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Hi all, As I'm close to finishing the Hansa-Brandenburg W.20 float plane, I thought I'd start on a 'Planet Models' resin kit. This model represents a Ponnier M.1 ‘Le Vampire’ of the Aviation Militaire Belge, as flown by Abel De Neef from the Ten Bogaerde (Koksijde) airfield in 1915. Before WW1, Louis Alfréd Ponnier was a Director of one of the companies of René Hanriot. In 1913 Hanriot decide to temporarily quit his interest in aviation and Ponnier took over the factory under his ’Avions Ponnier’ trade mark. The Avions Ponnier company attempted to win a pre-WW1 contract from the French military with their 1913 Ponnier L.1 scout, designed by Alfred Pagny, but they were unsuccessful. In 1915 Pierre Dupont was hired as an aircraft designer and in 1916 the Ponnier M.1 was tested by French ‘Aviation Militaire’ pilots, including Jean Navarre and Charles Nungesser. During flight testing, Charles Nungesser was severely injured when the aircraft entered a flat spin. In the ensuing crash, Nungesser had both legs broken as well as his jaw. The crash was thought to have been caused by an incorrect centre of gravity combined with a rudder which was too small. The French lost all interest in the aircraft after this incident. However, the Belgian Air Force were desperate for fighter aircraft and so ordered the type. At least twenty Ponnier M.1s were produced by S.A. Française de Constructions Aéronautiques, Ponnier's successor company to Avions Ponnier. Most of these, probably more than eighteen, were bought by the Aviation Militaire Belge. However, the Belgian ace Willy Coppens found the aircraft to be ineffective, despite modifications, which included a larger empennage and removal of the propeller spinner. The aircraft, like those remaining with the French, were rapidly discarded. Those that were left had their lower wings stripped and were sent to the pilot training school in Etampes, where students used them to learn how to taxi. As an aside, René Hanriot returned to the aviation business and his designer, Emile Dupont was instrumental in bringing about the much better Hanriot HD.1 fighter. Mike

Hi all, And the tail trestle, made from thin balsa wood, Mike

Hi all, As the aircraft had a beaching trolley and of course the kit does not supply one, I scratch built it. Made from 0.8 mm thick plastic card, Axle is 1.8 mm diameter tube with 0.5 mm rod support brackets. Wheels are from the ‘Kellerkind’ Tail Skid Trolley (54/077). Padding bead is 0.5 mm diameter styrene rod from 'PlusModel'. The three leaf suspension on both sides of the axle are made from three 0.2 mm thick plastic card strips. Now onto the tail trestle, Mike

Hi all, The tail unit with elevators and rudder is done. Bracing and rudder control cables are 0.08 mm diameter mono-filament with blackened 4 mm diameter tube. Apart from the propeller, that's the aircraft completed. Now it's onto creating a beaching trolley and the figures, Mike

Hi all, The rigging for the wings and ailerons is done. 'GasPatch' 1:48th metal turnbuckles with 0.08 mm diameter mono-filament and blackened 4 mm diameter tube. Now onto the tail unit, Mike

Hi all, The upper wing is now fitted. The ailerons as well as the tail unit have yet to be fitted. Now onto the rigging !! Mike

Hi all, The engine assembly and its support frame are now completed. I've added representations of the pipes to and from the cockpit 'pulse meters', oil tank supply pipe, HT supply lead and carburettor control cable and lever. I've also added the fuel supply pipe from the upper wing fuel tank to the carburettor, but this can't be connected until the upper wing is fitted. I just wonder how companies like this expect modelers to be able to create the engine support frame from two pieces of wire and a rough drawing of the area, which is actually on the only 'instruction' sheet supplied. Hey-Ho - moving on - Next up is the fitting of the upper wing, Mike .

