Hi all,
Seven months ago I decided to scratchbuild a model of a Skycraft Scout microlight, inspired by Jonathan Mauchline's (chief flying instructor at my local aero club) resurrection of Mk.III ZK-RWW. When I saw how simple the real deal was I figured it wouldn't be that hard to build my own in scale...

ZK-RWW Whanganui 080522 Zac Yates by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

I started with a three-view drawing from the internet, suitably scaled to 1/48 (chosen because I found a seat so scaled in my spares that looked about right) and printed off to act as an assembly guide. From there it was a matter of cutting strips from corrugated styrene sheet for the wing spars and ribs, and using a rectangular section of scrap styrene for the fuselage keel. I then hunted through 30yr of spare parts for various elements I couldn't make myself - wheels and prop chief among them - and other parts that could be combined for elements such as the distinctive tapered tuned exhaust.
1/48 scratchbuilt Skycraft Scout Mk.III by Zac Yates, on Flickr
1/48 scratchbuilt Skycraft Scout Mk.III by Zac Yates, on Flickr

For the wings and control surfaces I decided to roughly approximate the real deal by laying down a sheet of thin clear styrene, adding the spar and ribs, and then a top sheet of clear styrene. Originally I smothered the inside face of each wing sheet but this resulted in slight warping.
1/48 scratchbuilt Skycraft Scout Mk.III by Zac Yates, on Flickr
1/48 scratchbuilt Skycraft Scout Mk.III by Zac Yates, on Flickr

I tried to fix this with hot water and a couple of books but the result was an even more warped and shrunken pair of wings. Disheartened, I put the assembled fuselage with tail and other parts aside while I focused on other projects. I then replicated the original wing idea minus the excess glue, ie only applying glue to the ribs. This means a non-prototypical open trailing edge but a much nicer appearance. When rigging a 1/1 scale Scout someone of my height can just fit under the wingtips - it turns out Humbrol tinlets are perfect for the job in this scale!
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

I reckon rigging RWW for flight takes about half as long as it did for this model. The elastic is overscale but I feel captures the look well. Add the prop (cut down from a Fokker Dr.I) and distinctive motorbike fuel tank (in this case a blister from...something. Fw190?) and voila! Mini-RWW!
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

I was dropping off another commissioned model at the airport so figured there was no time like the present to reveal my secret project to an unsuspecting Jonny, who had been out Austering. He was floored and rather taken by the model, which was a very humbling reaction.
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

He has recently returned to the hobby himself and made a couple of display bases for 1/72 WW2 fighters, one of which he quickly evicted so it could be repurposed!
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

Now to figure out a way to display the two ZK-RWWs together...and find a come-back for those smart alecks who immediately say "Well you have to build the other two he owns..."!!

Lovely! 

Very good.

 

Wonderful stuff!

That is just pure awesome!

Well done Zac!       

This has made me determined to find the files containing the pictures of the Scout I had, going to take notes of how you went about this build and try it to replicate it myself sometime 

Well that was easy to find them when I actually looked, the pic's were on the first external drive that I checked 

Problem is I cannot get my laptop to work properly or connect to the internet and I cannot even view the pictures, keeps coming up with a file error when I try and I don't know if it's all the laptop or if the drive is stuffed, I severely hope it's not the drive. There are a lot of memories in there that are not backed up anywhere.   I can still view the thumbnails and here is a pic I took of my laptop screen as proof:

You cannot view this attachment.

That's OUTSTANDING Zak, a superb job you did there!   

Persistence paid off, laptop has finally let me connect to the internet and I can view full size images also. Next step is to try to back them up. Still not able to post from the laptop so hopefully this pic of the screen is better.

You cannot view this attachment.

That's come out really well Zac, well done 

WOW! I joined this board just a little before you did, and I've seen you grow as a modeler. From someone who was still trying to stick things together then, you've become someone who can teach most of us a thing or two.     

Wow, thank you folks! I didn't really expect this little thing to get so much attention!

Quote from: The Rat on January 30, 2023, 09:58:25 AMWOW! I joined this board just a little before you did, and I've seen you grow as a modeler. From someone who was still trying to stick things together then, you've become someone who can teach most of us a thing or two.     

Thanks Ratman, that means a lot coming from you 

Quote from: Flyer on January 30, 2023, 04:39:58 AMPersistence paid off, laptop has finally let me connect to the internet and I can view full size images also. Next step is to try to back them up. Still not able to post from the laptop so hopefully this pic of the screen is better.

You cannot view this attachment.

An orange one! Very cool! I hope you can recover the rest of the photos, I'd love to see them. If you're on Facebook you should join the group I set up for all things Scout. Alternatively I'd love to share your pics there with permission - I'll PM you my email address.

Zac that is epic awesome mate...absolutely beautiful work ..top notch scratch building     

Brad, back that drive up mate.  It sucks to lose memories that way.

Inspired