Fixing a Victorian

[dorset boy]

My high school track coach started carving duck decoys after he retired. Half his track teams bought his decoys. Non of the decoys floating around in my bedroom/den/man cave are ones I carved. I have so many decoys it’s crazy. I gave two dozen to my son in law and two dozen to my best friends son. I still have too many. I carve duck decoys or make wood WW II model airplanes whenever I’m recovering from orthopedic surgery. When I go duck hunting I always use at least one of my homemade decoys in my set. This is just so I can have a little self respect when I miss all my shots. Someone once bought one from me. I didn’t want to sell it because it takes a long time to make one. He really wanted it so I reluctantly sold it years ago for $75. Way too much for a crude working decoy, but it was his money.

Do you carve hard model's like P.38s ?

 

[Nabeaquam]

Do you carve hard model's like P.38s ?

I have just two now. I usually give them away. They are made from a bulsa wood skeleton and covered with thin bulsa sheeting. To smooth them out and to make them strong enough for handling I cover them with shiny magazine cover paper. I use a very thin layer of carpenters glue to avoid wrinkling. Sort of like a paper machine cover.

Heating with wood makes things very dusty. Computers are dust shot in 2-3 years.

 

[dorset boy]

I have just two now. I usually give them away. They are made from a bulsa wood skeleton and covered with thin bulsa sheeting. To smooth them out and to make them strong enough for handling I cover them with shiny magazine cover paper. I use a very thin layer of carpenters glue to avoid wrinkling. Sort of like a paper machine cover.
View attachment 689825View attachment 689826View attachment 689827View attachment 689828
Heating with wood makes things very dusty. Computers are dust shot in 2-3 years.

Off the top of my head a Me 109 G ? and a Dauntless dive bomber?

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Think its an avenger mate, turret at the rear of cockpit and underneath.

 

[dorset boy]

Think its an avenger mate, turret at the rear of cockpit and underneath.

Thought i was wrong after i sent it. Good models

 

[Nabeaquam]

Thought i was wrong after i sent it. Good models

It’s an Avenger and a Stuka

 

[Nabeaquam]

I still have to true the new wood rims. I usually use my homemade trueing stand held in a bench vice. The bench is buried in snow and ice. I might take it to one of the local bike shops. They will put it on the back burner and it will take a month or more. That would be easiest. Just throw more money at the project.

 

[Nabeaquam]

I got the 40mm wide Challenge tubulars on the rebuilt original single tube wood rims. They were difficult to get on, but they fit perfectly, no gaps. These tires are available in the UK in slicks, which would have been more appropriate. They were twice what I paid, mainly due to shipping.
Rear wheel.
Front wheel.

 

[Nabeaquam]

I built up a set of Stuzman wood rims that have an aluminum rim insert so I can run 75psi. I rebuilt and laced an armless coaster brake from the teens or 20s onto the new wood Stuzman rims. I put shims under the internal expanding brake shoe as it was so worn it wouldn’t expand enough to move out to the hub. I put a Phillips center pull brake on the front as it has a neat old time look. I laminated cork strips onto the rubber blocks as wood rims need cork blocks to prevent the wood rims from getting black on them.

It rides a lot safer now, no constant fear of fixed gear running over someone or fear of not being able to slow or stop fast enough. The ergonomics are still pitifully awful horrible.

 

[greencat]

Brakes. It's elf and safety, gone mad I tells ye. It'll never catch on.