A few years ago, I bought a handful of 1/72 WWI planes. Most were old Revell kits and one pristine ESCI Neiuport 17. The Revell kits were in bad shape, and most were missing decals, instructions or parts so I got the whole lot for less than $10.
The worst of the lot was a Fokker Eindeker E-III. It was missing several vital parts and the plastic was about as brittle as a resin kit.
I decided to make the most of what was left, and came up with the idea of turning it into a variant of the Morane-Saulnier type G or H, which looked remarkably like the Eindekker.
To make it WIFFier, I wondered what if the Coanda powerplant had been developed past 1910? It wouldn't have displaced piston engines due to the high heat and fuel consumption. But what if in 1915, Messrs. Morane & Saulnier had developed an engine with a performance that rivaled or surpassed existing designs? For one, you wouldn't need an interrupter for the guns.
This is what I have so far:
Most of the white parts (like the tail plane) are replacements. I also added ailerons because wing warping is
so 1914!
I used
ShroudCalc to produce the pattern for the cowl. The first one was of paper, the second out of a Coke Zero can, and the third out of 0.005" brass:
It was incredibly easy to produce the cowls - less than 10 minutes each from start to finish. I crimped the metal cowls, and the results I think, look very WWI-ish.
I also printed out patterns for the impeller/fan. I didn't like the first fan, so I made a second, with wider blades. The first fan will now go behind the rotary engine. The second will act as the compressor:
Here's a top view with the cowl attached:
A front view with the cowl removed:
And in place:
The headrest area is half a lifeboat from an old Revell T-2 tanker. I still have to add some more details (instrument panel, add the seat, guns, some rigging) and add blast deflectors under the wings. I moved the tail skid forward to keep the plane level on the ground. We don't want to start fires on takeoff!
It'll be a shame to paint the brass, though. I named it "petit pet" (little fart) because I'm really bad at naming things. Help with a good name would be appreciated!
Frank
