PWS-10 1:33 Modele Kartonowe / Cardplane

[shrike]

A quick mini-review first

The kit consists of 4 A4 pages to be printed on card, 2 pages of paper to be laminated to 1mm stock, 4 pages of instructions and a one page description in Polish. There are also high resolution .jpgs of the front and back covers.

The graphics quality is spectacular. with light weathering and paint effects that promise a high level of realism.

Construction is CardPlanes traditional former heavy style. The wings will be a treat.


Moving on to the beginnings of the build.
The aft fuselage structure is straight-forward. The prototype aircraft had many stringers rounding out the fuselage shape and this is reflected in the formers which are faceted, and will be in the skins which have numerous score lines. Allowances are made in the formers and keel for the thickness of the joining strips as well.

The Cock pit is one of those jewels that makes a photo thread worthwhile. Marvelously detailed down to the tie rods in the fuselage structure, it will all be barely visible through the cockpit opening, but we'll all know its there<g>

The fuselage side frames have strips to face all of the cut edges. The tie rods are made of 32ga beading wire stretched straight then cut to length.

The tubular seat frame supports are supposed to be rolled, but I cheated and used peeled Q-tip (ear bud) sticks. I used the same for the control stick, one of the control torque tubes and for the big lever that is probably a parking brake (no, really).

I printed a second page of the cockpit on regular paper to make some of the rolled parts easier. I also used it to make the floorboard/ heel plates. it's easier to cut out the bottom frame without them and add them as separate pieces. That also let me pierce them with many tiny holes. I figured with the level of detail in the cockpit it was only right<g>

The throttle levers are wire, with blobs of tinted glue for knobs.

[Leif Ohlsson]

Beautiful workmanship & execution of a good design. I admire the tensioning wires in the fuselage frame. What is beading wire, and what would 32 ga translate into in mm? - L.

[shrike]

It's wire for stringing beads into a necklace or bracelet. This is dead soft aluminium at 0.11mm (0.0045 inches)

[cjwalas]

This looks to be a great kit. I really like the coloring job. The quality of your work is inspirational and I'm looking forward to following this one closely!
Chris

[Don Boose]

Outstanding, Mark. This is shaping up to be one of the great build threads. Thanks for the peeled Q-tip idea. I find rolling tubes to be one of the hardest aspects of the craft. Until and unless I ever develop the requisite skill, I plan to use your Q-tip technique.

As in the case of Leif's magnificent giant-scale Camel, your photos are like watching a real airplane take shape, with lots for us to learn along the way.

Don

[redhorse]

Looks great so far. I'm curious as to how one peels a q-tip? I'll have to try it tonight, do you cut a slit first?

[shrike]

No, I clip the cotton bits off first<G>.


Yeah, that's it. you cut a slit along the length and start peeling. I'm not sure how the paper is treated, clay I think, but it takes paint and markers pretty well, and you can glue it with white glue too. (I really hate CA)
A real 'Q-tip" brand stick starts out at 0.098 " (2.5mm) and will easily stay intact when peeled down past .020" (0.5mm). 0.010" --(0.25mm) is possible, but iffy.
The fun part is that you can peel them in sections too to create stepped or tapered pieces.

It's a little bit of a cheat I suppose, but it is paper<g>

[redhorse]

Excellent! I just tried it myself and it works very well. Thanks Shrike.

Also, I had picked up some lollipop sticks from the Walmart craft section a while back and tried it on these. They are about 4mm thick and come in 4 and 8 inch lengths. It works for them as well, except you have glue the resulting flap back onto the base. Aleene's worked. I don't think they will go as thin as Q-tips though.

Again, thanks for the tip. This will have a lot of uses!

[shrike]

Just a couple of photos for now.
More later.

[ccoyle]

Great, great work thus far...real eye-candy.

Cheers!

[birder]

Shrike, already looks nice..nice "tips" too!:D

[GreMir]

Extremely clean work and superb detail!
This is going to be one nice plane :D

[Yu Gyokubun]

shrike, as already members mentioned it's extremely clean build and I like your modeling!

