Spirit of St Louis FINISHED!

[LSP_Kevin]

Nice work, Eric. Just a question for you: when you spray the stringers in with Mr. Surfacer, do you remove the tap immediately, or wait until it as dried/cured?

 

Kev

[Guest]

Eric, very impressive work And came out great. Good job.....Harv

[X15]

it' always great to follow your buildings !!

Lot of good idea and a real inspiration for us !!

 

X15

[ericg]

Thanks guys.

 

Nice work, Eric. Just a question for you: when you spray the stringers in with Mr. Surfacer, do you remove the tap immediately, or wait until it as dried/cured?

 

Kev

Hi Kev,

 

I remove the tape a minute or so after application of the Mr surfacer.

 

Eric.

[LSP_Kevin]

Thanks guys.

 

 

Hi Kev,

 

I remove the tape a minute or so after application of the Mr surfacer.

 

Eric.

 

Interesting. When I've tried this technique in the past, and removed the tape so quickly, the edges of the built-up primer just collapsed, and basically ruined the effect.

 

Kev

[LSP_Ray]

Nice work on the stringers, Eric, they turned out great!

[Guest Peterpools]

Eric

Way to go .. the Fabric work looks spot on and just like the real deal.

I've been the the air and space Museum in Washington DC and have marveled at the Spirit of St Louis hanging from the ceiling.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

[ericg]

My models usually spend a little time on the sidelines if I run into an issue, whilst I work out how to fix it. I was having trouble with the wing struts. From the outset, they were a little warped from the box and I tried to bend them back into shape and then attached them to the model. They stayed straight for a little while until I picked up the model and bent them again. The resin struts are far too flexible for the application for which they serve and I knew that they had to be fixed before I proceeded with the build. Any warping of the struts once this thing is finished will stick out like a sore thumb. I like my models to travel and don't want to get a couple of thousand K's from home and have a strut malfunction. Also the variables of heat may cause issues further into the future. 

 

The problem, with just two of the struts installed. They are extremely flexible and will not stay straight.

 

 

Removed from the model. I could straighten the strut with hot water, but it wont resolve the flexibility issue.

 

\

 

I was determined to come up with a solution. 

 

Some Dymo tape laid along the inner length of the strut allowed a nice straight groove to be cut with a conventional scriber.

 

 

I made up a scriber that would exactly fit the profile of my intended material that I was going to fit inside the strut. this is a short length of music wire with a small angle ground on the end to make it sharp

 

 

Using the new scriber, I cut a deeper and wider groove into the strut following the thinner line.

 

 

I cut lengths of the 1.4mm diameter music wire to suit each groove. The good thing about this stuff is that it is super tough, and immediately springs back to its position if bent. 

 

 

 

The only problem with cutting the groove at the exact profile of the wire is that there is barely enough room for the super glue to hold it position, so each wire was hammered into position  once glued. I sealed the gaps by sanding the strut creating resin dust in the groove before running super glue over it. once sanded, the wire is still visible due to the clear nature of the glue but once primed there will be no difference. 

 

 

Way, way better. I feel alot more confident with this model now. All 4 struts have been completed and I fit the aft two.

 

[Simmo.b]

Surprised that this one is next cab off the rank but glad all the same, another catagory for Expo?

[ericg]

Surprised that this one is next cab off the rank but glad all the same, another catagory for Expo?

Hi mate, not really. I also had a play with the Mirage and the Eurofighter today but felt inspired to get things moving a bit with this one. Having the idea in my head as to how I was going to fix the struts helped and also a visit to the shop in Lawton to get the wire was all I needed.

 

Eric.

[Jim Barry]

Nice fix Eric. In reading about the master scratch builder they are quick to keep metal tubes inside the struts whenever they can. I plan to make my Fury Biplane's upper wing sit on brass tube.

[Guest Peterpools]

Eric

Never a doubt in my mind about the right fix was in the pipeline.

terrific work and perfect outcome.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

[ericg]

Now that the struts were fixed it was time to get moving on this model. Lot of fitting and fiddling with the struts ensued with much work going into the forward struts and fairing to get them to all work together. I found some decent pics on the net for reference, as the kit is a little vague as to how each of the parts interact. I scratchbuilt replacement gear legs from brass rod soldered together as the kit metal parts were a bit brittle and I also wanted something a bit longer. 

 

 

Considering the poor fit of the kit, I am quite happy with how it has turned out. 

 

 

It was important to get the `sit' of the model right now as I want to avoid doing much to it once the engine turned parts are applied to the model. I have spent a bit of time looking at and comparing period photos to the model. I am still struggling to find any pleasing angles to this aircraft. It is one ugly machine!

 

 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Terrific progress, mate. Great to see this one back on the bench again.

 

Kev

[ericg]

Some more work.

 

An area of the kit that I just wasn't happy with is the combined landing gear wing strut parts. These parts are far too agricultural and really give the kit a heavy look to it. I was eager to capture the look of the real thing.

 

Here is the kit as it was. I had thinned the part a fair bit already at this stage, but could see that more needed to be done. Notice that the wing strut and the gear strut seem to share the same hinge point.

 

 

 

A period photo of the Spirit shows a completely different set up with alot more individual parts working together.

 

 

Out came the razor saw and I cut off the non load bearing gear strut.

 

 

Much work later and the struts look alot better. I rebuilt the entire forward strut, shifting the wing strut up slightly to accomodate the gear strut.

 

 

 

The unmodified struts look much worse from the rear.

 

 

Much better. A fairly large shim was required, not just due to the width of the razor saw blade and the material it removed, but the change in geometry of the rest of the strut.