PetitBilbo's Blog
Fokker E.III (with wire braced wings)
by
, 07-19-2011 at 14:09 (2546 Views)
Flyboys and Flygirls,
In another thread, I wondered if I should finish the three Fokker E.III I was building with or without the wing bracing wires.
Although it was rather a rhetorical question, several people answered that, yes, I should put the wires in.
So I did! But only for ONE plane for now...
Here's the picture if the plane from Reviresco
[IMG]http://www.tin-soldier.com/EINDECK1.JPG[/IMG]
I wasn't going to use solid rods or even yarn, but wanted to use real steel wire for more realism.
For this, I needed to modify the support structure somewhat to permit 4 strands of wire to pass through.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17231[/ATTACH]
The work was extremely difficult, as for each and every wire, you need to "thread a needle" twice. The problem being that, due to some drugs I need to take, my hands tend to have a slight tremor...
This is the final result:
From then top
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17232[/ATTACH]
From the front
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17233[/ATTACH]
It's quite difficult, if not impossible to really tighten the wire. As it is, the wire has been tightened as far as I dared to without actually breaking the model. The thing is, the darned wire will retain the last form (bends) it got before.
For comparison purposes, some pictures of the three Fokker E.III together:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17234[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17235[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17236[/ATTACH]
I think I'll wire up the two others, just not right now...
This is what I used:
[LIST][*]Blood, sweat & tears[*]A rather considerable amount of swearwords[*]A 40 cm strand of 0.1 mm steel wire[*]A bit of 6mm masking tape to hold the wire before glueing[*]Two micro-drops of Zap-a-Gap[*]A pair of very sharp scissors (nails)[*]About 1:30 of my time[/LIST]
:salute: