For My 70,000 Post: Aeroplane In A Bottle....

[The Magistrate]

Someone was kind enough to point out to me that a late post of mine last night was the seventy-thousandth I have made here, and as that is a decent round number indeed, I thought to mark the occasion with a display of my private madness cum meditation. This the last scratch-built model I have completed, a Maurice Farman M.F. 11, in 1/72 scale (one foot to the inch). It is a 1914 design, and odd as it looks to modern eyes was a quite successful machine in its day, forming a very large portion of the equipment of the French Aviation Militaire prior to 1916. This particular example, No. 657, was used by Escadrille MF 62 during the summer of 1915, and employed on reconnaisance flights over the Third Battle of Artois.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Congratulations, my dear Magistrate!

This is an awesome milestone, and these pictures are a wonderful way to celebrate it!

I wish you many many more intelligent, thoughtful, wise posts!



And ...

Look out!

I'm right behind you! :evilgrin:



:party: :toast: :toast: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :toast: :toast: :party:

[The Magistrate]

7. Thank You, Ma'am

And indeed, you do seem to be closing fast....

[Richardo]

2. Wow.

That is fantastic work.

Mazel tov, Magistrate! :patriot:

[The Magistrate]

8. Much Appreciated, Sir

Thank you!

[Pierre.Suave]

3. I am mightily impressed

with both your posting ability, and that plane, which looks very well constructed.

[The Magistrate]

9. Thank You, Sir

It is pretty fragile, actually: the tail assembly wobbles a bit if it is picked up. The rigging actually does brace the model, as it did on the actual machine.

[mainegreen]

4. Awesome.

Love those old planes.

[The Magistrate]

10. Thank You, Sir!

They have fascinated me since childhood, and the earliest period, when there was not yet a consensus on what were optimum forms, has the greatest draw for me.

[surrealAmerican]

5. That's beautiful.

congratulations.

[The Magistrate]

11. Much Appreciated, Ma'am

The concentration required for such miniature construction has a calming effect on me....

[supernova]

6. Beautiful work, Sir

And :applause: for 70K+ posts.

It wouldn't be DU without you.

:-)

[The Magistrate]

12. You Are Too Kind, Ma'am!

Thank you.

[InternalDialogue]

13. First of all, sir, congratulations on the round numbers in your post count.

I always look forward to the content of your posts.

Second, if I may, a few questions?

Were the plans you used to construct your model your own? The model itself is remarkable; that you might have worked from your own plans would make it more so.

Might you post more pictures of your other models?

Finally, what is the piece of porcelain behind the model in the photos?

[The Magistrate]

18. Thank You, Sir!

A variety of plans were used, and melded somewhat, as they did not all agree in certain aspects and dimensions. Photographs, when available, should be preferred over drawings, and there are a couple of these machines preserved in various museums in Europe that have been extensively photographed by hobby-ists willing to share their pictures, aa well as a great many surviving photographs of the machines in service. The chief over-all drawings were ones by Mr. Ian Stair, and ones provided in an old reference by Harleyford Publications, now long defunct. I also used a number of period materials, including copies of component drawings appearing in a 1914 issue of Flugsport, a manual on the 80 hp Renault motor, a Royal Flying Corps rigging instruction for the type, and the French monograph on Farman machines, published in 1916, that the model rests on in the photographs. A French gentleman. Mr. Albert Denis, has put on-line a very detailed history of the 62nd Escadrille, well illustrated with photographs of its early machines and personnel, that was of immense help in the project.

I do occasionally post pictures of my models here, but not often, and generally only on some occasion or other.

The 'porcelain' question threw me for a moment, but what you are seeing there is just a white plastic storage container, held up as a reflective background to reduce shadows and magnify a little the effect of the camera's flash. We do nit use any elaborate set-up, but a light reflective background helps somewhat.

[NoPasaran]

14. A magnificent Shorthorn!

I think I remember you posting this on Hyperscale a few months ago.

