This is how I do it. My techniques

[Siwi]

What are carbon rods and what types of glues will work with them? They look very promising for antennae, radar, pitot tubes, struts etc.


From experience I find many designers struggle to make support rods and LG legs the right length despite their best efforts. I have taken to cutting the the parts with extra length as a precuation, then test fitting and trimming.

[Knife]

I picked up the carbon fiber rod from Tammie’s Hobby Shop in Portland, Oregon. Cost was $2.35 per meter long rod. But most hobby shops that have R/C aircraft might have them. I picked up the fiber optics and associated LED lights from Amazon.com. I tend to use a spot of white glue (Aleene’s) to tack the carbon rod in place, then use a drop of superglue to permanently fix it in space.

[Knife]

The next section has the passenger compartment. I copied the parts from the Schreiber-Bogan model passenger compartment to add to this model. It took a little trial and error to get the compartment built up, the published instructions are not very clear. No diagram or parts identification, just the instructions to assemble it “in numerical order”. After I got it put together I built up a partial fuselage section to make sure the parts from both models would fit properly. I cut out enough of the foam inner structure to make room for the passenger section. After building everything, not much can be seen through the model’s windows. I’m still experimenting with lighting the compartment to illuminate the whole interior.

At this point, I remembered that I was supposed to build some reinforced parts to mount this model to the base. This was after I had closed up the center section. Looks like it’s time to do a little deconstruction before moving on.

[Knife]

I should have mentioned earlier, but I didn’t use any of the parts of the internal frames between the bulkheads. Since I’m not gluing the fuselage skin directly to the internal frame they are not needed. So they are all tossed away.

I’ve included some photos of the rear engine pods. All for now.

[Tapcho]

These intricate tiny details really make your model exraordinary. What a sense of scale and size they offer to the viewer. I almost feel dizzy looking at those engine gondolas and ladders leading there. Just WOW!

Tappi

[Knife]

Next to be built is the control gondola. I’m doing this so I can get the lights for it in place and run the wires back to the battery in the center section. The first thing I figured out was to not allow pages from the model to land on the floor with a new puppy in the room. It only takes a couple of bites to destroy the parts you carefully cut out. The gondola for this model is very simplified, it only has a couple of walls to separate the 3 compartments. The Scheiber model has a much more complex cockpit. But its shape is incorrect, especially the keel. So I think the best plan is the modify the Scheiber interior to fit into the existing exterior. I used thread glued to the back of the ship’s wheel to represent the spokes. No way was I able to cut those spokes out.

[Knife]

The control gondola is complete. I added the interior from the Scheiber kit, along with some figures to populate the space. I used 3 red micro LEDs to light up the compartments. A resistor is added to the positive side of the LED leads to decrease the flow of power going through the LEDs. Without the resistor the red LEDs are too bright, and also suck away all the power from the other color LEDs on the same circuit.

[Knife]

Photos with the correct orientation.

[Knife]

I finalized the lighting in the passenger compartment. The goal was to provide enough illumination to show the interior without being too bright to keep with 1930’s era theme. Originally I tried fiber optics feeding into the positions Schreiber has in their passenger compartment ceiling. But that only gave little “spotlights” directed at the compartment floor. So I finally just used 3 micro warm white LEDs per side mounted in a small piece of white plastic acrylic glued to the outside of the ceiling, shining through the ceiling paper. After everything is working correctly, I spray painted the exterior flat black to prevent light leakage into the fuselage.

[Don Boose]

Magnificent model!

Don