stunthanger.com
Building Tips and technical articles. => Building techniques => Topic started by: wwwarbird on March 01, 2010, 10:52:23 PM
-
It's all Kelvin's fault. A few years ago he handed me a very nicely built, uncovered wing from a Brodak "Fancy Pants" project that he had lost interest in. He asked, "You want this thing here"? I said "Heck yeah" and brought it home with me after another shop B.S. session. It sat under my workbench haunting me off and on until I had an idea ( :!) and dug it out. I wondered, what kind of semi-scale Warbird I could build out of it? Finally I thought OK, a straight leading edge and wing mounted landing gear, what single engine WWII designs had these features? Even more importantly, what designs don't you ever see at the model flying field? After considering a bunch of different designs I kept coming back to, and decided on, the Curtiss Helldiver. All I would have to do with the wing is knock off the "Fancy Pants" wingtips, make new ones, and then I had a great start on the model already. Doing this would automatically give me a bit more wing area too. Being lazy though, the 45" wingspan was settled on because that's all the pre-existing leadouts would allow.
The rest of the Helldiver is a completely scratchbuilt "figure it out as you go" project that I've now finally gotten to the finishing stages on. There are no plans except for some rough drawings I did before starting the build just to figure out moments, proportions and where and what shape the fuselage bulkheads would be. Also to figure out all the outlines of the stab, elevator, fin, rudder etc.
Having no real idea what the heck I was doing, I just started in cutting and gluing and ended up with what you see here. Whenever I hit a roadblock, I mainly fell back to the way fellow club member Keith Sandberg put's it, "It's easy, just sand off all the parts that don't look like a Helldiver"...
Maybe it's not my place, but I feel I should mention that sadly, we lost Kelvin Heath this past November. I wish he could have seen his wing finished into this model. I've thought of him often during the build, and he has definitely been an inspiration throughout. I'll remember him every time I connect the lines and fire up the Helldiver. Miss ya buddy!
-
I told you it was "figure it out as you go"! ;D
-
Adding the canopy and turtledeck...
-
It's a start...
-
FP.35 and 4 ounce clunk tank...
-
Beginning to fit the wing...
-
The belly of the "Big Assed Bird"...
-
Built-up and sheeted tail feathers...
-
Starting to look like an airplane...
-
Uh, "Fancy Pants"? :##
-
Working out the underside of the tail...
-
Roughing out the cowl...
-
Almost done with the cowl...
-
Not quite a twin-row radial here, but then I haven't hit the lotto yet...
-
Coming along, slow but sure...
To pick up where these pics leave off check out the Open Forum post, "Scratchbuilt Curtiss Helldiver Stunter".
Enjoy! H^^
-
Very nice warbird...thanks for inviting us into your shop. H^^
-
Very nice and innovative work!
Will
-
well done,
always love to see another different direction taken,,
-
Very slick. I like the approach, particularly with the fuselage. That sort of one step leads to the next method is just cool.
Very nice work.
-
Thanks for the comments guys. None of it is the "right" way to do it, but oh well. Right now I've got a Shark 402 with a bunch of mods about ready for color. When that's done it's back to the Helldiver hot-n-heavy until it's done. Just got to silkspan the flaps and fuse, do some final sanding and it'll be ready for color. The plan is for the three tone blue with some typical markings from around '42. After that I've got about the next six airplanes mostly figured out, unless I think of something else! ;D
Your turn Mark! S?P
-
Wayne,
Great descriptive pictures. Congrats on another very original project.
-
Wwwarbird, you say it may not lbe the right way, but if it works for you it has to be right. Seeing how you do the construction with the photos is great. Thanks. H^^
-
A great job on a challanging subject...luv the cowl. 8)