Douglas Rolfe cutaway drawings

[Gil]

Hi Leif,

Great finds! I've spent a good deal of time studying Douglas Rolfe's illustrations.

Your post made me think about the "Golden Age of Illustration" and how lucky many of us were to have experienced it. I've found that cutaways are great design aides - the illustrator had many of the same problems as the designer, only made worse by the fact that a good portion of the 3D internal structure also had to be portrayed. I've come to call them "Fine Art for Engineers & Designers"...,

+Gil

[JohnM]

Excellent post Leif,
Some real useful info available there.

I downloaded the 'Trainer' pdf in the hopes that just maybe, someday, I will have a go at it. Strikes me that it should be reasonably adaptable to modify with a more complex or modern aircraft model.

Just another thought raised ... Does anyone know if there is a (Paper or plastic) model available of the Republic RC-3 Seabee? I'd really love to include one of these little cuties to my Flying boat collection.

I also get to wonder if any of the real ones still survive?

Johnny.

Google just answered that last question ... there's a lot of them still around, and quite a few for sale too. Quite reasonably priced too. OK, I've got enough water available locally, but I guess I'm too long in the tooth to start learning to fly full scale now. I'd still be interested in building an R/C one to go with my Cat though. As well as a paper one that is.
JWM

[Gil]

Originally Posted by JohnM

Just another thought raised ... Does anyone know if there is a (Paper or plastic) model available of the Republic RC-3 Seabee? I'd really love to include one of these little cuties to my Flying boat collection.

I also get to wonder if any of the real ones still survive?

Johnny.

Google just answered that last question ... there's a lot of them still around, and quite a few for sale too. Quite reasonably priced too. OK, I've got enough water available locally, but I guess I'm too long in the tooth to start learning to fly full scale now. I'd still be interested in building an R/C one to go with my Cat though. As well as a paper one that is.
JWM

Hi Johnny,

Seems the Seabee is a one-of-kind aircraft. Problem is once you get interested in it, it is very hard to forget.

I started dabbling when messing about with aluminum clad cardstock. I can't bring myself to allow the RC-3 in anything but its natural aluminum for some reason.

Attached is a WIP render...,

Best, +Gil

[JohnM]

wow, you've captured the curves well there Gil.

Not wanting to divert Leif's thread off subject, please PM me if this model been developed any further.

Johnny.

[whulsey]

Thanks for the info. Even if its subjects I not that into, I love looking at the illustrations done during that period of time. As someone said truely a "Golden Age of Illustration".

[Leif Ohlsson]

Oh, please divert ahead. Don't own this thread, just started it. Have nothing more to contribute. Interested in wherever it may go.

Leif

[JohnM]

OK Leif. As long as you don't mind.

Just to say I found a plastic kit for a Seabee ...

Old Plastic Model Kits: model airplane kits, Revell, Monogram, Aurora

But at that price I guess they are pretty rare huh?

I also found some plans for a Flying scale Balsa one.

Republic Sea Bee

These could well be useful towards a paper one too methinks.

I'll start a new thread if I get anywhere with it, but my production rate is slooooow, and there's too many in the pipeline already.

Johnny.

[chicharrero]

I have a 1/50 scale Seabee paper model from Zealot Forum.
It is not a high detailed model, but I think the only paper model
of this bird.

[rickstef]

James Harrison made a model of the Seabee, in red and blue

not sure where it is available

[Swampfox]

If your interested in an excellent collection of illustrations done during WWII, check out this amazing book.

Graphic War: The Secret Aviation Drawings and Illustrations of World War II: Donald Nijboer: 9781554078929: Amazon.com: Books

You'll be busy for days, weeks just paging through this one.

SFX