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Showing results for tags 'aircraft'.
Found 18 results
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After finishing my complicated train project, I needed somthing quick to cut. I rambled through some of the clip art I had and found the F-16. I only had to add a few bridges. Pretty easy to cut. Quite a bit of info on the F-16 in wikipedia. It's been in production since 1974 and over 4600 produced. Over 25 countries operate the aircraft. Local interest for me. Locheed Martin moved the production of the aircraft from Texas to Greenville SC at Donaldson Field in 2019, just south of the city. (a few miles from me) Side note of interest: I was sitting on the back deck and this bird landed on the Hummingbird feeder. Its a Rose Breasted Grosbeak. It is rare in our area. He was heading north from South America. Pretty bird.
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Found a picture of a PBY I really liked. I did one in 2020 but I like this one better. 1/8" BBPW on 1/4" backer. Shellac and Gloss Lacquer.
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Consolidated B-24 Liberator The B-24 was the greatest produced aircraft of WW II. Between 5 different locations, 18,500 including 4,600 at the Ford Willow Run facility were manufactured. The initial order was in 1939 and were produced from 1940 to 1945. Compared to the B-17, It flew faster (297KTS) and more range (1,500 to 1,800 Miles) It did fly 2,000 feet lower than the B-17 and was hit more often by enemy flak. It was operated by the USAAF and Navy along with the RAF, RAAF and Indian AF. The aircraft was multi mission to include bombing, antisubmarine and transport and flew the “Hump” over the Himalayas from India to China. More info on Wikipedia. Some notables to fly on the aircraft were, Walter Matthau, George McGovern and Jimmy Stewart. This was a fun project and I had to add some bridges on the fly as I cut. It is 17 x 12” on 1/8” BBPW with ¼” Backer. Shellac and Gloss Lacquer finish. Font is Umbria and is easy to cut because there are no bridges. I may need to give the aircraft a rest for a while and do some boxes or fret work again.
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I thought it was time to try another plane. The British Mosquito since it was made mostly out of wood. Interesting tidbit. General Hap Arnold was in England looking at production of the Mosquito days prior to Pearl Harbor and was very interested and recommended it to the Army Air Corp. The P-38 was already in production and decided it could do the job. The Mosquito became a very successful high speed medium bomber and night fighter because it was hard to detect by radar. It helped it also had 2 Merlin engines. I cut this plaque on 1/4 BBPW (ran out of 1/8" stock) 3/16 backer, shellac and lacquer finish. Original print was on 8.5 x 11 but took it to copy store for a slight enlargement. A-1 paper may be large enough. The greyed out areas are for bridges that can be painted later.
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I was wandering through Pinterest and came across and picture of the Dassault Falcon 900DX. In an earlier life, I had been an aircraft mechanic and had worked on some of the previous versions of this aircraft. The twin engine Falcon 20 came out in 1965 and was initially marketed by Pan AM. This was one of the first corporate jets for major companies like Pepsi and Bristol Myers. When the economy turned down in the early '70's , many were sold. The fledgeling Fed Ex was being started up by Fred Smith and he purchased several and had them modified for a large cargo door. They eventually had 33 aircraft but had to migrate to larger aircraft as the business grew. The economy started to turn around in the mid 70's and Dassault started building larger aircraft like the F50, F200, F2000 and the F900 series to satisify the demand for more fuel efficent range, more seating and updated avionics. The F900DX was in production for '04 to '11 and is still sought after as reliable large mid size corporate jet. The plaque is 11 x 14" on BBPW with a shellac/lacquer finish. Hardest part was probably the landing gear because of all the small cuts and I used the "paint-in" method on the engine cowlings and tires. The aircraft looks to be in the approach mode with flaps down and the DLE (Droop Leading Edges) down to slow the aircraft down for landing.
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My wife's niece from Germany visited us last month. She is crazy for everything Lufthansa. She knows many of the crews and has even been written up in their in-flight magazine. She is a Dr. of research oncology but would give it all up to fly for them. She has her private licence. Problem is she is too short and can't reach the pedals on the airliners. I told her I would do a Lufthansa plane for her. She always loved the Junkers JU-52. This aircraft came out in 1932, shortly before the DC-3 and was Lufthansa's first airliner. It looks similar to the Ford Tri-motor and has the same corrigated skin. Several aircraft are still flying and there are some Youtube videos of one based in Switzerland. The cutting was a challenge because so much of the aircraft is painted black and all the straight lines of the corrigation and I also elimated the doors underneath. They close up in flight. I had to add some extra bridges to keep it all together.
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Spartan Executive The Spartan Executive was a corporate specific designed, all metal aircraft. The first model flew in 1936 and was owned by J. Paul Getty of the Getty Oil Company and was used for executive transport. The aircraft had a retractable landing gear and P&W R-985 450 HP engine with a top speed of 257MPH and a range of 1,000 miles. It was a single pilot aircraft with a either a 3 or 4 passenger configuration. Only a 36 were built of which 16 were later operated by the U.S. military. Production ended in 1940. There are 17 model 7W still registered. This plaque is 12 x 17 BBPW on 1/4" backer. I did my bridge fill in technique on the wheels and prop. Fun cutting on my Ex-16. The Spartan Logo and the small executive were the hardest part of this project.