[Leif Ohlsson]

I'm wondering about Q-tips - what are they, what should I be looking for, and in which department...

Leif

[rickstef]

bomull svabbprover

Cotton swabs
usually found in your drugstore/pharmacy, in the beauty section or in the health care aisles at the supermarkets

Rick

[B-Manic]

Thanks for the Q-tip TIP. Your cockpit is inspirational, very fine looking!!

[shrike]

Time to finish up the cockpit.

The seat is an openwork affair. A new sharp blade is a must.
As an aside, I opened the new box of Excell #11's, having finally finished of the box of dull and prone to tip-breakage Hobbico blades. With the fresh contrast I really have to reiterate my belief that Excell makes the best blade on the market.

The two pieces that make up the seat shell itself (front and back) are sized perfectly to allow for the curvature. Normally I would laminate them and then cut them out together, and I'm glad I didn't this time. Same for the side frames. The seat cushion is softish 1mm. I used a burnishing tool to soften the edges and add a little wear (ie. butt-prints).
The seat support is supposed to be just a pair of solid pieces with tubing and shadows printed on them, but I cut out the spaces between the tubes. At first I thought about using them that way, figuring that no one will ever see it, but then I realized that that's true of the whole cockpit. Outside of these pictures, no one will ever see that either.

I used a second print of the cockpit sheet and cut out instruments and attached them to the panel.

There weren't any seatbelts, so I did those out of some bond paper crumpled for texture. The seat belt attach points and the buckle are more of the 32 ga wire. The seat attach fittings typify "never be seen again" and are the sort of thing that prompts the wife to tell me I'm nuts.

[cjwalas]

Fantastic. This is a joy to watch coming together. Your work is exemplary.
Chris

[member_3]

Your meticulous craftsmanship is of the same quality as CardPlane's incredible designs. The interior has been seen by all of us here - no mater that it might disappear from view as construction proceeds. Great thread!

[GreMir]

This is really extraordinary detail work!:eek:

It doesn't matter that nothing of this masterpiece will be seen after cockpit is closed - we all know that it's there and we have saved photos to prove it :D

[Leif Ohlsson]

It makes me very happy, and slightly awed, to see this kind of craftmanship. Many of your peers have acknowledged it, and the best I can add to what they've said is that I know for certain, that I could not reciprocate that kind of standards in the much easier, more than double, 1/16 scale. And of course you should carry on your detailing. You, and we, know that it's there. And - who knows - one day the ability to do it might inspire you to make a true cut-away model. The card modeling scene is ripe for it. Leif

[birder]

Leif put that vey well!:)

[redhorse]

The seat attach fittings typify "never be seen again" and are the sort of thing that prompts the wife to tell me I'm nuts.

Yup, but you'll know they are there and that they look just right. It's not nuts, it's just being meticulous. I know the feeling well ;)

[dansls1]

Great looking cockpit! Extraordinary!

[shrike]

Stop it guys, you're making me blush. What'll probably happen is I 'll get all of the fiddly detail stuff going well, then put the wing on backwards.

Anyway, last of the fiddly details til the cowling goes together, with all of it's various vents and such. The guns are just boxes with tubes. I figured I was on a roll so I cut the charging handles from my other print and added them. These for sure will never be seen again as there is only a 1X6mm slot in the cowling in front of the cockpit, and the gun troughs don't extend that far aft. Oh well.
The guns, numerically, are supposed to go on before the fuselage gets skinned, but I've learned to keep the fragile sticky-out bits to a minimum at this stage.

Next pic is cockpit going away. The joining strips have to go on first, as each tab aligns with a facet and set of tick marks on the former. That in turn locates the stringers embossed in the skins.

