Travel Air Mystery Ship 1/72 Scratchbuilt

The issue #102 (April 2013) of Skyways has a long article on the Mystery Ship, so concurrently I decided to post this.
“Scratchbilt” brand kits could be qualified as the most optimistic kits of all times.

Their #3 Travel-Air Mystery Ship I was gifted by Keith, The Inexcusably Phosphorescent from Silver Spring is portrayed in one of the accompanying photos. The contents are as follows: three printed sheets with a 3 view, patterns, several drawings and depiction of the construction. Also there was a decal sheet by Microscale, two plastic rods and two vacuformed canopies.

In this particular case the review should start: “You are on your own” (you were anyway, don’t worry) since the method given to build the model (keel, many half bulkheads, stringers, strip covering, puttying and sanding) could have worked on a larger scale or for a galleon, but it is hopeless in 1/72. The instructions also advise you to ruin other kits by cannibalizing spats and cowls that are an ill-fit anyway. The depicted method for building the stab and wing was used by the Spanish Inquisition to yank bogus confessions from troubled souls. A truly remarkable kit, this “Scratchbilt”. Their logic and business model are equivalent to giving someone a box of rivets, the directions to an iron ore mine, a sketch and a piece of Camembert cheese and tell them to build the Eiffel Tower. I have to concede that they have a sense of humor, though, and that their brand name, “Scratchbilt”, does not hide their purpose.

That being said, you still have those decals. Or do you?

When David The Irrefutably Unbound from Glen Ellyn sent me some material related to the Mystery Ship, I exhumed the “kit” from the dungeons where it was kept under lock inside a coffer marked “evil”.

As you can see in the photos I followed my own path here using wood for the fuselage and spats’ vacuforming plugs, the traditional one-two styrene punch for the rest, and white metal engine, prop and wheels from -a now sadly absent from the Internet- Aeroclub The engine had to be modified to fit the plane’s one, which had a particular front case.

The short wing struts and landing gear struts were made from brass “Strutz” stock, for which I am indebted to Andrew of England, The Slightly Iridescent.

An interior was scratched as per photos, some was structural and some pour la galerie. The first Microscale decal I used was for the instrument panel and it was the source of momentary panic as I had to wait about twenty minutes for the decal to come loose from the backing sheet.

Once all the main components were ready, the puttying/sanding/priming/repeat cycle ensued. The painting stage -which involved a good share of masking- required attention. At this point I tried to use the rest of the decals, but the first ones shattered in myriads of little pieces. The ones that remained in the backing sheet were treated with Testors decal bonder, but later on a few more shattered anyway as they were applied. The few remaining ones were given a few coats of Future, but again to no avail.

Now, this is not Microscale’s fault, the decal must have been between 20 and 30 years old, and not properly stored.

I printed the decals that failed and had a great time (really?) cutting the regs from white decal stock. The transparency was cut in three parts, the frames depicted with metal-painted decal strips, and arranged in its open position. The underwing oil coolers were made of thin aluminum sheet, engraved, cut and glued. The two Venturi probes were attached after the photos were taken (the photos of course made me realize that they were still unattached).

Regarding real kits, I am aware of the 1/72 Dekno resin model of the Mystery Ship. This is a new release since the company was revamped, so who knows, may be it would be better than its previous –old-, ill-reputed kits.

Many, many pages have been written about the Travel Air Mystery Ship but I can’t tell you anything because of its inherent mystery.

No ostriches or people from outer space were harmed during the construction of this model. We would like to extend our thanks to the sponsor, The Intergalactic Soenkish Empire.

Mattioni Botte Volante and Hawa F.3

 
Mattioni Botte Volante – 1922

I bet that the first images of this project reminded you immediately of the Caproni-Stipa. More seasoned modelers perhaps made a connection too with the Caproni-Campini.

If you have guessed, then you know that ducted fan is the keyword here.

The Mattioni Botte Volante (Flying Barrel as it was christened by Firenze’s locals) imposes its evident beauty upon the modeling masses. Rumors that it was used to hang and dry the laundry, or to smoke herring are not only disrespectful but also spurious.

I found an article on this plane in a somewhat old Italian Aerofan magazine (issue 2 1978). There is not much, but I was able to draw a 3 view based on the photos of the first incarnation of the “Mattioni Botte Volante”. This first avatar didn’t really fly, due to concerns about the tail surfaces ability to effectively control the plane that arose during taxiing trials. The plane was adjusted with some modifications and then successfully took to the air. More experimentation went on, and about four or five configurations were tried. The plane had a “flower petals” arrangement inside the tube-like fuselage, used to control the amount of air passing through (not dissimilar to some contemporary jet engine exhausts).

I love this first prototype stage of the plane because of its bizarre yet stunning looks.

I have already modeled the Stipa:

http://www.modelersite.com/Oct2006/English/Caproni_Eng.htm

so the Botte Volante would be a good companion. By the way, I also have the venerable Delta 2 Caproni-Campini kit, and although it is a bit rough, I plan to build it some day too. Notice an Italian-barrel connection here?

