Here is the third
Luft '46 scratchbuild design taken from Dan Johnson's excellent site (http://www.luft46.com).
This one took 4 weeks to complete and is made entirely of Aluminum and brass
(landing gear). The fuselage is two solid pieces pinned together with 1/16
"dia dowel pins, along with the wings. The cockpit, gear bays, inlet
and exhaust were machined out. Everything else was hand contoured with an
air grinder, files and sandpaper. I found the vacuum-formed canopy in the spare
parts bin.
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Photo 3 |
Photo
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Photo 5 |
Photo 3 shows the
fwd. landing gear being made from brass. The landing gears were turned in a
battery drill chuck with a file. The wheels were turned on a lathe from Aluminum
and painted. Photo 4 shows The .080" thick Aluminum used for the wings. The
LH side is contoured and scribed. I used a fine tooth X-acto saw to cut the
control surfaces. Scribe lines were put in with a razor blade and metal straight
edge. Photo 5 shows the rough-cut fuselage in process. The band saw marks are
evident on all sides.
Photos 6, 7, and 8
show the progression and assembly of the model. I had to redo the canopy because
of fit problems. The horizontal was a piece of .020" thk. Aluminum and the
fin was slotted with an X-acto saw to fit it in.
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Photo 6 |
Photo 7 |
Photo 8
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Painting was kept to a minimum:
the cockpit, gears and bays with Tamiya acrylics. Shaded panels came from
sanding the metal in different directions. All in all, I am pleased with this
one and am also glad that it is finally done!
Dan
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images below to see larger images
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