Hi all, Now the fun begins, Mike

Hi all, All of the pre-rigging has been added prior to assembly of the model. The line used is 'Stroft' 0.08 mm diameter mono-filament with blackened 0.4 mm diameter Brass tube from 'Albion Alloy's'. All of the lines have yet to be tensioned and turnbuckles to be painted, which can only be done after assembly of the various parts. Mike

Hi all, I've applied the decals to the model. The base colour, despite most profiles showing it a light blue, was more probably the standard light grey. This was 'Tamiya' Medium Sea Grey 2 (XF83) lightly airbrushed over a Dark Sea Grey (XF54) base coat. The kit supplied lozenge decals were replaced with ‘Aviattic’ linen effect Lozenge (ATT32113). Undersides of the flight surfaces were covered with ‘Aviattic’ linen weave effect (ATT32236). The instrument panel was scratched using plastic card, decal from 'Airscale’ Generic WW1 instruments (AS32 WW1) and bezels from ‘Airscale’ Instrument Bezels (PE32 BEZ). I decided to cut out and use the kit supplied markings, despite them being very fragile and not 'cookie' cut. Light weathering was done using 'Flory Models' Dark Dirt and Grey fine clay washes. Everything was sealed with 'Alclad' Light Sheen (ALC-311) clear coat lacquer. Other weathering was then applied using 'AK Interactive' Kerosene (AK2039) and 'Tamiya' Weathering Master Set D (Oil stain). Now it's onto pre-rigging before assembly can start, Mike

Hi all, Here's the engine and the oil tank with scratch made oil pump and HT ignition unit. The engine push rods were replaced with 0.6 mm diameter Brass tube and 0.4 mm diameter Nickel-Silver tube. Ignition leads were twisted 0.125 mm diameter copper wire. The engine propeller shaft and rear mounting lug were removed to modify the engine with a shaft and different propeller. There's still various pipework to be fitted, which has to wait until further in the build, Mike

Hi all, Here's some shots of the basic engine installation. There's still the engine to finish and pipework and rigging to be added later in the build. The engine oil pump and HT ignition unit were scratched as was the representation of the carburetor on the air intake. Inlet holes were drilled around the air intake, Mike

Hi all, The top struts of the engine support frame have been added. I'm now working on the 'basic' engine installation. The kit supplied resin engine was a bit rough so is being replaced by a 'Wingnut Wings' 7 cylinder Oberursel U.0 (80 HP), kindly donated for this build by both Mark Elliot and Przemyslaw Litewka. The engine backing disc was made from 0.2 mm thick plastic card with a 0.5 mm diameter styrene rim ('Plastruct'). The engine shaft is 2.0 mm diameter tube (Albion Alloy's) stepped down to a 1.0 mm internal bore and 1.0 mm rod soft soldered in each end. The resin breather at the front of the engine shaft was cut from the resin kit part. Now it's onto trying to figure out the control components fitted on the shaft from illustrations and a couple of photographs, Mike

Hi all, I've been working on creating the engine support frame, which was located between the centre sections of the upper and lower wings. Nothing is supplied in the kit for this frame, apart from two bits of wire and a rather rough side drawing of the side of the aircraft. Quite how 'Omega Models' expect any modeler to fabricate this frame from the kit is a bit of a joke. Anyway I've made the bottom half of the frame soft soldered from 0.8 mm diameter brass tube using heavily modified 'Connec+o' joiners from 'Albion Alloy's'. The front under plate at the top of the frame is made from 0.2 mm plastic card and the two rear side filler plates from scrap photo-etch. The completed frame will also require cross bracing wires to be fitted as well as the engine assembly of course. Now it's onto the top half of the frame, Mike

Hi all, The last of the strut work is done. These are the support struts for the two wing floats. There will also be bracing wires fitted, but later in the build. These were created 0.8 mm diameter brass rod and 1.6.0 mm diameter brass tube. These were formed using my 'Albion Alloy's 'Strutter' tool, Mike

