From the archive (2008):
The somewhat
strange lines of the Fairchild Super 71 bushplane seem to suggest an exercise
on making a fuselage out of beer cans. The whole appearance is further enhanced
by the shinny finish and the presence of a pair of floats/skis that any bush
plane deserving its worth should be able to wear.
The Execuform
vacuformed kit is a simple approach to the matter, providing the basic shapes,
a plan, resin parts that make for the stub wings where struts attach and a vacuformed
clear canopy. As usual you will have to get the engine, prop, decals and detail
bits by yourself. In the photos you can see the Aeroclub engine, the scratched
interior and home-made decals.
The Super 71 that
has been restored and is exhibited at a museum shows servo tabs on the rudder.
I wasn’t able to find anything like that on the photos I have of the original
machine; but again, I was able to find about a dozen images, all not great in
quality. In the museum the external sections of the wing are separated by a
gap, in the original a metal strip fairing covered that gap. There was a time
when the Super 71 was on skis.
Since I have been
posting here numerous articles dealing with the building of vacuformed models,
all there is to be said has been already said, so I’ll keep this one short, but
there are a few points to be considered nevertheless.
The wings are
molded as entire sections, upper and lower. The wing has an inverted gull
dihedral which is portrayed in the kit parts. The wing halves, in order to have
that dihedral, have been located in the backing sheet on a pedestal. It is
advisable to mark and cut the wings from the “inside”, the other side of the
backing sheet, not the side where you usually cut –see images- since the
dividing line is more visible on that side. Be very careful with the slips of
the cutter, since there is almost no guide line. Do not hurt yourself. Cut a
tad further out from the actual dividing line; that will give you some slack to
refine and sand later on.
There are two front
cowl parts, one depicts the more usual “cover-all” cowl, and the other
represents one that looks more like a NACA cowl and accompanied in the original
an engine shield. Study your reference material. The original stub wings were
partially corrugated, so I decided to scratch them instead of using the resin
ones provided. For that I made a pattern and joined part plain styrene sheet
and part “corrugated” styrene sheet. The teardrop tips were made from long
forgotten kit bombs, I am always happy finding other uses for them.
The polished metal
surfaces (fuselage) and the silver doped, fabric-covered flying surfaces should
be painted accordingly to differentiate them.
I went for the ski
version (although it is not depicted or catered-for in the kit) for several
reasons:
a) Because I have a tendency to depart from the standards
b) It requires a bit less struts (so they are limited to
only 28 :-)
c) It adds a color note (wood) to the otherwise overall metal
finish
d) It makes the display of the model easier (no water, no
dolly)
e) When I am pretending to fly the model in the house I no
longer have to take off and land in the sink or bathtub, but can use the
freezer instead.
I would like to
thank another vacuformed kit maker, Lars Opland of Khee-Kha Art Products, for
his help with data about the original plane.
While waiting for some parts to dry I worked on the decals
and got them ready to be home-printed. A new stabilizer was made from scratch
in order to be able to show the ribbing of the original. Same for the rudder.
For the abundant
struts on this model brass “Strutz” were used, and a very big “thank you” goes
to Andrew N. of the lands of Nottingham, since
-due to the shutdown of the Aeroclub Internet store- without his help no
“Strutz” would be now among my scratchbuilding supplies.
The Super 71 was
used mostly as a cargo plane, so I depicted the interior with bulkheads,
cockpit and floor.
A few battens –gas
tank area reinforcements- were added to the lower wing, as well as gas caps on
the upper wing. Aileron cable leads and balances were fabricated too. There
were two ducts that run parallel on the upper fuselage from behind the engine
to the canopy; those were also represented on the model. Exhausts were made
from styrene tube and solder.
A little bit
laborious but worth every hour of dedication.
As the song goes,
it never rains in Southern California -and
much less snows- but we live in hope
whaoooooo!!! cest sublime bravo gabriel
ReplyDeleteMerci beaucoup Christian!
ReplyDelete