[Leif Ohlsson]

Interesting. First time I've seen joining strips going on like this. Another sign of the future. I always imagined an ideal sequence of first formers & longerons (skeleton), then joining strips (both lengthwise and circular, like yours), and finally covering parts. Sort of creating a broken shell within the actual fuselage shell. Looks like Lech & you are realizing it. Kancho Iliev had something like that going, on much smaller and softer models, right? - Leif

[shrike]

I don't know Leif, while I understand why it was done here, to keep the faceted stringers aligned, but I don't think I like it. Joining strips attached to the skins allow for final adjustments to formers if necessary, whereas the strips on the formers have to be dead-on.
In fact on the turtle deck I assembled the skin pieces into a complete unit and trimmed the formers to make it fit right.

One of the neat features of this kit is the use of applique details to create a depth and texture. The cockpit has an additional overlay to finish the opening, there is a separate pieces for the baggage compartment door, the access panels over the guns and an inspection cover on the aft fuselage (not shown well). The cowling is covered with little panels and cutaways beneath them - more on that as the build progresses.

As I said, I knew as well as the detail was going I'd screw something up. The edge colouring that looked really good on the individual pieces is coming together to look way too dark and cartoon like on the completed structure. <sigh> I'll continue with it for consistency's sake.

On the up-side, more of the cockpit is visible that I expected but, as anticipated, the guns are completely lost to sight.

[shrike]

Moving on to the cowling.

A really nice feature of this kit is the inner structure of the cowl. Since there are a number of holes in the finished cowling, the designer has provided a black inner section of skin with it's own formers and all to prevent "white' or 'hollow' from showing up. There are similar pieces to go inside the cowls for the cylinder heads as well - they also give you something to mount the exhaust pipes to.

One other noteworthy point. On Polish kits the "W" in an area means to cut it out. "WS" means to cut it out after assembly. I know I learned that the hard way<g>.

In good timing, and a nod to my last PWS build, addition to my collection arrived today in the form of a set of Spanish Nationalist wings.
Now if I can get a copy of WAK's Spanish Fury.....

[Don Boose]

It gets better and better, Mark.

How do you deal with cutting out areas after shaping and gluing? A series of very light cuts?

You must have a large collection of wings by now!

Don

[shrike]

A series of light cuts and a VERY sharp new blade.

Not a huge collection. I'm trying to keep it focused on pre-WWII to keep from being distracted by every shiny thing I see

[birder]

Shrike nice work. (I didn't know about the w, ws thing...):)

[pahorace]

Hi Shrike,
beautiful model, comes up very well!
Extraordinary interior with touch from the master. ;)

Orazio

[bob martin]

WOW!! I've had that one for sometime waiting to get the build started. Now I'm afraid I couldn't possibly do that quality of work:o

Very clean build!!

Bob

[Papercut]

Shrike, I LIKE. My modeling heydays were filled w/1:72 Airfix WWI aircraft until I could no longer see to do the extra fine detail work in that scale. Then I moved to balsa in a larger scale, rubber jobs. Watching you build this makes me home sick to try another one down the road, albeit, a large scale. I am curious, your post name, does this have anything to do w/the plane of the same name. Berkley kits did a C/L version that was neat. The only other kit I ever saw of one was a 1/72 plastic. Anyhow, I get a kick out of the names the guys come up with. Again, nice build. Rick

[shrike]

Thanks Rick, Actually, I have a 95% completed Curtiss A-8A kit in the works, provided I can liberate the files from one of my previous computers.

[shrike]

Hulloo all,
Back to the build after finishing a Red Dwarf marathon that's taken up much of the last few evening.

First picture shows the black boxes that fill up the cylinder bank fairings. These give a place to attach the exhausts and avoid that 'hollow' giveaway.

Pic 2 is a couple of fairings fitted. from the numbers the joining strips are supposed to be attached to the formers, but like the turtledeck, I chose to fit the skins together first. That allows for the adjustment of the formers.

Picture 4 is the cut-outs in the cowling - these are the spaces marked "WS". No edge colouring in the picture just to show the holes a bit better. Again the inner structure that peeks through prevents that hollow feeling<g>. A really sharp fresh blade and these aren't bad - even the part that sliced through the joining strip underneath.

