Avro 504 N/O 1/20th scale electric

[g_kandylakis]

The drawings were printed on thin paper and the paterns were cut.

Each paper patern was secured with scotch tape on a balsa block / base.

Next, 0,3mm holes were drilled at the proper position and angle.

Then, short lengths of 0,3mm polystyrene rods were inserted into the holes and glued to the paper patern with dope. For the moment protruding much more than needed.

Fine thread, to simulate the actual lacing material was passed through and glued to the rods with 2-3 coats of thinned dope.

[g_kandylakis]

Skiped photographing the last stage, the rods were trimmed closer to the base and sanded almost to the height of the thread thickness.

When satisfied with  the appearance, it wa stime to remove the paper patern from the base. This was done carefully, by cutting with a sharp razorblade all the rods under the patern, that were now glued to the balsa block.

Final preparation step, to cut the pattern outline, getting rid of the excess paper.

and, at last, to glue the resulting part onto the fuselage covering (doped by now).

Crazy? Yep...

[g_kandylakis]

Effective? Yep...


Forgot to add, after covering the fuselage sides, the holes for the control cable exits were cut and reenforced with tiny paper loops and the thread was passed through from the inside.

It would be impossible to go from the outside in, unless one had 1/20 scale workers doing the job, a joke that was discussed a bit back in 2023...

[9600baud]

Wow, that is insane! In a good way
I will never be able to pull of something that detailed!
Excellent!

[g_kandylakis]

Thanks Alex,

do not forget of course that what you see is the result of many years of esperience and specialisation. So, never say never...

Following the various surface details it was time for the initial assembly of the struts.

Center struts first

[g_kandylakis]

fuselage bottom side, the landing gear bases are visible as are the holes where the screws go into to secure them.

A simple template for the wing struts, to bend to the correct angle the strut wire ends.

[g_kandylakis]

insert the struts to the corresponding tubes in the wing and bend them until they align with the position in the template. First bottom ends then top ends.

As can be seen, the wings have beem painted at this point

[g_kandylakis]

Fuselage also got its silver paint, white aluminium lacquer, actually.

Scotch tape mask to seal the cockpit holes during spraying.

After removal the cockpit coaming was hand painted in dark leather.

[g_kandylakis]

Center struts and wing center section also glued to the fuselage

[g_kandylakis]

horizontal tail also painted and in position.

After some unsuccessful attempts the wing roundels were made with decal paper sprayed blue and cut with a compass cutter. The white was sprayed onto the wings before application of the blue decals.

The decals conformed quite well to the texture of the covering and the resulting outline is very crisp, hats off to Mike Stuart for presenting this method on his website.
https://www.ffscale.co.uk/raiden.htm

[g_kandylakis]

The same with the fuselage black numbers, decal paper sprayed black, cut and applied to the fuselage sides. Alignment with a template where the numbers are cut out.

The white base for the fuselage roundel can be seen here, the blue is coming immediately after that.

Rudder also sprayed white in the center, for the same reason.

[g_kandylakis]

Fuselage roundels completed. Look even better than painted.

[g_kandylakis]

One migh think that the rudder might be too coplex to cover with decal paper, but it worked perfectly, even with the overlap at the edges to achieve a blue finish all around.

The 0,5mm wire is the hinge axle.

[g_kandylakis]

And the rudder in position as well.

[Lastwoodsman]

Hallo George! Dein detailgetreuer und wirklich gelungener Bau des elektrischen Avro 504-Doppeldeckers zeugt von hervorragendem Realismus. 

Lastwoodsman Richard

PS   I tried to copy and paste the Greek translation ( mostly a bunch of question marks ),  but it will only copy and paste the German?

Anyways,  beautiful build!