vossiewulf

I got to fly a Stearman at an airfield north of Charlottesville where you could rent various biplanes and aerobatic planes. You had to take an instructor with you, but if you were certified for tail draggers you could take the entire flight. Really a wonderful airplane to fly, controls very responsive without being too much and control forces are not huge, although I never approached the Vne (don't go this fast) speed, so they might get heavier at high speed. But on a nice summer evening in Charlottesville with the sun setting over the mountains, it's a really fun experience being in a sweet biplane with an open cockpit and a giant radial in front of you, you end up flying big arcs back and forth because it feels like you can point the nose anywhere you want so you get to pointing the nose around. And easy in a loop, don't have to dive much for the needed speed and it just has the to be expected significant rudder input up and across the top and back down as the p-factor of the big prop tries to yank the nose around. People tend to think of gyroscopic forces from the prop would be a problem, but in reality the vast majority of the time the p-factor that varies continuously with your angle of attack is what the pilot is fighting. It basically causes asymmetric thrust that yaws the nose one direction the higher you point the nose, and in the opposite direction the lower you point the nose.
 
Jack, that one was in USAAC blue and yellow also, your colors look good, I recall the yellow being on the green side. You've also done very well with the assembly, nice and clean and the decals are well done so they'll look very good once they get their final flat coat. It's a nice model to put up on the shelf and if you want to get rid of it for some reason I'll find room for it on my shelf
 

I'm just going to shorten it to SOA: Singing Of Angels.

I'm just going to shorten it to SOA: Singing Of Angels.

Thanks, Denis. Yes I was surprised at that decal also.  Nice touch tho.
 
Some more progress photos:
 
Upper wing and struts installed; starting to apply decals
 

Good morning.

The fit is quite reasonable for a first-time planker, and it looks like you're getting better as you go along with the fit into the stem. That's tricky as you have to set two different angles on the end of the plank and fit it while bending it, at least to some extent. But nothing worth having ever came easy.

After more sanding of the outer planks I felt I had a good fit, so I heated them wrapped in wet paper towels in the microwave, then clamped them to the frames.
After they dried I marked the locations of the ends of the scarf joints on each one, then trimmed them to length. I cut a scarf joint on one of them then used it to transfer the outline to the other and cut it. After some sanding thee joint fit pretty well. Here are the planks laid in place with the scarf joint.

I set those two planks aside for staining, then made the template for the other side and cut out the rough outline on the scroll saw. I will be repeating the process I used for the first two for these.

I was going to say something typically smartass about being right, but then I realized I'd been married twice for 20 years total and remembered that no, I'm not right about much of anything. Including, I'm pretty sure, the direction in which gravity points and how many suns we have and other similarly controversial subjects.

I was going to say something typically smartass about being right, but then I realized I'd been married twice for 20 years total and remembered that no, I'm not right about much of anything. Including, I'm pretty sure, the direction in which gravity points and how many suns we have and other similarly controversial subjects.

I was going to say something typically smartass about being right, but then I realized I'd been married twice for 20 years total and remembered that no, I'm not right about much of anything. Including, I'm pretty sure, the direction in which gravity points and how many suns we have and other similarly controversial subjects.

I was going to say something typically smartass about being right, but then I realized I'd been married twice for 20 years total and remembered that no, I'm not right about much of anything. Including, I'm pretty sure, the direction in which gravity points and how many suns we have and other similarly controversial subjects.

I had an internet access problem for most of the week but finally it seems to be in the past. It was 8 days ago that I last posted and the new airbrush arrived a week ago today. Over Sunday trough Tuesday I applied 7 coats of white matt Humbrol enamel paint, - oil based and diluted to the consistency of skimmed milk.

The barely visible effect that I was trying to achieve on the scupper doors turned out how I wanted.

I took a lot of care to press down the edges of the masking tape. Fortunately this paid off as I got no bleed at all. The tape came off cleanly and fortunately didn't pull of any of the poly layers. Given the interest previously shown in the paint scheme i have included a number of photos.

 
 

The 4 cannons are ready. Together with a part of the necessary extra parts and tools.

Make hooks.

Drilling holes

The installation of the parts has started.(the cannons are not yet glued to the deck)
Here and there I made some errors on the inside of the hull, the intention is to hide these errors with various items.

These cannons look really medieval and inappropriate on a ship from this time. But historically they are correct.

One cannon is placed in the front castle. I still have two small cannons to make.

Thanks for following.

Sanding the interior was done with Squadron sanding sticks and 3M sanding blocks cut into strips and rolled into a curve. 
 

The boat shown below is ready to have the frames faired. 
 

Hello GIRLS and Boys 😀.
 
I have planked some of the top part of the hull.
As per normal the last two have twisted at the ends.
I have one more plank to go on then do the other side.
 
The holes they tell you to drill, I am not sure if they are going to work or not as when you plank the deck the planks will just about cover them up ??.
 
Yes I know it is a bit messy it is due to the glue hiding  under the clamps but I will sand them down later, they should be Ok.
 