The article I mentioned on Aerofan seems to have a few inaccuracies. First, it is extremely unlikely that the span was 6 meters as quoted, since comparing the size of the people on the photos with the wings you find the span to be obviously larger than that, at least by 1.5 meters.

Then it states that the engine was a 7 cylinder one, when in photos again you can easily count nine cylinders. I won’t be too hard on the writer, since perhaps he was referring to other sources’ data or other versions or trials of the same plane.

So out it was with a Gnome Aeroclub white metal engine (please Aeroclub, come back with the online store!) and some “O” rings and Tom’s Modelworks etched spoked wheels. A generic interior was crafted –again using a couple of the white metal Aeroclub items- and the rest was mainly solved using –as usual- styrene sheet, bits of wire and tube, bits of aluminum soda can and “Strutz:” brass struts (thanks, again, Andrew of Nottingham!). Control cables were added from the cabin to the tail surfaces running inside the “fuselage”.

No decals were necessary for this one, which was a welcome break.

I hope my Italian friends, aviation writer Paolo Miana and scholar Fabrizio D’Isanto. enjoy this one.

For what I could gather online there was recently an exhibit/tribute in Italy centered on this plane and its creator, Antonio Mattioni. One of the brochures read:

“I nostri sogni e desideri cambiano il mondo”

(Our dreams and wishes change the world)

Karl Popper

Hawa F.3

You may have seen before articles I posted depicting conversions that were made after 1918 to civil use of pre-existing models, as in the Fokker D.VII and the Japanese Hansas. In a way, these articles are aimed to entice modelers to go beyond putting together a plastic puzzle -in the form of an airplane kit- and do a little modeling. This in turn may springboard them to modify a part here, scratch another there, thus acquiring skills that will widen the scope of their modeling endeavors and frontiers.

It is nice to be able to have civil options for kits that are around and mostly easy to get.

Dropping passengers instead of bombs fortunately became the thing to do for a number of planes that became the precursors of the airlines and airliners. The first ones were –as it is the case here- direct adaptations of pre-existing material to which a registration and -if you were lucky- an enclosed cabin were quickly slapped on.

If you are interested in the prolific and romantic period known as the Golden Age of Aviation, I suggest you go the library.

The venerable 1/72 Airfix Hannover CL.III kit was used as a base for the conversion. I left the kit in a drawer for some time and...there! when I opened it again the model was ready. This proves that the best way of building models is to let them build themselves.

I was told about this method by Christos P. from Malabama, so all credit goes to him.

If in spite of my selfless advise you still need to build the kit yourself, then you may start by toning down the ribbing mainly in the wings, and also a bit on the biplane stabs. Since you are at it, you may like to eliminate ribbing altogether in the center section of the upper wing, since it was plywood-covered, and on the fixed part of the lower stab. Both wings have ejector pin marks that you may like to fill and sand. The outer struts are joined by a “bridge” that has a carved counterpart on the underside of the upper wing. That is supposed to help with alignment, but I filled it in, since it detracts from the aspect of the finished surface and in my case only helped to annoy me anyway. Other parts like the landing gear legs were refined a tad, since they sport that kinda clunky look of the kits of another time.

I cut out a section on the fuselage where the passenger cabin was supposed to be and carved a plug from basswood upon which the Mattelation process was bestowed. Playing music from the sixties will help giving the Mattel vacuforming psychedelic machine operation some appropriate context. The vacuformed part was made of clear plastic; the windows were masked later on before painting.

The very Spartan kit interior (flat slab seat and mummies) was replaced with adequate bits: a Victrola, bar, cigar lounge, chaise longue, draperies, decorated vases, post-classical statues, Wedgwood ware, the works.

The HaWa F.3 had room for two passengers, seating facing each other in true early aviation limo style (that is, imitating a coach) so they could discuss Kant and Schopenhauer comfortably.

The Hannover CL.III used an Opel Argus of 180hp, but the conversion HaWa F.3 used a Mercedes D.III of 160 hp. The Airfix kit comes of course with an Argus (or some of it, anyway) but fortunately I had a full Mercedes in the spares’ bin. A suitable exhaust was scratched for it. The stabs (upper and lower) are not connected in the HaWa F.3 by the bars that come with kit, so those were omitted. The kit, on the other hand, does not have the struts that connect the upper wing with the landing gear foremost strut.

As modelers know, to determine the exact colors of these machines is a challenging enterprise, so informed/educated guesses  have some times to be made. So far I saw images of two machines, one with the number 81 on it and one with only the manufacturer’s designation on the fuselage side. I went for the latter which also had a two-tone passengers’ cabin door. In the original some areas of the wings and tail were plywood-covered, and the lozenge was painted on instead of the pre-printed fabric used for the rest. Accordingly, those areas were painted wood color too and later lozenge decals were applied on, showing the effect of the darker areas visible in the original.

There are number of converted limousines of this type that can be modeled using existing kits with little modifications. I hope this article inspires you to attempt this line of research and building.

I would like to thank Soenke S., master of the Evil Galactic Empire. From his secret volcano lair he sent useful suggestions and data that were instrumental in the making of the model. Same thanks also go to Tracy Hancock., founder of the Wings of Peace forum and site.