The Golden year of
1935. Mr. Neil Mc Gaffey from Inglewood California (a few miles from where I live) wanted to build a plane from out-of-the-shelf
components. The idea goes more or less like this: you go to the auto parts store
and get a couple of wheels, a dashboard, brakes, instruments, a seat, a big
radiator and probably a hula dancer if you feel so inclined. Oh, don’t forget
the engine; a Ford V8 will do just fine.
With this concept in mind the Mc Gaffey AV8 Aviate was created. And it looks
like the concept. So I had to build it. A fuselage pod, a double tailboom,
single rudder and panted wheels make for the finer design details.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Model-wise what could I
say that you don’t already know? I employed the double-bubble,
clear/opaque Mattel maneuver treatment to create the embryonic fuselage.
The rest is styrene sheet conveniently bent and glued to minimize carbon
emissions and optimize my carbon footprint. Yes, don’t laugh.
Part of
this model was made with recycled styrene auto dealer plates, in a perfect
alignment with Mr. Mc Gaffey concept (see the image that accompanies this
article).
As it happens too often, I had to take the hard-to-find three view and
compare it with the equally hard to find, mostly grainy, small-sized
photos. The comparison wasn’t at all favorable, so out with pencil to
correct the (many) inaccuracies. I have to be grateful that a
not-very-accurate 3v even existed, though. But either the 3v describes
another incarnation of the same plane or the courageous draftsman had only
a verbal description, given by his mother-in-law of the plane upon to base
his work.
A couple of points that were the merry occasion of some guessing: the
interior of the fuselage (other than the side-by-side seating
configuration) and the colors. I left the twin-booms without any bracing,
because in spite I know that it should be some, I couldn’t find any
views of the area; so I’ll have to add it later when evidence appears
(it will sure do, immediately after this article is posted).
I followed two parallel courses regarding the engineering of the fuselage
pod. You will see both in the accompanying images. They are
self-explanatory (which means that they explain it to themselves, not to
you). At the end the less revolutionary method (the one I have been using
lately, implying the masking of an all-transparent upper half) was the one
chosen. The other method uses and internally glued transparent part,
affixed to the roof of an opaque part in which the windows are previously
cut (the wider frames, anyway; the narrow ones were lately added). This
approach was devised in order to escape precise paper masking, and use
instead liquid mask painted over the “windows”. There was, of course,
a difference in depth that looked convincing enough in 1/72, but would
probably look better in larger scales. I had the option of lightly sand
away some of the cockpit frames, especially close to the windowed areas,
but opted instead for the normal masking. It is something I liked to
experiment with, though, for future reference.
The prop was carved from a popsicle stick. The spats (five parts each) and
a few more parts were then fabricated. Main and tail wheels are
aftermarket products.
The good news is
that you learn a lot when you scratch-build your models. The bad news is that
you learn mostly by committing mistakes.
Painting involved some exhaustive masking, and I made a mess trying liquid
Micro-Mask for some areas. This is the first time I used the product, although I
have used similar ones in a large number of occasions. It will take ages to dry,
it will creep where it shouldn’t and after hours either will leave wet spots
or hard to remove areas. May be it was a bad flask. Who knows.
The few available photos are not a very good quality indeed, and no
registrations or marks are visible. On the rudder and bellow the left wing panel
something can be almost guessed in that regard, but it could be anything, so no
marks for this one. Again, after this article is published, an encyclopedia on
the Aviate will be published in Lichtenstein -in Esperanto- by a Bora-Bora
scholar. And I will have to be heading towards the printer.
Why a Ford V8 will have 6 exhaust pipes is something that puzzles me, but the
sound of that Ford engine in the air and the sight of the twin-boom marvel was
for sure an unexpected and awesome experience. Ah, the wonders of the 30’s!
Gabriel
Click on
images below to see larger images
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