JohnnyK

 

 

Shipwreck

Great job, Don. Just looking at the rigging terrifies me!

 

 

 

 

I agree. I do not build biplanes because of the rigging. How on earth did you do the rigging? Please share.

 

 

It does depend somewhat on the era and the individual aircraft.  But, for WW1 era planes like the Jennie, with thin wings, I drill tiny holes in both top and bottom wings.  I glue thread to top wing, and feed thread (usually monofilament nylon stuff) through hole in bottom wing, which goes clear through.  I use slow drying (gel) CA cement.  I put a clothespin on end that comes through bottom wing before I apply cement, so there is some tension on the thread, then hit it with the glue and then with accelerator.  I use a scalpel to cut the thread as closely as possible to wing bottom surface, and then use a toothpick to put a daub of paint on that spot.

If the top wing is very thin the thread will often be visible from the top of the top surface, so I have to trim carefully and paint that spot also. 

By pre-tensioning the thread with the clothespin no shrinking is needed.

I must say the JN-4 requires more rigging than anything other than a DH-2 I built.  Both planes had a lot of control wire rigging in addition to the wing rigging, and drag and anti-drag bracing from fuselage to wing.

Shipwreck

Great job, Don. Just looking at the rigging terrifies me!

 

Setting aside all of its faults I like that kit, and you did a banged up job on it. That kit is older than most of the forum members and it has stood the test of time. It is time for a new Jenny and I would live to see one in 1/32nd scale. Again, yours is fantastic. It reminds me of that day and age of modeling for me and doing that kit and the 1/48th Aroura WWI bipes. 

1943Mike

Looks great in natural light!! I'm still very impressed with how you made the spoked wheels. The Kickin' Mule  and numbers look like you faded the paint a little .. whether you did or not ... no matter, it looks just perfect to me!

 

The wheels are PE from Tom's Model Works.  You have to use the kit tires, but the PE spoke and rims were bigger than the kit wheels, so I had to make my own tire halves.  Turned them from sheet styrene.  I used a lathe, I suppose one could use a dremel and the mandrel that the abrasive disks mount to.

I purposely made the mule a bit gray rather than black, plus I oversprayed the whole plane, after decal work done, with a medium gray (actually the gray used on part of paint scheme) to age/weather the plane.

Looks great in natural light!! I'm still very impressed with how you made the spoked wheels. The Kickin' Mule  and numbers look like you faded the paint a little .. whether you did or not ... no matter, it looks just perfect to me!

Very nice, Don, beautiful pictures.

Wow, that turned out really nice looking 

Spring is here, most snow has melted in the backyard, and the sun is out (mostly) today.  Got some of my sunlit photo backdrop photos today of the Jennie I finished this past winter.

Toshi

I’m most impressed with your build.  I have yet to currently do a Bi-Plane kit as of yet.  I did do a Bi-Plane as a very young youth, the old a Monogram Wright Brothers Flying machine.  I’m somewhat intimidated by the rigging of the Bi-Plane, I need to get over that.  lol!  Again, a beautiful and amazing finish to a unique build!  Congratulations sir.

Your friend, Toshi

 

As a start, I'd recommend the Revell 1:48 Stearman. It is a great kit, and the price is a steal!  The cabane struts are molded into the fuselage, so adding the top wing automatically puts it at the right angle to fuselage.  The rigging on the Stearman is minimal compared to older biplanes.

I’m most impressed with your build.  I have yet to currently do a Bi-Plane kit as of yet.  I did do a Bi-Plane as a very young youth, the old a Monogram Wright Brothers Flying machine.  I’m somewhat intimidated by the rigging of the Bi-Plane, I need to get over that.  lol!  Again, a beautiful and amazing finish to a unique build!  Congratulations sir.

Your friend, Toshi

Great work, Don! You did justice to the original.

Wow, that is a really nice build. You must be a really patient person to be able to install that rigging.

Great build, Don, and well done on the rigging!  That's a veritable cat's cradle in each wing bay.

Yeah, really nice work there Don. 

This looks great, Don. Fantastic work. One for the museum.

Hi Don ;

 I have that very kit ! Now I don't have the resin engine and stuff . Still as with other Lindberg Models it is a mild challenge .You did a very nice job on that Jenny !

Congratulations Don on "gettin' 'er dun!"    You did a great job on that Lindberg kit, and the insignia turned out fine.

Gary

Don,

Good job on that old Lindberg kit.

Fantastic build Don. Just can't fathom the amount of patience required for all that rigging.

Thanks for sharing the journey

1943Mike

Don, fine job on the Jenny.

Do you have any tips/warning/suggestions regarding the way you built the Lindberg kit?

As you know I'll be building it some day and have the resin engine. I also ordered the spokes that you used but I'll have to figure out how to work with those - no lathe but a regular drill and a couple of Dremels ... maybe I'll work it out somehow.

Anyway, your thread is now bookmarked as one of the benchmarks for when I get around to it.

 

I can tell you a few things not to do :-)  I figured I would pre-rig the tail and the upper wing, since these pieces have rigging that is complete within that part.  Mistake!  I ruined some of those lines putting the wings on, and had to redo those areas.

Also, I attached the landing gear to the fuselage before I added the wings.  In spite of jigs and measurements I did not get it level.  When I re-did it after wings on, I found the long wings very helpful in establishing the level of fuselage/wing assembly.

I used two schemes for rigging.  The first is where I drill holes in the wing to run rigging lines through, then glue and cut off excess with scalpel.  Second, for the bracing of interplane and cabane struts, is to use long piece of thread, knot around top or bottom of strut, go diagonally up to next attach point, repeat, etc.  Fewer holes in top wing to touch up, and it goes quicker.  You must plan each line to determine which way is better for each piece of rigging.

Beautiful work Don. Very nice job on the rigging!

Super, Don.

Don, fine job on the Jenny.

Do you have any tips/warning/suggestions regarding the way you built the Lindberg kit?

As you know I'll be building it some day and have the resin engine. I also ordered the spokes that you used but I'll have to figure out how to work with those - no lathe but a regular drill and a couple of Dremels ... maybe I'll work it out somehow.

Anyway, your thread is now bookmarked as one of the benchmarks for when I get around to it.

Really stunning work, Don. Truly gorgeous.

Cheers

Geez, Don, what a great build. My wife bought me this very kit a couple of years ago. It was such a struggle when I started to build it mainly because one fuselage half was badly warped. It's still in the closet somewhere. What a great looking build. You even strung the wings! So nice.