Fiddlers Green

Someone was having trouble with the Duck so I thought I’d give it a go and see if I could get one put together stock without ruffling too many feathers. The adventure gave new meaning to the term Duck Blind as I fumbled my way through working out proper assembly sequences; the Duck is a triple-decker double-decker and Chip’s exploded drawing is just that and no more: an explosion of all those Duck decks and not a handrail In sight.

I suppose the Duck could be built stock, with effort, but as I proceeded some deviations proved easier, or necessary, or more authentic, or all three; but I did get it all built without having to do any Photoshop tampering. The annotated pictures mapping out the expedition will I hope prevent future Duck builders from becoming as surrounded by lostness as I did.

I began with the hull and worked up. Right away I got winged by a few pellets of bad sequence. I began attaching the bottom of the fwd hull at the step and worked forward, getting the whole left side glued before discovering the top and bottom centerlines didn’t quite match up at the tip of the prow. This put a slight warp into the hull as I glued the right side backward to the step. I recommend attaching the bottom and top at the prow, and working the sides back toward the step equally to prevent this warpage. It means some aggressive bending and fiddling as the curves are really tight up there, but I don’t see any other way to keep the hull true.

Here’re the first two “decksâ€

Thanks for taking the time to put together this build thread, Mark. You've highlighted some mighty big pitfalls that would surely have trapped me, the offset centerline tic being the biggest, I think. The photos will be very helpful to anyone building this airplane. You built your's blind, and despite the misalign at the vert stab, it's still a very attractive and nicely built model. Kudos to you!

_________________
Regards,
Don

Currently working on: 1/72 FG Wildcat
Recently completed: 1/72 FG Crosby CR-4

Very nice indeed. I may get up the courage to try this now.

I confess, it was me who struggled with the duck. When I'm done with the goose, i'll give it a go again. Floatplanes are so cool looking, look so much better than wheels, more please!!

Niki

I tried the Duck in Regular size. I built the fuselage first by lining up the bottom seam. When I got to the next lower section, everything went south. Nothing lined up, so I tried sectioning the pieces - no go. It went out with Thursday's Garbage. I'm with Niki, I'll give it a go in Large when I'm done with the Goose.

Loadmat

I reckon I'm going to try and get hold of Bob Penikas, he's built a bunch of really good FG models, duck included, he should have a word or three to say.

Niki

When the duck came out I made 3 that I recall, one I still have. The wings were a bit tricky to make without twist, and originally the prop too big to rotate without hitting the pontoon, but I didn't notice the tic mark, and so didn't rotate the fuse for some reason. I do recall that I used the same method as with the stearman to use longer fuse to wing strut toothpicks and by lengthening or shortening adjust the dihedral to what you like. It is a nice model as far as I recall....