Hello. Long break, summer holiday etc. Anyhow, you’ll be pleased to know the plane is coming on nicely.

We are looking at the undercarriage. This consist of two sprung front struts with rear bracing and some cross bracing all connected to the front axle… all the part of which we have to make. The sprung struts were easy, the bracing was tricky getting the geometry right and the soldering sequence right.

Ok struts first. You can see the parts in the picture; the top part is 12mm dia aluminium tube, the bottom 10mm brass tube, the spring is 18g piano wire and is formed by winding the wire round a 4mm diameter bolt.
 
The ends on the tube were annealed and flattened using a vice and hammer.  The struts have degree of suspension from the spring, how well they work in practice remains to be seen.

I thought fitting the rest of the strut and bracings would be easy but it took a full two days to get it right and finally soldered up. You can see the finished assembly with the wheels.  The wheels are available from Williams Bros in USA, http://www.williamsbrothersmodelproducts.com/rc.html, they have lots of goodies for the Scale Modeller and I’ll be getting the replica 9 cylinder engine from them.

I also fabricated the rear tailskid out of brass sheet, tube and 16 piano wire, this bolts to the timber skid frame which is 3/16 spruce faced with 1mm ply both sides.

You will see I have also completed the front sheeting and gun troughs, I’ll be going through this is next time.

See you soon!

Are you taking on the heat in Doha ?   If you are still there, summer seems to be a good time to spend mostly indoors and finish tasks like this !

Had a couple of weeks in UK and came back to the sauna, but as you say good chance to finish some tasks up, think I'm on the finishing straight now. When are you back? 

Sorry for the delay in responding... Looks like I will be back around mid-Sept. 

Please do continue to post updates as you work through the summer

Hi back again.

The fuselage framing is complete and is reading for the side cladding. On the full size air craft, everything rear of the cockpit was covered in fabric, in front was ply/metal clad. This is curved and I glued 2 sheets of 3/32” balsa together, wetted one side to get a curved  piece to cover the side in one go. This has then offered up and trimmed and dry fixed to the fuselage, wetted again and allowed to dry to get the shape. This was ok for the sides but the top was curved in two directions and tricky to get at due to the struts, this I achieved using three pieces, final one being a “filler piece” to close the gap.

Before I finally closed the fuselage I added the instrument panel.  I enjoy this part as you can be a bit creative.  Having said that, the cockpit on this plane is so small, that once the pilot is in I doubt if you will be able to see anything!

Still, the technique I use is quite simple: the panel is cut from 1mm ply and 1/16 balsa.  Normally, you would find some documentation on panel layouts for the model, but I couldn’t find anything so, I made it up! I found on the web some pictures of 1920’s and 1930’s instruments for sale, selected the best images and saved them on my PC. I then adjusted the image to about right scale and printed them in colour. I then cut the holes in the ply to suit the instrument layout.  The printed instruments are cut out and pasted to the 1/16 balsa backing. 

Once I am happy with this I stained the ply and give it a coat of sanding sealer. As you can see it looks ok in this wood finish. I then put a sheet of plastic between the ply and balsa and this gives the dial its glass cover effect.

To bring out a bit more 3D effect, I add the “bezels”, this time I used a technique I had seen in a magazine which was to used normal soldering wire, wrapped round a round object, cut to the size in inserted in the dial. I painted some black and some bronze before fixing. Then I took some pins, filed the head flat and put a fine saw cut in the head to resemble a screw and put four around each dial as the fixings. I did the same around the panel. I then added some switches and lights using any old bits and peices lying around the house. All good fun and then fixed in position.

At this time I fixed the Radio switch in the cockpit floor and cut the door out. I intend to hinge the door and secure it with some magnetic fixings.

All this took a week off and on…. and I will be honest and say two thoughts often come into my head …..A LOT TO BE SAID FOR ARTF’S and WHAT IF IT CRASHES ON ITS MAIDEN FLIGHT…..   need to be positive though.

But I can tell you, when I got the fuselage covered and the undercarriage on and rear tail on and its sitting there; it’s a very satisfying feeling!!!!

Next time gun troughs and just how does the bottom sheeting all go together … much head scratching to come!!! 

Bye.
 

Nice Work Mike!
your detailing works are very professional and lifelike!

Will be following this thread and learn!

Dorwin

Gun Troughs and Bottom Sheeting  

The fuselage sides have to be cut for the gun trough to go in. This is a typical Gloster detail
.  
I had spent ages getting the cladding right and now I going to cut a great big hole in it… anyhow it was quite painless and the trough was formed using the acetate sheets sanded both sides to get adhesion for the glue and paint. You just press it into the gap and it forms the curved trough naturally. I fixed this using clear UHU and trimmed off the excess. Lots neat and you imagine a machine gun just sitting in the trough.

The bottom sheeting really posed a headache as I couldn’t see how it worked; I sat for ages looking at it.  What I ended up doing was building up the sheeting in 1/4 “ balsa and by trial and error got it to work, at the same time I built in the access hatch using two 16g wire dowels at the front and 2mm bolts at the back. You can see the end result with and without the access hatch.  I have decided to fix the tank at this point and get the fuel tubing in as well. This is being done at early stage but I am worried about fixing it in later, remember this all came about due to the engine bulhead being relocated because I was fitting a four stroke. As long as the fuel tubes are sealed it should be fine.

One question I kept asking myself during the final bits of the fuselage was how was I going to cover it, lots of curves, and struts – not easy. I was planning to use solartex which is a fabric equivalent of the usual film covering, but I find it easier to use, has more adhesion and is very strong.

