PT-17 Stearman Crop Duster

silveroxide

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This is what I am presently working on, Taking Julius (Paper-Replika) Stearman and modifying it into an early version of the old Bi-Plane cropduster like the one seen in Independence day. I am making a full cockpit for the two seater version and the single seater cropduster. It requires a bit of modifying and the Radial will be more intricate and detailed as much as possible. The model is on the Beta stage and the build will be as done in the instructions. I will cover the conversion techniques. This will be up coming soon so stand by.


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zathros

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Nice workmanship. The fuselage lines are wrong on the Stearman, the aircraft has a beautifully smooth fuselage, I've actually worked on these planes, but a nice model nevertheless. You've done you usually excellent job, that engine is a beauty!!!

You can see in this picture where the error is. The did not transition the taper properly. Probably not made on a CAD program. The single cockpit model is even smoother!

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silveroxide

Senior Member
Yes I see, but overall, Julius version is very basic for a beginner. There are more discrepancies but I will adapt to them.

Going slow for the moment but here are some updates on the beta build.
The landing gear is a long paper stick which enters into the fuselage and is glued to the frontal wall support for strength. The engine get a little more detail done to it. The engine is too large but I will use this one temporary until I make another a bit smaller. The engine is constructed from rolled paper stock from the core center to the cylinders to include the cooling fins.

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silveroxide

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More on the Stearman. The engine is a bit oversize for the plane, it looks like a Super Wasp. Regardless, the making of the smaller engine is still the same technique. I will continue on with this Beta Build until I get around to making the full build thread.

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zathros

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Engine may be oversized, but you can choose how many cylinders you want to fire. This would make the aircraft controllable on take off and landing, and a blast to fly. It really does look good. Simple models need not be off in their design. There is no difference in building a fuselage with the formers sized properly, than there is with one not. Not a criticism, but if you're going to design the plane, and want someone to build it, taking 15 extra minutes to get it right is well worth the effort, especially as these blueprints are all over the web. Your plane looks great. A friend of mine flew one of these across the country VFR, following roads. He had to stop a lot, these things use around 12 gallons an hour of fuel, and his was one of the original 220 H.P. ones, which gave a cruise speed of around 110 mph, a 30 miles headwind would really cut into your range. They only held 43 gallons. In the end, they were available with up to 455 H.P., with no change to the frame!! That is one robust aircraft.. :)
 

silveroxide

Senior Member
Engine may be oversized, but you can choose how many cylinders you want to fire. This would make the aircraft controllable on take off and landing, and a blast to fly. It really does look good. Simple models need not be off in their design. There is no difference in building a fuselage with the formers sized properly, than there is with one not. Not a criticism, but if you're going to design the plane, and want someone to build it, taking 15 extra minutes to get it right is well worth the effort, especially as these blueprints are all over the web. Your plane looks great. A friend of mine flew one of these across the country VFR, following roads. He had to stop a lot, these things use around 12 gallons an hour of fuel, and his was one of the original 220 H.P. ones, which gave a cruise speed of around 110 mph, a 30 miles headwind would really cut into your range. They only held 43 gallons. In the end, they were available with up to 455 H.P., with no change to the frame!! That is one robust aircraft.. :)


Thanks for the comment Zathros. I always did like this plane but never got around to building it.

The build continues albeit a bit slower than I usually build. There are some issues on the attachment of the lower wings. Because of the full cockpit, I will have to cut the lower wings and a different way to attach them. Here are some more photo updates on the build. The Stearman gets its landing gears attached.

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zathros

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The rear wheel on these planes are notoriously robust. You look like you made yours pretty darn robust too!! Looks really great! :!!
 

silveroxide

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The rear wheel on these planes are notoriously robust. You look like you made yours pretty darn robust too!! Looks really great! :!!


thanks for looking in Zathros.

The model is a bit slow going as I experiment with different techniques in the build process. I am having problems uploading the files at the moment. I reduce my files to low settings for web and I get an error message that they are to large. Any smaller, and they would be thumbnails.
 

zathros

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Picture uploading just went bust. Working on it.
 

zathros

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Those wings are some of the (if not the) most robust wings I've seen on a paper model!! :)
 
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