ccoyle

Congratulations! She's a beaut!

Both projects look spectacular!

Welcome! We are happy to accommodate builders in any modeling medium, whether plastic, wood, resin, card stock, or whatever. If you browse through the build logs, look for titles that include the word "PLASTIC" -- we have some members who are quite accomplished in that medium. EDIT: Thought I would toss out a few examples:

I have both a cheap headband magnifier from Harbor Freight and a much more expensive magnifier with interchangeable flip-up lenses -- I can't recall the brand. I found that with the latter I didn't like having a large, unmagnified field of peripheral vision. I went back to the cheap magnifier, and the expensive one is stashed away in a box somewhere. Just shows that different folks have different experiences using the same equipment.

Empennage

Dories remain popular smallcraft, so there are many extant contemporary examples. Try browsing around the internet to give you some ideas of possible paint schemes.

That's a good first effort. They look like stairs, and that's the important thing!

Congratulations, Shaun! Hope you agree that the result is worth the years of perseverance!

Congratulations on a fine-looking model!

Wow! Great result with the galleries!

Okay, I modified your title accordingly and spiced it up a little. I imagine that there's a fair number of members who have thought about a similar project and will be interested in how you pull this off. Good luck!

Great project! I recently finished building a 1:1 scale lapstrake canoe (from a Chesapeake Light Craft kit), and I would like to add a capable skiff/pram to the collection, except that 1. I have no space for it, and 2. the missus is dead set against it. Reason #2 is kind of a deal breaker. 😬 BTW, before I moved to South Carolina six years ago, I lived a stone's throw from Yosemite NP, which also has a connection to the Olmsted clan.

Is this a scratch build? If so, we need to move your log to the correct subforum.

Slowly the empennage is coming together. Horizontal and vertical stabilizers + elevators completed (sans control horns for the time being), rudder pieces cut out and edge colored.

Quick shot of the finished windscreens.

Skinning the Engine Compartment The front end of the Tiger Moth is kind of busy -- the fuselage sides may be flat, but the nose has plenty of curves going in different directions. Pre-shaping the two forward skins is important. I had to do some surgery to get one side to fit, but I think it turned out okay on that side . . . . . . and on the other side . . . . . . and finally from aft looking forward, which gives a sense of the flared nose panels. Next up are the two windscreens, after which the fuselage will be set aside until all the sub-assemblies are ready to go together.

I ordered a supply of bits many years ago from Widget Supply and haven't run out of them yet.

Mark, I'm so very sad to hear your news. I will be praying for you to fight on or finish well, whichever way things may turn out. I hope that perhaps someone can be found who might be able to complete this beautiful project for you. Heartfelt regards, Chris

Doug, I missed the conclusion of your build. I offer my belated congratulations -- she turned out very nice!

Tomek, I think the sculptures look perfectly acceptable, and surely they will appeal to that segment of the card modeling population who like to make as much of a model as possible out of paper rather than other media.

Just remember, first planking is only an underlayment, so aesthetics is not necessarily a prime indicator of how well you did the job.

There is one small wrinkle if you know where to look. 😮 It smoothed out well enough. Interesting side note: I always assumed the Oscar was a small aircraft. 🤔

Fuselage Skinned This next step was a bit scary because of the large surface area that needed to be glued. More on that in a bit. First, here's the fuselage skeleton and the single-piece upper skin prior to cutting out. First task after cutting was to do some pre-shaping. This wasn't too difficult, since the sides are flat -- only the curved dorsal surface needed some shaping. This aircraft is tiny, and the cockpits will be tight spaces once everything is glued up, so some work needed doing before gluing on the skin. This consisted of some inner skins, a bulkhead that separates the front and rear cockpits, and two instrument panels. The panels are "glazed" with cellophane tape, covered by an optional second panel layer. Each panel will later have a compass (at least I think it's a compass -- I haven't looked closely), but they can go on after skinning, otherwise those items will be too easy to knock loose during the skinning process. Now we're ready for the big operation! 😮 First, I glued the port side with contact cement. It makes a quick, strong bond, but of course positioning is critical and must be done precisely. Once that side was done, the pre-shaped skin didn't allow much room for slopping on contact cement, so I switched over to Aleen's Clear applied with a brush, which allows for some working time. Overall, I'm very happy with the result. There are only a couple of small glue smudges to clean up, along with a minimal amount of touch-up. I had to sand one bulkhead a bit to get the skin on correctly, but for the most part the fit of this kit has been very, very good. You might notice that the starboard cockpit sides look lower than the port sides. That's because I've chosen to show the starboard doors in their open positions. This required cutting away the door portions of the outer and inner skins and setting them aside till later. They will probably go on last, because otherwise they will be prime candidates for knocking loose once it's time to install all the various control cables. Onward!

And of course spell check didn't catch that. Fixed now.

Dave, have you seen this video?