Well, I've finally gone and done it.
After several years of thinking about it, a handful of aborted attempts and about ten months of steady work, I've finished the first of what I hope will be a series of kits. The completed model looks something like this:
This is the 1913 Dyott Monoplane, a singular and elegant little machine with a short but eventful career.
The kit is 1/33 scale and includes a fully detailed cockpit, laminated propellor (following Leif Ohlsson's technique) and spoked wheels. The model may be finished in either the exhibition scheme shown here or in R.N.A.S. livery as the aeroplane appeared after being taken over by the Admiralty in the early stages of WWI. The kit contains approximately 400 parts and is to be printed on a variety of media including white, grey, light brown and dark brown cardstock, regular printer paper and silver metallic cardstock (such as the now-elusive Red River Silver Paper). Some additional but common materials are required. It includes ten pages of detailed construction diagrams and some background information on the subject.
Here are samples of the instructions and parts pages:
I think it's a pretty nice piece of work - if I may say so - and I know that
I can build it, but I'd like somebody else to have a go at the thing and see what they can make of it. If anyone is interested in trying it out, let me know and I'll send it via an online file transfer service. Be aware that this will be a fairly challenging build - there are LOTS of little tiny fiddly bits. I'm in no hurry and have no deadline. I don't require a build thread, although it would probably be helpful should any issues arise. I'd prefer a builder who has some experience with highly-detailed card models, if only for the fact that there are a few tricky areas and I'd like an honest appraisal.
More pictures
here, so you know what you're getting into.
I'm happy to answer any questions. Thanks in advance,
Eric