Sailplanes builds

[Anyun]

I have seen that some transparent plastics can yellow quite badly with age. I guess the only way to really check this is to put the plastic in a window for a few months and see what happens... On the other hand, I suppose one shouldn't keep the models exposed to sunlight in any case.

Nice Olympia by the way, a classic glider used in many countries,

[Isaac]

Originally Posted by Knife

Nope, I would rather eat apple pie than go to the dentist. But to each their own.

The more apple pie you eat, the more you will need to go to the dentist


Anyhow, you can get these anywhere including CVS Walgreens etc.....


Enjoy your pie.


Isaac

[Knife]

True story, I called to make my annual dental exam last December. First opening was 5 months later.


Anyway, the DFS Meise Olympia build is complete. I added the swastika, it is not on the model from the kit. Historically correct but not politically correct (understandable). One advantage of having 2 scales in one kit, it is easy to create forced perspective photos.



So here are all the 1/33 sailplanes together, and all the 1/50 scale general aviation models.

[Anyun]

The Olympia looks very elegant! How did you do the glassing, did you pre-form it in some way, or is it just glued together from a piece of apple pie plastic? In any case, it looks good!

You have quite a collection of sailplanes now. I recently ordered two of the GPM sailplanes, so i will probably also build some more gliders.

[Knife]

The plastic is just the thin apple pie plastic. It worked O.K. since the model is from the 1930's with flat windows. Looking at the close up photo of the 1/50 scale model, I could have done a better job of joining the top of the canopy to the fuselage. It needs to be flatter at the top. I like the way your SZD-10 turned out, and will use thicker plastic for the 1/33 scale models in the future. The apple pie plastic will work for the 1/50 scale models. I like it because PVC glue will grab and hold it to itself and the paper.


I agree that the Olympia has graceful lines. This whole sailplane project was kicked off by visiting the wonderful sailplanes on display at the WAAAM museum in Hood River, Oregon. I just love the curvy lines of the 1930's art deco gliders.



Any of the GPM kits #219 and higher (Olympia, Sroka, Grunau Baby II, Czajka, and Jezyk) will have both the 1/33 and 1/50 scale models. I just wished that they had continued to include the spoilers and separate control surfaces in these later kits.

[Anyun]

The thicker plastic has it's own issues though. It's very "springy" unless you heat form it, on the Czapla I had to add a frame (a thin brass strip) at the front end of the canopy to force the plastic to the correct curve instead of defaulting to a semi-circle. It is also a bit hard to glue. I used superglue, which works if you apply the glue with a pin and take care to not get glue anywhere except at the join.

[Knife]

I'm back from my type ride, now legal to fly the King Air 350. So now back to modeling. I broke out the old home-made vacuum forming machine to make the canopies for the sailplanes already constructed. That's when the daughter brought out the vacuum former she had bought, along with 50 sheets of ready-made plastic sheets. I guess it's time to toss out my old contraption. Using sculty clay, plugs were quickly made, and everyone got new glass in a single night.


Next build will be the SZD-15 Sroka, in both 1/50 and 1/33 scale. There is a good build report over at the Polish paper model site, [R/G] GPM 9/2004 SZD-15 Sroka [KONKURS] - Forum Modelarskie

[Knife]

I finally finished up the SZD-15 Sroka, along with a couple of Slingsby T2s, a Grunue Baby II, and an Enka.

[Draco]

Wow! I haven't seen this thread!
Sailplanes are an interesting subset of the hobby, yours look very good!
There is a site with some of them that maybe you would like:
Downloads - Modellbauseite
You'll need to search a bit but you'll find a lot of models there!

[MacSongLi]

Very nice flight of sailplanes.

Well done Knife.

Gary