Hawkwrench Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 For 2023, I've decided to temporarily shelf all my helo builds so that I can concentrate on building this model for a friend's dad using the OOP Nichimo 1/20 Cessna 172 model. I reached out to Josh Flowers (Aviation101) on YT about building his father's airplane from years ago as a surprise gift. Josh is all for it and we are supposed to surprise his dad with the model the week of the 2023 Nats in San Marcos, Texas. His dad's 172 was N9812J. He called it "Juliet". It carried this exact paint scheme except the wheel pants were all white. The model requires alot of scratchbuilding especially on the inside to accurately show a 1980 model 172 instead of the early 70's 172. The first hurdle was the rear passenger seat. The Nichimo model's seat looks nothing like the later version on the seat, so many nights were spent scratchbuilding the new seat. It still needs painted and seat belts, but I wanted to show off the seat. I took the children's seat and sanded down the upholstery ends to replicate what the rear passenger seat looks like in 1980 Cessna 172. I then scratchbuild the seat frame and seat legs from Evergreen styrene rod. Here's a not very good pic of the real seat. Comments and critiques welcome! Tim 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PanzerWomble Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Really precise work there ! Nice to see some older techniques than reaching for the CAD and printer. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HubertB Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 I hope your mojo will take you through this build. This kit is the only one that prompted my getting out of my sacro-sanct 1/32 scale Looking forward to see more Hubert 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwrench Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 1 hour ago, HubertB said: I hope your mojo will take you through this build. This kit is the only one that prompted my getting out of my sacro-sanct 1/32 scale Looking forward to see more Hubert Thanks Hubert, my mojo has to stay kicked in seeing I'm hand delivering it in Aug! Lol Tim 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwrench Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 2 hours ago, PanzerWomble said: Really precise work there ! Nice to see some older techniques than reaching for the CAD and printer. Thanks. I know nothing about 3d printing but have a buddy who is a wizard at that stuff. I just prefer to scratchbuild whenever possible. Tim 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzaS Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Welcome to the forum! Looking forward to watching this build progress. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterpools Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Tim, welcome to the forum. WOW, a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. Will be following all the way, as I've logged more hours in Skyhawks then any other aircraft. Even took my commercial check ride in one. Back when I was flying 172's they were all four cylinder engines, not like the smooth sixes of today. For me, your build is going to be a trip down memory lane. Very nice work on the rear seat - looking mighty good. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinM Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 Cool!and I like Nichimo kits for being of the older type were ahead in their day.I just completed a Ki-9 in 1/48 and it was fun. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwrench Posted January 27 Author Share Posted January 27 On 1/25/2023 at 4:06 PM, Peterpools said: Tim, welcome to the forum. WOW, a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. Will be following all the way, as I've logged more hours in Skyhawks then any other aircraft. Even took my commercial check ride in one. Back when I was flying 172's they were all four cylinder engines, not like the smooth sixes of today. For me, your build is going to be a trip down memory lane. Very nice work on the rear seat - looking mighty good. Thanks Peterpool!!! You oughta try and snag one of Ebay sometime. Tim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Clunkmeister Posted January 27 Administrators Share Posted January 27 Cool! The ubiquitous 172! Yeah, you pretty much have to no exactly what year airplane you want to model, a d stick to it, because Cessna built about 2 gazillion of them and changed them year by year, just like automobiles.. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterpools Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Hi Ernie You're so right as I'm pretty sure the number of Skyhawks that have rolled off the Wichita assembly line has passed 43,000. I've always loved flying 172's, sweet and easy and no bad habits. As a renter back in those days, every time you climbed into the lefthand seat, you needed to familiarize yourself where Cessna moved things as they did change from model year to model year and that did include changes to the interior upholstery. Back then, the material of choice was 'pleather' or a fabric, as the 172 I flew hadn't made it to the ranks of leather yet - that was the realm of Beechcraft. 😉 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomber_County Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 At 1/20 this is going to be fairly large. Looking forward to the build… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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