The Alan Rose DC-3 by DanBKing

[DanBKing]

Now that the New Zealot has settled down from the successful transition, I return, and have started this thread of my build of the Alan Rose DC-3, beautifully redrawn by Ruben A Martinez.

This is a beast of a model when it comes to size! And it took a heck of a lot of convincing the lady of the house, that it would look good hanging on a wall in the lounge!!!
What sold the idea to her, was what I intend to do as a mounting/display base for the model. More on that at the end of the build, I am not going to reveal my idea just yet!!!

We decided that the 6'3" version was just a little too big and so I decided to print the model on A4 stock, using 'Fit to Page' when printing. I used a firm white 220gsm paper stock. The thicker paper should give a bit more structural strength to such a large model.
Even printed on A4 sheets the model still has a wingspan of around 1,35m !!!!! And with a rough calculation, the scale at this size is around 1/20th. That is BIG!!!

In my two years of doing this hobby, I have yet to build a paper model of an aircraft. So, on a very large scale, here is my first attempt!!!!

Due to the scale of this model, accuracy and structural integrity is important, in achieving a quality finish. With this in mind, the parts need to be accurately folded and the complex angles of the parts need to be as accurate as possible.
Using my prototype design of a light box/cutting/scoring table, I scored all the fold lines from behind, for clean, sharp folds. I used a dried out ballpoint pen as a scoring tool.
Once all the parts were scored, I then cut out and folded the parts for the internal formers for the wings. I glued these up, triple checking the angles and squareness of each piece. These pieces are the formers for the center section of the wing, where it attaches to the fuselage.



Next up, the internal formers for the outer sections of the wings.



Once all the internal formers had dried, it was time to 'skin-up!' And no, I dont mean to roll a joint, but to attach the outer skin to the internal formers!!!!



One thing I wanted to avoid, was wrinkles in the skin caused by the glue. So, after attaching the edges to the formers with normal glue, I sprayed the formers and inside of the wing skins with 3M spray glue. This stuff makes the paper less 'wet' than ordinary glue.


Laying on the skin required some careful work to get them on correctly and smooth. I pre-formed the leading edges of the wings using various sized wooden dowels (and a broom stick) to get the curves and tapers correct. I am happy with the end result.







Next up: The fuselage!

See you all soon

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

It looks like you are off to a very good start!
I will be following this thread.

 

[DanBKing]

Hiya all,

I managed to get the majority of the fuselage completed last night....

I started with the nosecone....... First, I very carefully cut out the petals of the part and then formed the base ring.



Once this was dry, I used a wooden ball of the appropriate size to pre-form the shape of the cone.



Once formed, I then placed the circular backing piece on top of the ball.



Then using a circle template, I used various sized holes to push the petal tips into position. Once I was satisfied, I added glue to the circular backing piece and glued the petal tips in place.



Once this was dry, I used the same technique to bring the rest of the petals snugly together. I used ca glue to bond the petals permanently. Once dry, I lightly sanded the joints smooth and re-coloured the part with a marker. I am very pleased with the result.



I set the nosecone aside for later and cut out and pre-shaped all the main fuselage parts ..... I removed all the tabs that join the parts together and edge glued them instead, to get a smoother joint.

 

[DanBKing]

Each section was then attached to the next with the former rings in between. I used a book to weight the assembly down while drying.



Main parts assembled ....



Windscreen on ......



I fitted the nosecone to complete the main assembly of the fuselage. I still need to burnish the joints to make them smoother and touch up any edges that need colouring that I missed.





I am pleased with the result so far!!

So, now all that is left are the two engine/undercarriage assemblies.
I will hopefully get these completed over the next day or so.

See ya'll soon!

