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I just bought a set of plans for John Taylor's classic Taylor Monoplane from his son Terry. The Mono looks very much like a little fighter, especially with an enclosed canopy, so now I am daydreaming about building one and painting it up in warbird colors. Does anyone have any suggestions of interesting schemes, even specific individual aircraft that I might want to replicate? Here's a pic of the original Mono, John Taylor's own G-APRT, for inspiration.
Attachment 2835
Cheers,
Matthew
It sure looks like a little Spitfire to me. I know some folks just hate it when homebuilts carry warbird markings, but it's your airplane - paint it however you want and the critics be damned! Here's a few Spitfires that carried American markings (as an example of what you could do):
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Also found this Taylor Monoplane painted in Spitfire markings. Pretty sharp little airplane!
http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac...cl/VH-CKC.html
Thanks, Zack. I am usually a Hawker Hurricane fan, and have considered reworking the turtledeck, canopy and rudder shape to simulate a Hurri, but that's probably making things too complicated. The Taylor actually reminds me of a Yak in profile, so a WWII Soviet scheme might be fun, maybe something like this one but with a patriotic slogan in Cyrillic down the fuselage.
Attachment 2839
The tail is very "Yakish" for sure. It is also very similar to a Curtiss P-40 tail. Sure is a neat little airplane!
For a variation on the "Blue and Yellow" scheme seen on a lot of faux warbirds, consider this Fly Baby variation of one used on the Westland Wizard, a fighter prototype from the 1930s.
http://www.bowersflybaby.com/MSFS/westland.jpg
Ron Wanttaja
Neat, Ron, thanks. I was kicking around some RAF schemes, but nothing really spoke to me. On the Yak idea, my wife is French, so maybe a Normandie-Niemen squadron fighter with the French tricolor on the spinner and tail?
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If I can find one like that in winter white camouflage, that might be a good solution.
It should be painted like Walter Mitty's plane.
Some samples. From top to bottom, the Westland Wizard-inspired RAF scheme, the French Soviet scheme, and one inspired by the immediate predecessor to the Zero, the "Claude".
Attachment 2842
This has an emphasis on the non-wartime military schemes. I love camouflage paint jobs, except when I'm in the air trying to spot one....
Ron Wanttaja
The Taylor Monoplane is very very reminiscent of the YAK fighters. So Russian camo and markings would create a sorta-/kinda sub-scale warbird replica, or "stand-off scale" as us model builders call it. BUT... several YAK-11 aircraft have been highly modified for air racing, so another interesting option might be a race-inspired scheme?
Thanks, Ron and VB. I think the military schemes appeal to me more than racers. Ron, I thought I was pretty set on a WWII theme, but your Wizard suggestion now has me thinking about all those great interwar schemes. Curse you! ;-) Maybe go with the open cockpit and one of the many colorful Boeing P-36 Peashooter schemes?
Still, I keep coming back to the Soviet winter idea because I could go with a single color of paint or even pre-colored Oratex fabric (even though the real ones often had light blue lower surfaces) and then do the decoration with vinyl stickers or spray-on plastic dip. In fact, the Oratex would be appropriately "white drab" as if the plane were whitewashed and I could add a few touches of green showing though here and there as if the whitewash were wearing away, something like this:
Attachment 2843
Here's a twist--what are some other WWII or interwar schemes with a single base color that are still interesting? For example, there are some early American WWII schemes in all-over olive drab and definitely some later ones in all aluminum.
There's a major problem with that approach: Your plane is then indistinquishable from a Taylor with an old, worn, ratty paint job. One of our Fly Baby guys painted his plane in WWII British camouflage. He has his spinner in a weathered, streaked blue like would happen with the actual combat airplanes. All the time, folks come up to him and ask why he doesn't paint his spinner.Quote:
Originally Posted by Matthew Long
I swear Matt, if you paint your plane in a deliberately ratty scheme, I'm going to sneak over to it during Airventure and put a big fake oil puddle under it....
Confession time: When I looked at that first Taylor picture you put on the web page, I was reminded of a particular POST-World War II experimental fighter of similar size.Quote:
Originally Posted by Matthew Long
https://hangar47.com/uploads/Goblin-1.jpg
Trouble is, the paint scheme isn't that distinctive....
Ron "Whaddaya expect from a Fly Baby guy?" Wanttaja
LOL, OK, no fake rattiness then, I'll make it shiny and new let it age with time. ;-) Here's a nice clean Yak-1B, an early mount of French pilot Marcel Albert, one of four Normandie-Niemen pilots, and very few foreigners, named Hero of the Soviet Union. I have also seen it with a red spinner, which I would prefer.Quote:
Originally Posted by rwanttaja
Attachment 2844
I don't know what to say to that except, hmmm, not really what I was going for.Quote:
Confession time: When I looked at that first Taylor picture you put on the web page, I was reminded of a particular POST-World War II experimental fighter of similar size.
type N29CK into your search bar. Let me know what you think. Roger
Canopy is left as an exercise for the builder.Quote:
Originally Posted by Matthew Long
Attachment 2866
Ron Wanttaja
skyhawk471, that's a nice looking Mono you've got, now doubt, but the all-red paint scheme, spring gear and modern cowl make for a nice racer look but not the baby warbird I had in mind.
