a model U-1A Otter

-Jim G

Active Member
g13.JPG

Glue the aft tab on the lower seam of the cabin. Now is a good time to cut out the vertical tail. Bend the glue tabs outward on the vertical tail and then apply a thin strip of glue around the top and rear of the tail. Glue the port and starboard sides of the tail together and set aside to dry while you finish gluing the cabin to the rest of the fuselage.

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Hopefully the seam around the vertical tail is dry now and you can stuff the rudder (furthest back end of the tail) with tissue paper to fill it out. (not shown). Be careful to not let the tissue to obstruct the holes for the horizontal tail.

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Glue the vertical tail to the tail cone of the fuselage lining up the edges of the glue tabs with the faint lines on the top of the fuselage. This thing is starting to look like an Otter!
 

Bomarc

Member
Gotta go with "Jimtabs". Trademark that sucker quick!

Assembly looks good Jim! Nice, compact model and I really like it's clever, simple design.

Mike
 

-Jim G

Active Member
I have been overly optimistic... this build will take longer than I anticipated... I find myself on the wrong side of my SWMBO's honeydew list. I will return to this ASAP.
 

-Jim G

Active Member
I found a few minutes... even if I cannot build for a little bit, at least I can dump the pictures from my camera and bring this thread up to date with the current status of the build.
 

-Jim G

Active Member
making the propeller

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I build the propeller three layers thick with 110# card. Here is the front of the prop already laminated 2 layers thick and the back of the prop. I do not bother to trim the tips until I have the front and back glued together

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Somewhere I acquired a special tool for trimming the tips of propeller blades.

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To form the front of the propeller hub I roll a piece of scrap card around a bamboo skewer. The card scrap should be 1/4" x 2-1/2" for a 1:48 scale model. I drew a box around the copyright on the third sheet that is the correct dimensions.
 

-Jim G

Active Member
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Now with the front of the propeller hub dry, round the front of the hub with sandpaper. I rotate the skewer while I use a motion similar to striking a large match.

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When the front of the hub is to my liking, I color it with a silver Sharpie marker and then glue the propeller to the back side of the hub.

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For the rear of the hub use a piece of scrap piece of card that is 1/8" x 2-1/2". (That is the size of the scale markings on each sheet. )
 

-Jim G

Active Member
The engine and cowling

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I have cut out and started to form and glue the pieces for the engine and cowling.

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I drill a hole in the center of the engine disk and then I use the propeller shaft to keep the engine gearbox lined up with the disk while the glue dries.

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The cowling pieces are all formed and ready to join together.

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I will trim off the excess skewer with a toe nail trimmer once the glue has set.
 

-Jim G

Active Member
Wheels and landing gear

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I know that a lot of builders have fancy tools for cutting out disks. I am no exception - my fancy tool is pictured.

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I have glued the wheel disks together and am working on the hubs. The long tabs get wrapped around the back side of the hub and through the center. The finished hub looks like a thumbtack.

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I have formed and glued the landing gear struts. The wheels were manually sanded down until they took on a pleasing rounded shape and then I blackened the treads with a marker. Finally I glue the hub to the wheel.

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This shows the landing gear attached to the fuselage. The long tabs from the wheel hubs were inserted into the landing gear struts and glued in place.
 

-Jim G

Active Member
Now the pictures on this thread are up to speed with the current progress on my build. In a day or two I will continue with this build.
 

Elliott

Senior Member
Your build thread is proving to be particularly helpful to me Jim. Being the type who reads the instructions (!), the more detail and pictures, the better the thread is.

Y'know, if we could just swap the priority of hobbies and honeydos......actually if we could just persuade our dearly beloved's to swap the priorities......nah......pipe dream.
 

rbeach84

New to Paper
Elliott, pipe dream as in "what're you smoking, anyway?"

Jim, some true artistry. Thank you for sharing your work & (more importantly) techniques.

One note on the colors - the star & bar blue ("insignia blue") is normally a lot darker shade, almost black in appearance under some lighting. Did you make it lighter on purpose?

Keep up the good work.
Cheers!

Regards,
Robert
 

-Jim G

Active Member
Jim, some true artistry. Thank you for sharing your work & (more importantly) techniques.
Robert, I agree with you about the value of seeing others' techniques. I am hoping that some of the accomplished builders will show more of how they do things and not just eye-popping results.

One note on the colors - the star & bar blue ("insignia blue") is normally a lot darker shade, almost black in appearance under some lighting. Did you make it lighter on purpose?
Thank you for the feedback. I think my flash makes it look a brighter blue in the pictures than it really is... does anyone here know the RGB numbers for the dark blue in the US insignia? I can still change it.
 

Bomarc

Member
... does anyone here know the RGB numbers for the dark blue in the US insignia? I can still change it.

I seem to remember Ron ("Oldtroll") published the RGB numbers for what he thought to be a good match for insignia blue over at Papermodelers.com. Further stretching the memory, I think it was in Roman's B-47 thread, as his insignia was too light in the initial release.

Mike

Post edit: Found it:

http://www.papermodelers.com/forum/kit-announcements/5245-kampfflieger-b-47e-1-48-a.html

But Ron gave the "HTML" eqvilant (#263032), and I don't know how that translates into RGB.

M.
 

-Jim G

Active Member
But Ron gave the "HTML" eqvilant (#263032), and I don't know how that translates into RGB.
Thanks for looking Mike. I was just looking around myself and found a website with a color they called USAF/USN Insignia Blue with a 'Hex' number of 263042. The RGB equivalent for that is listed as 38 48 66. http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/page-RGB-colors-USA.html. I am not near a computer with my model on it right now, but tomorrow I will give it a look to see what I have, and change it as necessary.
 

-Jim G

Active Member
intake & exhaust

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Now I have built the sub assemblies for the chin scoop and the exhausts. Note that the exhaust ducts on all radial engined otters are made of bright stainless steel, so I shined them up a bit with a silver Sharpie marker.

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This shows the pieces glued to the fuselage. Be mindful that there is a slight difference in the port and starboard exhaust fairings.

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I happened upon an otter at my local seaplane base that was being worked upon by a mechanic. I exclaimed something about the huge size of the exhaust pipes for a 600 HP engine. He explained that the stainless ducts were venturis for drawing cooling air through the radial engine. The high speed engine exhaust is directed into the exhaust ducts and this induces cooling airflow when the airplane is idling, taxiing etc.
 

-Jim G

Active Member
Pictures Lie!

One note on the colors - the star & bar blue ("insignia blue") is normally a lot darker shade, almost black in appearance under some lighting. Did you make it lighter on purpose?
Robert, I went back into my model files and found that I had used an RGB of 0,0,76 which is a very dark blue. I have now changed it to 38,48,66. When I made the change it did not appear any different on my computer screen. When I print it out, the color is similar but I will admit it looks better now.

When I hold the model in my hands the insignia is very dark blue and it does not look like the pictures. I am going to stick with my original story that the camera flash catches the laser toner in a reflective way and makes the pictures look funny.

I am going to snap some pictures in daylight without the flash.
 
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