Wonwings Diary-a blog with a difference.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-A case for Scrapheap Challenge.



Bunkerbarge gave me this idea ? with the sheer variety of modelling interests on scale-models he wondered what we could come up with if let loose in that scrap yard ? well I have done this rendering of objects that encompass our own interests.

A sort of flying car with obvious nautical connections !

Remember the Emmit character ? who used to build those remarkable contraptions and display them at places like the motor show etc,one was a huge birdlike creature that flapped its wings and moved its neck,very clever chap.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Our diminishing flying fields.



The local racecourse here in Warwick has been used for model flying since the 1930's,over the past few years a mown strip has been maintained by the local council,the strip is some walk away from the former car park due to the fact that the area itself is on the other side of the common.

A few years ago complaints about noise led to a review of the flying facilities offered,after much debate the flying times were cut dramatically loosing two days out of the week,and further restrictions on the times of flying,one of the days was a Sunday when for a lot of people was the only day that they could devote to flying their models,coupled with the obvious un-predictable weather this added a further serious restriction,if that was not enough a new housing development came along right on the outskirts of the racecourse and backing onto the former car parking area,in the councils wisdom they built another much larger car park further down the road,some considerable distance and with a pay and display function,this area is even further from the model strip,and requires quite an hike with model and heavy equipment to get there,the car park has been a disaster being too far from the town centre and nobody uses it during the week even.

It just seems that one obstacle after another has been put in the way of the modeller wishing to fly,first the restrictions on time and days,then the parking problem.

I wonder how many more areas of the country have been affected in this way through ignorance from those not interested in modelling ? and how many more potential flying areas have been lost due to similar circumstances,recreational areas are not to be taken lightly and our valued flying sites are constantly under threat.

One aspect of the above that did not go down well, was the councils lack of consideration that was given to gliders and electric flight models,they refused to make any concessions for these types of models which make no noise.

So effectively they have killed the use of the common land for model flying and placed car parking in areas of no use to anyone.

A great pity that such a great hobby is restricted and flustrated by such measures which are so unnecessary,the council have taken such a negative view.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-A monument planned for Fred Dibnah MBE.



A fund has been set up to pay for a bronze monument in memory of the late Fred Dibnah,the monument hopefully will be placed somewhere in the Bolton area in memory of Britains most famous steeplejack and steam engine enthusiast who did so much for the movement.

Freds two precious steam engines have been moved for safe keeping and winter maintenance while his estate is sorted out,meanwhile the fund raising goes ahead.

Local council have provided £13,000 and the total required is estimated to be in the region of £30,000.

Another good bit of news is that the small mine built in his garden will not now be filled in,neighbours complained about the mine saying that it was in-appropiate,a survey has confirmed that it can stay put in Freds memory,another fitting tribute.

Fred Dibnah has become a modern icon of times past,his love of steam powered vehicles and hands on back yard engineering has been well documented on national television,the publics inteest in his life story is now at an all time high.

Thank goodness he got that MBE which was so well deserved.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Consolidation & Disciplines.



With a whole new year ahead of us it is time to start thinking about any new models ? well I was just about to pull out a kit from my stash when it occured to me that it would be better to try and consolidate a few of my other projects this year,it is so easy to get started in a new model and forget about others still incomplete,so it was time to sit down and put some discipline into what needs doing,this is what I found-

My eleven foot span Avro Lancaster is now into its sixth year of build,although 65 per cent built it still needs a lot of detail work doing to complete her,all cockpit detail has yet to be installed and following a lucky find of a cockpit canopy for her on e-bay that can be installed,the rudder assemblies although complete are not satisfactory and I intend on making a new set to improve them,biggest job of all is to remake the engine nacelles which got damaged when the model had been stored assembled in a barn which had a flood,the paper mache build ups had not been primed at the time and suffered extensive damage.

Then the big job of covering her and painting can take place,no easy matter on a model this size.

Moving onto other models the Fokker Dr.1 Triplane needs varnishing and detail work,then a crate to be made for her,my old 300 flight hours Flair Pupeteer needs a major overhaul to keep her flying,so that will be a complete strip down job,then a decision needs to be made for my Sunday Flyer which has suffered a lot of oil soakage,possibly a new fuselage on that one ?

Then a complete check up on the hangar residents to see if any mice have attacked any models this year,the little perishers made a meal of some wire harness and made a nest in a fuselage last time ! hopefully we will not have any bother with wasps nests this year either,last time one of my hangars was out of bound for months following an invasion of them.

So when you look at the work in hand it is enough to keep me busy for some time without starting anything else,so I think it is consolidation and disipline in order to get a few jobs done this year,we will just have to see how things go along.

[Guest]

Very nice. After years in Scotland. I moved south to Kent.Always very interested in models. One of my customers (as a typewriter service engineer.) was the Hornby Factory at Margate.I took a long time to do the servicing that day. These are only things that you could imagine about staying in rural part of Scotland. Again I've went on to meet famous people a thing I'ed never dream off.

Have a Good and Happy New year to all in 2006. Keep on wrting too, I will be reading with interest.

Martin

[wonwinglo]

*** Martin,very interesting,a long time ago I applied for a job in the experimental department at Rovex,the wages were so low that I never pursued it any further !

