SPA Modeler

There are several plastic ones that sturdy enough. I cannot
Find the one I have listed any longer. But, Fiskars makes one, Dspaie makes one, etc.

What I use most often these days is my Sihlouette Portrait cutter. Works like a charm.

Found it. PKN4101 - Modelcrafy Circle Compass Cutter 10mm to 150mm

Thank you for your recommendations, Lyle! I was watching an Airfix biplane build on YouTube (“Greg’s Models”) where he used this but of course he didn’t say what it was he just cut circles with it. Thank you, sir!

His videos are well worth watching.

https://youtu.be/Fuh2CzBHUE8?si=aV2PXyz9sWM3KVIF

Last night I undid the parts after giving them a light soak in warm water to release the PVA glued joins; it didn’t take very much water to do this.

Original Instructions



Starting the design

I’m thinking about removing the plank designed by Revell as a cockpit support and replacing it with two brass/plastic/wood rods then add a properly enclosed rectangular box for a cockpit itself because it would be much better looking and give myself some additional practice.

I built the cardboard mockup last night. Now I’m translating the ideas into styrene for the first part of construction.

Building the office

Super fun! Basically some of my thicker Evergreen brand styrene sheet (same one I'm using as a palette) and an extremely simple shape. It really does support the structure well. Cosmetically it's still quite simple at this moment but I think I can dress it up with controls and of course a new instrument panel that will dominate the office. It was Carlos who brilliantly used a toothpick as an antenna mast; here, I'm using a round toothpick to replace the front support. A hidden gem, in a way. It does the job quite well. There's no shimmy between the test fitted parts.



Overhead view

The fit is quite good even with the bottom wing attached, too. I didn't take photos of that, though. I only had time to do a couple of quick snaps. You can see that the box shape fills the Revell cockpit completely. This was a really quick stick 'em together sliced pieces project, but the sides are square. I needed to slightly thin down the back wall which will represent the fuel tank or support a half shell version of the tank. I'm not even sure if that wil be needed here, but hanging details off the frame itself should be where the rather boring looking rectangular box starts to take on some character.



Note I'm using the kit seat part just as a way to suss out the position. It really feels like I've been working on this one project forever. I'm going to go back and take a look at the Nieuport just to see what was going on there. I should be ready soon to start adding the cockpit details to this and from that point, I'll be able to move even further on with this project. Thank you so much for following along.

All very nice work Bruce!