The holes are there to provide depth to these louvered panels. They are simply cut through, then shaped fromthe backside witha suitably pointy object. Glad to be back to fiddly bits<G>

[Don Boose]

Excellent! Very nice work on the louvres, which are hard to make look square and even.

Don

[Papercut]

Was going thru free downloads and guess what I came across, yep, PWS-10, I down loaded and will build at a latter date following your thread to do so. Is this not a great hobby. I picked up three highly detailed plane kits for the cost of the ink/card to print. Oh yea, your build is outstanding. Looking forward to more post from you. Rick

[shrike]

There is a small 47mm wide portion of the wing that is straight. Otherwise it tapers in both plan and section. The center section is even worse.

Fortunately there is a lot of underlying structure to support all of the tapering sections. Here are the parts for one wing outer panel and a shot of it assembled. It will take a touch of sandpaper to smooth things out, but that's fine and dandy.

All the parts fell together exactly as well as one could hope, which has been true of everything on this kit.

[GreMir]

Lech designs trully outstanding models, unfortunatelly not in my area of interest :(
Shrike,
I said it before, and I will say it again - excellent work!

[shrike]

Maybe together we can convince him to to a Ki-32 in Khalkin Gol markings. Or a Ki-10 Perry even.

[Don Boose]

I vote for both of those!

Don

[shrike]

Ok , Second Russo-Japanese conflict aside...

Time to finish the wing structure and move on to skinning. The patyk (stick) in the middle - bamboo skewer actually- has a średnicy (diameter) of 3mm. It serves to align and connect the various sections.
The centre section is rather densely framed, and has seven (count'em 7) skins to get the shape right.

Suddenly the idea of a Stinson Reliant wing is no longer as daunting as it once was<G>

[redhorse]

7 skins? Wow! That wing, wow - looks as good as stick and tissue.

[willygoat]

My thoughts exactly Jim! I had to take a second look at the subject to make sure. That's a whooooole lot of formers and skins.

[Leif Ohlsson]

Very itriguing wing structure; like Jim says, could've been made by balsa. I like it. - L.

[shrike]

I took a little side trip in construction. I think it was the propeller discussion in another thread, combined with the novel construction method and getting up my courage to finish the wings<G>

The prop in this kit uses an interesting internal structure with various shapes and thicknesses of card to create the blade shape.

Picture one is all of the layers that go into each blade. Picture 2 shows all of the pieces glued together and given more or less the right twist to copy the changing angle of attack of the original.

The spinner took a little bit of trimming to fit the prop, which is exactly what you have to do with a full size one. OTOH, you have a lot more margin of error on one 60cm in diameter<G>

[Leif Ohlsson]

Very pretty prop! This seems like a very good middle-of-the-road method. And you could very well replicate a wooden, laminated pattern on the covering part. In that case, you could probably make a one-piece prop as well (two blades and the hub in one laminated core piece, plus covering parts). - L.

[MIKBEW]

Some great ideas here. Thanks. I tried the Q-tips, but in the UK they're plastic tubes. But that has produced another useful resource : 2mm diameter tubing, 4.5 mm in length. I suppose a bit like old biro tubes.
I've never come across beading wire before so did an internet search and had a look in a jewelry supply site (in this case it was Jewelry Making Supplies, Beads and Beading. Glass Beads, Wholesale Beads, Jewelry Supplies, Swarovski Crystal Beads, Pearls and Jewelry Tools - JewelrySupply.com (http://www.jewelrysupply.com)) and I'm still trying to come to terms with the 'goodies' in view and how I might use them.
One other item I've come across. In the UK the BBC recently identified their three best pieces of free software of the year, one of which was a new form of search engine called Coolris. Some of you may have come across it already, but it shows interent 'hits' as pictures not text. Try it out and, especially on card models, and you'll see why it is a very useful resource.

[shrike]

Wing skins!

The bottom of the wing is flat(ish - more later) and the skin has the constant chord section of the top attached, so it was used to set the base location of the skin on the frame. The aileron cut out provides the spanwise location, and the flush fit of top and bottom skin at the aileron spar locates it chordwise. I had to relocate the spar forward about half a millimetre to get that right, but worth it as that's the key for everything else.

