Monogram Piper Tri Pacer Finished!

[ericg 9,154]

Another one to add to the mix.

 

Whilst most guys rush into swap meets to find the bargains on the readily available Trumpeter and Tamiya kits, I like to look over the back of the piles for forgotten stuff and have found myself going towards a retro modelling theme of late. At the recent Model Expo in Melbourne, I was lucky enough to score these four kits.

 

 

I actually found the Tripacer at a vendors table in the main show area, shrink wrapped and in pristine condition. I was aware that there was a large scale Tripacer available and had never seen one for sale, so as soon as I saw the box I was naturally interested. Whilst not having a scale printed on the box, after a quick google search I was able to see that there were a couple of opinions about the scale, being 1/33 or 1/32. MOney changed hands and I had it!

 

 

The kit is about as retro as it gets, with its copyright date being 1957! This is a later boxing of the kit but it is still very old.

 

 

I will be depicting an Aussie aircraft being this one:

 

 

I added tin foil seatbelts to the basic cockpit as well as a simple headlining to cover the visible fuselage seam once it is closed up.

 

 

 

In keeping with the retro feel of the kit, I wanted to be able to open and close the doors. The original kit snap and fit hinges were going to be way overscale and had the doors swinging wrong so they were removed and then replaced with thin aluminium hinges filed to shape, secured with brass rod. The both the front and rear doors have different style hinges and this is represented in the modifications that I made to the kit.

alot of shimming was required to have the doors tightly fit when closed.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 3, 2018 by ericg

[Guest Peterpools]

Eric

Awesome.

I owned a Piper PA22-108 Colt for a number of years which was the two seat version of the Tri Pacer with a 108HP Lycoming engine. and of course, no flaps. Just loved my Colt and flew her every where. There are a few omissions I noticed in the kit which need to be added to get the Tri Pacer feel.

The structural tube that forms the famous "V" on the inside in the windshield, the trim crank on the cabin roof and of course, what early Tri Pacer would be complete without a Narco Omnigator nav/coms . My Colt did have a Narco Omnigator which I quickly changed to a Narco 110 nav/com. back in the day with the Omnigator style nav/com, you needed to tune in the station as you did a radio with a dial and then identify the station with it's morse code letters. Once the newer nav/coms came into play, it was the start of a whole new ballgame. Also there is a brace from each main gear leg missing in the kit.

Eric you surely have made my day and I promise not to point out any other omission as I just let the momentt get the better of me.

Will be following with incredible interest.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

Edited June 23, 2018 by Peterpools

[shark64 4,540]

Looking sharp

[Cap'n Wannabe 313]

Jealous as.....I've been looking for one of those for ages!  You must've picked it up just before I got to that vendor..

[LSP_K2 22,347]

Very nice to see something unusual here from time to time, and I'm sure it'll look excellent.

[Hubert Boillot 5,707]

Neat little kit, and great pick

 

My version has a couple hunters and a dead puma on top. Now that is even older style modelling.

 

Will follow this one

 

Hubert

[ericg 9,154]

Jealous as.....I've been looking for one of those for ages! You must've picked it up just before I got to that vendor..

I picked it up on the second day so i couldn't believe it was still there. I can sniff out a rare/obscure kit from miles away though.

[ericg 9,154]

Some more work. A quick stop whilst my 2 year old boy demonstrated unusual attitude recovery. He even makes engine noises which is pretty cute.

 

 

I plan to incorporate a couple of the changes to the kit as Peter suggested. Whilst trying to keep it as out of the box as possible, there are a few key things which I can't let slide for the purpose of putting something different into our local ‘single media' category. Enhanced category it is.

 

The kit featured long axles that poked a couple of mm out of the uncovered wheel hubs for ease of fitting I guess. This would render the model a bit unrealistic when finished, so I cut them off and installed wheel covers over the hubs as per my reference pic.

 

 

As part of the process of making up a new one, I beefed up the nose gear leg by drilling a hole right through the length of it, then cut the oleo out, fitted a new brass oleo over some thinner brass tube and the inserted it into the holes. I also fitted a brass rod axle. The nose gear leg of the real thing features a spray deflector behind the wheel which is another omission from the kit. I fabricated a new one from brass rod and will fit the thin deflector plate soon. Also visible is an exhaust pipe that I have made from plastic tube. These small details should really make the kit look great when finished.

 

 

It's looking pretty good for a 61 year old kit.

 

[hamfists nz 359]

It doesn't have parts to make a standard pacer does it..my buddy has one..for some reason the nose wheel version doesn't look quite right to me

[Guest Peterpools]

Eric

Looking real good; details and corrections are spot on.  Aces on the nose wheel. One thing pilots use to point out on most of the single engine Pipers running up through the Comanche series, all three tires/wheels were the same size and they handled rough fields very well.

Keep 'em comin

:popcorn:

Peter

[Bruce_Crosby 2,236]

Hi Guys,

 

This build only goes to prove that it isn't what's in the box that counts, it's what YOU do with it once it's on the work bench.

 

Fantastic build! A touch here, a nudge there, an addition where it's needed, plus time and skill. Lovely!

 

Regards,

 

Bruce Crosby

[Gazzas 6,796]

That looks real good! 

[Out2gtcha 32,570]

What a great start! Looks wonderful so far.

 

I especially like the look of the hinged doors

[Adam 206]

Noice mate, very noice! 

 

Is your lad demonstrating a stall turn or a loop?

[shark64 4,540]

This is looking rather lovely