here are a few of my pics of the OH-13E Sioux (Military version of the Model 47 D-1) 51-13934 on display at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in 2015. In the background is some sort of big airplane made out of wood... mostly spruce I think. - - - ----- and the OH-13E Sioux 51-14175 I photographed last year at the Yanks Air Museum in Chino - I also have pics of other variants of the Model 47 but the later versions are a bit different. Let me know if you'd like to see them in case there is some sort of value as reference shots.

You are pretty good at casting. Could you make a mold of the outside of those parts and then make a "plug" the shape of the inside void to cast a fairly thin part of just those back portions as replacements? If you do choose to go the route of dremeling it out like a canoe, probably ought to have a mold of the outer shape as a backup anyway. I'm sure whatever you choose to do will look fantastic. I was looking at my pics from crawling under a couple Tigercats and all the wheel well shots are taken looking slightly forward. I was just trying to ensure that the nacelle is hollow all the way back without some sort of firewall/bulkhead/baffle that would eliminate the need to drill it out. Nothing looking backward... but what I did find was a whole lot of activity in there. Can't wait to see what you do. I know you have your own reference, but in case these could be of some help... F7F-3 80411 “King of the Cats”; Palm Springs 2018 -------------------------------------------------- F7F-3 80483 “Bad Kitty”; Aviation Day at Paine Field 2012

A few more from last month during the Arlington Fly-In (mostly for inspiration) CH-47F 06-08720; Arlington Fly-In 2018 - - - - - - Hope these help.

A little late, but I hope these will come in handy as reference or inspiration CH-47F 09-08073; McChord 2016 - - - - I have more from a recent airshow that I haven't processed yet. Will post soon. -

Cool video. Is this the last flying F-100? I took these during the Detroit show in 2010 (managed to peel my eyes off the B-17s at least part of the time.) -

Nice looking build. I had not heard of the Flitzer but I was immediately struck by its resemblance to the de Havilland Vampire. I like the base being relatively small allowing the booms to project out -- gives a bit of tension to the little vignette that a larger base couldn't.

That must be a result of being opposite the steering box. Your model has the right-side English steering and the exhaust on the left ... the cars that were racing had the driver on left and exhausts on right. Another thing to consider is that the two I photographed were set up for racing and I was only shooting from the outside of that part of the road course -- it is possible that they have a higher performance engine and exhausts exiting both sides of the car. Just out of sheer curiosity, I might go back and see if I snapped any pics of them in the pits that might show the left side of the car.

Here's a couple racing in the Northwest that I photographed during a SCCA event a couple years ago... just for inspiration. Keep up the great work on your build! --

Interesting pics Wolf... I immediately went to my own pics of Tigercats I have photographed and found some of what I think is the same plane taken at Paine Field in Washington. But the times I've seen it at HFF and FHC airshows, F7F-3 80483 carries “Bad Kitty†artwork, and there are not guns near the nose gear. Wait, on closer inspection I see the guns but they are painted to match the body so very discreet compared to the metal fairings in your shots. I was thinking there must have been two airplanes with similar 483 markings, but must simply have been updated between our two shots. Nevermind. No guns visible on 80410 down in Pima though (below) ------- Brian, your project is absolutely fantastic, so I am not even going to pretend you have any need of reference shots by this point. Just another pic for inspiration as you near the finish line (while the rest of us stare with dropped jaws.)

I'm glad this comment was made so that this build could be brought up to the top of the list (I never would have dug back that far to find it otherwise.) I just spent some wonderful hours reading through this thread and have been grinning ear to ear in awe of your build and the greatness that is Mal's Way. How you overcame setbacks and solved 'problems' in a way that made everything better than expected... better BY FAR!!! Please tell me that the Corsair is complete and nicely displayed somewhere even if you weren't pleased with the staining on the deck. Like 1to1scale, I felt a bit of a gut punch when this thread came to an abrupt halt, apparently more than a year ago. Some mighty fine work you put into that build and a real treat to see it throughout all 66 pages. Wow. Just wow!!!

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I've photographed a couple Kettenkrads in action and on display. I know the paint schemes are different, but they might offer some weathering reference for you. Paul Allen's Kettenkrad at the Flying Heritage Museum (it gets run several times year and I would guess the restoration is as good as possible) - --------------- I saw this one (and others) at the Gathering of Fortresses (Detroit 2010). Not sure of accuracy or how many shows this group does annually. - I think I have more, but they would be in my archives somewhere and I don't think they would be much different. Actually, I'm surprised I didn't do a complete walkaround of the FHC example... I'll have to do a quick look for some detail shots. Anyway, I hope these will help, or at least inspire.

As for being a tail sitter, is there any chance to slip some weight into the two tanks (intakes?) that drop downward behind the pilot? If they are hollow, maybe drill a hole from the bottom, slip in some fishing weights and then plug the hole? They look to be far enough ahead of the main gear to shift the center of gravity some. Just a thought from looking at it. Great project that really looks sharp.

Great look at one of the prototypes in that video. Interesting colors in the wheel wells and radiator area, and the limited look at the cockpit. Since it was restored by the manufacturer I would guess that any repainted parts would still be accurate for the most part.

Follow-up on my first attempt at using decals for canopy frames... What I did and what I would improve on. I painted a small square of clear decal paper in the interior color a little larger than I thought I would need [next time I'll double my estimate] Then added the exterior color. Once dry I cut that area from the sheet with some unpainted area to grab with the tweezers while I shot a layer of Testors decal bonder to seal it. [next time I'll leave blank area at both ends to tape firmly to work surface] Using straightedge and a brand new blade, cut a very thin strip of decal. Just dip in water... the decal will release in a couple seconds -- way faster than I had expected. And then it's just "voila, straight lines" right? Afraid not. Every time I touched the canopy to straighten a newly placed frame some other frame would tweak out of position. And every decal strip would much rather stick to your fingers than the canopy. The long thin strips had a "stretchier" quality than normal decals so trimming to length while on the canopy was more of an adventure than I expected. On future projects I plan to do this in several short sessions on separate areas of the canopy. Also, I will grip the canopy in a holder to free up a hand. I'll put the blame for all the pitfalls on me and chalk it up to being a first experience with this technique. So, here's how it looks (remember what you are seeing is GREATLY enlarged -- I swear it looks better to the naked eye!) Note the little hint of a squiggle on the back frame... keeping the lines straight certainly was a challenge. Oops. I now see a strip on the front edge has disappeared at some point. I'll fix that. -- Looks like the other side of the front section also needs a little attention. (I guess it takes posting pictures to see some of the gaffs) -- The beauty of having the interior color on the decal paper first is you get nice crisp lines from the inside too. -- After a coat of Future to seal the frames in place, the glossy color does not match the matte color on the plane. I will have to carefully apply a little matte finish to the frames without affecting the canopy glass.The next round of weathering should blend it together as well. My verdict is that (with some care) this process is the way to go on standard canopies. Not sure I have what it would take to do the complex nose glazing on a B-29 or He-111 project -- at least not yet.