Aircraft Restoration

[Kerick]

A great many years ago when my son was little for Christmas I made him and his three cousins wooden airplanes. I turned the fuselages on a lathe and made wings from 3/4 stock. I didn't paint them because I was happy with the way the wood grain looked. Years later we tried painting my son's plane but it didn't turn out very well. So I've sanded it down and started a new paint job.



Right now it looks like it was built by John Deere. I may try a different color if I can find something a little more olive colored. This is what I'm going for.





I have actual stickers on order, not decal stickers but actual sticker stickers, for the national insignia. I'm thinking of doing the red markings to give it a little more dash. I really need to avoid Advanced Modelers Syndrome on this so I might be able to have it done in time for his birthday in a couple of weeks.

[apophenia]

Very cute 

I kind of like the "John Deere" look ... but I can see why you might want a more OD tone too.

[Buzzbomb]

I like the John Deere look as well, in fact opens up a whole world of new manufacturer of AG aircraft

[Kerick]

I picked up an olive green paint today. I’ll have to mask again but that’s ok.

[Kerick]

A different shade of green and some stripes. Plus the stickers. I hand painted the tail with the red, white and blue stripes. I had to figure out how to divide the tail into 13 equal stripes. I first measured it in inches and divided by 13 but that wasn't working. So I measured it in metric and it came out to 65mm. Divide that by 13 and its perfectly 5mm. Holy crap! I did not plan that out 30 years ago!
My wife and I are going to their house to babysit our granddaughter tomorrow so I can give it to my son in time for Father's Day.
So here are some finished pics.













When I first made it I drilled out the "cockpit" holes to fit the Fischer Price little people figures popular at the time. I'm pretty sure there was a pilot figure so I have to keep an eye out for that and and the little blonde haired girl to represent my granddaughter.

[Story]

That's epic!  My dad made similar simple models for me as a child and I loved them to the point of disintegration.

Your efforts will echo down the decades of his life, ya know?

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Nice work Ken! 

[Kerick]

He looked pretty surprised and happy today when I gave it to him. Success!

[Frank3k]

It's a great model! You should be proud and I'm sure your son will treasure it

[Robomog]

Nice resto' brilliant paint job 

 Mog
>^-.-^<

[Kerick]

Thanks everyone!