Greg Davis

Wow - this is such a great picture! Thank you so much for sharing! Greg

I'm not sure how the extreme ends of the pontoons and nacelles were finished. I think that in the picture that Craig shows above, the four stringers are being held in position by an external band. I can't tell if the band / hoop is wood or metal. I also have wondered if this fastener is temporary or if it is permanent. Eventually I concluded that it is temporary. When looking at a pictures of the finished pontoon it doesn't appear as a bump under the covering. Clearly, the finished pontoon comes to a fine pointed end; one that is strong enough to support a metal collar used for rigging the boat. It is doubtful to me that the stringers would be shaped to such a point, but perhaps there is additional wood attached / interfaced with the stringers, such as a solid wooden cone. Currently, I have been planning on introducing something along these lines for the ends of the pontoon / nacelles. I know that it would be purely conjectural in nature and if more historical information was located it could be modified to match without too much difficulty. Related, here's a picture of the pontoon construction before the band was connected to the structure. Henrique Lins de Barros shared this picture with me, it is part of his personal collection and is one that I have not seen using internet searches. If I interpret Alan's last comment correctly, I agree that this is a machine with a bit if a fragile structure! But Santos-Dumont had a lot of experience building skeletal frames for his machines that were minimal yet strong enough for the task at hand. I also imagine that the covering together with the inflation of such made a pretty strong machine and helped define the pontoons envelope. On the other hand, the wooden structure needed to be strong enough to hold the engine, propeller, etc. in place!

I've milled the 4 longitudinal stringers. The top and bottom stringers are 2mm x 3mm in cross-section and will be positioned so that a 2mm side meets the hoops. The side stringers, which are being attached first, are 1.5mm x 3mm with a 3mm side joining with the hoops.

The starboard side is coming along nicely. The new file arrived and let me open the gunports to nearly their final diameter. At this point I attached the gunport wreaths, which are pressed from brass, after they had been chemically blackened. Once that was done, the second half-round molding / wale was added using the wreaths to space the work. Finally, the lower molding was glued leaving a 5mm gap to the one in the middle. Just a note - the kit came with 6 pieces of half-round material for the moldings; two pieces were shorter than the others. The short ones are just long enough to be used for the lower molding / wale. I didn't see anything in the instructions pointing this out. I am glad I pulled all 6 pieces from the wood bundle and made the observation before accidentally using a long piece for the lower molding on this side. Now to the port side where I have a bit of a problem - it seems that I was provided with 13 gunport wreaths; i.e. 1 short of the needed 14. I've sent an inquiry to Amati asking if they can send me a replacement. I'm not sure how long to wait for a response before having to solve the problem on my own. I'd certainly like all 14 to match exactly but I can see that there is a good possibility that I will need to fashion the missing one myself.

Jig is done and the main pontoon is ready for the addition of longitudinal stringers. I added a bunch of hooks that let me place rubber bands over the axial dowel. This keeps the hoops snugly in place / aligned on the jig. I've also waxed the top of each support where the stringers will be attached so that there is less of a chance of getting the structure stuck to the supports. I plan on installing the side stringers first. Because of how the supports were fashioned the stringers will lie on top of each support when being attached to the hoops. Once they are in place, the rubber bands will be removed and the pontoon will be turned 90 degrees so that the top and bottom stringers can be added. Slots have been milled into the bottom of the supports to allow for the stringers to slot into when the pontoon is turned. Time to mill some wood!

I've remade hoop No. 16 to my satisfaction. I tried making shavings, but I didn't like the outcome too much. Then I took some of the 0.3mm material I had made previously and thinned it out even more with a spindle sander. I probably got it well below 0.2mm. At this thinness I was successful wrapping it in layers around the form. I also enlarged the holes in the forms that had been 1/8" to 1/4" - now all 16 hoops (with forms) fit nicely on the 1/4" diameter dowel. Here is a picture of hoops 15 and 16 sitting on the pontoon jig. Just a little more work on the jig and I can start attaching the longitudinal stringers that hold all of the hoops together.

Now all 14 gun ports (and two more ports aft) have been opened to 1/4". They need to be opened a bit more - I've a larger round file on order to do the job.

I've attached the top half-round molding to each side of the hull. Gun port wreaths fit between this molding and a second molding. The instruction booklet shows the second molding being attached next. I've decided to open the gun ports and attach the wreaths before attaching the second molding. I feel that I will have a better chance of having these pieces line up if I work in this order. I could see how I could easily not leave enough space between moldings and not be able to get a wreath in place and/or leaving too much space and then having gaps between the wreaths and moldings. So here's a look with the 7 starboard gun ports being opened up. I drilled a 1/8th hole and then have been increasing the hole's diameter with round files. There is just a small amount of filing left to do on this side.

