Vintage Plan for a Vintage Model Toy Plane

[allsas]

I found this Vintage Plan for a VintageModel Toy Plane. http://www.thewoodcrafter.net/proj/p15.php. It looked like a easy, interesting project, turning the fuselage and canopy, band sawing the wings .... easy with the Shopsmith tool(s). The documentation may be missing a few details, but the lathe work looked straight forward.

If you have suggestions to simplify the assembly process and make it precise, the suggestions would be greatly appreciated, otherwise have fun building your own..

I proceeded, without much planning, and elected to use some olde growth fir from a 2 x 6 reclaimed from a remodeling project. The fir was tight grained, had nail holes and iron stains from the nails. Stock was glued up for a 2" diameter fuselage and a double canopy by gluing two 1/2" pieces together with a piece of brown paper bag, kraft paper, between them.


Cutting the distinctive wings on the band saw from a 2 x 6 seemed wasteful, unless I could cut three 3/8" thick wings from a ~6" section of the fir. The 12" sanding disk removes the bandsaw marks and if you carefully sand using the outer -horizontal edge of the disk-, the marks disappear quickly without making divots in the angled surface wing. Probably too quickly, by the time I had them smoothed, they were less than 3/8" thick. I think that the math supports three wings from a 2 x 6... 1 1/2 (=12/8) - 3*(3/8) - 2 *(1/16) = 12/8 - 10/8 = 1/4" extra, or in my case sanding dust. Where did it go, so fast?
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Fig. 1: Fuselage, rudder, and horizontal tail.


The slot for the tail was cut with the bandsaw while resting the fuselage in a V block. The mortise for the rudder was drilled on the drill press to intercept the tail slot (changed to a full slot from the plan). That left the attachment of the wings.

The canopy seemed to be misplaced in the plan, the canopy should be back further, emphasizing the HOSE NOSE of a Vought F4U Corsair. After viewing some of the planes that age I found another one that had a slight gull wing with a flat wing root, a Dauntless SBD(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... awing.jpg). Half of the canopy turning was hollowed out on a sanding drum until the edges fit against the fuselage. The rudder and tail pieces were glued in and the canopy glued on with wood flour paste/ glue. The tail broke, see the clamp, when I tried to adjust the tail during the glue up.


I drilled three 1/8" holes parallel to the wing surface then tried to position the wing and mark the fuselage where the holes for the dowels should be drilled. That wasn't working. I built a jig to hold the body, lift the bottom of the wing 1/4" and the tip 5/8", then mark the wing holes, or draw a line on the fuselage where the top of the wing should be attached to the fuselage. It was beginning to look like a measles outbreak on the underside of the fuselage, multiple attempts to drill holes, adjust, fill the holes, re-drill, refit. Rather than use dowels, I switched to nail shanks, then bent nail shanks.
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Fig. 2: Alignment Jig.

The plan was imported into Sketch Up using the File/Import function, replacing the Untitled file name with: http://www.thewoodcrafter.net/proj/prpics/p15_4.jpg . The Orbit tool was used to reorient the file to fill the screen. The Dimension tool was used to add measurements to the drawing, parallel to the existing dimensions. The scale tool was used to stretch (diagonal) the drawing until the inserted dimensions were equal to the drawing dimensions or until they reached the dimension appropriate for the model your building, less than plan dimensions for a 1/48 and larger for a 1.32 sized model. The dimensions in the drawing build a ~1/37 model and since model is not named, it might be right for a vintage !@#$%?.

Additional lines and dimensions were added to the drawing to define spacings used in cutting out the parts and in determining additional measurements. Additional lines were added to measure how the bottom of the wing related to the fuselage and the height of the wingtip from a bottom of the fuselage. Both measurements were used to build the jig.


I used wood flour and titebond III to hold the nail shanks and fill the gap. Two applications were required, because the wood flour/ glue mix shrank when it dried. The assembled model was sanded and remaining seams and divots filled with wood filler.