Attachment 2867
Looks great to me, Ron, thanks! Needs a bigger spinner, but the spirit definitely there is there and I think the blue underside actually helps make the look.Quote:
Originally Posted by skyhawk471
Quote:
Originally Posted by rwanttaja
I had a pleasant surprise today in the form of an e-mail from Flitzer biplane designer Lynn Williams, with whom I have corresponded many times on various projects and concepts, some practical, some not. It turns out that Lynn actually led a project to turn THE Taylor Monoplane, John Taylor's original prototype G-APRT, into a replica Yak! I'll let Lynn tell the story:
I am also attaching the images that Lynn sent, with the caveat (confirmed by Lynn) that the gear "retracting" in the Sport Aviation image is a bit of pre-photoshop magic. He and his partners had considered the using Bob Ladd's retractable gear modification for the Mono, but in the end did not go that route.Quote:
Hi Matthew,
Chris Bobka emailed me with a link to your recent enquiry on the EAA website forum for ideas around a Yak 1, 3 or Yak 9 colour scheme applicable to a Taylor JT-1, the plans for which you've now acquired.
As we'd emailed each other numerous times on lightplane ideas for historical replicas, the Sperry M-1 being a typical example, I'd assumed you knew about my conversion of the JT-1 prototype, G-APRT, in the mid-1970s into a facsimile of the Yak 9D.
If you look at the picture of 'PRT in its current configuration with an open cockpit, you can still see the modified rudder which I fitted which is exactly the right shape for a Yak, unlike the more pointed rudder on the JT-1. I was able to camouflage the horn balance by arranging the yellow-outined red soviet star to follow the edge of the horn balance line so it was invisible when the rudder was in line with the fin.
The colour scheme was accurate and I recall that the colours were 'Datsun Green' and 'Triumph Tobacco Leaf' cellulose (with plasticiser) on upper surfaces and Arctic Blue underneath, providing the exact shades worn in summer by the 9 . My entire album of photographs of this aeroplane went missing in the early 1980s and I now only have a few left, some of which are attached herewith. The one of me strapping into the 'Yak' shows the scheme and the canopy as well as the Russian style numeral.
The canopy was a close fitting, sideways-hinged overwrap onto the rear decking with a sliding hood behind an 'armoured' windscreen. I lowered the seat to provide more canopy height clearance while providing a scale appearance to the canopy line. Later, when the people who bought the aeroplane from our Group 'restored it' they discarded the canopy altogther which is a pity as it was a work of art. They also reverted to the wheels being placed outside the undercarriage oleos rather than where I put them on the inside of the legs. In my case this altered the ground angle of the Taylor, steepening it, and also the legs themselves were extended by 3". The basic Taylor undercarriage is one of the worst I've seen and in the case of the prototype the 17 degree leg angle at the spar interface had eventuated in the attachment holes going 'oval' and the inner leg binding in the outer. The tendency for the Taylor to groundloop was exaggerated in the prototype because of the condition of the aeroplane when we bought it which was dire, and in some areas we explored, positively lethal. I also changed the attachment angle of the leg to the spar to 12-1/2 degrees, from memory, reducing the bending load on the leg. The result was not only no tendency to groundloop, but the flare on landing was now achievable, where previously it would hit tailwheel first if trying to flare at a resonable speed for three-pointing. It would also steer on the ground much more easily and could be pirhouetted neatly on a tight axis. The longer leg also created a more realistic appearance but of course was never officially accepted by the PFA.
The ailerons were a mess when we bought the aeroplane: massive mass balances having been attached to the spars to cure 'low speed flutter'. This I am convinced was induced by slacknees in the aileron circuit. Furthermore it was arranged such that the up-going aileron would reverse its direction with full control application, the 'up' travel on both ailerons being unequal by some 5 degrees each side. The external mass balance would contact and depress the fabric with full control applied and whoever had bolted them onto the spars had crushed the timber to half its thickness with the bolts. No rust proofing had been applied to the mass balances (the ailerons being totally overbalanced) and they'd not only rusted completely but the aileron spars themselves were showing signs of rot. The balances weighed about 10 lbs. each and there was absolutely no control feedback when ferry-flying it with these attached. I threw the lot away and built new ailerons with just a tiny amount of taper at the ends to reduce the 'plank' aspect of the wing. I also introduced internal mass balances based on those of the Taylor Titch which I presume are still on the aeroplane, just in case!
The aeroplane flew well and handled well but stall warning was non-existent and this has killed numerous JT-1 pilots, one quite recently. I would recommend stall-breaker strips inboard on the LE or some audible stall warning system.
There is another JT-1 flying in the UK in winter white scheme and red stars but with no other Yak conversion elements.
Finally I joined the EAA to answer this question on the Forum before I realised it was you asking the questions! I am waiting for the moderator to accept my application, but in the meantime, would you kindly pass this email onto the site for reference of the other members with the photographs herewith as there seems to be some interest in this conversion.
Thanks, Lynn, for giving me more to daydream about! ;-)
Cheers,
Matthew
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zack Baughman
Well I really liked the color combination. I went through couple of sites and found a site that give list of Aircraft Paints. Anyone looking out for this, I m sure this would be helpful.
Go for the Hurricane if thats what you want. A raised turtledeck is little more work than the low style. The rudder bow can be changed with little difficulty. and the canopy detail is left up to you anyway. Although I didn,t use military colors on mine, it probably would look good in any of the round tail fighter colors. I used the standard VW but the converted 3cyl in line would assist in getting the nose lines closer.