So, how did this kit end up being so accurate? Designer Ronnie Olsthoorn explained it to me in a recent e-mail. Here's what he had to say:
"Several years go Espen Tjetland commissioned to design a model conversion kit for the Buchon. This posed a special problem, as no reliable drawings of the Buchon seem to exist. Luckily I had just learnt about this 'magic' called photogrammetry, popularly known as photo scanning. This is a process whereby data from a large batch of photos is combined to produce a 3D point cloud. At the very next Flying Legends airshow I asked if I could make a walkaround of one of the Buchons in attendance and within minutes I shot dozens of photos, focusing on the nose area. With these photos I was able to create a fairly rough yet accurate 3D model of the Buchon's front end.
"Sometime later Gary Brown came in possession of several Buchon nose panels. He was kind enough to make almost 200 photos of these, complete with measurements, from which I was able to generate additional 3D photo scans.
"Armed with these photo scans, and a set of Me 109 G engineering plans for reconstructing the wing roots and cockpit area, I was now able to accurately reverse engineer the Buchon in 3D.
Having no experience with 3D printing or resin casting (yet!), I sent my models SBS in Hungary, who reworked them into the 1/32nd scale kit parts as now sold by Espen's Attitude Aviation AS."
And here are some photos he sent that show the process.
12 attached images. Click to enlarge.