Jo.
 

Yeah a few pieces is not a good reason to spend hundreds of dollars. Do you have a rotary tool or cordless drill? Lots of people make very nice turned parts by chucking them either in a Dremel tool or a cordless drill depending on size. All you need is a round needle file to shape the sheave correctly and then you can saw them off one at a time. 

Yes, I happened to live in Tulsa when Jack Kearby was working on and finishing his production-accurate SE5a using Replicraft plans. I got to crawl all around, unfortunately before the days of good cell phone cams. I didn't see the first flight, but I think I visited the weekend after and saw him fly it. At the time I was flying actively and would have strongly considered donating a testicle if it would have allowed me to fly it, but not surprisingly he never offered... sigh. I don't think anyone else flew it when he owned it, if I recall he sold it at some point.
 
Jack Kearby's S.E.5a

Yes, I happened to live in Tulsa when Jack Kearby was working on and finishing his production-accurate SE5a using Replicraft plans. I got to crawl all around, unfortunately before the days of good cell phone cams. I didn't see the first flight, but I think I visited the weekend after and saw him fly it. At the time I was flying actively and would have strongly considered donating a testicle if it would have allowed me to fly it, but not surprisingly he never offered... sigh. I don't think anyone else flew it when he owned it, if I recall he sold it at some point.
 
Jack Kearby's S.E.5a

Of course up to you, but the one with the spinner is the one I'd do, as that might have been the best S.E.5a that ever flew. You know the story of him tuning the engine to death and completely stupefying the Rumpler pilots by diving on them at like 19k?
 
Well, other tempting one would be the mid markings set of No.56 Squadron and do it as it appeared on the day that he and Rhys-Davids and the rest took down my namesake.

Does it have the spinner McCudden put on his S.E.5A? He stole it from a LVG C.V or something.

Yes, I happened to live in Tulsa when Jack Kearby was working on and finishing his production-accurate SE5a using Replicraft plans. I got to crawl all around, unfortunately before the days of good cell phone cams. I didn't see the first flight, but I think I visited the weekend after and saw him fly it. At the time I was flying actively and would have strongly considered donating a testicle if it would have allowed me to fly it, but not surprisingly he never offered... sigh. I don't think anyone else flew it when he owned it, if I recall he sold it at some point.
 
Jack Kearby's S.E.5a

Yes, I happened to live in Tulsa when Jack Kearby was working on and finishing his production-accurate SE5a using Replicraft plans. I got to crawl all around, unfortunately before the days of good cell phone cams. I didn't see the first flight, but I think I visited the weekend after and saw him fly it. At the time I was flying actively and would have strongly considered donating a testicle if it would have allowed me to fly it, but not surprisingly he never offered... sigh. I don't think anyone else flew it when he owned it, if I recall he sold it at some point.
 
Jack Kearby's S.E.5a

Had company for another week, and haven't gotten much done but am plugging away at the #%##@@#$@#$ rudder. Well not the rudder itself, it's ok, but the damned brass gudgeon straps that go on the hull, I have been driven past distraction to insanity.
 
Star Fleet personnel couldn't glue brass. I don't know why all frying pans aren't made out of brass, because nothing sticks to the stuff. Not even lacquer primer on a cleaned surface, just handle it for a few seconds and pieces will fall off. GAH!
 
I made the tiller as close as I could to one of the Tony's contemporary models, but this kit is designed with the tiller going around the top of the rudder rather than inserted into the rudder head as I see in the contemporary models. It's done except for a flat clear coat on the tiller.




 
In other news, I had lost my previous Dockyard Supervisor last year, her name was Takita. She sat in my lap pretty much every minute I was home for 16 years, because I was not competent to do much of anything without her input.

Yesterday I went to visit the new Dockyard Supervisor, who is also Tonkinese like Takita, but four weeks old. In two months when she is 12 weeks she will begin her education into how ridiculous humans are and how they desperately need cat supervision at all times.

 

Yes, I happened to live in Tulsa when Jack Kearby was working on and finishing his production-accurate SE5a using Replicraft plans. I got to crawl all around, unfortunately before the days of good cell phone cams. I didn't see the first flight, but I think I visited the weekend after and saw him fly it. At the time I was flying actively and would have strongly considered donating a testicle if it would have allowed me to fly it, but not surprisingly he never offered... sigh. I don't think anyone else flew it when he owned it, if I recall he sold it at some point.
 
Jack Kearby's S.E.5a

Yes, I happened to live in Tulsa when Jack Kearby was working on and finishing his production-accurate SE5a using Replicraft plans. I got to crawl all around, unfortunately before the days of good cell phone cams. I didn't see the first flight, but I think I visited the weekend after and saw him fly it. At the time I was flying actively and would have strongly considered donating a testicle if it would have allowed me to fly it, but not surprisingly he never offered... sigh. I don't think anyone else flew it when he owned it, if I recall he sold it at some point.
 
Jack Kearby's S.E.5a