Skystone Plans and Scale Documents
I recently discovered this source for 3-views and scale drawings and plans. So far as I can determine, these items are only available from Stores.Ebay.Com (search web under Skystone and you're sent directly to Ebay Stores listing). I intend to order one set and a multi-pack CD set very soon, and I will offer a more in-depth review of this source, but from what I can see it should prove very useful.
According to the promo material, Skystone offers:
"the best Model Airplane Plans and Scale Documents to be found anywhere, plus other Fun & Interesting items for All Modelers"
The Golden Age sets I have seen advertised include:
Stinson Reliant
Stinson SR-3
Supermarine S.6 Schneider Trophy Racer
Supermarine S.5 Schneider Trophy Racer
Gee Bee Model D Sportster
Boeing P-26A Peashooter
From what I can see so far, I'd agree they are definately worth checking out. The prices for the plans range from $6.00 to $30.00, a reasonable price for plans.
EXAMPLE PLAN SET:
The Model 'D' may just be the easiest of all the Gee Bee's to build and fly. The big difference is the flat and narrow fuselage. This 56.5 inch wingspan plane was designed with a .40 to .45 engine in mind and that is all that you will need. You will get a good set of full size plans. (Coverite based a kit on these plans. But it did not build as nice a plane as you can using these plans.), The building and flying instructions to go with them. Don't have any real documents to go with the plans and article. But if you are like me and keep getting your Gee Bee's mixed up. You will get a couple of pages showing the progression of Gee Bee's. The plans are Stand Off scale, but fairly close to true scaleYour Plans Printed on acid free paper to make them last a long time.*
* If you want a smaller or larger plane. I can enlarge or reduce the plans for you. A reduction in size is FREE. Larger is Not Free. Ask First! Everything will come rolled in a mailer tube.
In addition to plans, Skystone also offers three (though I have only seen notes for two) CD collections of 3-view,, 4-view,, and 5-views, engineering drawings, 100+ cockpit views, color pictures, b&w photos, and detail shots of hundreds of aircraft. According to the notes for CD#1:
I fully believe that this CD is one of the best buys on Ebay. Nothing fancy, no tricks. 100's Of 3, 4, & 5 views, engineering drawings, 100+ cockpits, color pictures, black & white pictures and detail pictures. Complete specifications on 100's of planes. Even some Nose Art & history. All are print quality and most will print better than the original document. About the same amount of information as you will get out of a 600 or 800 page book and a lot more than most of them. No special programs needed or anything to unzip. All documents and pictures are common file types. JPG, tiff, or bmp and a few text files. You don't even need to transfer anything to your hard disk. * Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back. * The CD has complete documentation on several aircraft. Lots of complete photo packs for your scale pack. These are not computer type of images. They are high DPI for quality printing. You can print out photo quality images with the right paper and printer. Some of the engineering drawings are full size and to print at that size you can have them printed at a blue print shop. Several programs will print them out page size.
The notes for CD#3:
Those of you that have gotten a set of documents or plans with documents from me. They were printed from the same files that are on the CD's. If you have scale CD #1. This is the CD that you have ask about and waited for. Everything on the CD is Print Quality. Everything on this CD will print out better than the original material that I had to work with. You will find the CD easy to use, (All files are JPG or TIFF.), Fun, Informative, Educational, (Darn don't you just hate that word. Here you are trying to have fun and some guy wants to educate you.) and USEFULL.
3 Main Directories, Doc's, History, & Engineering. Doc's is just what it says, 3, 4, & 5 views, lots of them in color and most very detailed. + Specifications, Side views, Cutaway drawings & Fact sheets. Over 380 documents covering about 200 planes.
History has the history of many planes and many documents & pictures to go with the history.
In Engineering are what are called "Master Plans" and are highly detailed scale drawing of the full size planes. There are several sizes of them. From standard page size, 10X15 inches on up to about 30X36 inches in size. These are the most accurate scale drawing that you can get. There are 224 of these "Master Plans" on the CD. All are TIFF files and the large ones can be printed full size at most blue print shops. Just as a point of reference the bigger drawing sell for $10 and up each sheet.
There are 3 smaller directories, Color plates, Detail and Pictures. Color plates are useful in helping with a color scheme on a scale model. Ran out of room and not too many there. Detail is close up detail pictures and drawings. Some real good information here. The picture directory has 99 pictures in it. Mostly fun but you will find a lot of good information on several planes here. Most of the pictures on the CD are with the information that they go with.
Here are three sample shots (click on examples for larger pics)
