Dragonflies
have been around for hundreds of thousands of years. Yeap. If you think
they were big back then (two to three feet for some species), the real
airplane that inspired this model had a wing span of eight meters.
Born in
France
, as you can infer by the baguette-like fuselage, this ornithopter
–ornitho/bird pteron/wing- (flapping-wing flying machine) created great
expectation –and confusion- but didn’t go too far. Far enough to
provide for steady modeling amusing, though.
Imitating nature has been a profitable path
for science, but not always works.
Since the beginning of aviation history a
number of designers tweaked around the concept, and in spite of some
encouraging little success, true achievement seems so far to have eluded
them.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The
model at a glance:
The fuselage was made of Sculpey. Some
styrene sheet was used for the flying (flapping?) surfaces, a heat-n-smash
canopy stamped over a mold of Milliput, a few lengths of wire and Aeroclub
wheels account for most of it (sounds easier this way, doesn’t it?).
In the photos you can see the construction
progress.
To abbreviate this article, regarding
mistakes, I would say: think of any, I did it. Can’t quite get my hand
with the panel lines (just two, one on each side along the fuselage); one
was too deep, the other too faint. I even ended up with a tail sitter, but
a trestle was sneaked below the tail.
A
basic interior was provided and the model was primed, airbrushed gloss black
–acrylic- and then given a few airbrushed coats with Testors aluminum enamel
(wings) and Humbroll 11 (fuselage). A leftover decal was trimmed and applied to
the vertical stabilizer and tiny decal strips made for the canopy framing.
It wouldn’t be out of place in a science-fiction
movie, would it?
Thanks to
master scratch modeler Alain Bourret for the spark that started this
construction.
Gabriel
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|