[The Magistrate]

19. That I Did, Sir

I had no idea you frequented that excellent forum as well. What is your moniker there, so I can look out for your work?

[sammythecat]

15. That's a beautiful model

Very nice. :applause:

Funny how that looks like such a contraption compared to a sleek and fully clothed modern airplane. I like the "contraption" look better. Cars and airplanes have all gotten more boring to look at over the years in my opinion. And ships too, no ship more elegant and lovely to look at than a sailing ship.

[The Magistrate]

20. Thank You, Sir

The contraption period is my favorite as well. In the early days, it was far from clear what the best form for aeroplanes to take was. This beast actually matched or exceeded the performance of a number of machines that more closely resemble what strikes the modern eye as an airplane, and the chief draw-back of this configuration was not air-worthiness, but that it took more labor to maintain and keep in proper flying trim.

[Call Me Wesley]

16. Congrats, Sir!

Great work and model! I always love to read about the history of these planes, especially in the times of the early 20th century when all was at stake. :hi:

[The Magistrate]

21. Thank You, My Friend!

Good to see you around the place still.

Odd though their products look now, the Farman brothers were about the most successful of the early designers in commercial terms, boasting the largest aeroplane factory in the world at the outbreak of the Great War. Thus they had quite a leg up on the rest when the big contracts for air service expansion came down....

[TZ]

17. Impressive.

My dad used to build model airplanes when he was younger. QUITE the undertaking. He would LOVE that. Congrats on 70,000 very polite posts!:)

[The Magistrate]

22. Thank You, Ma'am

I took it up again in my dotage, and am doing things I would very much have liked to do as a boy. Having worked for some years as a jeweler when a young man left me some skills that apply well to this sort of thing.

[bluesbassman]

23. Marvelous work Sir!

Bravo for a job well done, and congratulations on your prodigious and honorable post count.

[The Magistrate]

27. Thank You, Sir

Though not strictly a blues, here is an old favorite you might enjoy hearing....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CPn4-uukrk

[bluesbassman]

32. Great rendition, Sir!

Any idea who the artist is?

[The Magistrate]

33. No Idea, Sir

I have sometimes though Allan Lomax, but seriously doubt that is correct. I stumbled onto it a year or so ago, and am glad I did. The song, and the whole tale of it and its development, is a fascinating thing.

[Bossy Monkey]

24. Congratulations and awesome, respectively, Sir.

Was wondering if you'd been to Udvar-Hazy yet? http://www.nasm.si.edu/UdvarHazy/

[The Magistrate]

28. Much Appreciated, Sir

I do not travel nowadays, and have never been to that museum, but am familiar with its collection: photographs from there are in wide and useful circulation.

[Bossy Monkey]

36. It's the rare museum where photographs DO do it justice

(even our amateur and amateurish ones came out brilliantly) so if I say "you're not missing much," I mean it in the farthest sense from the usual snide usage; rather, it's such a dang spectacularly laid out and beautifully lit museum that if you've seen the photographs, you've seen the museum.

[jobycom]

25. I want to post something clever and memorable to honor you, sir.

But all I can think of is "JESUS CHRIST I THOUGHT I HAD NO LIFE!!"

70,000??? I, as a professional slacker, bow to you, sir!

(And every one of your posts has been pure class, I might add.) :applause:

[The Magistrate]

29. Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Well, My Friend....

Poor health has its privileges.

Many thanks for the kind words!

[LaurenG]

26. What a beautiful creation! And congrats on that 70,000

I think you just may be second in posts - behind our much missed newyawker99. :hi:

[The Magistrate]

31. Our Miss New Yawker, Ma'am, Is Deeply Missed

I hope all is well with her. I doubt I am second; there are a number of people senior to me still here. Posts do rack up when serving as a moderator, however....

[Blue_Tires]

30. brilliant stuff, sir...

I was wondering if you had taken up the hobby again (I still remember when you posted that Spanish plane a couple years back)...How many hours did you put into this one?