 

[zathros]

Your use of the circle template is BRILLIANT! I have not see than done before. I believe a combination of conical and petals and yield the best results if the panels lines are established, as you can follow them, but you really made the nose as best as can be expected, actually, the best I have seen. It would be tempting to use that nose on your ship to make a mold, smooth out everything, then make either a paper mache' nose or fiberglass, etc. to glue on the nose and eliminate any lines. Great workmanship. I will have to pull out the template I have for circles. I knew it would be good for something someday!

 

[DanBKing]

Your use of the circle template is BRILLIANT! I have not see than done before. I believe a combination of conical and petals and yield the best results if the panels lines are established, as you can follow them, but you really made the nose as best as can be expected, actually, the best I have seen. It would be tempting to use that nose on your ship to make a mold, smooth out everything, then make either a paper mache' nose or fiberglass, etc. to glue on the nose and eliminate any lines. Great workmanship. I will have to pull out the template I have for circles. I knew it would be good for something someday!

Thanks Zathros,

In the pictures of the complete nose cone, the joint lines are still visible. This is due to the sanded areas being rougher than the rest. The actual joint is perfectly smooth. Once everything is done, I am going to gloss coat the whole model. This should then blend in the join lines on the nose and they will dissappear almost completely. Well, I hope so, anyway.

 

[zathros]

I have no doubt. I have seen your work before. I see a much harder time for myself.

 

[DanBKing]

Thanks for the compliment, Zathros.

So, next up the engines.

I cut out and shaped all the parts for each engine, curving and shaping the parts with dowels where necessary.



All the circular formers were attached to each piece and eventually joined together. I made a slight modification to the motor cowling by cutting each vane and bending them upwards at a slight angle. This gives a more realistic representation of the real thing!





I made up the prop shaft next. The propellors were laminated together and cut out. I used sandpaper to feather the edges of the blades and formed them into the correct shape. Then the sanded sections were re-coloured.



The blades were then inserted and glued into the pre-cut slits on the prop shaft. The intake vents were made up and also attached to the engines.
And the two engines are done!

 

[DanBKing]

Next up, I attached the outer wing sections and allowed the glue to dry and harden fully over night. Then the banding around the join was attached.
The engines were then attached to the wing.



All that was left was to attach the pitot tubes and I am done with the plane!!!

At the end of the whole project, I will spray the plane with a few coats of Future floor polish to protect the model and also give it a slight shine to enhance the metallic finish a bit. But, up to now, I am pleased with the end result.




Next up will be the display base for the plane itself........

But, that is a subject for my next post ....

See you all soon!

 

[johanvanacker]

Well done Dan!

 

[zathros]

My God, I turn away for 5 minutes and you have finished. She's beautiful!! Excellent!!

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

WOW!!!
It looks like you went through that project rather quickly!!!
You did a GREAT JOB on it!!!
The way that you have it hanging on the wall, it looks as if it was flying out of the wall.

KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!

 

[DanBKing]

Thanks guys. I have to say at this scale, the model is very quick to build.
There are no tiny fiddly parts to make and it was a pleasure to build.

@Rhaven Blaack You aint seen nothing yet!!!!

I will post some photos a bit later today, to show you where I am now at with this project, because it ain't over yet!!!!!!

 

[DanBKing]

As I said earlier, this is not a difficult model to build, even at this scale. The model is beautifully engineered and the texturing is spot on. I could not find one fault in the model at all!!!!

I pretty much built the plane 'out of the box', but I used edge gluing and back tabbing to join the 'skin' parts instead of the supplied tabs. I found the joins were then much cleaner and smoother by doing it this way.

So, at the moment the finished plane is hanging on the wall, as shown in the earlier photos! The lady of the house, loves it!!!!!!! (I nearly passed out in shock when she said I could hang it on the lounge wall!!!!!!!)
But, anyway, typical me, I cannot leave things alone as they are, as I like to add a little personal touch to my models that are not included in the instructions!!!

And this model is no different!!!!
Because this baby is BIG, I want it to stand out even more than it already does....... And this is my plan on how to achieve that........

