1/50 Lloyd 40.16

**rockpaperscissor** · #1 11-11-2019, 07:28 AM

I've been primarily focused on earth bound subjects for quite some time now, so I thought it was about time I turned my eyes skyward. I'm in the middle of Rickenbacker's book "Fighting the Flying Circus" at the moment, so perhaps that has inspired me. I'm still intimidated by all that rigging on most WWI birds, so I decided to take a crack at the Lloyd 40.16 prototype kit designed by our own Alcides (who has been largely absent for the past couple of years. I hope all is well with him), which has no rigging except for the control surfaces.

Lloyd built some really ungainly looking experimental aircraft for the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Lloyd 40.05, 40.08, 40.15, 40.16). The 40.16 was designed to improve forward visibility, which was always a problem with the front engined, tail draggers of the time. The fuselage was skinned with plywood veneer, as (apparently) was the center section of the wings - see 'Austro Hungarian Army Aircraft of WWI" by Peter Grosz. Alcides' model features all fabric wings, so I had to do a bit of Photoshop work.

I'm going to do a build thread on this one, and first up is the cockpit. I drew in some internal stringers, and added a couple of pedals to the foot tiller. I textured the seat in wicker, and made up some lap belts. I'm not sure if any of this is accurate, but it adds interest and, if inaccurate, will mostly be hidden anyway. The triangular windows that you see are for pilot forward visibility. The instrument panel will be added later in the build.

**Don Boose** · #2 11-11-2019, 08:08 AM

Great project.

I have a signed copy of Fighting the Flying Circus. It was the first used book I ever bought, with the help of the Roland Park Junior High School librarian.

Don too

**rockpaperscissor** · #3 11-11-2019, 11:04 AM

That's a treasure. First edition? I'm really enjoying reading it. It was ghost written from his war time diary, but really captures what it was like for the fighter pilots of the day. I picked up my copy at Army Heritage Days, USAHEC this past spring. It's a quality hardbound 1997 Lakeside Classics edition printed by R.R. Donnelly & Sons. It set me back a whole dollar. I buy a used military themed bag o' books there every spring, and it supplies my reading material for most of the year.

**rockpaperscissor** · #4 11-12-2019, 12:17 PM

Work on the Lloyd continues. After scoring and cutting out the fuselage, I glued the cockpit to one side, and when that was dry, folded over and affixed the other side. Then I folded down the cowl/radiator, followed by the portion of the fuselage immediately in front of the pilot. Everything lined up very well. To add a bit of dimension, I layered the front frame of the cowl. So far so good, but that was about to change.

I doubled the vertical stabilizer former, and glued the sides of the fuselage to it at the extreme rear. In hindsight, it would have been best to attach the cockpit only on one side. Despite being extremely careful, I did wind up with a very slight twist and banana caused by misplacement of the cockpit. If it was only fixed on one side, the fuselage would have been able to flex and avoid this pitfall. Lesson learned.

Then I cut out and dry fitted the remaining piece of the upper fuselage. In order to line up the plywood panel lines on the top and bottom, this piece must be slid backwards about a mm, leaving gaps at the front and rear of the cockpit opening. I'm going to have to get creative with the padded coaming around the cockpit. I still have to glue on the bottom piece of the fuselage which runs from stem to stern. If I can't manage this because of the banana, I'll have start all over again.

**RafaelDias** · #5 11-12-2019, 12:29 PM

wow! rockpaperscissor on wings

**Vinalssergio155** · #6 11-12-2019, 02:14 PM

From here it looks great.Thanks for showing the step by step Don.

**rockpaperscissor** · #7 11-12-2019, 03:08 PM

Yes Rafael, it has been a while since I built an airplane (or in this case an aeroplane, lol). Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sergio. The bottom of the fuselage did go on alright, but that banana warp is really bugging me. Hopefully it'll become less obvious as more parts are added.

**Rata** · #8 11-12-2019, 07:43 PM

I know from my own experience that square box type fuselages are the hardest to build true. Like Sergio says, your warp is not all that noticeable.

**YOAVHOZMI** · #9 11-13-2019, 01:07 AM

looks wonderful

YOAV

**Vermin_King** · #10 11-13-2019, 10:22 AM

Oh, my. Yes, knowing that there is a warp lets me 'see' it in the last photo above, but if you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have seen it. My aircraft collection is far worse. I don't know why I have such a hard time keeping aircraft 'true'