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Ron Collins
designed and built this fine Boeing B-47 Stratojet a year or
so ago. He has proved its excellent flying capabilities on
various slopes since then. Here in Ron’s own words are his
views on the project.
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Ron
Collins with his Boeing B-47 Stratojet |
CONFESSIONS OF A MODEL ADDICT
Models. I was hooked. I liked to talk about them. I liked to design them.
I liked to build them. I liked to flv them. I liked to crash
them. Err, no scrub that last bit. I’m cured now.
All I do
is dream of the great projects I could build if I had the
energy.
Some years ago I
saw the perfect plane to model. Slab sided, with hardly a
curve over the whole fuselage. What could be easier?
Unfortunately it had been done before. Many times in fact, and
in all sizes. It is called the B-52. Hold on though, all is
not lost. That B-47 Stratojet looks pretty good I thought.
And
it hasn’t been modelled before, unless you know different.
The first prototype took to the air in December 1947. Boeing
had built 1400 of them ending production in 1957. This plane
was a biggy and damned heavy with it. It’s fuel load alone
was heavier than a loaded Lancaster. As to scale, I followed
the simple method of fitting the fuselage on to an AO sheet
which worked out at an overall length of 44.5” and a span of 50”. That’s a scale of 1:31 for the anoraks among us.
Pity about that
round fuselage though. A real modeller would of course simply
make some round bulkheads tack on a few stringers then plank
the lot with balsa to create yet another masterpiece. I having
no such skills - I reached out for the wimps stand-by. Insulation foam.
Hot wired white foam for both the mid-section
and tail section, glued on a piece of blue foam for the nose
and shaped the whole ensemble before covering in thin sheet
balsa. You’ve now got yourself an aeroplane. What could be
simpler?
I will admit I
did baulk at cranking out a set of six engine nacelles. The
originals were fashioned out of thin fibreglass tubes with
balsa noses and jet pipes. If I had only thought out the
problems earlier the job could have been done a lot quicker
and neater.
Since then Ted
Gibbs has turned out a wooden buck for me and Andy Conway has
blown a sample mould which looks really professional. Now that
I have the engine moulds I have started to look over my
aircraft books to see what other models I can use them on.
After all, if Andy can design umpteen models from the same set
of HAWK wings, then surely no one could object or even notice
a set of B-47 nacelles on my next few models. (Unless it’s a
Spitfire...Editor).
Presumably some
would have preferred an article giving a blow by blow account
of how I glued bulkhead A to topside B, but from the models I
see on the slopes few modellers need that sort of advice.
God,
doesn’t their professional skills make you vomit.
Now that
you’ve got the model completed what about the finish? My
usual method is Solartex sprayed with a car aerosol for quick
drying. The badges and emblems couldn’t be simpler.
Take a
book of squadron or wing badges (e.g.. “Aircraft Markings“
by Barry C. Wheeler. Prentice Hall Press) into a colour
photo copy shop to get transferred on to an A4 white sheet.
Cut out, stick on, spray over with clear lacquer. USAF emblems
can be got from the model shop or Letraset but those with
access to a computer can hack out their own on sticky back
paper. You can now take it up the slope and throw it off with
confidence. Will it win any prizes? Probably not. We’ll all
be admiring yet another perfectly turned out Spitfire.
Serves
you right for daring to be different!
Ron.
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