Turnbuckle quantity for Felix

[MRobins1057]

I'm looking over the pdf's of the instructions I downloaded for Felix, and I came up with a count of roughly 85 turnbuckles needed for the bracing, flying and landing wires, and roughly 55 for the control cable runs. This allows for the occasional goofup and lost turnbuckle. 

 

Has anyone else taken a stab at this to determine how many are needed? I'm a long way off from needing them but I want to order them from Gaspatch before they get a run on them.

 

Cheers

Mike

 

[Fran]

Mike, If you going to use gaspatch prepare yourself to spend lots and lots of money... It will cost you at least one WnW Model kit!

I want thw two Felixstowe but believe me i will not go for the gaspach (unlesse they kindly offer me a bunch of them.

Bob buckles and homemade will have to do just fine!

Fran

[Ssasho0]

while expensive, Gaspatch turnbucles are the best, they really look like the real thing! Ofcourse homemade or Bobs'buckles are excellent choice also and will do the job just fine.

[Madbox]

I would also say, try and take in to account that in most cases, the adjustable turnbuckles were only at one end of the rigging cables, and a mounting at the other. Control wires are another thing entirely as they probably would have had adjusters at either end and joints where necessary....

[MRobins1057]

The price of Gaspatch is a bit intimidating, but I can justify it with the old adage "you get what you pay for". I thought about making my own, but in the end they look home made, at least mine did. In 48th or smaller scales I think they are fine, but in 32nd I think the difference is worth the expenditure. I guess the fact I do 350th scale ships also, where it's very easy to plunk down more cash for aftermarket than what the kit cost doesn't help any either. I'm also a very slow builder. Even in 48th scale I'm lucky to knock out one or two models a year, so the cost really isn't a factor spread out over that much time.

 

 

I do have something to do in anticipation. I'm thinking of converting my early version to a Curtiss H-16, so I've begun building the Liberty engines for it to replace the RR Eagles. I think it'll be spectacular in all of it's Yellow winged glory.

 

Cheers

Mike

[MRobins1057]

You are correct MadBox. The bracing wires in most cases only use one turnbuckle at the lower end for ease of maintenance. When I assisted with the rigging of the America reproduction at the Curtiss Museum, we worked from original Curtiss drawings that showed all the rigging attachment points. The upper ends were eyebolts or anchor plates, and the lower end had the adjusters. In the case of the control lines, there are two turnbuckles at each end, but the other end would be inside the fuselage. The exception to this would be the aileron control wires that span the wings, but for the most part, only one turnbuckle is seen from the outside.

 

 

Cheers

Mike