Lockheed Constellation a scratch build

[scon10]

The Brequet Deux Ponts in this forum is an inspiration to look at the grand propliners again, and therefore time to start on scratch building the Lockheed Constellation in scale 1:50.

The fuselage of the model is basically built up of a centre piece with bulkheads attached perpendicular to the centre piece, forming a sort of skeleton of the fuselage. Then skin panels are glued to the skeleton, see pic 1.

So I copied the side view of this airliner from a book I have, and cut out the contour on sturdy cardboard, around 1 mm thick. The cross sections of the Constellation are all circular, so at intervals of around 3 cm I marked the position of the bulkheads, see pic 1, and glued them in place.

To make a smooth surface, and give surface for glueing the skin panels, I covered the bulkheads with small strips of paper, see pictures. I started with the windows, since that is on a specific position on the fuselage, as you can see in the pictures.

[yankeekilo]

that's just awesome, l'm following

[Don Boose]

Outstanding work! It is a real pleasure to see your methodologies. To my eye, the original Constellation was one of teh most beautiful airliners ever built.

Don

[Erik Zwaan]

Beautiful! This is going to be very interesting to follow, by using short distances between the formers you really capture the streamlined fuselage as accurate as possible.

Erik

[rifleman]

wow im hooked looking great

[Isaac]

interesting technique

The early constellations looked nice.


Isaac

[MacSongLi]

You're off to a great start. Nice work on the fuselage.

I feel that the Connie was the pinnacle of airliner designs.

Thanks,
Gary

[scissorsandplanes]

looks amazing. Do you follow the actual panel lines to cut the skin? Don't tell me you attach them with rivets!

[Siwi]

Excellent. You're practically building it the same way as the real thing.

[T haf]

I'm excited to see the progress on this plane. For what it is already, it's pretty great