The curved underside of the leading edges was pre-formed to shape as well as possible, but was finally shaped in the tapered inboard areas with relatively generous amounts of glue and pressure from a rubber block.

The inboard and outboard skins have a series of cuts in them, so the leading edges are treated like petals.

The last picture shows the first real fit problem I've encountered. The tip skin falls a good 3mm short of fitting. Really surprising, since the complicated wing tapers fit better than I had any business expecting.
I'll fix that by faking it with another piece of card. If I can't get the colour to match quite right, I may colour it silver to represent a patch that hasn't been quite finished. Not an unusual thing in an aircraft used mostly in a training role, as this one was by the time depicted by the colour scheme.

[birder]

Rather complex for wing skins you think? Nice job, though, the prop looks really nice.:)

[shrike]

The second wing went together the same as the first - with the same tip problem. Luckily the tip is white, or rather a pale grey. I was able to fix it with a piece of plane card and a soft dose of graphite to match well enough. The sharp change in contour at the tip helped to disguise any colour variation.
There are fairing strips to cover the joint of the outer wing panels to the centre section. Not only prototypical, but a godsend for final appearance.

I decided to skip sideways in construction order again. This time to the underslung radiator assembly. Just like the cockpit framing, narrow strip are provided to cover the edges of the laminated elements, and the exposed inner edges of the skin that wraps the whole works. The shutters are simple enough, but they provide a detail, depth...texture perhaps that is far greater than the effort involved. Points back to the Kawasaki Perry idea of a previous post.

In an effort to put off all of the struts a little while longer I think I'll tackle the empennage next.

[redhorse]

That tip problem is strange, but looks like you've overcome it quite nicely!

[shrike]

Still making progress here.
You can see that the underlying structure is pretty hefty, and took a bit of sanding and trimming to be ready for cover. It doesn't show here, but I should have sanded the vertical fin a little more as the skins left a tiny even gap on the leading edge. A little dab of tinted white acrylic paint should fill it, then I'll touch up some lines.
the darker lines at the leading edges of the fin and stabilizer, I believe, are supposed to indicate little cuts to aid forming. I've always had better luck working the edges using a spoon shaped tool and a soft rubber block instead.

I guess I can't put off all of the struts anymore can I?

[birder]

That looks nice! Wingtip results excellent. Don't worry about the struts, Shrike, my s-38 had more....:eek:

[shrike]

Glen,
I am duly chastened.


I'm also not ready to start on the Vimy I have in the stack either<G>

[birder]

No problem. (at one time had the rediculous idea of doing the NC4, but had second thoughts..:D)

[Don Boose]

This continues to be a fascinating build, Mark.

Glen -- I'm rooting for you to return to the NC4, or, even better, a Sikorsky S-40 YouTube - Sikorsky S-40 Flying Boat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqbTgsE-DuY)

As for you, Mark, while I would be ecstactic to watch you build a Vimy, I'd first like to see Shrike's Shrike get completed.

Don

[birder]

Those birds are projects for sure, Don, another Sikorsky IS tempting...

[shrike]

Progress is made again.
I've been putting things together and taking pictures, so now it's time to catch up on the posting.

Cowling subassembly attached to the fuselage, and as predicted the gun disappear almost completely. If you squint through the slot on the decking in front of the cockpit you can barely make out a charging handle, but we all know they're in there!

The cabane struts are a simple wrap around .5mm wire. I spent a lot of time contemplating the best order to follow in putting the wing on, and decided to start with attaching these to the centre section first.

[shrike]

The main wing struts are a little more complex
There is a wire core, and inner card core, a final surface and fairings on 6 of the 8 ends.

Trying to get the fit right, I used 1mm wire, and split the inner card piece to less than half thickness to wrap it. Splitting the home printed card stock isn't quite as easy as the bristol in many pre-printed kits (and with old Mały kits the problem is keeping it from splitting!), but it is do-able. Roll the piece as tight as possible and flatten int back out. The edges usually split enough to get the tip of a knife between the layers and start splitting. Peel the inner layer away and if you're lucky you have a thin easily rolled/wrapped piece. If you're not especially lucky, you have to scrape extra fibres from the back side.

