A Short 184 from scratch, part 1.

[Loic]

Brilliant work Glenn !

[Glenn R]

I've put the wings aside for a while and made a start on the fuselage.

 

 

The fuselage sides were cut from 20thou sheet, the edges embossed and receiving the pounce wheel treatment, both sides are shown here.

 

 

The fuselage bottom was cut from 30thou sheet, bulkheads fitted and the sides glued on. A floor was added to the cockpit/gunner's area, but before fitting, a layer of fine wire mesh was glued on using cyano.

 

 

The inside fuselage sides were given a coat of pale grey paint, the wooden areas receiving a pale brown colour (Humbrol 63 matt sand)and then a light coat of Klear/Future, to give a slight sheen..

At this point I realised that I should have done the internal bracing before I glued the sides to the floor. Having to do it now caused a lot of cursing as well as a lot of time!

For the wires, I used thin cotton thread stolen from the wife's sewing box. This thread was cut to lengths of about 2 feet and dipped into a small dish of gunmetal paint (Humbrol 53 metallic gunmetal). Attaching the thread to bulldog clips, it was hung vertically for about 15-20 minutes and then drawn through a small wad of tissue a few times. The tissue removes the excess blobs of paint, also smoothing down the thread and eliminating any 'fur'.

For turnbuckles, I use the plastic insulation removed from thin, single core wire. The wire comes from (old?)telephone exchanges and is used here in Thailand to tie up orchid plants.

Other internal parts were constructed, the seat bottom from 30thou sheet and the ply sides from 10thou sheet with the holes pre-punched using Waldron punches. Seat cushion and backrest from epoxy putty.

The circular control wheel was made by wrapping some multicore solder a few times round a handle of the correct diameter, the 'rings' cut with a sharp knife and then glued using cyano.

The next sequence of photos show the fuselage internals slowly being added and the rear decking fitted.

 

 

 

 

 

In the last photo, I'm fitting the leather surround to both cockpits. This again, is plastic wire insulation, but cut along its length with the split gradually being fed around the cockpit surround.

Seatbelts and a few other items came from the Wingnuts Bristol Fighter kit, as I didn't use them, converting mine to a post war trainer.

Glenn.

[Derek B]

I'm sure that it would have gladdened Harry Woodman's heart to see this build Glenn

 

Derek

[Loic]

Pretty awsome Glenn !

You are running through this one !!

[radial]

Wow! Less than 2 weeks into this? You are way fast and good.

[Glenn R]

I'm sure that it would have gladdened Harry Woodman's heart to see this build Glenn

 

Derek

 

Hi Derek,

Harry Woodmam's models and book were a great influence towards me starting to scratchbuild.

Glenn.

[Glenn R]

Wow! Less than 2 weeks into this? You are way fast and good.

 

Please don't think I'm posting this build as I go along. I am actually just past the rigging stage at the moment and it has taken me about three months to get to that far.

I think you'll agree that waiting a few weeks for the next post causes a loss of interest in a project.

Glenn.

[Guest]

Blown away, Glenn. Just got to see for the first time. I am impressed!.......Harv

[D.B. Andrus]

Outstanding work, incredible skills!

 

Thanks for sharing your techniques, Glenn.

 

Best Regards,

D.B.

[Glenn R]

The radiator was the next thing I tackled.

I cut many rectangles from some 10thou sheet and started cementing some thin 10thou strips on the top and bottom edges.

WAIT! Something's wrong, the radiator on the drawing looks smaller than the one in the photo of the aircraft I wish to model.

After a bit of checking and measuring, I find that the radiator on my aircraft is almost twice the size as the one in the drawing I'm using. I think the drawing is of an earlier version of a 184, probably with a less powerful engine which required a smaller radiator - that's my theory, anyway.

Let's start again.

28 larger oblongs were cut from some more 10thou sheet, each one receiving the 10thou strip along the top and bottom, on both sides. This should give me a spacing of 20thou between each element. The outer face on the outer elements were scored with a scriber to give a ridged effect.

 

 

Both sides were painted gunmetal between the strips before assembling as i knew I'd never get paint in there afterwards.

After assembly, the whole radiator was given a coat of gunmetal (Humbrol 53 metallic gunmetal).

 

 

The upper wing centre section leading edge had to be cut away, as far back as the spar, to accomodate the radiator.

 

 

Just for a change of scenery, I then made a start on the main and tail floats. These are fairly simple box-like shapes and they went together quite quickly using 20 and 30thou sheet.

 

 

 

 

Drawings and paintings show these floats as having been made of wood, photos tell a different story, as rows of rivets can be seen on both. Mine received the attention of a pounce wheel and will be painted grey except for the wooden battens on the underside.

Glenn.

[Tomek]

Hi Glenn,

 

Most impressive!

What I find very interesting is that your approach reminds me a lot what I've been trying to do with paper. The only differences at this point are just raw materials we use .

The propeller and radiator is superb, your embossing looks very convincing and the cockpit is great! I'll be following with great interest!

Edited January 20, 2012 by Tomek

[Hogzilla]

Glen, there is so much new and useful information I couldn't do anything but drag and drop the URL to this into my tips folder on my hard drive for future reference. - Danny

[OldTroll]

Drawings and paintings show these floats as having been made of wood, photos tell a different story, as rows of rivets can be seen on both.

 

You might want to reconsider the floats, Glenn. The following quotes in bold are from Windsock Datafile 85:

 

<<The floats were designed by Oswald Short. They were 16ft long by 2ft 10in in beam, and were simple pontoon-like structures, having a base framework of ash, silver spruce and Canadian elm. This was covered on the sides and top with 1/8in plywood, and the bottom planking was 3/16in to 1/4in thick.>>

 

<<The tail float had a hull of three-ply with metal sheeting on its underside.>>

 

Regarding the wing tip floats...<<To a wooden keel were attached a number of steel rings over which was placed a covering of balloon fabric. the resulting tube was inflated through a Dunlop tyre valve in the nose and the float body tapered towards its tail.>>

 

With regard to float finish...<<Wood floats were either left in their natural finish under several coats of Marine or 'Yacht' varnish, oe else painted pale grey or even white, metal areas were painted 'Battleship' grey as were certain struts.>> Note that the metal areas referred to here are the ones in the vicinity of the shock absorber hardware and the strut attachment points.

 

While the Windsock Datafile mentions experimental floats it also specifies that these were also of wood construction. A a number of the photos in the book show dark, evenly spaced "dots" along the float edges these are the heads of the screws that would be used in a typical boat construction fashion where the hull skins are caulked, glued and screwed to the wooden frame.

 

I hope this of some assistance to you as that was my intent. This build is a great display of the modeler's art and I look forward to coming installments.

Edited January 20, 2012 by OldTroll

[Glenn R]

Hi Ron,

Many thanks for your input, I too have the Windsock Datafile and, after a re-read, I agree with you. As the subject of my model is a fairly late version, I'm still going with the grey painted floats. There also appears to be two versions of the wingtip floats, mine having the later version, as you'll see in some later posts.

Glenn.

[OldTroll]

Good show - full speed ahead!