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Bamboo Bomber In 1939 Cessna Aircraft starting to produce the model T-50 twin engine, 5 place, fabric covered transport aircraft. Its original intent was to compete with Beech Aircraft’s Twin Beech 18 at a lower price. When WWII broke out, it was enlisted as an executive trans port and trainer and went through a series of different designations including AT-17 and UC-78. The majority of production aircraft operated with dual Jacobs R-775-9 radial engines and had an operational range of about 650m. Over 4,500 were produced under various versions. The original name of the aircraft was the “Bobcat” but later many pilots dubbed it the Bamboo Bomber because of its wood and fabric construction. The aircraft is most recognizable for being in the 1950’s T.V. series Sky King. The intro of the series "Out of the blue of the Western sky comes Sky King!" and his aircraft the “Songbird” flying across the screen inspired a lot of kids of that time to get into aviation
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Back to planes. I belong to a forum on Facebook dedicated to recip engine powered corporate aircraft and I have been adding some of my related aircraft plaques to that group. The A-26 was a modified A-20 Marauder used in WWII with the same R2800 radial engines. It was operational in Korea and Vietnam as a ground attack aircraft. As they went out of service many were bought by private operators and modified for corporate transport use. The On Mark company upgraded several, (40-60) removing the bomb bays and military equipment and adding corporate interiors with seating for 6-8 passengers and additional side windows and upgraded avionics. The aircraft was fast at 360 mph and was popular with corporate operator until the advent of turbo prop and jets like the G-I and Learjets. I used the Umbria font. I like it because it doesn't need any bridges. Size of plaque is 11 x 14 BBPW with 1/4" backer. Finish, Shellac with gloss Lacquer.
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I did the original Howard 500 plaque for a friend back in 7/17 because he had flown this aircraft many years ago. He invited me to join a FB group dedicated to recip corp aircraft. I posted it on that site an a member said that his Dad (+) had brought it back from Canada for restoration at his shop in FFL and he had also flown it for a few years before they sold it. Made a plaque for him also but added his Dad's company name. I made some mods to the original pattern for easier cutting. Some of the peninsulares were kind of floppy and thin on the nose.
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I had held off doing a P-51 for a while since a few have been posted in the past but finally decided I needed to add it to my collection. I went a little large 16 x 11.5 because I wanted to put a face on the pilot. I also did my paint in method on the fuselage and wing roundels. Font is Corsair.
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I thought I needed to add the B-17 Flying Fortress to my collection of Aircraft. My design was the typical pixel gobbling exercise. I tried to leave some shadow elements in the pattern. I did go smaller on this project since I am running out of wall space. It's 9 x 14 1/8 BBPW on a 1/4" backer shellac/lacquer finish.
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Another project for my B-I-L. His dad used to fly a B-25 in WWII. He set up a memorial stand with a folded flag and pictures. Cutting went fast, design, not so fast. Had to go to the copy store twice since the first one was too small. 19.5" x 12" final size. 1/8" BBPW on 1/4" backer. Time to give my eyes a rest for a while.
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Back to doing Aircraft again (Lawson's taunt!) Always liked the Corsair. Aircraft went through lots of variations like regular canopy and bubble canopy and 3 and 4 bladed props. It was still being used by several countries into the early '50's. Cut on 1/8 BB with 1/4" backer. The design and lines are very thin and cowl flaps had me a little perplexed. It would have been tough to connect all the lines. Lettering went quick. Not sure what's next. They are predicting heavy snow in the upstate of SC this weekend so the car will go into the garage and I'll be out of the shop. Time to start hunting for some new patterns to cut.
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Back to aircraft again. Germans called it the Forked Tail Devil. It flew like hell at 443 kts top speed. I did a lot of pixel gobbling to get the design right and the lines are very thin. 1/8" BBPW on 1/4" PW and 2 coats Shellac and ? coats lacquer. Love the old birds.
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It was time to add my favorite aircraft to the collection, the Beech D-17 Staggerwing. As usual, the cleaning up of the design took longer than the actual cutting. More info on link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechcraft_Model_17_Staggerwing. Not sure what's next. I've got a beautiful 1/2" by 5.5" x 3' piece of babinga calling. Another box?
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I've always had a thing for these old Grumman aircraft. The F3F was the last Bi-Plane fighter the Navy used for carrier service. I spent many hours cleaning up pixels to make this ready for cutting. Lots of thin lines (ref. Scoreing thread) and cutting was a little challenge. I cut a matching 1/4" backing and paint it black acrylic. I was going to contact spray the "back" of the cutting but the phone rang and I picked it up (scam Call!) I got back to my project and starting spraying and quickly realized I WAS SPRAYING THE FRONT!!!. I could have gotton away with it but for the TEXT.... I have a 5 gallon can of "OFF". Now I have a 4 gallon can of "OFF" Found a shallow baking pan and proceeded to use up a bunch of papertowels to clean it up. I did a whole lot of scraping in the cuttings to clean out the glue and sanding to get it back to where I should have been 2 hours earlier.... Finally got it done. Watch those distractions...
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I had originally posted this in the pattern request area and Don R. was gracious enough to make this wonderful pattern. I made this for a friends birthday and he said he just got it and loves it. He has flown over 14,000 hours in all sorts of aircraft including Gulfstreams. His favorite aircraft is still the Howard 500. A little back story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_500. It was a fun project to cut but some of the fine lines were a little scary.
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