1/39 Monogram “The Flyer”

Gallery Article by Alexander Sidharta on Dec 17 2003

 100th Anniversary of controlled powered flight Dec 17 1903 

 

On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the 1903 Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard.

With Orville Wright as pilot, the airplane took off from a launching rail and flew for 12 seconds and a distance of 37 meters (120 feet). The airplane was flown three more times that day, with Orville and his brother Wilbur alternating as pilot. The longest flight, with Wilbur at the controls, was 260 meters (852 feet) and lasted 59 seconds.

To fly the airplane, the pilot lay prone with his head forward, his left hand operating the elevator control. Lateral control was achieved by warping the wing tips in opposite directions via wires attached to a hip cradle mounted on the lower wing. The pilot shifted his hips from side to side to operate the mechanism, which also moved the rudder.

 

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Today is the centennial celebration of that historical event. An event which has inspired me to build the Flyer, a plane whose has its own destiny to be a part of the history of mankind.
 
This is the Monogram kit of the Flyer I got when it was re-released. From the information I got, the first issue of the kit was released in 1959, 44 years ago ! That made me wondering the quality of that 44 years old kit.
 
Opening the box, my eyes was stuck on beautifully-moulded wings and elevators. But although the parts were beautiful, the opposite side of the parts shows many injection marks. Hundreds of them and in almost every parts of the kit. I filled all of them and those works needed some extra a week time work.

Further examination on the box found 2 figures, a chair, some tools, clear stand and a long rail which can be used to make the “first flight” diorama.

This was my first biplane kit and I had no idea on the difficulties I might face when building it. It was the rigging I thought would be the biggest problem. But, it took only 2 nights to finish all the rigging and I discovered that the real challenge was to make both wings straight and level each other. Although there were locating holes, the parts still could move freely so I put my model on its front side and clamped all its other sides to make it straight and level.
 
I followed the instruction strictly as this was my first time on the biplane, and an unique subject also. I didn’t want to get into trouble just because of doing the construction the way I like, as when building modern aircraft. When the instruction told that some rigging should be done at that stage, that was exactly what I did. And, yes, I did helped me avoiding troubles...  

The construction itself went well without any major difficulties. All parts went to its place (almost) perfectly and trouble-free. If  a 44 years old moulding can be like this, why can’t any “new” kits like this ?

I did the finishing before I started to glue all the parts. It was really like building a pre-painted kit. I used Gunze paint for the canvas, Xtracolor for the “wood” color, oil paint for the wash and all sealed using Gunze Flat Clear.  

After all the construction and rigging-work was done, I glued the model to a clear stand provided and hoping someday I have spirit to build a diorama of this historical moment.
 
This is an unique experience building a model kit. I finished the kit before build it, filled those hundred marks, no clear parts, and no decals.
 
I hope you all enjoy it..... !

Alexander Sidharta

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Photos and text © by Alexander Sidharta