Scale Soaring UK

Pilots for our scale gliders can be rather expensive at times but recently I have discovered a cheaper option and a fun way to fill up an empty office on your scale glider. These are a budget kit supplied by a subsidiary of tailored pilot's marketed under the name of vision. there are options of a few sizes but I am building a 1/4 scale chappy .the kit has 2 options of a standard head ,hands boots and overalls. This is a slightly rough finish with some fettling needed to produce a reasonably good base to paint on .the premium option is a beautifully finished item with virtually no preparation needed before you can start to paint and produce your home made masterpiece .the body has to be made by yourself using whatever method you prefer .my research so far is leading me towards a foam option but that's going to be decided later .my first concern is preparation and painting of the heads and hand's I chose the premium head but am also going to prepare and paint the standard option to see just what can be achieved .thought it might be of interest to anyone thinking of getting themselves a cheaper pilot so I'm going to post my progress as I go along .be kind as I'm new to this ,let's see how it goes[

After lots of filling and sanding the printed head is as good as it’s going to get without losing all its features.if you zoom in the rings can still be seen on the printed one but are now passable and will allow some more work with the finish I am adding skin tones to the resin head at the moment the printed one will be next for a comparison

GMan. I have just built a pilot figure for the 1/4 scale Alsema Sagitta which is my current build. It probably cost me less than £1.00 and took a day to finish. It is constructed of photo paper and 1/8 balsa. The pilot is quite handsom but a bit shallow if you see what I mean!
It looks fine from 3 metres away and no-one will notice the difference when it is 50 metres in the air.
Brian.

That’s a very handsome pilot Mr sharp lol nice model by the way will it be flying soon

After a long week at work I’ve managed to get most of the resin head finished still working on the 3D printed one I’m going to sort the body out soon so look out for my post on that bit .going for a foam core with wire inserts [

At last I’ve finished work early enough to tackle the body for this chappy.I decided to go with a foam body and a soft bendy wire sort of skeleton to hold it all together and allow me to pose the figure to suit the cockpit .vision supply a template so as to give you a great start and get an accurate size and shape. I made thin cardboard templates from the printed sheet supplied and drew around the templates with a sharpie onto my 50 mm thick foam that I scrounged from someone at work.always on the lookout for stuff as I’m driving around in my truck . Skips are a great supply of modelling materials lol .the foam is just a piece you would use in a seat for instance soft enough to work with but stiff enough to look the part under the flying suit . This was my 1st attempt at this so hopefully can only improve with practice . Having marked the foam it was simply cut out with a bandsaw,no drama it just cut lovely .after all the bits were cut I turned to my trusty old belt sander ,having popped on a dust mask and rounded off all the edges to mimic the body shape I require,a bit trial and error but after firing myself across the workshop at mach 2 a few times when the foam grabbed on to the sander the limbs and torso looked Bob on . After cutting the soft iron wire sometime that I also liberated from a skip it was poked through the middle of the legs and hips untill the wire popped out of the ankles ( sounds B****y painful) then simply bend them into shape .repeat the process for the arms and you got a strange looking foam headless ,footless,and handless little man .Now the fun begins you got to get this all into the flying suit provided in the kit . Easy you say ! I needed to enlist the help of the local Hokey cokey champion!!!!! You put ya left leg !!! Well you know the song . After about 20 mins of all in miniature wrestling, wire bending foam stuffing and lots of profanity the suit was zipped up and just wow you got a pilot body that weighs almost nowt and looks very passable

At last I’ve finished work early enough to tackle the body for this chappy.I decided to go with a foam body and a soft bendy wire sort of skeleton to hold it all together and allow me to pose the figure to suit the cockpit .vision supply a template so as to give you a great start and get an accurate size and shape. I made thin cardboard templates from the printed sheet supplied and drew around the templates with a sharpie onto my 50 mm thick foam that I scrounged from someone at work.always on the lookout for stuff as I’m driving around in my truck . Skips are a great supply of modelling materials lol .the foam is just a piece you would use in a seat for instance soft enough to work with but stiff enough to look the part under the flying suit . This was my 1st attempt at this so hopefully can only improve with practice . Having marked the foam it was simply cut out with a bandsaw,no drama it just cut lovely .after all the bits were cut I turned to my trusty old belt sander ,having popped on a dust mask and rounded off all the edges to mimic the body shape I require,a bit trial and error but after firing myself across the workshop at mach 2 a few times when the foam grabbed on to the sander the limbs and torso looked Bob on . After cutting the soft iron wire sometime that I also liberated from a skip it was poked through the middle of the legs and hips untill the wire popped out of the ankles ( sounds B****y painful) then simply bend them into shape .repeat the process for the arms and you got a strange looking foam headless ,footless,and handless little man .Now the fun begins you got to get this all into the flying suit provided in the kit . Easy you say ! I needed to enlist the help of the local Hokey cokey champion!!!!! You put ya left leg !!! Well you know the song . After about 20 mins of all in miniature wrestling, wire bending foam stuffing and lots of profanity the suit was zipped up and just wow you got a pilot body that weighs almost nowt and looks very passable[