Hi all, The tailplane support struts are done. These were created 0.8 mm diameter brass rod and 1.6.0 mm diameter brass tube. These were formed using my 'Albion Alloy's 'Strutter' tool and then soft soldered. Below are the tailplane struts temporarily fitted. Now to do the last sets of struts for the wing floats, Mike

Hi all, I've now created the inner interplane struts. The rear struts are fitted to the fuselage through the cut-outs in the rear of the lower wing centre section. Now onto the tailplane and wing floats support struts, Mike

Hi all, The inner and outer interplane struts supplied in the kit are resin and without any internal metal reinforcing rods. This makes the brittle resin of the struts weak and liable to breaking during handling when assembling the model. Therefore I decided to recreate these struts using 1.0 mm diameter brass rod and 2.0 mm diameter brass tube. These were formed using my 'Albion Alloy's 'Strutter' tool and then soft soldered. Below are the outer interplane struts temporarily fitted so I can accurately measure and make the inner interplane struts. Mike

Hi all, The lower wing was not fitted directly to the top of the fuselage but was located on four mountings and just clear of the fuselage. The front a rear wing spars of the lower wing passed across the fuselage through these mountings. The kit instructions show the mountings, but they are not supplied in the kit. Therefore representations of the mountings need to be created. The mountings were made from brackets in the ‘Jadar’ WW1 1:48th scale control horns (S48087) photo-etch set and 0.5 mm diameter Brass rod. I also used 0.5 mm rod to make the grab handles for the rear of the fuselage, which again are not supplied in the kit, Mike

Hi all, The kit supplied lower wing needed some major changes. I used the few photographs available for this aircraft and the drawings in the ‘Windsock’ World War Centenary (Spring 2015, Vol.31, No.1). Basically the kit wing needed to be modified for the following reasons: The wing leading edge had more of a swept angle than that moulded on the kit wing. The centre section of the leading edge had a recess, to allow the forward wing struts and engine support frame to be fitted to the fuselage. The lower wing and the upper wing had 'stacking' pads fitted into the wing leading edges (2 upper and four lower wing). The centre cut-out in the trailing edge of the lower wing did not have square corners, but was fitted with quadrant fillet panels. The upper surface of the lower wing had walk boards fitted at the wing roots. The rear of the centre section of the lower wing had two slots through the wing to allow fitting of the wing rear struts into the fuselage. Mike

Hi all, The rudder, elevators and tail plane were linen covered structures with rib tapes covering the linen joins. It is unclear if the fin was covered with wood paneling or linen. The photographs available suggest that it was linen, as the fin structure can be see under the covering. So I've gone for a linen covered fin. Although rib tapes are represented on the wings and ailerons of the kit, they are not represented elsewhere. Created using 0.2 mm thick plastic card which was then sanded , Mike

Hi all, I've added control horns and control cable ports for the ailerons and rudder. Next up is to represent the aileron control inspection panels, fuselage rear grab handles, wing stacking pads and rib tapes for the tail plane, elevators and ailerons. None of the above are represented or supplied in the kit. Mike

Hi all, A few updates. This kit does not have any locating pins or holes for any of the flight surfaces. These include the ailerons, fin, tail plane, elevators and the rudder. These are all intended to be 'butt' glued only, which is never a good idea, especially with resin parts. Although CA adhesive provides a strong bond, it is prone to 'break away' if subjected to shock loading, such as being knocked. Therefore I reinforced the mating surfaces by adding either 0.3 or 0.5 mm diameter rods and associated holes. The exception was the elevators, as the trailing edge of the tail plane is way too thin to drill. For that I cut photo-etch strips to represent the hinges and to support the elevators to the tail plane. I've also replaced the resin rear decking strips with sanded down plastic card. The next job is to created rudder and aileron control cable horns and the associated control cable outlets, none of which are supplied or represented in the kit, Mike

That said, once superseded by better aircraft, they were used primarily as trainers. Maybe those airfields were not so well looked after. That's my excuse anyway , Mike

Hi all, Final photographs now posted in the 'LSM Aircraft Finished' thread, Mike