another project...

[smilo]

...to add to the list.

after reading "The Forgotten Bomber"
in the May 2014 edition of Aviation History.
i've decided to add the Martin A-30 Baltimore
to my ever growing projects list.



i don't know if it will ever get done,
but i guess that goes for the A-20,
Do17, Fletcher Class Destroyer,
Liberty Ship and the Japanese Carrier as well.
not to mention, the wood a20 i'm currently working on.

at least, i have found some nice drawings
of a workhorse that no longer exists.

apparently, Terry Hill built one for fs5/fsfs,
but the zip has no model file in it.
and there is one for fs9.
has anyone ever seen one in cfs?

[Ivan]

Where did you find drawings?

[smilo]

oddly enough, the best so far were at wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Baltimore

[Ivan]

I found those too, but although they are big and they are detailed, the shape is not so good.
For something fairly obvious, look at the canopy. On the actual aircraft, the top slants down noticeably more than the drawing.

- Ivan.

[papingo]

dear smilo
(typig in lib) You have caught my attention with the words
'liberty ship'--why? Coz the larger cargo ship looks rubbish (the
escort ship looks poor as well) . Maybe slightly improved models could
be incorperated in the lib.bgl.

papingo

I had a pet tortoise. but it ran away!

[smilo]

hello papingo,
i couldn't agree more.
if you look closely, the stock cargo ship
is even moving backward. weird
that's why they are on my to do list.

creating a library file is not a problem.
the problem is building "slightly improved models".
i have tried and tried and can not accomplish the mission.

once i start, i get caught up in the details
and the project becomes far to complex.
go figure.
for example, i built a fairly decent liberty ship.
or so i thought, until i noticed that a liberty ship
was heavily armed...mine is not.
what to do? let it go?
slap some paint on it and call it a cargo ship?
or tear i apart and rebuild it?
or set it aside and decide what to do later?
unfortunately, that seems to be my Modus Operandi.

hello Ivan,
sorry to say, i don't see it.
i even looked at other drawings and pictures.

i have no doubt that there are many discrepancies
and deficiencies in the drawings.
there always are.
and once again, i'm sorry to say, at this point,
the project is far to young for me to get nit picky.
jeez, i haven't even decided to do it, yet.

besides, the thing doesn't even exist anymore.
all examples have been destroyed.
even drawings and pictures are limited.

i realize that this is a bit of a contradiction
from what i just said above to papingo.
but whoever said i was sane?

a little schizophrenic? most definitely.
it was documented back in '72.

[No Dice]

Having got a sneek peek at the Liberty Ship, I vote complete the original Liberty ship and then move on to the A20.

Then while you finish the plane we will ask Papingo to add movement to the ship, While we wait on Ivans next release and

Hubba to get his rig back up and running.

Well, I guess we all have a bucket list.

Dave

PS Papingo, sorry to hear about your tortoise

[smilo]

i was waiting for that.
didn't take long.
you don't disappoint, Dave.
i'll think about it.

have you ever seen a Guillow balsa model?
http://www.guillow.com/Series500BalsaKits.aspx
i have a couple, three.
i like the look of the stringers on bulkheads.
very cool

a few weeks ago,
i decided to build an a-20 from scratch.
same process.
don't know if i'll ever finish it,
but that's what i'm doing for now.

[Ivan]

I remember those Guillows "Kits". I put Kits in quotes because to me they were a little too much like the OLD model kits where a block of wood is provided to be carved into a fuselage. I got one of those (don't remember if it was Guillows) for Christmas when I was very young. I was probably around 10 years old at the time and didn't really have the skills to build such a thing. I never did finish my Balsa and Tissue kit which was a Curtiss P-6E. It is on my to do list for CFS one day.

A P-6E incidentally is the aircraft that menaced King Kong in the original movie with Faye Wray.

- Ivan.

[smilo]

initially, i thought about carving
a solid a20 out of mahogany.
but, i quickly realized that my skills were lacking.

i have a few bulkhead and stringer drawings
that were the inspiration for this madness.

for now, my challenge is to rescale my drawings
to 1:48 and get them to print out as such.
once printed, it should be easy to cut and paste
the bulkheads onto the material and cut them out.
i have a nice little stash of reject veneers
of varying thicknesses from the old workplace.

we shall see how it goes.

[Ivan]

How about 3D printing the pieces for the model?

I tried working with Philippine Mahogany for a set of grip panels once. Perhaps your wood is better, but I had trouble getting the checkering to look good because the grain was too coarse. I finally settled on Rosewood instead.

Then again, just having done the project regardless of quality is worth something. My neighbour had little B-26 Marauders carved out of wood and painted in the units markings. I KNOW I could do so much better with very little effort and yet those models have existed for longer than I've been alive while my "superior" models exist only in my imagination and will likely stay there with lots and lots of company.

- Ivan.

[smilo]

How about 3D printing the pieces for the model?
oddly, i was talking to my neighbor
about this very thing yesterday.
might have to look into it a bit deeper.
although, the toughest part
would be justifying the expense
of buying a 3d printer.
ever seen those wooden dinosaur skeleton models?
i thought something like that,
only wwii aircraft, would be cool.
would need a cnc for that.

I tried working with Philippine Mahogany....
i would go with honduras mahogany.
although, the quality isn't what it use to be.
the museum of flight in seattle
has some very cool b-17 wind tunnel models
carved out of honduras mahogany.

...I finally settled on Rosewood instead.
very nice wood species, but very expensive.

....my "superior" models exist only in my imagination and will likely stay there with lots and lots of company.
ain't that the truth.