My first scale project ...
Research 3: The wing and landing gear
Transforming the wing of the flying G-AAGC underneath
the top view told me the LE had to be a bit less forward,
but as for the location of the ribs it didn't get me
any further. Unfortunately it was not as simple as "span
divided by the amount of rib compartments" because
the rib distances differed.
The rib tapes were the only consistent reference. In the detail below I measured the widths of the rib tapes in pixels plus the various distances.
The rib tapes were somewhat irregular applied and the sheeting overlapped. I tried to calculate the distances as good as possible (proportionally), combine the outcome with the front view photograph below and 'discover' the ribs under them. You can see the calculation here.
In the front view photograph I had to apply only a little transformation. Apparantly the photographer took it from far, making sure the image had little perspective distortion. The fuselage width corresponded with the 96,7 cm. The green-white bar shows the rib tape distances from my calculation. The bottom red-white bar shows the location of the rib tapes in the photograph. The top red-white bar is from the other wing halve (mirrored).
Next I transformed the red-white bars, making the second outer rib equal to that of the green-white bar. (The outer two rib compartments are distorted because of the round wing tip.) It was a good thing to compare/combine the red-white bars with the calculated green-white bar since the photograph of the wing is seen straight on the wing tip and the front view photograph is seen straight at the center of the wing.
Lastly I tried several combinations of measures and checked which one was most likely (blue bar). The beige bar shows how the sheeting was applied. The strut/gear fitting comes at a credible 120 cm. The rib tape must have been about 4,5 to 5 cm. wide.
Because I wondered if I could straighten the registration for use as a template, I tried one more transform. A tedious job for which I had to add a bit more guidelines.
It worked out quite well. To my surprise it also became a good 'third opinion' for the ribs, providing measures that really made sense. The outcome is shown in the black-white bar and in the last column of the calculation table.
Landing gear
My records on the track width varied from 292 cm. (Desoutter 3view) to
327,5 cm. (Koolhoven three view). Measured in the front view it is 308
cm.
The red-green bar above was used in the side view to locate the 'middle wheel'. First I added guidelines to the left and the right wheel, against the left and bottom of the rim. Then the red-green bars were transformed to fit these lines and the mid lines where added. This picture shows the principle more clear...
... than this picture where I added the lines taken in a second side view photograph and some other measures. In the end I was left with an inaccuracy of halve a centimeter... fair enough.
The size of the wheel was easy... enlarge the photograph and read what's printed on the tyre.