| Work comences-Hawker Typhoon restoration.
Well here are some photographs taken this morning of the 50 year old Hawker Typhoon restoration project,as I was taking these pictures bit were dropping off her ! the structure is very weak and brittle and is needing the patience of a surgeon to get her shipshape once again,she had been stored on top of a wardrobe in direct sunlight and years of nicotine floating around in the air ( my father was a very heavy smoker ) has done untold damage,coupled with being assembled with balsa cement and Durofix adhesive ( remember that ? ).
Anyway the good news is that since these pictures were taken she now has 80 per cent of the fuselage recovered in thirty second sheet,the upper surfaces of the wings have also been clad and a new tail assembly have been made,as the pins were pushed into the structure I could hear it creaking,it was hit or miss but now the new surface is in place she has got some rigidity back.
The model was designed by C.Ruper Moore ( see our Pioneers of aeromodelling progress for a resume about Mr Moore ) and incorporated a device called the Moore Diaphram,the idea was that to preserve the centre of gravity the rubber drive was in the front of the model,very clever,also she had a working retractable undercarriage which worked from a sort of arrestor wire,as the rubber was wound tight it remained in the down position,as the motor unwound the undercarriage lowered,clever eh ? the mechanism now rusted up was a maze of wire work,linkages and cams,really heath robinson but I have photographic evidence that it did work.
Well some will think that I am mad restoring something like this but it presents a real challenge in terms of preserving a little piece of modelling history,it was either this or in the bin for it,a sad end to such a lot of initial work.
Once a picture restorer said to me,if ever you restore something it must be tackled in the spirit that it was built by that person,you must have the empathy to carry out the work just as if you had painted it or in this case built it,I think he has a point.
__________________ 'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !' www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/ |