A BIG Idea

[John Griffin]

I've had a secret 'dream' for a few months now... my wife still hasn't seen the light however, and my idea seems doomed. It's probably a dumb one anyway, but...
I'd love to have my own REAL aircraft museum in the back yard. By that I mean one or two 'replica' aircraft that I would build and display. I've been thinking about scaling up a paper design and building it out of metal- aluminum and galvanized steel sheet for the skins; plywood or built up metal for bulkheads and spars, etc.
I think it would be awesome to see a full size aircraft when I went outside or drove past. One of the smaller types would fit the space limitations... an F-104, MiG-15, and they would look nice in natural metal! Maybe an FW-190 in paint even.

I don't know how I would scale up the plans to the sizes needed though.

John.

[paper warrior]

Maybe take one part at a time, take it down to the xerox center or whatever, and get it scaled up and printed full size there. Then just lay the part over some sheet metal, and cut it out over the full size paper part, then bend.

[thewoodengraver]

You need to make a scale grid over the parts, then transfer the resized grid to the metal, then draw your parts.

[John Griffin]

Yeah- both those ideas seem like they'd work (although I think that to photocopy parts that big would have to be done in sections). The grid method has the advantage that it could be done with large rolls of chaep butcher paper.

I had thought of one of those old 'opaque projectors' like back in school- but where are they these days? And they always have the risk of getting bumped or moving about, and consequentlychanging the scale of parts accidentally.

Thanks for the tips!

[Billy Leliveld]

If you print a model on as I call it "milimeter" paper, you have a grid that you can scale up, now you can transfer this to any size..
Cheers Billy

[Bowdenja]

Talk with Rob.............. he gets to work on the real stuff at Pensacola........ he might be able to give you some ideas.

I would like an A-4............ small enough to fit anyway.

john

[Billy Leliveld]

Some more, I have to do this sometimes , for my profession I have to paint big backdrop paintings, I take a design, photo, or illustation and i just draw a grid over it, enlarge the grid on the big backdop, and transfer the original like that.. No need for big prints, or projectors..
Cheers Billy

[MOS95B]

If you don't trust your sketching skills (I wouldn't trust mine) do a search for "Opaque Projector". Dick Blick has several, like this cheapy one...

http://www.dickblick.com/zz530/15/

And, I love your idea!! I might have to steal it..., I mean, ummmmm, be inspired by it. Yeah. Inspired. That's the ticket.....

[Ben Gal]

If it takes twenty years to do it.

I did something like that, but this one was called a boat. It's a little like an aeroplane in that it uses monocoque construction and it has all the things you mention - spars, bulkheads, skins (even wings). But it ate up twenty years of my life.

If you are going to do it - do it properly and put an engine in it.

Or spend the time doing another one of your gorgious paper models. I've got Eunice in front of me, except I haven't worked my way past that tricky little bit around the "mouth" at the front.

Keith

[Kevin G]

I have this same thought running thru my head all the time.
My dream is of building an enlarged Wicked Wench though. Now all I have to do is convince the wife that the kids need a new playground.

Not likely to happen but man having a big pirate ship in the back yard would be awesome. I wonder if I could bring myself to actually let the kids join me while I play with it though!

[paper warrior]

Or make it seaworthy...

[MOS95B]

How about something like this....



http://www.wizkidsgames.com/mwdarkag...984&frame=news

[dinsour]

They actually did that during WW2 in England. They built full scale mock ups of B17s and Other bombers and fighter planes. They even built fake hangers and ground vehicles to fool the Germans. From the air, with the right camoflage they looked real enough that the Germans would send bombers to blow them up. They thought they had discovered a secret air base. So they wasted a lot of bombs trying to destroy them. We would then send a bunch of guys to build a new one some where else. It would only take a couple of days to do it, so we were able keep the Germans quessing.
They even started using these mock ups at the regular bases to draw fire away from the real planes.

-----------73 Ron

[sakrison]

Originally Posted by John Griffin

I had thought of one of those old 'opaque projectors' like back in school

What about the computer-based projectors we use for PowerPoint presentations? Scan the kit (or start with a downloadable kit) and add a scale rule to each page (so you project each page to the same scale). Then use your computer and Powerpoint projector to project the parts onto big sheets of paper.

"Results? Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results.
I know several thousand things that won't work."
-- Thomas A. Edison

No worries,
--David

[hpept]

Why not buying a real one? I've seen some old Cold War planes at sale for few thousands bucks. If I had a big enough place and a job to afford it (note: I live in a 80 square meters apartment and presently unemplyed), I would do it.