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This was a slightly belated birthday present & not my usual sort of thing at all - but I've posted lots of things that aren't Tamiya or RC so i think I'll get away with this
It's a 1/32 kit of my favouritest aeroplance - the Douglas DC-3 (aka C-47 Skytrain, and in the UK and Oz at least, the Dakota). Construction is old fashioned tissue over a balsa frame (with some additional vacformed, injection moulded, card & wire parts), but I'll be steering clear of the traditional Nitrocellulose dope

I'll be going for a "silver" paintjob rather than Olive Drab - I'm tempted to make my own Berlin Airlift decals (which would also put me in the market for a 1/32 camel ), but the transfers that came with it (Eastern Air Lines) do really suit it ...

I've already made headway with the fuselage - the final photo in this post shows a start on one side, using what is apparently the standard method for plane building - tape down a pinnable board, tape the plan to that, plastic sheet over that & use wig makers pins to hold the balsa parts down while the glue sets. According to the box, it'll have a 36" wingspan when finished

Mmmm, why does aluminium tape suddenly comes to my mind?

Nice Guillow's Jonny. Be carefull with the tissue paper. I made some guillow's and I never had a nice result with this toilet paper .

I made quite a lot of progress over the weekend ...

Left "side keel" (really, that's what the instructions call it) fitted, right side formers pressed out & notches cut...





... right side formers fitted, along with homemade fittings to keep them in line with the corresponding left side pieces (shame some of those weren't at 90 degrees to start with





Right "side keel" in, extending some 3/32 square strip ....






Stringers being fitted ...





Done, plus the PVA glue I got to use as sealer & in lieu of dope. Note the 5 litre container - I put 500ml in another container, diluted that 50/50 with water, and so far I've used I think 20ml of that. Assuming consumption continues at the same rate, I have enough PVA for around 200 planes

First layer of tissue going on ... I was quite surprised at how tough this stuff is, even when wet with glue. The instructions don't mention putting on more than one layer (and there's only enough in the kit for one layer IMO), but various other sources talked about using 2 layers, and as it looked very thin I went for two...




... and as it was going quite well, I didn't stop to keep taking photos - this is with the 4th piece on:




... and the 12th ...





... and all done, "doped" with the same PVA mix & left to dry. It's come out quite well, but I think I really should have gone with my own opinion of using two pieces between the 9th/10th/11th formers & not followed the instructions that said to use one - there are some wrinkles one the top at the back end due to the compound curves. On balance I'm going to leave it alone as I suspect trying to get the tissue off would cause some damage & the end result would be no better overall.

Note the paper templates - no mention of these in the instructions, but I couldn't see how on earth you could cut all the bits of tissue to size without making some (tape paper around plane, hold up to light & mark with pencil).




I also cut out some of the vacforms, it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it might be, but the plastic still appears to be a thicker version of the nasty, squeaky, splitty, stress mark form-y stuff some modern egg cartons are formed from




Next task is to make some test frames of balsa and tissue so I can test whether or not I can use my Hycote rattle can paints on the finished plane or not.

Amazing result Jonny in a so short time. I took more than 1 month every evening/night to do my hellcat. It's really pretty.

Looks great. Up to this point, it somehow reminds me of the Hindenburg though (better not fill it with hydrogen).

stingray-63 wrote:

Amazing result Jonny in a so short time. I took more than 1 month every evening/night to do my hellcat. It's really pretty.

What glue did you use to stick the vacuum formed plastic bits to the tissue & balsa?

I used the basic white wood glue because the plastic scale glue could be too agressive for the "eggs box plastic".
I didn't want to fly with them. In static the wood glue is enough.
PS: My hellcat ended Under my wife badword and the second one, I burned it after the bad toilet paper applying.
But by your fault Jonny I want to buy a F4U corsair

stingray-63 wrote:

I used the basic white wood glue because the plastic scale glue could be too agressive for the "eggs box plastic".
I didn't want to fly with them. In static the wood glue is enough.
PS: My hellcat ended Under my wife badword and the second one, I burned it after the bad toilet paper applying.
But by your fault Jonny I want to buy a F4U corsair

Thank Stingray

An uncle bought me a 1/32 F4U Corsair when I was a kid, I remember it being enormous compared to the 1/72 fighters I bought myself - and it needed TWO (10ml) pots of paint to cover it Maybe a 1:16 Guillows one would recapture that - but TBH if I buy another Guillow's kit it would have to be the B-17







I also did some experimenting - I made some balsa & tissue test section & glued a bit of scrap vacform plastic to one of them - the Dur balsa cement didn't melt the plastic or mess up the PVA, and it all coped with the acrylic primer & paint I want to use