Today's Message Index:
----------------------
1. 06:19 PM - Re: Super model.... no, not the one you think! (Larry Bowen)
Message 1
| INDEX | Back to Main INDEX |
| NEXT | Skip to NEXT Message |
| LIST | Reply to LIST Regarding this Message |
| SENDER | Reply to SENDER Regarding this Message |
|
| Subject: | RE: Super model.... no, not the one you think! |
Wow, tougher than building an RV!
-
Larry Bowen
Larry@BowenAero.com
http://BowenAero.com <http://bowenaero.com/>
do not archive
_____
From: David Lee [mailto:odlee@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2007 9:12 PM
Subject: Super model.... no, not the one you think!
=EF=BD
Hope all our construction efforts turn out this way.
Larry, I could not figure how to put this intact on the Matronic's site,
maybe you can assist.
Thanks,
David
=EF=BD
=EF=BDBelow are pictures of a scratch built 1/5th scale Supermarine
Spitfire MK 1 by an English model builder.=EF=BD It's hard to imagine
such infinite detail can be accomplished even with super human
devotion=EF=BD and dexterity.=EF=BD The pictures and=EF=BD
accompanying text are by the model maker, David Glen.=EF=BD
If anyone asked me why I set out to build a Spitfire in one-fifth scale,
and detailed to the last rivet and fastener, I would probably be
hard-pushed for a practical or even sensible answer. Perhaps the closest
I can get is that since a small child I have been awe inspired by R. J.
Mitchell=99s elliptical winged masterpiece, and that to build a
small replica is the closest I will ever aspire to possession.
The job took me well over eleven years, during which there were times I
very nearly came to giving the project up for lost. The sheer amount of
work involved, countless hours, proved almost too much, were it not for
a serendipitous encounter at my flying club in Cambridge with Dr Michael
Fopp, Director General of the Royal Air Force Museum in England.
Seeing the near complete fuselage, he urged me to go on and finish the
model, promising that he would put it on display. I was flabbergasted,
for when I started I had no inkling that my work would end up in a
position of honour in one of the world=99s premier aviation
museums.
As I write, the case for the model is being prepared, having been
specially commissioned by the museum with a case-maker in Sweden. I have
not yet seen it, but from what I hear, it is enormous!
In one respect the story has gone full circle, since it was at Hendon
where I started my research in earnest, sourcing Microfilm copies of
many original Supermarine drawings, without which such a detailed build
would not have been possible.
The model is skinned with litho plate over a balsa core and has been
left in bare metal at the suggestion of Michael Fopp, so that the
structure is seen to best advantage. The rivets are real and many are
pushed into drilled holes in the skin and underlying balsa, but many
more are actual mechanical fixings. I have no accurate count, but I
suspect that there are at least 19,000!
All interior detail is built from a combination of Supermarine drawings
and workshop manuals, plus countless photographs of my own, many of them
taken opportunistically when I was a volunteer at the Duxford Aviation
Society based at Duxford Airfield, home of the incomparable Imperial War
Museum collection in Cambridgeshire, England. Spitfires, in various
marks are, dare I say, a common feature there!
The degree of detail is probably obsessive: The needles of the dials in
the cockpit actually stand proud of the instrument faces, but you have
to look hard to see it!
Why the flat canopy? Well, the early Mk.Is had them, and I had no means
to blow a bubble hood, so it was convenient. Similarly the covers over
the wheels were another early feature and they saved me a challenging
task of replicating the wheel castings.
The model has its mistakes, but I=99ll leave the experts to spot
them, as they most certainly will, plus others I don=99t even know
about. I don=99t pretend the little Spitfire is perfect, but I do
hope it has captured something of the spirit and incomparable beauty of
this magnificent fighter =93 perhaps the closest to a union that
art and technology have ever come =93 a killing machine with lines
that are almost sublime.
=EF=BD
=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD
=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD
=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD
=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD
=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD
So, with the model now in its magnificent new home, what comes next?
Well, I'm planning a book that will have a lot to say about its genesis
and perhaps just a little about me and those dear to me, including a
long suffering but understanding and supportive wife. And then there's
the Mustang! Yes, a 1/5th scale P-51D is already taking shape in my
workshop. How long will it take? I've no idea, but what I am sure of is
that at my age (58) I can't expect to be building many of them!
=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD
=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD David Glen
=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD
=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD Whaddon, Cambridge
=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD
=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD=EF=BD Dec. 06, 2006
Other Matronics Email List Services
These Email List Services are sponsored solely by Matronics and through the generous Contributions of its members.
-- Please support this service by making your Contribution today! --
|