Steve Fox

Hi all. I have ended up with a good week on the build in the end which is a bit of a morale booster A really good session on seting up and soldering some of the carbane struts and getting a better fit to the fus with the belly pan. Starting to feel that the work can start again on finishing the wings will be underway next week!! Cheers Steve NZ

Hi all Well with the weather cooling right off now, there has been not much going on apart from keeping the fire going and lots of tea. Unfortunately my hobby space in the garage is not heated so having only brief periods in there. The last few weeks has been about making a functional undercarriage suspension which has slowly come together. I hope to have this all completed by the end of this week and then return my focus back to the wings. I made up a couple of patterns to allow 3 rods to work the suspension,the middle piano wire being the wheel axle proper. Two things are quite clear, I am not good at pattern making and soldering, but I got there in the end I kept adapting the pattern for the suspension until it looked and fitted right. I am trying out rubber tubing cut into strips which seems to be a good fit. It seems to work in buffering the up and down movement. Well that's it for now. Time for a cup of tea and another log on the fire Cheers Steve NZ

Hi Ace Thanks I am happy with it. The Google proved challenging but I think it kinda works Cheers Steve NZ

Hi all Here's the finished bust more or less. The build has slowed down a little as I wanted to get the details on the cockpit area completed before moving on. Cheers Steve NZ

Great information Cheers Steve

Hi all Sorry for not catching up with you guys on the build Raining today and about 6 c. The Morane has moved on some more. But will post pictures tomorrow on the progress. Today I have been puttering on the pilot bust. I made a small start some months ago but never got any further with it. I thought I would share this process in case anyone was interested. First the bust needs a good clean particularly if it has been sitting around for a while.. Base coat the uniform with a blend of 1 drab green and 2 sand / light tan. You don't need all that much to do the job. Second use a dark colour for the shadows and low areas I used a yellow and burnt umber but I think brown and yellow would do the same. It's going to depend on the final colour of the uniform In my case ,a blackish orange blend. Apply sparingly to all the low areas. A lighter colour is needed for the high areas. Yellow and a white blend in my case. Now gently blend both areas to achieve the look you are after. The blend ended up to light for me so I added a darker burnt umber and then raw umber which is almost black in colour. I keep blending the paints until I achieved close to what I was after. My working example was this French/English flying jacket circa WW1 I am using cheap oil paints for this project so buy little tubes, they will last for years. Next is the face and goggles Your thoughts Cheers Steve NZ

Hi all Just a brief update on the build over the last few weeks. Once again the jobs in the yard have slowed me down. My flying buddies ,40 thousand odd bees have been flat-out making a ton of the Golden nectar. About 40 kgs. I thought it was going to be a poor year given the dry cloudy summer we had. Most of it will be given away to family and friends over the next few months, there is never any shortage of honey lovers. Back to the Morane A1. The fuselage is primed off and very pleased with the results. I am at the stage where I need to close up the cockpit area to move forward. So I decided to do some of the cockpit detail which has consumed rather a lot of time over the last two weeks making lots of small things. I posted a few pictures of the instrument panel a couple of weeks ago so here is an update. Also I worked on the wheels to give them a more detailed look. I came to realize that the Williams Brothers wheels are not really scale so to speak. Again I am not wanting to be exactly perfect in the detail, but to make a good effort. Well that's about it for now, a little fly out at the field on Sunday. Certainly getting cooler now Cheers Steve NZ

Hi I have been enjoying a couple of your build blogs. What excellent work in restoring those models Cheers Steve NZ

Hi WOW A master class in scale building Bravo 👏 Cheers Steve NZ

Hi Yes ,you will be coming out the other side into spring , Jealous!! Thank you for your comment 🙏 Cheers Steve NZ

Happy as Hi all, wellvery pleased with the results o the fuselage. Thank you guys for all the great advice, it is well received. I took a break from the fuselage for a couple of days and decided to work on the cockpit as it will be getting closed in more and maybe awkward to get at. Not overly pleased with the hinges, but all I had. Thee hinges with the pva glue once dry will get doted with brass paint for another area. Secondly is that I realized that the two machine guns kinda of sit low in a bit of a trough in front of the cowl, so I will need to alter that area to suit. Not that I am a scale perfectionist, but I do like to try where I can to get the look right. I managed to discover some brass flanges which fit snugly over the brass tubing for the wheels which looking at the full size seems to be a good fit. Well that's about it for now. The weather is cooling off and we have already lit the fire in the evening several times now. Seems to be an early autumn this year. The summer wasn't much to write about, mostly cloudy and dry. Cheers Steve NZ

Hi all, just wondering if someone could direct me to drawings or pictures of carbane fittings for WW1 planes. Between the fuselage and wing. Just wanting to make a scale effort if it is feasible Cheers Steve NZ

Thank you for all the information, I have not used this method of covering before, but I like how it is turning out!. Thanks again

Hi John I contacted a supplier and they can supply non taughtening dope in a quart which I am not sure how much that is in volume, but I will look it up. Not too badly price so will get it. Apart from that the covering of the fuselage has gone well. A couple of troublesome bits around the tail skid but easily resolved. Just couldn't seem to get a good bond to the Balsa there. Cheers Steve NZ

Thank you for your advice John, that's awesome. I wondered if that was the case about the strength side of it. Cheers Steve