Tutorial Intermediate - Douglas DC-3/C-47 - WWII ID Model

[lastvautour]

I glued two triangles 1mm thick. They are slightly oversize for the filets, but they will be sanded down to shape when dry.

Lou

[Balsabasher]

Way to go Lou,these little trianguler fillets work well.

Barry.

[lastvautour]

The video has a few still shots with no voice over. This describes the method I use to do small filets.





Lou

[lastvautour]

Assembling the tail feathers is fairly simple. Ensure the wings are aligned. Sanding the slot a bit here and there will allow you to straighten out the tail plane. Wipe off the excess glue as it will want to pull the stab during the drying phase.

Lou

[lastvautour]

Once dry, apply a small amount of putty or filler to fill any gaps between the parts. Once dry, carefully sand the excess away leaving a smooth transition between parts. I have failed to include that a small piece of scrap wood is glued to the tail end to make the cone. The grain of the cone is front to rear and sanded to shape once dry.

Lou

[lastvautour]

Although not part of the WWII ID, I have elected to place undercarriage on my Dak to fit in with the other United Nations aircraft in my collection. As my printer is not cooperating lately, I purchased CanMilAir decal # 334 http://www.canmilair.com/products.asp?cat=130&pg=7

The undercarriage is made up of two slices of 3/8 dowel and the structure is bamboo sticks from a place mat. I will post close up photo shortly.

Lou

[Balsabasher]

'ID Undercarriage plus' a new category Lou,as a young lad when I got hold of any recognition models they were given similar undercarriages so that touch and go landings could be made on my model airfield.

You have got the sit of the old Gooney bird just right,it looks very effective.

Barry.

[buccfan]

Very nice build Lou, I think the DC-3 is a real aeroplane in every sense, and still working hard today. Best regards Paul J.

[Balsabasher]

We have just lost our locally based Dakota to a company in Germany who are going to use it for pleasure flying,here in the UK there have been restrictions on such use ever since the CAA stipulated armour plate front crew door and escape chutes for them,these are fine for modern airliners but not Dakotas that have wheels that protude so a wheels up landing you can easily jump to the ground,also the heavy expensive crew doors would lower the number of passengers to be carried making things unviable.

However plans are afoot to bring the Dak back for such purposes after lengthy negotiations with the airworthiness authorities,its all such a silly idea in the first place to compare old airliners with modern metal tubes.

Long live the venerable Douglas DC-3.

Barry.

[lastvautour]

High jack a Dak? I hope he/she is in no hurry to get anywhere. There must be a grandfather clause there somewhere. Regardless, progress is being made. White rattle can primer rather than grey as the entire airplane will be semi-gloss white.

Lou

[lastvautour]

The undercarriage is simply .75mm bamboo sticks for the vertical struts and .75mm half round for the actuating mechanism. If you do not have materiel that is the proper size, use bamboo BBQ skewers and sand down to size. The parts are glued on to the wheel. The half round parts are bent to shape after the glue has completely dried. In this case I used super glue.

The tail wheel is a 1mm slice of 1/8 dowel. The strut is a piece of scrap sanded to a wedge shape. The strut starts 3mm wide, 10mm long and 2mm at the thick end of the wedge. At the pointy end of the wedge use a 1mm saw blade or sandpaper folded over to make a slot to accept the tail wheel. Glue the wheel into place and let dry. Now carefully shave or sand the strut so that there is only approx. .25mm material on either side of the wheel. With a hobby knife or sandpaper reduce the thickness of the strut above the wheel to approx. 1mm. Compare the side view to the drawing on the plan page

Lou

[Balsabasher]

I think this goes to show that undercarriages need not be daunting subjects if tackled in a similar way to this,for my tail wheels I use tiny auto seals that you can get in pound/dime stores enough seals in a big box to make many wheels,I either plug the centre with wooden dowel or even two part auto filler pushed in to create its own rim and the tyre never comes off,for WW1 biplane wheels use buttons and fill the extra holes then make a disc of domed wood that epoxies onto the button.

Barry.

[lastvautour]

Thank you Barry.  For you novices and novices to be, don't be afraid to experiment. Buttons, grommet/seals or dowel slices are all option available when making wheels and I am sure there are more ideas out there. My intention is to make a reasonable facsimile. I know it is not perfect and I don't consider myself a serious builder. That would take the fun out of it and I would never finish anything.

Lou

[lastvautour]

A picture is = 1000 words so here's 2000 words on the DC-3 tail wheel assembly. The shape of the strut is outlines on the wedge. Using a larger piece gives you something to hand on to while carving and sanding. Once done you can cut off what you need.

Lou

[lastvautour]

Two photos of the tail wheel in place. Painting will be a delicate operation.

Lou