PART 3 of A Scratchbuilder's Paradise

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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More progress on this 1:48 scale Lindberg F11C Goshawk.

Well I discovered, much to my dismay, that both the engine and its cowl are too small, and will be discarded. I will be manufacturing a cowl, however, as aftermarket Wright R-1820 engines are available, I will be using one of these. Why reinvent the wheel, right?

So, while I am waiting for parts to arrive in the mail, I turned my attention to some of the more fiddly items:

This is the teardrop aux. gas tank. I sanded off the unrealistic rivets it was covered with, and scratched a filler neck and cap:

This is the gunsight. The kit’s part is left, the scratched part is on the right:

This is the arrestor hook. The kit’s part is left, the scratched part is on the right:

This is the tailwheel. Fortunately, I was able to adapt the little gray wheel portion from a toy plane I acquired at a swap meet some time ago. The kit’s part is left, the scratched part is on the right

For reference, this is what the actual tailwheel looks like:

Here is what the airframe currently looks like. I needed to drill 36 miniscule holes in it to accomodate the rigging:

Not complaining, but this is about the cheapest kit I’ve ever built (price AND quality) so far in my illustrious modelling career. And it’s taking me to the skill-building woodshed more than any high-quality, high-price kit could. It’s making me have to THINK! And I kinda like that.

More to follow soon!

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Looking good MN [tup] You have far more patience than I for that. Hence why I have not built that kit.

Good work, keep us posted. I’ll be looking forward to it.

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Hi Modelnerd,

`Slookin good. How do you get those neat tidy lines to your bends aka the tail wheel and the control stick in your earlier post. Looks like a winner, and as to the making you work and think bit, thats what modellings about. We never had no garage kits when I was a lad, no a blunt knife and a bit of wood thats what we got, and glue-get the bones and boil em up we did, and as for paint-go find the rocks and grind the dust out of em and mix it wiff egg white etc etc,

Joking aside really nice work

regards Gary[8-]

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Thank you Drew and Gary.

Gary, the bends in the copper wire items are smoothly accomplished by either:

  1. bending it around the appropriate diameter scrap brass tubing to achieve the proper size curve, or

  2. using wire bending pliers, which are short-jawed pliers where the jaws are conical-shaped.

The hook part of the tailhook is in fact a slice of styrene tubing (laid lengthwise in a tiny miter box, then sliced thin like a salami in the deli saw). The slice then had a notch removed to open up the donut shape, then it was cemented onto a bit of styrene rod.

I’m gonna have to try that “rock dust and egg white” paint recipe some time![;)]

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Great looking work. You’ve got the scratch building down to a science. I’d love to see some step b y step shots of how you do some of that.