Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but I've been busy, and I think you'll be pleased at the subject.

I'm building a 1980 Avengers Quinjet. I've drawn my own prints, heavily referencing the Elliot Brown OHOTMU entry. I'm including some of my drawings here, as well as photos of the nearly-completed top and bottom hull patterns. This will be the biggest project I've scratchbuilt so far, and the Quinjet will require a lot of structural reinforcement under the skin. The specs call for:
-opening frameless canopy
-functioning landing gear
-seating for two pilots and 3-5 passengers
-to accept Marvel Universe figures

I'm not installing lights in the Quinjet in an attempt to get this done within the three-year timeframe the Viper and Airwolf both required . I'm about to start a new job, which means no more nights and weekends, so I should have more time to work on this stuff.

The patterns are pine, which has been glued-up and cut, planed, sanded, cursed at, sanded, filled, and sanded. They've had two coats of primer and three coats of epoxy paint. That should yield a tough, temperature resistant high-gloss coating for vac-forming the shells. You may notice the top pattern is shorter than the bottom. This is not an accident; simply put, the fuselage of the quinjet is longer than I can vac-form, so I'll actually have to do two pulls off the mold, with the back half of one making the aft section of the hull.

I'm glad to be out of the pattern stage, and getting excited about makin' some parts.

And now the pattern photos:

whu-whu... it's beautiful already! THREE YEARS MAN!

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Are you taking orders?

PYD: I'm shootin' for a couple more months. Things get cold out in the shop come winter time, and there's usually a couple months I can't even get in there for the snow. Of course, what's a fella to do under those circumstances? Why, draw more stuff up on the CAD, of course!

Gwest: Orders? Let's see if I can build ONE first. If I'm not careful, this will be the most twisted-up thing ever seen on JoeCustoms.

Been there, done that.


Plastic burns really well. Bring some marshmallows.

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oh hells yes. this thread is bookmarked.

i'll buy as well, please put me down for one. i'll sell plasma.

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Quick update: I took a break from studying for my state license test to vac-form some shells. Here's the upper fuselage shell and the canopy as they emerged from the vac former.

The top fuselage pattern formed like a dream. Nice, tight draw over the pattern, which removed from the completed part pretty easily. The canopy wasn't quite as tight a draw, but still captured everything I'll need.

The bottom fuselage pattern, as it turns out, is about 1" too long. I was afraid of that; I'd hoped the plastic would draw down better, but the pattern is almost exactly the length of the bed, and there just isn't enough area to evacuate the air to get a tight draw. I'll have to add material when I assemble the halves, but the seams will be hidden by the side pods and won't be a difficult fix. I'll modify the pattern tomorrow and try again.

Just how big is this going to be?

Can I order 2 of them now? Please? Pretty Please..?

WOW, I guess I have 3 years to fig out how to integrate the avengers in my Joe verse cause I want one too

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gwest: In rough numbers, it will be about 9 1/2" tall, about 17" wide, and about 24" long, not including pitot tube. Still not takin' orders yet, but I'll let you know if I decide to produce 'em.

I read that and cried both tears of joy and sadness at the same time...

Yeah, I know what you mean. That's a pretty big piece. Even if you take the wings/fin out of the equation, it's still 5" tall, 12" wide and 23 1/2" long. I guess I don't know of anything scratchbuilt that size outside of special effects models or garage kits.

Once I get the bottom half v-f'd the next step is to get to work on the landing gear. Which means a trip to the hobby shop R/C section.

I don't know the actual dimensions, but over at rebelscum a guy is scratch-building a true 1:18 scaled Millenium Falcon, but he's also been taking forever - understandably so - and I don't think he's done yet. It is awesome though. Size wise, I also linked previously to a 1:18 scaled Jabba's sail barge which I saw over at yakface.com.

Your scratch builds always seem inherently reproduceable given the style you make them with, which is I think is one reason this is so enticing here. We can all imagine we have one, even if it doesn't happen...lol

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That 1/18 Falcon is a sweet project. I'd love to do one. Just don't have a space large enough to accomodate the WIP stage. Of course, there's a lot of projects I have done preliminary work on that I don't have enough space for. Once I get a new roof on the barn, all bets are off!

Thanks for the kind words, drbindy. Obviously, I really enjoy making these projects, and I hope to inspire others to build their own. It's really not that difficult, and I believe there's many people with the skills and tools to make some fabulous stuff. I hope to see more of this kind of work.