I'm also impressed at how much history you know behind the plane...

[The Magistrate]

35. Thank You, Sir

This one took several months, and at a guess probably required five hundred hours or so, some of it self-inflicted, such as repairs required after dropping the freshly assembled wings. Keeping track of the time would lead to madness. The modeling is a reflection of interest in the history of the period, serving as a sort of illustration, and nowadays, with the noosphere of the internet, there is a surprisingly large amount of information readily available: someone out there knows the answer to just about any question you care to ask on damned near any subject. I appreciate your recalling the Spanish machine, there is just something charming about the words 'air cover for a column of Anarcho-Syndicalist militia'. I recently got another copy of the kit, and intend doing it as a machine operating from Madrid over the Altos de Leones; its pilot died of a heart attack while on a combat flight. My current project is a Martinsyde 'Elephant' operating with 'Dunsterforce' at Baku in late 1918. that is a very tangled tale involving, among others, a boy-hood friend of Rudyard Kipling, Persian Constitutionalist revolutionaries, Ossetian Cossacks, Enver Pasha, Social Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks, and of course a good deal of oil....

[Forkboy]

34. That's amazing!

Zen and the art of model making. I can't sit still for 5 minutes, physically or mentally. I tried to build one of those once, to lesser results...



Outstanding work. Congrats on 70,000, and thanks for the tiny history lesson as well. :toast:

[The Magistrate]

38. Thank You, Old Friend!

That is indeed how some of these wound up looking. Still, it could have been a god landing....

"It's a good landing if you can walk away from it. It's a great landing if you can use the airplane again."

[bigwillq]

37. Congrats on 70,000!

:toast: :bounce:

[The Magistrate]

39. Thank You, Sir! Much Appreciated!

[bigwillq]

40. Kick

[bluedigger]

41. That is a great job, Magistrate!

Really nice work! I am quite jealous! Two questions. How many hours do you think you put into it? And what is the object on the wing to the left of the cockpit? Fuel? Weapon system?

[The Magistrate]

42. Thank You, Sir

To answer your questions....

A very great many hours, but I did not keep track. The project took over three months.

That is a camera, of 120 centimeters focal length. It was the largest size employed by the French at the time; one was issued to each reconnaisance escadrille. It was the unit's magnifying glass, so to speak, used to take detail pictures of points which had drawn the interest of Army headquarters on pictures taken by smaller cameras. It was mounted on the side of the nacelle in the only photograph of one in operational use on an M.F. 11 I have seen.

[bluedigger]

56. Guess I should have figured that out

when you said that it was from a reconnaissance squadron...:shrug: Contraptions upon contraptions. Very cool!

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

43. Meh. It's hard to dust.

So I took off all those strings. Now it's clean as a whistle.

You're welcome.

[The Magistrate]

44. Thank You, Honey

And thanks for taking the pictures first....

[Canuckistanian]

45. Beauty! I once built a model of an S.E.5a

From a kit, however.

But your accomplishment is impressive!

Felicitations on the 70k!

[The Magistrate]

46. Thank You, Sir

There are some good kits of that machine on the market nowadays. It was an excellent design.

[ConcernedCanuk]

47. I now have a better understanding of your patience and longevity with this board

.
.
.

It certainly takes patience and attention to detail to create the model you have there -

I suspect there are many others.

OH

I did a wee bit of research, and it was known as a "flying tank"

even found a color picture to indicate it as such



http://jumpifnotzero.free.fr/avions/francais/index.html

I used to do model airplanes, cars and boats in the 50's,

now that I'm in MY 50's - very close to the 60's,

maybe I should start again.

Thank you for your inspiration -

Sir.