John - Thanks for your interest! It will certainly get done, sometimes I just have a problem with jumping around on multiple projects at the same time. Some people call it multitasking, but it more likely lack of focus at times. I had built the Santos-Dumont 14bis (because it looked really interesting) as a winter break from milling wood and sanding frames for my L' Invention model. That was not to take a long time, but then I came upon pictures of the No. 18 Hydroplane and making a model of this machine has moved up high on the to do list. I believe that now I am going to be making fairly regular progress on the hydroplane model. It seems that I've figured out how to construct the pontoon and nacelles. I'm now thinking about how to do the metal work that connects these three parts. The metal work for the engine mount looks to be straightforward. Making a nice steering wheel will take some doing and I have a pretty good conjecture on how the steering would have been rigged. That then leaves the last big piece of work - the V16 Antoinette engine. I have two of the Model Airways Antoinette V8 engine kits that I plan to bash into a V16. From what I have been able to uncover, this is pretty much how the Antoinette V16 actually came about. So this is the basic plan of attack on the hydroplane and then back to L' Invention big time. Greg P.S. I may also be trying to finish a few other models that were started in the distant past concurrent with this project ... I hope I don't start anything else ... Is there a part of the MSW forum that helps people keep the number of projects manageable?

One more pic for today - a test fit of hoops in the jig. Here 13 of the 16 hoops have been slipped onto a 1/4" dowel. I'll be holding the dowel down using rubber bands at each hoop location when work is being done. As expected, tabs and/or another stabilization method will be necessary to keep the hoops squared to the jig.

Here is a picture showing some progress on the building board / jig.

Today I've made a good start on the building jig. I made up supports for hoops 1 - 15; I'll deal with one for hoop 16 after it is remade. The supports are made from 1/8" hardboard and are approximately 2" square. First I had made a number of 2" x 4" pieces with a center line along the 4" dimension. I used the midpoint of this line to mark the center of the pontoons axis. I drew semi-circles to match the outside diameters of the hoops using this mark - Two per blank. They were cut in half and then the semicircles were cut on a scroll saw. A little filing and the hoops fit in nicely. Finally the height of the supports were cut to 1 15/16" (measured from the bottom) so that the side stringers can rest on the supports when they are being attached. I need to mill a notch in the bottom of each semi-circle so that the top / bottom stringer will be accommodated for as the pontoon sits in the jig. I will also add a few tabs to insure the hoops stand perpendicular to the building board.

Finally got up the courage to part off all of the pontoon hoops. 15 out of 16 were successful. Hoop 16, the one with the smallest diameter, was a fail. It turned out that I had not been able to lay up the hoop material tight enough to form the solid hoop. I will need to remake that one using a different technique. I may try thin shavings as Craig suggested earlier. I drilled 1/4" holes in the center blanks for hoops 2 - 14. Numbers 1 and 15 have 1/8" holes, but I think I may be able to open them to 1/4" as well. Now that I have these hoops made, I can use their outside diameters to begin construction of the pontoon building jig.

Did some exterior painting today. This was a bit of an experiment for me as the deep blue was done with a watercolor paint.

I am now done smoothing the hull. In the previous post, I had smoothed the hull as best possible with paper as fine as 180 grit. I've now gone over the planking with 220 grit sandpaper - this is the finest that I will be using. Here's the starboard side again; not sure if there is any visual difference, but it is now glassy smooth to the touch. One final picture at this stage of the planking from the bottom / aft looking forward. I believe the next step will be some painting. I no longer like the current interior red I had chosen. Now I'd like it to be a deeper darker shade. I also need to make some decisions on the amount of coloring that will be used on the exterior. I think that there will be some exterior paint, but not anywhere near the amount shown on the model as presented in the kit. In my mind the planking looks too nice to cover up with paint.

Starboard planking smoothed!

Completed the starboard planking this evening. Everything worked out well - same number of planks on each side! Hopefully there will be some nice weather coming this week so that I can sit outside and sand the planking smooth. I prefer to do the major sanding out of the house and with the wind at my back! I don't think it will take very long as I was able to lay the 1mm x 4mm x 80mm planks quite tight to the hull. I would have preferred for the material to be a little more uniform in color; however, the variation is much less noticeable to my eye than it is in the photographs.

I appreciate your evaluation and I hope that my final result does not pale too much in comparison to your 'Eagle of Algier'. I've looked through your log quite a few times for inspiration!

I totally agree - they just look fast!

Made some good progress - there has been a spring snow storm here, so more modeling time than usual!

Earlier today I was able to hang my latest finished model - the Santos-Dumont 14 Bis airplane in my office / workroom. So I got some space back to do other tasks, and started the second planking of the starboard for the Sciabecco model.

One last picture - I've hung the Santos-Dumont 14Bis in the corner of my office / workroom. As it attempts to fly out the corner of the room, the model should be safe here and easy to view.

Thank you very much for the compliments and all the posts that you made thru the building, they really helped me think about how the project would unfold. For a machine with such a short 'life', it sure had quite a few configurations. I think that what came out of the build was the middle of the variants - the shortened propeller mount, but not the ailerons. It's certainly not a perfect piece of work and I hope others will see my modeling shortcomings and perhaps get closer to the 'perfect' miniature. Actually, it might make a really good scratch build project, short of the engine most of the build could be accomplished without a great deal of trouble just having the plans. On the other hand, I saw Model Expo selling the model for $99 recently which is not bad for anyone to give it a try!

Ron - Thanks, and I hope you consider creating a build log as well. Greg

The model is now completed! Overhead view: Three-quarter view: Another shot of the engine / cockpit region: I want to thank everyone that has been following the progress on this model for all of your support. All the best, Greg