Murph's Models - Curtiss 18T-2 Wasp Navy Racer, 1/27, beta build

[altbob]

Excellent thanks!!

[papermate]

Okay, the Army version is now completed in enhanced build. The enhancement includes
Leif's layered props, clear wind shield, full riggings, machine guns, gun turret and mount
control wires for the horizontal stabs, cockpit interiors for the pilot and the gunner and joy
stick for the pilot, gun ports, exhaust cones and perforations at the nose cone.
And spinning props in the first pic.

Hope you'll enjoy the pictures, the second batch is close-ups.

Papermate

[papermate]

Second batch on close ups of the details

Papermate

[papermate]

Missed one of the cockpit with instrument panel.

Papermate

[Don Boose]

Truly outstanding job on this model, Papermate. The overall look is superb and the detail is exceptionally well done. I think this is one of your best so far. You set a really high standard.

I love the look of these early post-WWI U.S. Army and Navy aircraft.

To my eye, the Wasp has something of a Sopwith look to it.

Don

[YOAVHOZMI]

like your work, very accurate.

YOAV

[Burning Beard]

Beautiful job, well done!

Beard

[Leif Ohlsson]

Very gratifying to see!

Those interested in propellers may also appreciate the "simplified layered prop". It is in fact not layered at all, but made up of two principal parts - the front of, let's say the upper, blade continues to make up one side of the hub. It then continues, without break of any kind, as the back side of the lower blade.

There are a few other parts making up the back and front of the hub, but essentially it is a two-piece design, front-back & back-front.

In fact, I'm waiting for the time when this kind of design will become standard for props in paper modeling, not just because it is simple, but because it reflects the true geometry of a propeller, and because you can replicate the layering graphically instead of building it up.

But perhaps I'm just pretentious... Making a truly layered prop results in a piece of art, and it also reflects the way props really are made. It's just not very good for printed commercial models - too many sheets of paper.

- L.

[looker]

Working props were laminated for strength and so that they would be free from defects such as knots, shakes and inclusions. They were made from a single timber for homogeneity. Variations in appearance between layers were therefore limited and random and not outstandingly noticeable at model scales.
Laminating from contrasting timbers, likely with dissimilar structural characteristics, is a more modern fad perhaps better hung as an arty ornament on the wall rather than used for real.
Just a thought.

[Leif Ohlsson]

That's a bit of a downer. Still, I believe you, and thank you for that reality check, Looker! - L.