The Incredible
Adventures of Socrates (an aviation philosopher) Part I
Master Po smiled peacefully and asked if I thought I was already a Shaolin Monk.
Knowing him I remained silent. He said: “Little grasshopper, in order to be
ready for the outside world, have your own TV series and leave behind the
tumults of a helter-skelter modeling life, you must produce the masters for a
vacuformed kit. Only then the stars will shine on the calm surface of the lake
and the cranes will fly to Styreneland”
So I went my way and started to work on the wood masters for the
Capelis XC-12, whose hidden beauty only master
Po
and few others were able to appreciate.
Well, may be the story is more like I saw Jim Lund’s scratchbuilt
Capelis model thanks to Alex Bigey’s website. Jim was very generous and
helpful and encouraged me to go ahead and build the Capelis. Fellow modelers
pointed to sources and references and so the project started to get momentum and
eventually Mike Herrill from Execuform made the vacuformed copies. The main
reference was the Skyways magazine (BTW, a wonderful publication, now in digital
format) article on the Capelis found on the October 1995 issue #36. You may get
your copy contacting them:
http://www.ww1aeroinc.org/
Click on
images below to see larger images
But first,
what was the Capelis?
Some scholars state that occidental culture as we know it was
born in Greece, a well of knowledge that still today feeds psychology,
philosophy, mythology and modeling (just remember the great Greek
philosopher, modeler and olive pitter Styrenides (V century B.S.).
The
Capelis started as a transport project of the Capelis Corporation, whose
president, of course, was no other than Socrates Capelis. The Greek
community backed the project and by 1933 the plane was ready. Modern for
the time (all metal construction) sported nevertheless a forward leaning
canopy and a biplane tail, which some say was an outdated feature, but
nobody will dare to deny that confers the plane its remarkable aesthetics
(aesthetics as a science, by the way, is another Greek legacy).
Things
weren’t peachy, though, an after some inauspicious beginnings the whole
thing was prematurely and unfortunately dropped. But the Capelis kept
going, this time re-incarnated as a movie prop. It endured some
modifications and went on for many movies bathing on the golden glory of
Hollywood, featuring in many films, the most arguably famous of which are
“Five Came Back” with –among many other movie stars- Lucille Ball
and “Flying Tigers” with John Wayne.
The
above-mentioned masters were very simple, on the vein of those vacuformed kits
that provide the general shapes. Details, accessories, decals and the like are
provided by the modeler, as well as surface detail.
Once I got
my vacuformed parts from Mike, I started building the model. There were some
minor and major modifications done to the Capelis over time. This model
represents the plane as it flew, with its forward-raking canopy –although you
won’t see that part on this first article-. Another nose was already mastered
to allow the building of the movie versions, which has a more conventional
canopy arrangement.
This first part deals with general preparation and initial
building steps and will be continued on a second article depicting the final
building steps and some additional notes.
As a mythological metallic bird coming from Mount Olympus,
the Capelis extends its wings over the modeling world.
See you soon.
P/S:
I have a confession to
make.
A few among you already know that Gabriel Stern is not my real name.
The time has arrived to tell the truth.
I am a fish. My name is Fulgencio. I live in a fish tank close
to a computer, and I have developed complex mental powers that allow me not only
to build model airplanes by telekinesis, but also to communicate fluently using
a computer.
Nothing more can be revealed at this time. My location should
remain undisclosed, in order to avoid the press and the scientists that would
immediately converge to the spot seeking interviews and autographs.
I live a happy, although quite wet existence.
I hope that this revelation won’t hurt our friendship.
Talk to you soon.
Fulgencio, the fish.
Gabriel Stern
Click on
images below to see larger images
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