dR design Clement Ader Avion III completed

For the complete review and building article please go here in this same blog:
http://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2014/02/dr-design-clement-ader-avion-iii-172.html
Here is the completed model:

dR design Clement Ader Avion III - 1/72 photoetched/resin

-This is the building article, the completed model can be seen here:
http://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2014/02/dr-design-clement-ader-avion-iii.html

Frenchman Clement Ader, aviation pioneer, built in the late 1800s a series of steam-powered "avions" with a unique "bat-plane" flavor to them. Reputedly the first one, the "Eole", barely lifted and flew erratically for a little while. The Avion III -represented by this "dR design" kit- is a further development that again, reputedly, took off -tethered- from a circular  track but crash-landed. These "flights", although neither spectacular nor really effectively controlled -more like hops-, precede nevertheless the Wright Bros. historic flight by many years.

The Good, the Bad, en the Ugly:

Like the movie title, remember?

I should clarify, though, that when I say Ugly I don't mean Clement Ader's creation, but I am referring instead to certain aspects of this "dR Design"  kit.

That a manufacturer from South-America will venture into the kit market with a daring subject and a complex multi-media kit is surely something to praise. I am certain they had to deal with many issues and challenges, and they have to be congratulated for the mere fact of having put some kits on the market. But when the final product is not quite there, no matter how good the intentions or how limited the resources available, then it is a little disappointing.

The Good:

Hey, we have a kit of Clement Ader's Steam Punk Machine, the Avion III.

The Bad:

Some solutions of the kit's engineering are not the happiest ones (for example the propeller axles' nacelles).

The box, made of some sort of very thin flimsy clear acetate is inadequate. I guess they have this idea of a "clear" box to show the etched parts, which are visually attractive, but the idea did not pan out and the box is squashy and you have to struggle to close it. The parts are correctly bagged, though; but large parts will emerge "pre-bent", not necessarily in the way the kit intends it, though.

The Ugly:

The kit's resin parts and instructions are sub-standard, especially the instructions. Not because the kit is from Brazil and captions are only in Portuguese -close enough to my native Spanish anyway-, but because the images are unclear, and the captions have been partially deleted or cropped, therefore some of the text is lost. This is a serious flaw that nobody on their side seem to have noticed or have the will to correct.

I have built and posted here other kits from this manufacturer (Otto Lilienthal glider, 14 Bis), showing exactly the same trend: good subjects, bad instructions and bad resins.

In this particular case the photoetched parts are good, not the disappointment that were in the sample of the other kit I built, the  Santos Dumont 14 Bis.

My sample provided a duplicate -spare- set of the engine nacelles, which are the fiddliest parts, so that's good. Please notice that the engine nacelles are of different length (one longer than the other). The photoetched parts are thick enough to -mechanically- hold and as said the cut was clean in this sample. Other kits from this manufacturer provide  covering material, a sort of paper, but none came with this kit. Perhaps it is intended to show its complex and beautiful structure to the fullest extent. There is no 3-view of the plane, and compared with images of the original plane it fairs quite well, but a few things are different. There was, a long time ago, an injected plastic "Brifaut" kit of one of the others Ader machines, the Eole -similar but with a single-propeller-.

Can you build a nice model from these kits? yes you can, with some effort and ingenuity. Some head-scratching because of the horrid instructions, correcting or at least cleaning and filling the less-than-mediocre resin castings, and fiddling with the occasional photoetched part that won't behave.

You could cover if you wish the areas that were canvassed in the original with Japanese tissue or similar.

Although with some issues, this kit will allow you -if you are committed enough- to have a nice Avion III representation on your shelf.

Remember I said "the propeller axle gondolas are of different sizes? Well, the shorter one won't fit in the frame. This asymmetry in the kit was perhaps intended to accommodate the props that rotate in the same plane and interfere with each other, but in the original plane one of the props has "angled" stems so it rotates on a plane forward of the other prop. Therefore of the spare parts one more long axle pod was fabricated. The props themselves had to be drilled to mount them on the pins. Sigh.
Meanwhile I managed to send to the Twang dimension he part that holds the tailwheel and one wheel (but there was a spare one, so I am OK):

Scratchbuilt 1/72 Nungesser Hydravion

-This is the building article, the completed model can be seen here:
http://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2014/03/scratchbuilt-172-nungesser-hydravion.html


Back to weird, as it should be.

After some wandering around toying with more plane-like subjects, the usual stints and dabbling into related fields (the cars and buses), is back to the roots time.
For years all those who know me had to endure the shower of esoteric stuff upon their modeling heads. I am sure they miss it, so here it is some more of that.
There is beauty and beauty. There is the predictable, boring, repetitive beauty of the known types that have been modeling far beyond saturation, and there is the gourmet, secret pleasure of the beauty hidden in more selective subject choices. I'll just say to you, as an example of what I mean: Farman Jabiru. A subject one day I hope to honor.
Meanwhile today we gather to celebrate an even more arcane type: a winged creature born in darkness and shrouded in secrecy, but coming now to light in all its splendor, the Nungesser Hydravion.
How strange in so many ways is this apparatus, regarding not only its appearance but also its provenance. Reportedly it was created by or (more likely) made for Nungesser, the famous French pilot -although no other sources than the Gallica archives state so-. Design-wise, is of the canard type; they probably thought that if a duck floats, then a "canard" -duck, in French- configuration would be optimal (or at least safer) for a flying boat. Interestingly enough, is a tractor canard, that is, the engine "pulls" from the front of the "fuselage" and therefore does not push from behind as in other canard designs. No details other than the ones that can be surmised from the very few photos are found or provided. Nevertheless, this extremely attractive weird ugly duckling surely deserves to come to life in model form.

As usual, I started by having to draw the plans for it, very carefully studying the photos, comparing, and tracing, and erasing, and re-tracing, etc.

This bird was all wood-covered, save a panel in the upper front of the "fuselage" that looks like formed metal sheet. Window-doors with three hinges each are seen in both sides, along with profuse windowing ahead and after them. The radial engine is fixed, as one can safely assume from the exhausts connected to the cylinders and gracefully curving out and back on both sides. I had the file on this subject for years now, waiting for the odd chance that more material will be eventually revealed, and although that was the case for many of my files that sat quietly in the dark, in this case the mystery remains.

Work begins as usual with styrene sheet and strips:

 The "float" and the two "horns" that will hold the canard stab are produced:

 Flying surfaces:

 The float has a fin:

 For the cockpit/cabin, given its multiple windows/doors, I decided to go with clear sheet that can be masked and then painted, avoiding the necessity of craving the windows and add clear panes:

 Floor and roof are cut, and strips are added to the clear bit:

 The standard interior is devised:

 Parts fabricated

 And ready to paint:

 Dry fit:

Compared to parallel build, Farman 200:

 The roof and floor already glued:

 The streamlined top is carved from basswood:

 Dry-fitting and ready to vacuform a part:

The top is vacuformed:

 Tried out:

 The wood prop is carved, at the same time that a spare one:

The top of the gondola is carved to allow for the wing. The wing has been given a slight dihedral according to photos:

 The front "fork" is glued, the engine and prop are almost completed. The engine was reworked from a different model, cylinders chopped, re-arranged and pushrods added at the back. All the parts are kep separated until after painting and "wood" decaling

The prop ready:

All the main parts ready:

main parts are glued and masking ensues:

General view:

Base layer of paint is applied:

More masking and another color (to the left):

The process of applying the home-made "wood" decals begins:

Section by section the model is covered:

 Still to do: add control cables, window frames, add engine, stab, make cradle. Sigh.

The machine is seen in photos on a track, held via dolly, and this was replicated too: