Finally finished with the Schweizer glider/sailplane project for the museum. Never thought I'd get this done. One delay after another. But now it's on to other things. For the record, here's a couple pix...
Very nice model of a type that I don't think we have seen many before. Even, if I may be so bold, there are likely not too many plastic models in this genre. Good for you again. Perhaps you are able to provide more detail as why you chose this aircraft to model. Did you ever personally fly this aircraft sometime in the past?
Cliff
Very nice finish. On the first pic you can see the reflection of the tail. Nicely done.
Lou
Perhaps you are able to provide more detail as why you chose this aircraft to model. Did you ever personally fly this aircraft sometime in the past?
No special reason, Cliff. I just happened to find a plan for it. Don't even remember where it came from. The folks at the museum wanted three models for an exhibit on Schweizer Aircraft (which is/was based in Elmira, New York), an Ag-Cat and a couple gliders representative of the company's military and civilian sailplanes. It took a while, but I managed to locate plans for the Ag-Cat and the TG-3A, and built those. The only (free) plans I could find online for the civilian sailplanes were for the 1-26 -- which lacked any cross-sectional details -- and the 1-32. So I used the latter. Here it is...
And, no, alas, I'm not a pilot...
Buried somewhere in my papers is the plans for a flying 1-26. If you wish I will hunt for them.
Lou
Thanks, Lou, but I hope I'm done with sailplanes and gliders for a good, long while. Frankly, I don't find them all that interesting. As I said, I had this plan for a 1-26, but as it had no cross-sections to show the fuselage shape, I decided it wasn't worth pursuing.
I think my next subject will be a PBY. I've been talking with the museum bosses about an idea I had for building some models they can sell as fund-raising items in the gift shop. That should keep me busy -- off the streets and out of the pool halls!
Thanks Fingers for the info. I'm guessing but at least the first set of 3views that you provided were originally provided by Air Trails . And - only for interest - I once was an Air Cadet in the Air Cadet glider programme at Netley Airport about the year 1946 when they used a Schweitzer S-21 - I think. Just say that I didn't advance - time and space prohibits a more illustrious and detailed account.
Cliff.
Nicely done Fingers. I have always wanted to try a sail plane but just never found the time. My youngest son is thinking of joining the Royal Canadian Aircadets. If he does join, maybe I will build him a model.
Peter
Thank you for the kind words, gents...
I've never flown in a sailplane, but my 89-year-old mother-in-law has! Several times in the last couple years, my wife and sister-in-law have driven her to the nearby Saratoga County Airport, where there's a soaring club, and paid for her to take a ride with one of the pilots. She really enjoyed her flights, and the club members get a big bang out of taking "the old lady" up!
She also rode the bobsled down the Olympic run at Mt. Van Hovenberg in Lake Placid at the age of 85!
Peter, if your thinking of doing an Air Cadet L-19 let me know. It is on my to-do list.
Lou
Peter, here's hoping that your son does join the Air Cadets. They have a very good flying programme today. Much more organized than those early years just after the war. But again there was much to offer and much to remember from those early days. Something that will always stay with one.
Cliff.
Jim, what scale is your glider. I wrongly assumed that it was 1/32 scale due to the production number. I only realized my error when you wrote in the 1-26 model that the bell finally rang.
Lou
Hi Lou,
I haven't seen the glider they're using on the ground yet, just soaring over head of the parking lot of where I work. It does look like a L-19 from this vantage point. Should we do an Aircadet cook up ?
Peter
The L-19 should be the tow plane.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c4/L19-2.jpg)
Schweizer Model:SGS 2-33A is the glider.
(http://www.maitlandaircadets.ca/images/glider.gif)
(http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/aircraft/Schweizer2-33/IMAGES/Schweizer-2-33-plan.jpg)
Lou
So is that a yes to the cook up? Maybe a tow plane and glider on the same display stand? What scale?
Peter
I will start a cook up in the cook-up section. Scale is up to the builder. I favour 1/32 for this size aircraft.