I have a very deep respect for my piano playing neighbor (<-- Please excuse the sarcasm

) and I was tempted to ask him if I could hang the back half of the plane on his lounge wall......

But, then an idea hit me ......

Rhaven commented; that the plane "looks as if it was flying out of the wall" You have hit the nail squarely on the head, my friend !!!!!

This model plane is gonna blow right through the wall in a shower of bricks!!!!!!

Are we getting the idea yet ???????

What I am trying to achieve, is a moment frozen in time, at the point where the plane would burst through the wall.
The wall itself will be a light brick finish.
I used Google to find some reference images....



As noted in the second picture, the wall bulges around the impact point and the bricks blow out of the wall at the contact point. This bulging perimeter I will utilize to blend the edges of the mounting board into the (real) wall.

So, lets get started......

I used 10mm foam board as a backing board. This is lightweight yet strong enough for my needs.

I laid the plane on the board and marked around it.....



I then marked up two boundaries to this. The blue lines show where most of the wall will be 'blown out' and the red line demarcates the boundary of the bulged out perimeter.



I am going to hang the model at a slight angle in relation to plumb level, as if the plane is banking to the right. Once I got the angle to my satisfaction, I marked up some 1:1 scale house brick shapes on the backing board. You can see the skewed angle of the plane in relation to the bricks in this picture...



Once done, I then used the same foam board to make 25 or so slabs in the same dimensions as the bricks. These will be used to build up the blown out bricks. If you carefully peel off the backing paper on both sides of the foam board, you are left with a 9mm thick piece of cement coloured foam, that is easy to work and shape. In the second picture, the bricks are roughly cut and the model is placed on the board to check positioning.....

 

[DanBKing]

I cut out the shape of the backing board and tapered the edges of it to help with blending it into the real wall.

So, with a hot glue gun, a couple of beers and a couple of well rolled tubes of Amsterdam's finest (), I let my imagination run wild.
I studied the position of each brick on the board, and imagined how it would react to the 'impact' of the plane hitting the wall from behind. I then cut/broke up the foam 'brick' and glued the resulting pieces into position.
Then on to the next brick, then the next...... I used the plane model occasionally to make sure that everything fits and looks right.

A few pictures speak a million words .....





I am pleased with the effect so far. As of last night, I have all the brick pieces in place. I used lots of off cuts of foam to bulk out the bricks to make them thicker. Once all the glue has dried, I will then carve and texture the foam to look like brick. And then it will all be painted.



I'll be back over the next day or two with more progress.

Thanks for looking in everybody!

 

[Revell-Fan]

This is absolutely spectacular, Dan! (I can say that because I have seen the result..! *evil laughter* ! ;-) )

 

[DanBKing]

This is absolutely spectacular, Dan! (I can say that because I have seen the result..! *evil laughter* ! ;-) )

Busted!

 

[DanBKing]

I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours on the base last night.
As things were allowed to dry over night, everything had hardened nicely, so I could continue....

So, with a cautious semi-malicious streak, I attacked the foam bricks with a coarse rasp, the cats wire hair brush, a large scrubbing brush and a tin and a half of beer to steady my nerves. I roughened up the foam to resemble broken brick.



Once I was satisfied with the texture, I brushed it all down and vacuumed up the left over 'rubble'. I then gave the whole thing a good coat of spray primer and while this was still wet, I used black to shadow all the brick edges and the board itself. The smell was a bit over-powering even with the extractor on, so it has gone into the shed for the night to cure.
I placed the plane in place, ( what a mouthful !! LOL) even though the paint was still a bit wet and took these shots. The black on the board is shiny, but will dry matt.











I hope to get some more done tonight. I will be starting to colour the bricks with acrylic kids paint then.

Have a good one everybody!

 

[Behzad]

Great work
all of ur techniques are THE BEST

 

[Revell-Fan]

............................

(I'm only waiting for the final post of the build to hit the "LIKE" button, again and again and again and.......!)