Dave Platt Models: "Advanced Building Techniques"-the latest from the Black Art Series

Model Airplane News, Feb 2005 by Yarrish, Gerry

Dave Platt has more than 50 years' experience in designing and building scale model airplanes, and he established the gold standard for competition models. Because of the continuing demand for his scale knowledge, Dave has produced a set of videotapes called the "Black Art Series" in which he invites you into his workshop. The series includes titles such as "Building and Fiberglassing Techniques," "Detailing and Painting Techniques," "Scratch This," "The Jet Set" and his most recent four-tape collection, "Advanced Building Techniques."

Advancing the art

Dave takes viewers on a fascinating journey as he creates his new Vought OS2U Kingfisher. Volume 1 covers 3-view drawings and demonstrates that-when it comes to accuracy-all 3-views are not created equal. He begins his project with the main float and shows lofting techniques for bulkhead development. Other sections include an explanation of "room-temperature vulcanizing" (RTV) molds, which are used to reproduce many identical parts, and a discussion about 9-ounce, unidirectional E-glass fiberglass cloth. Construction highlights include the wing, wing fittings and hinges, flap and aileron coves and fuel tanks built into the wing.

In Volume 2, Dave shows flap- and aileronlinkage disconnects and scale control-horn and pushrod installations. Dave talks about G-10 fiberglass material, which he uses to make hinges and overhanging wing skins. He builds an aileron, sheets the wing and finishes up with highlights of the float and float-rudder details, the beaching dolly and molding its wheel hubs.

The most impressive part of the Kingfisher is Dave's hollow-fuselage-construction technique. In a nutshell, he splits the fuselage land builds it in halves over formers. He strip planks the halves with balsa, applies E-glass and resin and then sheets the half shells again. The halves are lifted off the bench so he can bash out most of the formers. Once glued together, the completed fuselage provides Dave with a single, very large, unrestricted space so he can fully detail the model's interior.

Volume 3 shows the fuselage construction in detail, and that includes the rudder- and elevator-servo installations. Dave also explains his unique method of wing attachment. He uses a piece of string to align elevator hinges, makes the elevators removable, constructs fiberglass cowls and makes gill flaps. Dave also shows how he molds fiberglass canopy frames over MonoKote-covered forming blocks.

A treasure trove of techniques, Volume 4 shows how Dave detailed all the canopy parts, replicated fabric-covered control-surface details and made his impressive dummy radial engine. He makes navigation lights and shows how weathering enhances the model's appearance. Dave adds all of the interior details, including the instrument panel, pilot seat, sidewalls, upper deck equipment, the rear gunner's compartment (with its machine gun and gun ring), radio equipment and so much more. Your imagination will soar when you see his results!

Each video lasts about 2 hours, and all the volumes are available in VHS and DVD format. The first video you buy costs $34.95, and each additional video costs $30.

"Advanced Building Techniques" is a great addition to the already impressive "Black Art" collection. It's highly recommended and well worth your attention. -Gerry Yarrish

Dave Platt Models Inc. (321) 724-2144; daveplattmodels.com.