Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Scratch-built 1/72 Granger Archaeopteryx

From the archive (2006):


What is an Archaeopteryx, besides a very good Scrabble word? Literally, an “ancient wing”.

And you know that with that kind of name…err, it will look…well, you get the idea.

The Granger brothers started to build a plane upon a design of their own -refined by Latimer Needbam- that flew in the very early 30’s. It was influenced by the equally bizarre –read “beautiful”- Pterodactyls built by Capt. Hill. Although unusual, it has a pinch of elegance. The engine used, a two cylinder 32 hp Cherub of very limited power, made take offs very…interesting.

Being a small plane of course it renders an equally small model, as you can see in the image with the quarter.

The Archaeopteryx –sorry to make you read this word again- is a fairly simple scratch project, no doubt helped by the use of tiny brass “Strutz” for all of the –many- required homonyms.

The photo sequence will provide you with a general idea regarding materials and construction steps.

As this little moth-like bug flies off your book case into the eerie atmosphere of the room, it will remind you of Tinkerbell, leaving a sparkly trail as it lands, with a subtle shudder, in your building board.















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