HubertB

Not a physical bench, but rather the virtual one ... A bit of background. In 2015, Lone Star Models released a 1/32 kit of the Travel air Mystery Ship, in resin. Of course, I jumped on it, and started it in earnest. But, even if the kit is worth it for the extensive decal sheet alone (yeah, I know, a bit steep for a decal sheet, but who has not already spent too much on some AM for a kit ?), my expectations soon came to a crash-landing. The kit was wrong in many areas. The most noticeable error is the shape of the fuselage. The Mystery Ship was initially designed around an in-line 300 Hp engine. When the engine project flopped, the designers, Burnham and Rawdon, who had initiated the design without their boss Walter Beech knowing it, fell back on a bulky Wright J6-9 radial - at that time Travel Air had just been integrated into the giant Curtiss-Wright corporation, in the 1929 pre-Black Thursday frenzy of risky leveraged acquisitions and consolidations. With the big Wright J6-9, the smoothly-faired, thin, fuselage designed around an in-line 6 had to be adapted by adding side bulges (a bit like the revamped battleships of the era) to recover an aerodynamic shape. The bulges started aft the engine mount/firewall, and came to the original fuselage shape at about the level of the cockpit headrest/wing trailing edge. This resulted in a distinctive kink of the fuselage line, when viewed from the top or rear. LSM have designed theit kit with a continuous, straight line, which is wrong for the Mystery Ship (but not necessarily so for the Texaco ship). So it had to be redone. Plus the wing profile was wrong, too thin to fit the wing-stubs, and definitely not like the RAF-34 airfoil that was used, with its flat underwing. I started modifying the left fuselage by building up the bulge with Milliput, then sanding and thinning the inside to get a thinner shell that would accomodate the (missing) tubular structure of the cockpit As the work was frankly tedious, I had the idea of redesigning the fuselage and wings in 3D on Solidworks, for subsequent 3D-printing. I did all this work, plus also a correct Wright J6-9 engine, and a correct windscreen, and modified stabs, rudder, and elevators ... Then it stalled because I could not, at that time, print the fuselage to its designed specs with an FDM 3D-printer. And then I moved to Portugal, when my PC with Solidworks was in the office in France, and, when I was there, I had no time to do 3D-design work Anyway, fast-forward to end-2020. I had the idea to rapatriate the PC to Portugal, and also acquired an EPAX 3D DLP printer, which could do what the Anycubic Photon, with its "wobble" on the Z-axis, could probably not do, i.e. print the fuselages and wings (only just in size, btw) The saying is that, once one knows how to ride a bicycle, it is forever ... Well, not so much with Solidworks ! The re-learning curve was steep ! And here I am, now, with a new part designed for 3d-printing, i.e. a complete cokpit ! It will maybe be tougher to paint, but it beats gluing tiny plastic rods together, well at least that's what I hope. And this is what is on my virtual bench now (renderings so far) : Btw, here are the renderings for the Wright engine, sans exhaust stubs. I had it (successfully) printed outside in a few examples at the time. I'll start a WiP thread soon, after I have finished my P11c, however. Hubert

Nice build, Tom. Well done ! However, if I may, the LG legs are at a strange angle compared to the original. I’d say you have glued them too « vertical » viewed from the profile. Great result nevertheless ! Hubert

I do not know which I am most flabbergasted at: your exacting devotion to detailing, or your figure painting skills ... Hubert

She’s already a beauty, even without its wings. Hubert

Outstanding. The structure for the rear sprocket wheel looks somewhat « flimsy » for such a heavy duty behemoth. Hubert

I can store two stacks of the smaller boxes on the 60 cms deep shelves ... Hubert

3M sell a repositionable glue (the one for Post-it) in a spray can. Maybe worth experimenting with thin paper ? It can be found in stationery and art stores (maybe not on your island, though, Rob) (Me, it’s a long time since I reached the masking/painting stage on a kit so I haven’t tried this idea myself ) Hubert

Amazing attention to detail and flawless execution Hubert

Good to see you saved the decals Rob. It certainly would have been a bummer after all the hard work you put into it. Hubert

Cool choice for the mighty B-24. Certainly unique and eye-catching . Not a criticism of your choice for the build, but I cannot personally get over the kit’s wing totally weird airfoil and wrong incidence. This hurts my eyes 100 times more than any garish formation ship scheme . Hubert

Good to see your amazing build over here, Peter. Like others, I am in awe of your skills and persistence on this long-haul project. Hubert

Not that many, yes ... Although the stash is predominantly resin stuff (the white cardboard boxes you see) like Fisher, Aerotech, HPH, Lukgraph, Silver Wings, Montex and the like. Besides the Fisher ones, which have become rarer than hen’s teeth because of the Paradise fires, there are even rarer ones, like a Scratchbuilder Staggerwing .... Hubert

Ok, since you asked ... Overall view ... And split views ... It fills a volume of about 1.3 cubic meter (3.6 x 0.6 x 0.6 ), plus a bit of overspill of ship kits above the wine cellar ... The "magic room" is actually also the attic and "machine room" with a bench opposite the shelves holding the various machines like 3D printers and ancillaries, metal lathe, vertical milling machine, CNC mini-milling machine, vac-forming one, etc.... So, the analogy with a ship is not far away : hold + workshop in one place Hubert

I *just* have a few more than you, Phil (and will not dare to show a pic ). I still believe I will build them all, assuming I do not get sidetracked like now, where I am focused on designing and 3D printing the components of a 1/32 (of course) Travel Air Mystery Ship ... Hubert

Outstanding piece of engineering, both the 1:1 subject and much more the 1/25 one ! Hubert

As per your usual standards, impeccably clean build ! Hubert

Good « old-fashioned » scratchbuilding skills at play here, and in what a way ! Hubert

And another smashing result after following your build in an extremely enjoyable thread ! And I cannot repeat enough how amazed I am at your speed in turning out these masterpieces. In short, well done ! Hubert

Lovely ! Well-executed ship models have a unique presence compared to aircrafts, IMHO. And this one is definitely more than « well-executed ». Hubert

Very nice Harley, Steve. And thank you for the compliment on my Nieuport. Hubert

Well, I could say it has to be the next one I will finish . Besides, as I am builder rather than a collector, until very recently I had the habit of throwing away my finished kits afetr a few weeks or months gathering dust on the display shelves: a great way to solve the "where will I put it when finished ?" dilemna . Now I tend to keep my finished builds. Of those up-to-day survivors, the one I would want to show most is my Nieuport Sesquiplane racer. It is in my favourite subjects' league (Golden Age civilians and racers), it is a rare kit, it is also a high quality vacform - and thus a proof that vacform CAN be a great way to have a kit, when the manufacturer wants to put some efforts in selling something more reasonable than a mere blob of vague shapes on a plastic sheet. Here are some beauty shots I did just after finishing it. I hope you like it. Hubert

Fantastic ! Hubert

Fantastic problem-solving, and idea duly bookmarked ! Hubert

Outstanding detail work ! Hubert

Not at all. It would fit easily on the swimming pool ! Anyway, water was more the element of the original than air, wasn’t it ? One could even argue that the Do-X was the forerunner of the Ekranoplan ... Hubert