Hi,
Although I had to take a break from building for awhile, I recently got a chance to get back into it, so I thought I'd post a coupe images of what I have been working on (since it looks like this group build isn't set to end til Dec 31st)
Overall I guess my ideas for the build aren't so much "Steampunk" or "Diesel Punk" or anything like that, but maybe more along the lines of what you might see in a pulp adventure comic book from the 1930s or 1940s.
Originally I had planned to do something from the mid 1940s. However, after messing around with some ideas, I decided to move back a decade and do something more along the lines of a mid to late 1930s plane (partly because I liked the looks of "spatted" landing gear).
Although I originally had given some though to trying to completely 3D print my parts, I eventually decided that using an existing kit as a starting point might be easiest. I breifly considered using a Polish PZL-23 as a starting point I found an inexpensive copy of the Monogram/Revell Ju-87G2 zat Hobby Lobby that looked really suitable as a starting point, especially since it included big underwing canon podes and I also thought an inline engine might make the plane look sleeker than if I used a plane with a radial engine.
Anyway, here is where I am so far.
So far, I have Changed the planform of the wings a little, extending the root forward a little and deleting a kink in the trailing edge. I've also removed the "floating?" ailerons and flaps, and plan to relocate them to a more conventional location in line with the rest of the wing, but I'm waiting til I finish cleaning up my sanding of the wing and fuselage before I glue them into place. I hav e also added drooping wing tips to make the plane look a bit more non-conventional, but I haven't fully finished modifying them yet.
I've also deepend the fuselage a bit to make room for some cowl mounted machine guns forward and a "razorback" like shape aft. Although its not real clear in the pictures above I have also filled in the bottom of the fuselage from the under-engine cooler forward straight back to the tail wheel to make the fuselage look roomier.
I have changed the horizontal tail to be more trapezoidal in shape, and made the main vertical tail a bit more triangular. Eventually I intend to also add a smaller vertical fin at the ends of the horizontal tail, so that it looks a little more like the tail on the French Loire-Neiuport LN.401/LN.411 Dive Bomber or the Fairey Gannet.
Other than that I have also doctored up the "spats" just a little (in part to try and hide their Ju-87 ancestry) and plan to add/modify the underwing canon pods into some sort of "energy canons" or something like that.
Anyway, I hope to maybe get some more work done this weekend.
Pat