PIETENPOL!!!!!

[K5054NZ]

Hi all!

Now, how many of you have heard of the Pietenpol Air Camper homebuilt?



Lovely little machine, designed in the US in 1928, and commonly powered by Ford Model A or other auto engines. Two-place, built almost entirely of wood and apparently a great little plane to build your, um, building skills.




I like 'em, and I think it's highly doubtful any kits are available. So, I'm bashing a Novo/FROG 1/72 DH.60 Moth with some other machines - and a bit of scratch - to come up with a representative machine somewhere between 1/60 and 1/50 scale.




As it stands, the components are from three kits. The fuselage is a shortened Moth one, the mainwheels and horizontal tail feathers are sanded down Revell 1/72 Se.5a, and the engine, exhaust and prop are pilfered from a 1/48 Cessna O-1 Bird Dog. As yet I'm not too sure where to source the mainplane from (plans exist to build the 1/1 machine's wing in three pieces - I may do the same here), but I have a couple of 1/72 bipe kits to nick struts etc from .

I'll keep you posted. Should be a bit of fun after all those boring racers

[The Rat]

Hi all!

Now, how many of you have heard of the Pietenpol Air Camper homebuilt?

Me! (Sticks up hand) 

Go for it!

[Daryl J.]

Me too!   Once some prosperity sets in, either a J-3 Cub or an Air Camper is on a 30-year-old goal slate for addition into my stable of goodies.      It looks like the Pietenpol above is VW flat 4 powered yes?
The Air Camper is very simple and is so cool in an IKEA sort of way.
All the best on your project!!!

Daryl J.









Sorry some of these are so big; I'm somewhat of a computer imbecile still.....

[K5054NZ]

  It's all good! I've spent many a pleasant hour at Airliners.net and the Pietenpols website. I have a set of their Air Camper plans and an info pack winging their way to me. And yeah, I think 'UCO has a VW. Looks kinda like it anyway!

Well, being such a simple aircraft in reality seems to translate to a fairly straightforward scale build!



The wing is a mix of (dark grey) Novo/FROG Moth and (light grey) Airfix Tiger Moth wing sections, sawed and sanded to shape. Much much sanding to get the very thick DH.82 section to at least be close to the thickness of the DH.60 components! Damn your inaccuracy Airfix! Speaking of Airfix, I raided the wreckage of a 1/72 Bristol F.2B Fighter for a horizontal tail, cut down and sanded to resemble that of the Piet. I'm quite pleased with the result!



Empennage on and cabane struts in place. These were raided from, thats right, the Airfix Tiger and Novo Moth kits. Course, after hacking the Tiger bits to pieces I saw that the Moth kit had more accurate, and thinner, triangle cabanes! Argh! The Bird Dog's Lycoming - middle two cylinders removed to become a 4cyl of some kind - as well as prop, exhaust and Se.5a wheels behind. Despite the fact that 4cyl Piets seem to not need the big radiator, I'll include it on mine as I see it as a signature part of the design .


Where I'm at now. The interplane struts came from that 1/48 Bird Dog, sliced lengthwise and shortened slightly! Now that they're in place I see the wing seems a bit short in span, but ah well. It'll look like a Piet, and that's what matters to me  .

Thinking about paint scheme atm. Will wear an NZ civil rego (ZK-***). More as and when.

[Glenn]

Zac, I think I have a model of 'it' in 1/72 sc. The model is a Williams Bros, and came in a plactic bag....I remember looking at it and thinking that a Tiger Moth looks like a Jumbo Jet beside it!
Glenn

[K5054NZ]

Zac, I think I have a model of 'it' in 1/72 sc. The model is a Williams Bros, and came in a plactic bag....I remember looking at it and thinking that a Tiger Moth looks like a Jumbo Jet beside it!
Glenn

*is jealous and desires same*

[jcf]

Zac, I think I have a model of 'it' in 1/72 sc. The model is a Williams Bros, and came in a plactic bag....I remember looking at it and thinking that a Tiger Moth looks like a Jumbo Jet beside it!
Glenn

Hi Glenn,
I don't recall that Williams Brothers did the Pietenpol, they did do the Corben Super Ace in 1/48th and 1/87th(HO).



The other 1/87th kits were the Pitcairn Autogyro and the PT-17, the HO kits are bagged kits.




The Corben and the Pitcairn are available again.

Jon

[K5054NZ]

Update time!


Apologies for the fuzziness, but this shows all struts and airframe together. All that is to be added now is engine and mainwheels.


Wheels on and painting has begun! The delightfully glossy Tamiya Blue is the fuselage colour, just three coats and she looks grand.


I decided on a simple scheme, inspired by Kingsford-Smith's Fokker VH-USU, oh a blue fuselage and silver mainplanes and empennage (Tamiya Chrome Aluminium). Struts and wheel hubs are silver, and you can see the engine and prop are in place. I intend on painting a simple woodgrain on the prop . The radiator is cut from a Roden 1/72 Albatros D.II mainplane.

Final update in the next few days - probably will just handpaint the rego, and the minimal rigging can wait until I invest in a pair of tweezers .

[AeroplaneDriver]

Nice.

Way back when I was a Student Pilot there was an old guy on our airport with a Pietenpol. 

[Glenn]

Yeah, but they look so much alike!
Glenn

[Brian da Basher]

I really like the blue you used on the fuselage, Zacster! Nice work.

Brian da Basher