Lou
Quote from: lastvautour on July 19, 2012, 04:06:54 PM
Jim, what scale is your glider. I wrongly assumed that it was 1/32 scale due to the production number. I only realized my error when you wrote in the 1-26 model that the bell finally rang.
Lou
Lou:
Your question got me thinking -- and questioning some things I'd taken for granted -- and now I'm afraid
I've discovered that I've built something quite different from what I'd thought I had done! Bear with me, please...
In checking back, it appears that I found the plan for this model
right here on this very site, where it's described as a "Schweizer 1-32 Glider," as published in a 1948 issue of
Air Trails magazine (See: http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pid=4871).
However, a thorough on-line research discloses that
there never was any such animal as the Schweizer 1-32!
"Hunh?" you might say. And well you might...
Further research shows clearly that this plan actually depicts one of the TWO production
Schweizer 1-21's built in 1947. See: http://www.scalesoaring.co.uk/RCSD/pdfs/Schweizer_1-21/Pages%20from%20RCSD-2007-11.pdf It's a dead ringer, right down to the striping on the side of the fuselage.
It appears the 1-21, however handsome it may have been aesthetically, and handy to fly, just came with too high a price tag ($2,700) to make it in the post-war economy. According to the writeup, Schweizer received initial orders for only two, but decided to go forward with production anyway in hopes the 1-21 would sell itself. It didn't, but the two built appear still to be around today, and both were still flying in 2008. Furthermore, the 1-21 design served as the basis for the nearly identical, highly successful, and more affordable ($2,000) model 1-23, which remained in production from 1948 to 1967.
All of which brings us back to the question: How'd this thing get so fouled-up?
I'm just speculating now, but consider this: We all know how magazines of the 1930s and 40s often jumped to conclusions in the rush to get to press ahead of their competition. Just look at the illustrations and plans for military planes during the period, when governments and manufacturers kept details as secret as possible, while releasing just enough in the way of images or narrative writeups to satisfy public demand for information. Often the pictures were doctored to obscure details, or the narratives deliberately spiced with inaccurate "facts". When detaiuls were lacking, writers and artists routinely filled them in from their own imaginations and presumptions, just to get something they could sell to the publishers, and the publishers went with them in the belief that anything, however inaccurate, was better on the newsstand than nothing. Another good example is the "Spotter Series" of identification models: There are one or two Axis planes in that series that simply never existed!
I have a feeling that's what happened with the 1948
Air Trails plan for the so-called "Schweizer 1-32". Note that nowhere on the plan does it actually SAY "1-32" -- only the doubtful claim that the plan depicts a "quarter-inch version of America's most popular sailplane," which sounds a lot like P.R. hype to me. I'm guessing the artist who drew the plan saw something like the Schweizer ad for the 1-21 (shown in the article: http://www.scalesoaring.co.uk/RCSD/pdfs/Schweizer_1-21/Pages%20from%20RCSD-2007-11.pdf) and based his "most popular" claim on that sales pitch. It sure looked like a winner, didn't it? Furthermore, I think the plan, as posted on this website, was simply mislabeled by somebody who conflated 1/32 scale with the model number of the aircraft.
As for the scale of the model as built, it has a 14-1/2-inch wingspan, and the article says the 1-21 sailplane had a wingspan of 51 feet. I don't know what that works out to in scale terms. My brain hurts too much to work it out. Somebody else want to try it?
Note from Lou
The drawings were mislabelled. That has been rectified and an instruction sheet has been added.
51 feet is the same as 612 inches.
612 inches = 42.2
14.5 inches
Scale therefore is 1/42.2
I have had that happen on several occasions where the data was incorrect, however the model turned out superb.
Lou
Thank you, Mark and Lou. 1:42.2 sounds kinda weird. I suppose the page got re-sized to fit an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet.
I will revise the Model of the Year post to show 1/42 scale or Box Scale if you prefer.
Lou
The Schweizer 1-32 drawing has been re-labelled as 1-21 as they should have been originally. There is also an instruction sheet that has been uploaded to the Air Trails album giving directions on building it. Thank you Dave T for pointing this out and submitting the instruction sheet.
Lou