Ilya Muromets- This biplane is DONE!

Holy Toledo! Love it!

WOW Mike!  Looks really great.  I have to say though... looking at all that rigging... making me a bit queasy

Very nice! . All this rigging is amazing, especially the tail wing looks cool. I just finished a SPAD XIII, and thought I did a lot of rigging - ridiculous compared to your plane .

SirDrake 

Excellent!!!There's a special um, groove you're in taking on such unique projects.

Well done, Sir!!!

Stunningly fantastic work on the ol' Bipe.  The effort in the rigging alone is worth several models.

Darwin, O.F. 

I said I was almost done- well, now I am done COMPLETELY!

Not too much to say, save that I'm really happy how the props turned out, especially for my first attempt at natural wood props.

Now, just for fun, here's a shot of my entire collection so far.

DURR wrote:

you should present this aircraft  to the faculty , because what you have here is definatly art

Mike,

Very nice work on the tail.  It's an odd plane - which gives it a beauty all it's own.  Nice !

By the way - Nice doohicky !  (Am I allowed to say that ?)

Chris 

Wow, all i can say is wow.

...Guy

Holy moly!

What a monster.  You are to be congratulated.....I'd have to be persuaded big time to attempt one of those.

Sorry for the long delay folks, but lately I've been hammered when it comes to college.  I'm an art major, and I have a HUGE critique coming up with the entire art faculty, which I've been trying to prepare for.  I've been getting progress on my Ilya when I can, but it's definitely taken a back seat right now.

This build is nearly finished.  To tide you over, here's a few detail shots of what I WAS able to get done.

While the rigging on the wings was nice and orderly, the rigging on the tail is a venerable rats nest.  Not as difficult as the wings (more room to manuever), but still complex in its own right.

Spaghetti factory indeed...

A bit of work up front.  The guns are added, and some doohicky on the front.  Don't ask me what that is.  Parts for it were included in the kit (these are thinner replacements) and I saw ONE diagram for it in a book.  So, I put it in, just for visual flair.

Also got the wheels on.  Not sure if they're 100% correct, but they look right enough to me.

All that's left is one more gun mounting, and props.  Really close, now... 

WOW.

...A remarkable aircraft in astounding minature! I could gawk at it all day! Bravo! Truly, beyond COOL!

It did, but the wheels attach to the open holes in the outside skids.  This was to help in the event of a rollover (a common occurance) or possibly a wheel failure (also common).  There WAS, however, at least one Ilya which was fitted with skis.

The wheels are going on later, once I find a suitable shade (I don't want to use the same color as the skids). 

Oh man, that looks soo sweet. Did the plane have skids? Thats amazing. how on earth did it take off at all.

Great work fella, keep it up.

...Guy

Most Impressive Mike.

The rigginig really makes it.

Chris

Well, the wing is, anyway! 

There were a few hairy moments which resulted in nasty globs of superglue, like on one aileron wire, but it's not really noticable, and other than a few isolated cases, rigging went smoothly.  I was able to get the undercarriage installed and partially rigged (there's a few lines missing which connect to the outer wings which I'll get to later.

Since we're on the topic of ailerons, let me say this- the lines used to control them are some of the GOOFIEST things I've ever had to build.  Three lines on top branch out to six when they reach the control horns.  These merge down to four underneith the wing, which THEN all come down to one line which attaches to the forward lower wing!  Getting all this stuff attached TWICE?!  And keeping it SYMMETRICAL?!  Oh, buddy.  Very challenging.

This is the main reason I like the EZ-line- it stretches!

Next up- probably about six hours worth of rigging on the tail.  Until then! 

Geeeez, that looks amazing so far. Ive rigged a WW1 Neiuport and that was serious hard graft. You had more work to do on 1/4 of one wing. This thing is going to be sooo cool when finished.

...Guy