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Fig. 3: Assembled Model unpainted.
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Fig. 4: Painted Model on stand with plexiglass propeller simulation
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Fig. 5: Painted Models on stands without plexiglass propeller simulation.


My models have a few quirks, wings too thin, wings missing intake ports, wings are flat not an air foil, tail, rudder and wing alignment not precise, canopy should be onion shaped - less cylindrical and fuselage/canopy side join should be flat. The 1/37 size is unusual, a 1/32 or 1/48 would be preferred. I started the model, thinking that the plan was an accurate representation, nowhere does it say what plane is being modeled.

The scale can be changed easily by calculating the desired length and stretching the plan to meet the required length for a say, a wing. The dimensions on the plan will still be for the 1/37 size but the dimensions that you add will reflect the new size after stretching or shrinking. Add dimensions to the drawing for the diameter of the fuselage, tail and wing dimensions then scale tge drawing until the benchmark dimension is the right length and the other dimensions that you added can be used to build the model or they scaled drawing can be printed for patterns, (ignore the original plan dimensions) use the new dimension for the part from the dimension that you added in Sketch Up. Based on 41' wingspan for the actual Corsair, the 1/32 wingspan should be 41' * 12"/' *1/32= 15.375" or 7.6875" for half of the wingspan that is on the drawing as 6 5/8" (6.625)".

The angles for the fuselage / wings can be determined in Sketch Up and probably should be drilled into the square billet before turning.

I started making shortcuts: the landing gear was left off. The plexiglass disk replaced the individual propeller blades. The quirks weren't terminal but they did curtail the effort on these two models. the plexiglass disks are from a 4" hole saw blank, but it should have been a larger disk, 5" for a 1/32 model. 1/4", turned on the lathe or drill press to meet the 13' 4" ( 13"* 12"/' +4" =160" | | 160" * 1"/32" =5" )scale diameter of the propellers, but I had a case of tunnel vision when I made the disk.

I haven't researched methods that model builders used to apply wings to a round fuselage. The jig helped but it wasn't perfect. The alignment if the rudder and tail could have been better. The final problem (insult) was the hole for the support dowel, another task that wasn't perfect. I think that the fuselage should be mortised for the tail and rudder when its a square billet. Also the dowel holes for the wing to fuselage should be a series of holes angled into the square billet. Include the hole for the 3/8" dowel joining the model and the stand.

[garys]

That looks like fun. Just make sure it doesn't get any Japanese lithium batteries or it will be grounded.

[JPG]

Scale, schmale.

Angle, dangle.

Who cares - I think they look good!:)

[swampgator]

I like 'em. My grandson would love them. He'd smile for a month. Thanks for sharing. I've got to learn to turn just as soon as I get the to-do list down a bit more. Just finished rebuilding two bunk beds this week. Will stain and assemble this weekend. Pooped!:eek:

[fiatben]

Allsas, I wanted to make airplanes for my three grandsons for Christmas. Like most of us here I did an extensive web search for ideas/plans. I remember running across the one you found. In the end, none of them really satisfied me and I ended up doing my own design.
My approach was similar to yours; build it and then figure out what would have worked better. As you've discovered, it is easier to machine things into the square stock before mounting it on the lathe. And, as is typical with me, I made things more complicated than they needed to be. Also, some of my ideas that looked good on paper (or in my head) didn't pan out so well. I'm always trying to find ways to make things faster. (It was Christmas, the list was long, time was short and the shop was cold.)
<<most of my efforts can be seen in this thread; https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=11493 >>
Here's the end result:
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The tailpieces are sanded to fit the contour and doweled in. The main wing is basically a lap joint with a dowel to lock it in. The props were another fun search for a technique to get the right shape. I cheated and bought the wheels/axles at Hobby Lobby (I do place some value on my time).

[allsas]

I'll check for additional comments, recommendations, and referrals to the other threads..


Thanks. It was interesting and challenging. I hope it helps by suggesting that even toys present challenges and benefit from planning.