Issue 84-The tail struts.

[wonwinglo]

84-Tail struts & hand holds.

Issue 84 contains two struts for the tailplane,and three other items which are two hand holds for lifting the aircraft from the tail,and a step to get into the cockpit,the struts are not very well made being quite bent in places but under no circumstances attempt to bend them into shape otherwise they snap,also one of mine was mis-moulded with nothing on the end where the strut cups around the fuselage longerons.This is not the only problem as the piece that should fit over the tailplane spar will not fit because there is no room for the elevators to move ! the only solution here is to grind off this portion and angle the strut to meet the trailing edge and to araldite it into place,the cups should also have been angled away from the lower longeron in order to fit properly,which they do not.As if this was not enough the step and the two hand holds need opening out to fit over the brass rod,all of the fittings fall short on quality,quite frankly it would be better to start afresh and to fabricate the struts from some streamlined brass tube available from model shops,but this should not be necessary.The pictures below show the dilemma with this weeks parts-



As can be seen,no way can the end of the strut wrap around the spar,here I have ground away the strut which will be araldited directly onto the spar,the tailplane has been bound in place with tape to get the measurements right.



A closeup of the tailplane & strut assembly,we have been instructed not to glue anything at this stage but put the bits away.

[Guest]

Would I be correct in assuming that Hatchette publications originate across the channel in France? There is a strong Gallic influence in all the photos and articles. Even the DH 88 photos were mainly of French registered ones and the majority of the personal profiles are French illuminaries..

[wonwinglo]

Would I be correct in assuming that Hatchette publications originate across the channel in France? There is a strong Gallic influence in all the photos and articles. Even the DH 88 photos were mainly of French registered ones and the majority of the personal profiles are French illuminaries..

*** This model has a long pedigree,Hasagawa produced the first super detailed Fokker Dr.1 in very small numbers,as little as 2000 models worldwide,the other in the series was a delightful Sopwith Camel to the same scale and an S.E.5A in equally small numbers issued,it is believed that either some arrangement was made with Hasegawa ( whose model had a plastic as opposed to the metal fuselage construction ) or the idea of a part-works Red Baron model was evolved strongly around this type of kit conveniently splitting it up into manageable parts,which were issued in Spain as the first issue,many of the build illustrations shown in the present Anglicised version differ from the parts provided with the magazine,this has not been without its problems ! this geared with poorly fitting parts and those made from a material called mazak which is very brittle have hampered the build.Regarding your question as to whether Hachette is a French based company ? well although there is an internet site with that name I believe that the London based company is a separate entity,communications with them seems to bear this out,the magazine content does however originate from French museum archives hence the emphasis on French aviators,in view of the build instructions being for the first issue in Spain they have probably used other content as well,the whole model seems to be a mongrel.

For information Hachette France did a Bleriot monoplane in the past.