Very nice. After years in Scotland. I moved south to Kent.Always very interested in models. One of my customers (as a typewriter service engineer.) was the Hornby Factory at Margate.I took a long time to do the servicing that day. These are only things that you could imagine about staying in rural part of Scotland. Again I've went on to meet famous people a thing I'ed never dream off. Have a Good and Happy New year to all in 2006. Keep on wrting too, I will be reading with interest.

Martin

[Guest]

Barry,

The cartoon is great, I still marvell at your wealth of talent! Do you have enough pictures to merit asking John for a "Painting/Drawing" category in the gallery?

Most of what I have seen of your water colours are usefull reference as much as attractive pictures.

[wonwinglo]

***Richard,many years ago before we used to send e-mails,I used to intersperse letters with watercolour drawings,the diary uses exactly the same format to keep the text alive,the drawings run into hundreds not all transport subjects but landscapes,flowers etc as well,the little renderings also keep me in practise and give enjoyment to others as well.

My theory is that both music and painting are gifts to use,I just wish that I could play the guitar !

The aircraft drawings are accurate as I use the real aircraft to sketch from,or if I cannot get the real thing then a model has to suffice.

Barry,The cartoon is great, I still marvell at your wealth of talent! Do you have enough pictures to merit asking John for a "Painting/Drawing" category in the gallery?

Most of what I have seen of your water colours are usefull reference as much as attractive pictures.

[Guest]

Barry.

Some of these low paid jobs can turn out to be very interesting, alas the wage is part of the consideration.

Martin

[wonwinglo]

*** I agree Martin,it would have entailed re-locating at expensive Margate,they would not entertain any recompense,a pity but it was not to be.

Barry. Some of these low paid jobs can turn out to be very interesting, alas the wage is part of the consideration.

Martin

[Guest]

Barry if you dont have the time i can help build your lancaster internals just let me know the scale etc

[wonwinglo]

*** Thanks for the offer Nigel,but they are all built sitting ready for installation,instrument panel,seats,control column,navigators table etc etc even a tiny map folded ! what happened was I got stuck on the very large canopy,a school wanted to do it as a design technology project but let me down,then believe it or not one cropped up on E-bay of all places,it said something like if you have a shed full of balsa then you can build a Lanc,I wrote to the chap and told him that I had the model just wanted a canopy,anyway I got it,it was made for some TV company Lancasters that were used in the 'Avengers' remember it ? Stead etc,a very lucky find,this is such a large model that I have to work on her outside when the weather is good,but it was built in smaller sections in my small shed,everything plugs and bolts together,she will get finished,but thankyou again for your kind consideration.

ps-The undercarriage was made up for me by a model engineer friend,I made one assembly in wood and he had them cast in metal,bushed them up and fitted the wheels which came from the States.

Barry if you dont have the time i can help build your lancaster internals just let me know the scale etc

[Guest]

No probs mate just ask if needed

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Proof of the pudding & when things go right.



Well these shots were taken a few years ago of my twice plan sized Vultee Vanguard rubber driven model,yes rubber powered ! sixteen skeins of brown rubber secured into a bobbin at the rear and up front is a propeller that was carved by my dear father back in 1946,it is pictures like these that make everything worthwhile,every little part fashioned from pieces of balsa and ply,then lightweight tissue doped into place.

Virtually everyone has built a frail rubber driven type of model,trimming them to fly properly is a real black art requiring mini wafer thicknesses of ordinary writing paper and a watchful eye for what the model is about to do ! notice the long grass in the pictures just in case of a nervous wing drop at the wrong time,such models as this I cut my teeth on,while everyone else was on Marmite I was still tasting rubber lubricant for the motors ! but one thing it did was to teach me the fundamentals of flight,after all there was no radio control in these lightweights.

The basic plan was the old Earl Stahl drawing from one of the early American magazines,you sit down and trace out the bits,pick he lightest wood that you have and pin prick through into the grain,then join up th dots and cut out a self made kit of parts,perhaps three days of work preparing those treasured small components.

You have to be prepared that sometimes not every model will fly properly,some work out just too heavy despite the care and attention to heavy piano wire pieces,its a challenge.

These days I prefer to add lightweight radio and fit these tiny efficent electric motors weighing a few grams,after all it saves running around which requires too much huff and puff ! but it goes to show just what can be achieved in a very low tech way and something that costs very little to build in the first case.

You can still buy some excellent little kits today for these small scale jobs but they nearly all fall in one respect,that is they are just too heavy to perform properly, and need lightening by careful sanding or removal of wooden discs punched out with a specially made sharp tool.

Sometimes things go terribly wrong,other times you just get those results that you wanted,it is all part of the challenge,and above all what scale modelling is all about,just keep at it and you will get results eventually !

[Guest]

Barry,

This reminds me of a time about 35-40 years ago when my father made a rubber powered model for my brother and myself. We took it to a field and had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon flying it but couldn't work out why the plane did a beautiful circle round the circumference of the field and came back to us every time. We even got the hang of how many turns on the motor was required to get the plane to almost land at our feet and the challenge became to get it to return as close as possible to us on the ground.

It wasn't until we broke it down to put it back in the car that we realised we had counted the wing frames incorrectly and offset the wing, held on by elastic, by a half a frame width. This taught us an invaluable lesson that we used after that to determine the radius of the arc the plane would fly to best suit the field we were in at the time.

It is remembering little gems like that that make me sad that I havent got any kids to pass them on to.

If anyone has any spare kids they can lend me for Sunday mornings I'm your man!!

Maybe that is why I enjoy the forum so much!