Tutorial Novice - HMCS Bonaventure Air Fleet - 1/240 Tracker/Banshee/Horse

[lastvautour]

A new friend, Don wants to make a few Trackers, Banshees and HO4S-3 for his 1/240 scratch built Bonnie. I will provide detailed instruction on the construction of all three.

Lou

Much more to follow.

[lastvautour]

The following is an email I sent to Don to start up the project.

I will be happy to help out. I suggest you join Solid Model Memories by contacting Garet at Administrator@solidmodelmemories.net  Tell him I sent you.

The site is easy to use and others will help as we go along.  I have started a topic at http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/SMF/index.php?topic=1383.0
If you need some direction on navigating the site, let me know.

If that is inconvenient for you, I will still guide you by email and give you links to photos on the SMM site just like the other ones.

I personally use clear pine for making my models but you can use any soft wood other than balsa as in that scale it is too hard to fill in the wood grain. My 1/350 Bonnie is recycled mahogany baseboards and the 1/144 Bonnie is mostly clear pine.

I await you further email.

Lou

[lastvautour]

The dimension in inches have been sorted out as per the attached file.

Lou

[lastvautour]

The first to tackle is the RCN HO4S-3. I used leftover pieces of 1 inch pine board(7/8 " actual size). I measured the fuselage to be 7.5mm (9/32") wide. After marking the proper dimension the wood was chiseled/planed/sanded to size. Once satisfied with the surface, I cut out and glued the fuselage outline to the wood.  As this is Don's first solid carving, I will proceed slowly.

Lou

[lastvautour]

I then cut out the shape keeping the top and bottom perpendicular to form a block form. I do this with every model I make. I remove the wood from the top fuselage area leaving a bit to provide some strength to the tail area. The bottom was cut with a razor saw to make is easier to remove large pieces of wood. You will note that on the last picture, I have carved away the keel and tail rotor shaft. These will be made and added later. The tail fin was sanded to shape rather than carved as it is fragile. If it breaks, we will make it separately make the fin as well. I use files or sandpaper glued to flat pieces of wood.

Lou

[lastvautour]

A quick comparison of my 1/144 and 1/350 scale HO4S-3.

Lou

[lastvautour]

Next trace the top outline of the fuselage and remove the excess wood. Go slow to avoid taking to much off. Trace outline of cockpit fairing and lower rear fuselage.

Lou

[lastvautour]

Next is cutting out the windscreen area. Drawing lines that follow the forward base and top of the windscreen and slowing cut away material. The forward fuselage remains untouched at this point. Once cut out, trace the outline of the windscreen and check against the drawing. Although not pictured here, trace the roundness of the rear lower fuselage and cut away excess materiel.

Lou

[lastvautour]

Trace the windscreen and make a vertical cut the forward base of the windscreen.Cut out the wood between the top and lower frames to shape the windscreen. Note the forward fuselage has not been touched yet.

Lou

[buccfan]

That's impressive work at that scale Lou, great tutorial as usual, regards Paul J.

[lastvautour]

Thank you Paul.

Lou

[lastvautour]

I next drew the line of the rear upper fuselage and bring out the shape. I need to do more work here later.

Lou

[lastvautour]

Just to take a break from the fuselage, the wood for the rotors was shaved down to the width of the blade and sanded to the final shape using sandpaper glued to a paint stick. It was purposely left longer to be able to hand on too for the final sanding. The blades were then sliced off like bread. I score each blade at least a dozen time to ensure the wood wood not split off. Individual sanding was also done on the sandpaper stick.

Lou

[lastvautour]

The tail rotor was done in the same fashion. This method allows to do many more individual blades.

[Boomerang]

Thanks Lou,
I'm enjoying this.

Cheers
Gordon