[The Magistrate]

51. Thank You Very Much, Sir, And Especially For That Photograph

I have seen a picture of this particular machine some while back, but did not save it immediately, and then discovered the 'flicker' account hosting it was gone. I recall that picture was from a different angle, but there could be a reverse print of the negative involved somewhere, or my recollection simply too hazy. But this is a very distinctive aeroplane, and that picture featured the same two bombs on the ground, and rod (possibly a rigger's tool) propped against the lower wing. The machine-gun mounting is unique. When armament was added to these machines, it was usually done by a tripod or raised ring arrangement that put the gun above the pilot's head, while the observer stood to work it (the pilot sat in the front seat, and the observer sat behind him). This gun is worked by the pilot, and it does not look like it could be traversed from side to side. The mounting looks like something contrived by a squadron artificer, rather than anything put into production. It was common from the early summer of 1915 for an Escadrille to fit one or two of aeroplanes with machine-guns, and these would serve as escorts for the rest. If this flew above another Farman as escort, it might be able in a careful dive to move quickly enough to make effective use of a fixed forward gun. I would guess this is a pretty early example of armament on an M.F. 11, probably late in the spring of 1915.

[Heidi]

48. This is a work of art, Sir.

I wish I had your patience. :thumbsup:

Congratulations on your 70,000th post! :hug:

[The Magistrate]

52. Thank You, My Friend!

Good to see you still about the place!

[struggle4progress]

49. No working 1/72 scale machine guns?

http://www.vlib.us/wwi/resources/archives/images/i050203/key.html

[The Magistrate]

53. Thank You, Sir, But The Propellor Does Not Even Turn

These machines generally did not carry armament, as the weight hampered their performance badly. With an extra fifty pounds or so, going into even a slight bank was likely to end in a spin, and these did not recover well from spins.

Those are very nice photographs at that link. Both show Farman M.F. 11bis machines, a somewhat different model with a nacelle arrangement designed by Maurice's brother Henry. These went into production in the summer of 1915: crew positions were changed from the original M.F. 11 in the new nacelle, with the observer put in front and the pilot in the rear, and a motor of 130hp was fitted, instead of one of 70hp or 80hp. They were a bit livelier, able to carry armament routinely, and initially used as fighting escorts for M.F. 11 machines.

[Blue_Roses]

50. awesome! what a gift you have!

I think that takes remarkable patience and perseverance. wow. :applause:

[The Magistrate]

54. Thank You Very Much, Ma'am!

A high boredom threshold helps too, of course....

[RFKHumphreyObama]

55. That is a great model

Some great handiwork on your part -not that I'd expect anything less than better-than-excellent from you

To a great poster and a great moderator whose presence here has infinitely enriched each of us, congratulations on 70,000 and here's to another 70,000 (for starters) more :toast; :toast:

[The Magistrate]

60. Thank You, Sir! You Are Too Kind

[nuxvomica]

57. Double wings, double rudders and a backwards propeller

:wtf:
Seriously, that's an awesome model. Congratulations on that and your amazing post count. :thumbsup:

[The Magistrate]

61. Thank You, Sir!

In the pioneer days, that was originally the norm: it may be that the presence of the propelling screw at the rear of ships had some subtle influence on what people thought was 'right' in drive arrangements.

[JitterbugPerfume]

58. that is a lot of posting , sir

and that airplane is really impressive . My brother used to spend hours makng models. I hope his son still has some of them .

[The Magistrate]

62. It Is, Ma'am, Thank You

But as you will have noticed, moderator service brings up the total considerably.

I hope your brother's efforts have survived as well; I doubt mine will have too long a life without careful leaving alone, they are very, very fragile.

[Roon]

59. oh man! How cool is that?

Nice work! I am not good with my hands so I can't even build the pre-fab models. I do enjoy looking at other peoples' models though! There is a hobby shop close by and every other month or so I will go in there just to look around.

[The Magistrate]

63. Thank You, Sir!

There is something about miniatures from life that seems to fascinate humans. I sometimes wonder what its origin is....

[mvd]

64. Congrats, and wonderful work there, Magistrate!

:hi: :toast:

[The Magistrate]

65. Thank You, My Friend!

I hope all is going well with you.