C-121 conversion to the Super Constellation Super G

[scon10]

Further with the fuselage.
Pic 1 shows the last tail part, putting together the top half and the silver-coloured bottom half. The tailcone is designed as a complex shape, consisting of two side parts and 4 curved bottom parts. At this stage, manipulating these small parts, I found the silver paper from the Inkjet Station difficult to glue (see the posting FG-84 in Inkjet Station silver paper by Sidewinder 81777). Neither the water based white glue, nor the solvent based hobby glue which I use, stick well, see pic 2. With patience they did stick at the end.
So finally, the fuselage is done, pic 3. I like the shape of the Super Constellation as captured in this model very much, especially the nose is quite nice, see pic 4. I noticed now looking at this photo, that I forgot to colour an edge in the midsection, so I'll have to correct that . Pic 5 shows the aft side with the difficult tail cone, it turned out to have a better shape than I first feared.
Recolouring an existing model with only a colour pattern, the model parts and a photo programme is much more difficult to obtain accurate results than I anticipated. As you can see in pic 6, there are some discrepancies in the blue cheat lines at the nose, midsetion and the tail, where they do not aline correctly. Since I usually view an model from the left side, I chose to align that side correctly and accept the misalignment on the other side.
Oh well, next time I'll have to work even more accurately and take out more time and patience for this sort of recolouring . Anyway, for the next step, I'll think I'll start on the 3 tails.

[willygoat]

That sure looks great to me! Nicely done.

[Bengt Fredén]

Very interesting, scon10,

A beautiful conversion, with the glossy white top half of the fuselage and the very nice silver metallic lower half. It blends very well together and looks just fabulous! The nose gear wheel well is an expert job.

This will be interesting to follow - thanks for sharing.

All the best,
Bengt in Stockholm

[scon10]

Thanks all, for your nice comments. As soon as I have a next step ready, I'll tell you about it and show you the pictures.

[scon10]

Before I start on the tail surfaces, I decided to build the wing center sections first. They are of an original design.
Most models of aircraft with a centerwing and outer wingpanels have a full centerwing carrying contineous spars. But in this model, the centerwing is split in two, and attached to the sides of the fuselage. Further, the fairing is a separate skin of the centersection, wrapping itself all around the centerwing.
So pic 1 shows how it looks like (don't mind the misalignment of the blue cheetlines, the left side is OK ). The right half of the centerwing has a wing rib glued at the connection with the outer wing panel. A long aft spar and a short front spar fits into the slits and enter the fuselage. The front spar connects on the outboard side to the main wheel well. On the left side are the same, corresponding parts, see pic 2. Over these centerwings, the fairing, the parts of which can be seen in pic 1, are postioned, see pic 3 for a dry fit.

A nice and clever design. Through the slits, a left set of spars is slided in position, pic 4, and the same goes for the right side.
However, from an engineering point of view I don't like the spars being non-contineous. Look at pic 5, the spars can move in relation to one another, and they cannot be connected within the fuselage with sufficient accuracy resulting possibly in a droop of the wings. Maybe it's me, but I always want my aircraft to have a complete spar running through the fuselage .

So, I'll have to think how to align and connect the spars in a rigid way to each other. Perhaps I need an auxilliary spar. We'll see next time.

[scon10]

The tail with its three vertical fins has many rudders, and it's interesting to see the details of this construction, so I decided to cut out the rudders and make them as seperate items. That means, that an aft spar needs to be modelled just in front of the elevators, in order to keep the shape correct and to provide an attachment opportunity for the two elevators.
Pic 1 shows the horizontal tailplane with the spar and some ribs.
The vertical tails come next. The central vertical fin has only one rudder, which I printed on the basis of the C-121 kit, and coloured in the red-white-and-blue of the KLM colours of the time, see pic 2. I put a cardboard strip at the leading edge to give a more rounded shape, pic 3.
The same goes for the two identical out-board fins, pic 4. These have, as you can see two rudders, one above the stabilizer and one below.

Pic 5 shows the whole assembly done, except for the de-icer boots. These boots on the real airplane are rubber covers stretched around the leading edge and containing internal tubes in various directions. If icing was suspected or felt, high pressure air would be blown into the tubes expanding the boots and consequently, the ice would break off and blow away. Then the boots would be sucked empty, and the aerodynamic shape would be recovered. So, I always find the best way to represent these rubber linings is using the thin black paper that is used for packing my Armani shirts , or any other source of course. Anyway, pic 5 shows the left and right side strips for the central fin, ready for glueing to the leading edge. If you use water-based white glue, you have to use that very sparingly, because otherwise the thin paper will become sogged.
When all goes well, the tail will look as in pic 6.

[willygoat]

A job well done on one of the most iconic tail structures ever. Beautiful work Scon!

[scon10]

Thanks Willygoat, for your nice comments. Looking at the photo's, I now see, that the tips and edges of the fins and rudders still need trimming and colouring. Funny, how you stop seeing those omissions after some time in the real thing, but need a photo to become aware.

[BobGurkin]

First rate job. It's a pleasure to follow this build. Thank you

[SAustin16]

Scon,

Excellent job on the Connie.

I notice the rivet pattern in the silver areas. Is that a printed "effect", or an actual embossed pattern that you are applying to the surface of the paper? Either way, it really enhances the model.

A very enjoyable build thread.

Thank you, and Cheers from Texas.