[quote=Gman post_id=33883 time=1648075504 user_id=2037]
At last I’ve finished work early enough to tackle the body for this chappy.I decided to go with a foam body and a soft bendy wire sort of skeleton to hold it all together and allow me to pose the figure to suit the cockpit .vision supply a template so as to give you a great start and get an accurate size and shape. I made thin cardboard templates from the printed sheet supplied and drew around the templates with a sharpie onto my 50 mm thick foam that I scrounged from someone at work.always on the lookout for stuff as I’m driving around in my truck . Skips are a great supply of modelling materials lol .the foam is just a piece you would use in a seat for instance soft enough to work with but stiff enough to look the part under the flying suit . This was my 1st attempt at this so hopefully can only improve with practice . Having marked the foam it was simply cut out with a bandsaw,no drama it just cut lovely .after all the bits were cut I turned to my trusty old belt sander ,having popped on a dust mask and rounded off all the edges to mimic the body shape I require,a bit trial and error but after firing myself across the workshop at mach 2 a few times when the foam grabbed on to the sander the limbs and torso looked Bob on . After cutting the soft iron wire sometime that I also liberated from a skip it was poked through the middle of the legs and hips untill the wire popped out of the ankles ( sounds B****y painful) then simply bend them into shape .repeat the process for the arms and you got a strange looking foam headless ,footless,and handless little man .Now the fun begins you got to get this all into the flying suit provided in the kit . Easy you say ! I needed to enlist the help of the local Hokey cokey champion!!!!! You put ya left leg !!! Well you know the song . After about 20 mins of all in miniature wrestling, wire bending foam stuffing and lots of profanity the suit was zipped up and just wow you got a pilot body that weighs almost nowt and looks very passable

Tonight progress report .it’s time to tackle the parachute and seat harnesses so I bit my lip and got stuck into them . However it was such a simple process hardly any explanation is needed . The pictures supplied are more than enough to get the job done very easy to follow . I used the suggested method to secure the loose ends and applied evo stick contact adhesive for a neat and instant join the finished job looks great and really enhanced the flying suit . The hands and boots were ready to go on so a method I thought of whilst pondering this job a while ago was to fill the hollow,s up with blue foam and simply thread them on to the wire ends that were left sticking out for this job . I applied a little glue on the wire to hold the bits in place and keep everything pointing in the correct direction . Hopefully the head will get fitted soon ,can’t do it now as it’s had a little more attention and the paint is still soft .[

The last job I did on the head was to airbrush a coat of satin and mat mix of varnish to seal the finished face this was needed because I had worked on the hair and eyebrows with some soft chalk pastels and needed to be covered to stop smudging . Then the eyes were finished by dabbing some future clear floor varnish onto to them with a fine brush to give the eyes the gloss finish they needed .. I’ve really enjoyed putting this little chap together and feel a connection almost like pinocchio,s dad .anyway here he is standing proud as punch in all his finery . My opinion of this do it yourself pilot is ,,just do it it great fun and you have something you can truly call your own .it’s been a blast and I will definitely be having another one but in 1.3 scale next time .I hope the blog will be of use to anyone giving this a go ..you will love it . The only advice I would give is the choice of heads is up to the individual but the resin one is absolutely perfect so that would be my choice [

Nice job, Gman...! It just goes to show how much work Wilson puts into his products

Gman wrote: ↑09 Mar 2022, 21:19 . . . . . These are a budget kit supplied by a subsidiary of tailored pilot's marketed under the name of vision. . . .

I have looked at the website for Tailored Pilots and asked auntie google but I cannot find this subsidiary 'Vision' that you mention.
Are you able to share a link to a website please?

Thanks
Phillip C (Pilotless)
New Zealand

Try the email address, Phil...

tailored.pilots@yahoo.co.uk

Sorry just seen this reply .yes go to tailored pilot's the information should be on there

I’ve just searched the Tailored Pilots website out of interest but can find nothing at all concerning Vision pilots!
Perhaps Wilsons hasn’t put it up yet?

Peter Balcombe wrote: ↑26 Mar 2022, 20:58 I’ve just searched the Tailored Pilots website out of interest but can find nothing at all concerning Vision pilots!
Perhaps Wilsons hasn’t put it up yet?

One could say that he lacks vision!

I chose to build the pilot with the superb resin head because it was almost perfect and was so easy to work with ,however I wanted to see what can be done with the 3D printed one . It is a lot more work with filling and flatting back the print marks and lines .this is not a problem and it’s what is to be expected with the standard kit ,but with some efforts the finished job is not to bad at all and will add a nice scale looking dude to guide your pride and joy around the sky so here he is warts and all (or lines in this case lol). [

Gman, those skin tones are great up close, so at 20m you won't be able to tell them apart. Well done.

Phillip C

chris williams wrote: ↑26 Mar 2022, 08:34 Nice job, Gman...! It just goes to show how much work Wilson puts into his products

Absolutely m8 the figures Wilson produces are absolutely stunning ,and yes I’ve realised just how much work they must take