A quick bridge

Somewhere I've got this model bridge. I think it was made by Hovels a long, long time ago. Went looking for it when I was setting up the Five Dogs but couldn't find it.

It's a bridge. A sort of rickety locally built thing on a back road somewhere. Should be easy enough to just quickly knock up something that would do the job.

No drama. I was right. Started setting the scenario up in the morning, was taking photos of the setup that afternoon - though the paint on the bridge was still wet.

Road just 3 pieces of balsa, fence posts my normal thin rod taking from the blinds kit I bought years (and years. And years.) ago.

Nothing 'clever' about any of this - road just painted earth over the base and bits of different browns brushed in.

The fence was simply sprayed army green that acted as the base coat.

The underside just had 2 lengths of balsa to raise it off the ground and act as a support.

Looks good on the table, that's what counts.

A sort of balsa Review

More a quick comparison of some of the balsa tanks and planes I've produced over the decades.

I started with tanks a long, long time ago. Most of those are gone but my 70s to 90s Japanese army had a lot of scratch built tanks and guns.  In those days, I made no attempt at doing accurate wheels - paint did the job. Just noticed that I didn't get round to posting my Japanese gun park, I'm tagging it on the end of this post.

Aircraft more recent - the Sukhoi Su2 is only a few years old. The A13s, on the other hand, followed on straight from the Japanese tanks and I did make an attempt on the wheels. The CS version has an early attempt by me at making moulds and casting in resin.

A comparison between the Sukoi and my nice, shiny 'new' Stinson and Boeing look-alikes.

The sheer size difference between 1/72nd scale (20mm) Sukoi and the other 28mm planes is quite obvious.

Next plane I make I might try and paint the fuselage as much as possible before I put the wings, etc, on - should make it easier. Though at the moment the ones most in consideration (apart from a tri-motor?) would be more Sukois or some Night Witches. I really would like a flight of Night Witches...

And here are some of what used to be a much larger and more varied collection of Japanese guns.Old Tiger road wheels were very useful.

Back to balsa - starting a Stinson(ish)

Some scenarios need aircraft - for example, visits to the Antarctic...

So decided to have a go at something that looks a bit like a Stinson. First question - why 'looks like' rather than do a Stinson. I'll get that one out of the way first - not very good at carving or cutting so don't know what it will finish up like, plus having to add bits that may not really look like the 'original' bits should. After this I would like to have a go at a slightly bigger generic 2 engined plane.

The initial blank I did ages ago - but just got back to the project a few days ago. One impetus was the release of the Reviresco paper Stinson - ordering a download and using the wings/fins as a template makes life a lot easier!

The first two pictures demonstrate quite clearly that I can't cut a straight line.

Wings added. I originally cut out thinnish wings, decided they wouldn't survive, so redid them a lot thicker.

Basic plane done. The tail has a bit of a gap between it and the fuselage - filler should do the job here!

Still to do wing struts, undercarriage and engine/prop assembly - could take me a few more days yet. The wheels and prop have been sourced from a very cheap Chinese Spitfire type - the Stinson should have a 2 blade prop, this version will have a slightly too small 3 blade one!