Caproni Stipa, Orlik, 1:33

[Claus]

A happy new year, Ladies and Gentlemen,

My Christmas present to myself were two new models from Orlik. The Bell X1 "Glamorous Glennis", the plane piloted by the late General Chuck Yeager, and the Caproni Stipa. I also bought the Laser cut sets.

I start with the Caproni, an ugly little experimental aircraft from the 30s.

The first part is the fuselage, shaped like a barrel. Three rings are the base that holds the frames.



Then the inner hull is mounted. First tubes are formed and they are fitted into the frame.

[Claus]

The same for the outside hull.

[Claus]

Now the cockpit interior. Several frames are glued to the base plate.



The control stick from 0.8 mm wire and the pedals. Here I used some thin cardboard strip, some rests from the laser cut set, and hardened it with cyanoacrylate glue.



The seatbelts have some buckles made of bras wire, and I have a thin metal chain that I use for the safety harness. The black frames will later hold the seats.

[Claus]

Now, all the parts are placed in the cockpit. The control stick, the pedals, and the frames that will hold the seats.



And then the seats with the safety harness.



A safety harness with chains. That's something new.

[rockpaperscissor]

A very impressive build so far. Your work is impeccable.

[Claus]

Next, the cockpit gets it outer hull. First, the innervlayer and then the outer. The inner layer gets some strutting. That's a lot of cutting.



Next to the pilot's seat, a lever is mounted to the hull.



Piece by piece the inner layer is built. It of course covers only the seat area.



The hardest part was the nose. There where many small strips to glue together.

[Claus]

Now the cockpit is glued to the fuselage.



As the curvature of the cockpit did not fit that one of the fuselage, I had to cat the fuselage open and cut away some millimeters of the struts. I decided to make the back part of the cockpit hull after mounting the front part. It seamed aesier.



When the glue was cured, I attached the back part, and everything fit well. Only at the nose I have to make some retouch.



All in all, I like the result.

[Claus]

The vertical stabilizer is mostly made of laser cut parts.



It is covered in an Italian flag.

[smithdr]

Colorful and very neat job! That nose with all those petals looks like a real bear. You did a fine job to my eye.


Dan

[rockpaperscissor]

This is really coming along nicely. It looks like a very difficult model to build.