Here’s one for you scratch builders who dabble in cars too .
Think of this A couple of nice figures and a sparkling clean TaylorCraft sitting on the tarmac , doors open while the bags for the weekend are put in the plane , for flight to parts unknown .
There are papermodels out there in this scale . Not just the Taylorcraft . They have interiors too . Now , using them for patterns you could build one just as easy .
The engine and prop wouldn’t be that hard to make and the Prop could be , in this case , very thin slices of wood stained and clearcoated .
You could use some found wheels with smooth donut type tires and there you go . What I have found is this .You use .010 Exclusively .Why ? well you can make the braces and spars out of heavier plastic .
I use the .010 because this reacts to folds and bends the same way as heavy card . If it cracks , you can put a strip inside the corner to repair that . So you can still do it .
I learned something doing my TaylorCraft . If you take a small beaded head burnishing tool and score the fold line , it , handled carefully , not break .
I recommend the TaylorCraft if you can find one , or another of the larger scale paper planes .It can be a fun challenge with great results . Are you game ? T.B.
There are several Taylorcraft and other lightplane models in pretty big scale available as flying models. For a good static scale/diorama one would have to scratch the interior, and maybe the horizontal tail pieces (flying scale models often enlarge the stab for better stability). On fabric planes the tissue covering works fine. For metal planes like Cessna and Luscombe one can cover the plane with thin plastic or card stock.
You hit the nail on the head .I for one choose to try this using different paper-models as a pattern . I am thinking of doing the Paper D.C.9 next . T.B.
Highly suggest you have a look at balsamodels.com, the site run by Guillows. Some fabulous static builds there of planes like the Beaver, Cherokee, and Cessnas - even some modern subjects. For metal surfaces a technique called in-filling is used, basically inserting balsa pieces in between the formers and stringers, sanding to shape, then using fillers to eliminate grain.
I find infilling a lot of work. I am a multi-media type, I use any material I find adventageous. I only use the infilling for compound curve areas. Most aircraft have a lot of flat or single curvature areas, and sheet cardstock, plastic, or aluminum work fine on these areas.
Reason there are few double curvature areas on light planes is those panels take either forming dies or a lot of hand hammer work, costs of lightplanes are/were expensive, and they don’t make that many, so the cost of tooling is expensive. That benefits model builders
