Research on the World Wide Web

Model Airplane News, Dec 1998 by Ryan, Jim

THIS MONTH, I'd like to spend some time looking at ways the World Wide Web can help you in researching a scale project. As any experienced scale competitor knows, finding, assembling and organizing the documentation can be the most frustrating part of building a scale model. Even for relatively common aircraft, documenting a particular example can be tough, and for more obscure subjects, the task becomes very daunting indeed. This is where the World Wide Web comes in. Websites have revolutionized the publishing industry, in that anyone who has knowledge in a particular area can effectively become an author and share that knowledge with others who have similar interests. Bear in mind that some websites have only a fleeting existence, and using powerful search engines such as Yahoo and Lycos may turn up some sites that didn't even exist when I was typing this.

Surfing the Internet for information can be interesting, but I really spend less time on the Web than most computer users I know. I use it if I'm looking for specific information, but I seldom log on just to browse around. This is because searching the Web can be frustrating, due to the slowness of some sites. I think many webmasters get hung up on the "gee whiz" aspect of the graphics capabilities of the Internet, and they clutter their sites with animated icons and glitzy graphics that ultimately detract from the site's usefulness. As "Ian Malcolm" said in "Jurassic Park," "You were so busy asking yourself if you could, you didn't ask yourself if you should." For this reason, the sites that I bookmark for future visits are the ones that are content-intensive; I'm looking for information, not entertainment.

SHOPPING FOR 3-VIEWS

After you've chosen an interesting project, the first step is to look for a suitable 3-view as a basis for the design. One of the best-known suppliers of quality 3-views and photo documentation is Bob Banka at Scale Model Research, http://imt.net/ims/scale. htm. Bob has a nice website that allows you to order any of the over 33,000 3-views in his giant online library. Since there are often several 3-views available for a given subject, you can contact him by email to ask for specific information before you place your order. You can even download his latest catalog as an Adobe Acrobat Reader (.PDF) file so you'll have it handy at all times. Acrobat files are real time-savers; you can store the full text of a catalog on your hard drive, rather than having to log onto the Web each and every time you need to look for an entry.

Another good source for 3-views is the PKAeronaut aircraft site: http:// users.aol.com/pkaeronaut/pkaacrft.htm. This excellent site also includes a downloadable Acrobat Reader copy of its catalog. Figure 1 shows an example of the 3-views contained in the catalog. The view can be zoomed and scrolled as needed.

There are certainly other 3-view suppliers available online, but this gives you a starting point. The great thing about online searching is that you can even find documentation for very rare aircraft. Start a search and see what you find.

COLOR DOCUMENTATION

One vexing aspect of selecting a scale subject is choosing the color scheme. "Big Beautiful Doll" is one pretty Mustang, but I've seen enough renditions of that plane to last a lifetime. The dilemma is to find an interesting color scheme that's unique and yet can be documented for the scale judges. Well, friends, there are over a hundred P-Sls flying today and scores more quietly resting in museums. And most-if not all-of those Mustangs are shown in living color on a website somewhere, so there's no excuse for not being able to find a unique color scheme, if you're so disposed. Some air museums today amaze me with the quality and organization of their websites. Figure 5 is a table of long-standing websites that have color photos of military and civilian aircraft. This doesn't come close to touching all the bases; there are hundreds of such sites. Start a keyword search for a particular aircraft, and you can quickly assemble a list of museums or private owners. From there, it's a matter of sending a few inquiries via email or a letter to request color documentation photos. Aircraft enthusiasts are terrific people, and I've gotten lots of help over the years, both from museum volunteers and private owners. By the way, the best thanks you can extend to people who help you with your documentation search is a photo of the finished aircraft. Make sure that you extend every courtesy so they'll be willing to help the next modeler who comes along.

SCALE MODEL REFERENCES: SETTLING ON A SIZE

Figure 3 shows a database spreadsheet that I downloaded from Milforum on CompuServe. The database contains the dimensions, weights, armament, powerplant and other specs for every combat aircraft of WW II. While nothing fancy, it packs an incredible amount of information in a compact, easy-to-understand format. To expand the usefulness of this great reference, I saved the database as an Excel spreadsheet and added a second, linked sheet (Figure 4') that extracts the critical dimensions (span and wing area) and calculates the dimensions of a model built to a variety of scales. By using this in conjunction with the weight calculation spreadsheet described in my April 1998 column, I can determine the weight, wing loading and stall speed for a model of any given size. This helps me to quickly arrive at the best compromise for size of a potential design. Needless to say, not all these exercises result in an actual model being built. My basement would be very full if it did! But it's fun and educational to play these "what-if' games.