the DOCTOR
Sr Member
Back in the workshop, and recently was inspired by the GeeBee racer 'planes of the 1930s and 40s:
But, obviously, with a twist, in this case, two bloody great fan intakes for some sort of jet engine!
At the start, all I had was an old plastic dome clock dome, two acrylic toothbrush cups, two acrylic chocolate trifle containers, some offcuts of pipe, pipe fittings, and a plastic iced coffee cup, which rapidly looked like this:
From above:
The intakes have a pair of fans, made from laser cut 1mm acrylic, 18 blades each, set to be counter rotating:
A few days later, I'd taken a mould of the coffee cup, and turned out a section on the lathe to give it a bit more visual interest, along with an exhaust thing, made out of some ABS tube and a rocket-shaped pen:
Added detail to the cut out, and made a fixing to hold the engines to the body:
Also started on the cockpit and upper fairing, the canopy being a section from a plastic camping water bottle lid, and the fairing sectioned ABS tube:
Rather needed some wings and control surfaces, which is what we have here, carved out of ABS sheet and good old car body filler:
Which then presented me with the question of how this thing got on and off the ground, so undercarriage had to be built, out of hand cut brass sheet and tube, all soldered together:
Large front wheel is a radio controlled 'plane rear wheel, the two small wheels are from a recently released Dinky toy partwork, which was less than two pounds, so a bargain! Here's them in situ:
Of course, I couldn't have that big wheel sticking out while it was in the air, so it's retractable:
Now I've been moving onto smaller details, like these exhausts on the engines:
Yes, I know that it's got jet engines, but they look so right:
I've also made the cockpit canopy so it can slide open:
The cockpit tub is made from a plastic wineglass, cut in half:
Latest additions are a pair of fuel filler caps on the fuselage:
They fit into two shaped recesses on either side, and will be bright chrome when finished:
well, that's how she stands right now, hopefully I'll have some more time to devote to her soon!
But, obviously, with a twist, in this case, two bloody great fan intakes for some sort of jet engine!
At the start, all I had was an old plastic dome clock dome, two acrylic toothbrush cups, two acrylic chocolate trifle containers, some offcuts of pipe, pipe fittings, and a plastic iced coffee cup, which rapidly looked like this:
From above:
The intakes have a pair of fans, made from laser cut 1mm acrylic, 18 blades each, set to be counter rotating:
A few days later, I'd taken a mould of the coffee cup, and turned out a section on the lathe to give it a bit more visual interest, along with an exhaust thing, made out of some ABS tube and a rocket-shaped pen:
Added detail to the cut out, and made a fixing to hold the engines to the body:
Also started on the cockpit and upper fairing, the canopy being a section from a plastic camping water bottle lid, and the fairing sectioned ABS tube:
Rather needed some wings and control surfaces, which is what we have here, carved out of ABS sheet and good old car body filler:
Which then presented me with the question of how this thing got on and off the ground, so undercarriage had to be built, out of hand cut brass sheet and tube, all soldered together:
Large front wheel is a radio controlled 'plane rear wheel, the two small wheels are from a recently released Dinky toy partwork, which was less than two pounds, so a bargain! Here's them in situ:
Of course, I couldn't have that big wheel sticking out while it was in the air, so it's retractable:
Now I've been moving onto smaller details, like these exhausts on the engines:
I've also made the cockpit canopy so it can slide open:
The cockpit tub is made from a plastic wineglass, cut in half:
Latest additions are a pair of fuel filler caps on the fuselage:
They fit into two shaped recesses on either side, and will be bright chrome when finished:
well, that's how she stands right now, hopefully I'll have some more time to devote to her soon!