The outer cover is wrapped around the inner and glued along the edge to give a streamlined shape. Note that the inner core exends beyond the ends leaving a place to glue the fairing - just not yet.

[redhorse]

but we all know they're in there!

Yes we de :D

I'm really impressed with this, both the kit and the build. Plus thanks for the Q-tip peeling tip, it's really helped me out on my current project.

[shrike]

I started here with the wing upside-down. Effectively gluing the fuselage to the wing rather than the other way around. This was more stable, and made it easier to use the grid on my cutting mat to maintain alignment.

After a couple test fits, the struts went on. I glued the fairings to the struts at the same time as the fairings to the wings. The method of construction (which I think I'll steal, as the struts are the sticking point on my A-8A) allows for a little adjustment to get the wing straight.

Now I need to do all of the jury struts between the main struts and wing. Probably peeled Q-tips<g>

[birder]

Shrike, you are doing a great job with this kit! Looks really cool:cool:

[dansls1]

Looking good. Not sure if I've chimed in on this one yet, but it's going to be a great little model ;)

[bob martin]

Looking really great. Still debating whether to tackle the one I have.

[Yu Gyokubun]

It's a great idea to glue the fuselage to the wing. Why didn't I ever think of it. From now on I must look at things from a different angle;)

[Don Boose]

Excellent tutorial on the wing strut construction.

This is buildilng into a beautiful Golden Age airplane.

Don

[shrike]

I added the jury struts to the main struts. I used peeled Q-tips again because of the clean finish and ease.

I thought I had taken pictures of the landing gear going together, but it looks like I forgot/lost them. There is wire in the spreader bar, but the main struts again have a Q-tip core. Like the main wing struts all of the landing gear struts are built up of multiple layers of cardstock. This is a really effective way to depict the telescoping gear legs.

The horizontal and vertical fins went on, taking care to keep them straight. Nothing draws the eye like a crooked tail.

The prop and radiator are from previous steps of course.

All that's left are wheels, ailerons, exhaust stubs, windscreen and a few more greebly bits

[birder]

Very nice!:D

[Papercut]

I have been watching your build, I downloaded this as well and think for a freebie, what a detailed little plane. When I was first introduced to paper/card modeling, it was while stationed in the FRG, building a Wilhelmshaven ME 163. Then years later the Rat. Have not built too many paper aircraft since, ships bit me, but I do still like the aircraft. Have a copy of the Fly 1:33 B-24 tucked away for when I am ready, this one will hang in my study, what a beast. Will need to build some other planes before I tackle this one, maybe next winter. I really like how this plane you are working on has turned out. The wire in the struts was genius. I can see that would keep the wings from sagging over time. Keep up the good work. Rick:D

[shrike]

All done!

I added all of the little details that were left, canopy, exhaust stack, steps and handles et c.

All in all it's an enjoyable build with no killer surprises or major problems to overcome. It IS complex and requires patience and attention to detail to fit. I wouldn't recommend it as a first model to anyone, but as a perfect kit for someone who wants to stretch their modeling legs abit, knowing that nothing will bite them.

The pictures were all taken out in the bright desert noon, and it's amazing what flaws a lot of light will pick out.

[Don Boose]

Outstanding, Mark!

You have crated in paper another important piece of aviation history.

Don

[ccoyle]

Great job, Shrike!

[GreMir]

Excellent build and superb presentation!

[cjwalas]

Beautiful model beautifully done! It really came out well. Thanks for letting us watch it come together!
Chris

[Barry]

Looks great

[bob martin]

Great looking model. Thanks for sharing, and all the good tips.

[757rol]

Just Awesome, great craftmanship and a wonderful aircraft :D

[dansls1]

She's a beaut! Great job and thanks for sharing ;)

[redhorse]

Well, I sure didn't see any flaws. It looks great, the landing gear in particular.