The solution eventually came to me although I have to admit it wasn’t revolutionary. On the real thing the rear stringered fuselage is fabric and the solartex is perfect for that. The front section is mainly timber and aluminium panels. Ok no need for solartex I can use fiberglass and laminating resin for that. Problem solved.

The fiberglassing technique is one I have used before and is not as daunting as it seems; it gives a fuelproof, durable and excellent finish. My xtra wot has been flying for over 10 years now and although got a lot of hanger rash, dings and dents, still looks reasonable. This was finished in glassfibre cloth and painted.

A word of caution: you have to use laminating resin and not polyester resin that you buy at car accessory shops for vehicle repairs.  The reason for this is that the laminating resin is easily sanded; the polyester is a nightmare (a lesson learned as a youth fibreglassing my first wing joint which once completed looked like a relief map of the Himalayas).

Next time I’ll take you through it.
 

Eventually there comes a time when you run out of excuses to not start covering the airframe.  Some of the parts have been laying around for a while now so a quick check to make sure all are ok i.e. completed and let’s go. 

As I said previously I had been worried about covering the front section of the fuselage as it is curved with struts plus lots of fiddly bits where the wings meet the fuselage.  I feel glass cloth and resin is ideal for this albeit hard work.  Getting the film covering around all the bits and pieces won’t be easy, but I am sure it could be done by those who are more able that I am!

I am a fan of solartex which is an iron on covering material, www.solarfilm.co.uk. Solarfilm is one of the original plastic iron-on coverings and solartex is the “fabric” version. It is heavier but I find it very tough, easier to manage and once on it doesn’t move. Solartex comes in prepainted colours and is fuel proof. I tend to use it in a natural or white colour and then paint and fuel proof it with a coat of marine matt varnish. This seems to works well and is certainly durable, my Gladiator is still ok after 7 years.

The techniques for covering can be found everywhere and I can’t add too much if anything. To be honest, I am not a fan of film covering but have to admire the skills of the ARTF’s that come out of China, better than anything I can do.  Although with solartex if you take a bit of care it’s difficult to tell that it is an iron-on covering.

So I started with the fuselage and applied glass cloth and resin. This is a topic in itself so I will post this separately for anyone who’s interested to look at.  Patience is a virtue here as it took longer to do this bit that the rest of the plane put together but the result is a durable surface that will take a few knocks.

The rear stringered section will be covered in Solartex. I want to get the front edge accurate as I intend to add simulated panels to the front section of the fuselage and this edge of the fabric covering will form part of a panel.  So some careful cutting with a VERY sharp knife and off we go.  As with any panel, tack the middle and outer edges and work outwards. I tacked to the top of the fuselage longeron and worked my way around and towards the back.

I made life difficult as I wanted to cover in one piece without a join at the top. This I managed by taking it slowly easing  the wrinkles out as I went ( Top tip is to always leave one edge free till last to get rid of wrinkles and air bubbles as you go). Other tip is always have a sharp knife to cut clean edges.

It came out ok, but I will need to go back to catch any wrinkles or spots I missed.  Next up was the two tail plane halves and the fin. This was followed by the elevators and rudder.

Whilst I doing this I have been messing about with the paint finish. The Gamecock was a silver finish and this is a tricky colour to work with, silver paint has a mind of its own.  My Tiger Moth wings have silver prefinished Solartex finished in matt varnish and looks ok.

For some reason I opted not to go down this route, can’t remember why. So I covered some scrap balsa and started messing about. I am using a water based paint from Folkart  these are acrylic paints available in all sorts of colours, I really got them for my HMS Victory, which I started prepainting  a while back, mixing colours etc, but this has been mothballed for my later years as  I estimated it was a 3-5 year build. These paints are great to use, easy to clean but obviously need to be fuel proofed. 

I tried some silver and the coverage was not good, oops here we go…. I gave it a couple of coats expecting to have to give it a 3rd but it dried out ok after two coats.   Now I don’t want a plane that looks like it came from the factory, I want it to look well used, dirty and tired. The effect we are looking for is called “weathering”.  This is where you add the everyday wear and tear effect to the plane.

There is the story of a renowned scale modeler, who had built a replica of a plane and used to visit the museum every year where the plane was kept to see what new scratches and dents there were so that he could incorporate them into his model. 

Ok well I’m not going to be that extreme, mainly due to the fact that my skills and touch in this field aren’t too clever, but I’m going to give it a go!   I have read lots of articles on this and admire the small 1/72 scale plastic models that have been weathered to look absolutely amazing.

The comments frequently used in these articles are “less is more” and “be subtle”. Anyone who knows me will realize I am going to struggle here!

Lots of techniques available here, washes, dry brushing, smudging to name a few, I will leave all the ins and outs of it all to the experts and just describe what I did. You can judge for yourself if it’s ok or not. Again where would we be today without the web and access to all this information?

As usual my first attempt was too much. I took some pastel chalks and I sandpapered some black dust onto my test piece. Using a dry brush I brushed the dust around a bit which looked ok. I then applied matt varnish. Now varnishing normally reduces the effect, but for some reason it made it look even blacker, very smudgy. Not good.  LESS IS MORE!!

The second attempt, I took the chalks (brown and black) and sandpapered specks onto the surface, almost like putting salt and pepper on your food.  I dry brushed the dust at random applied a coat of matt varnish, much better, I will post some photos soon.  No problem on a scrap piece 1” x 6”. Bit more daunting on a wing panel 12” x 60”.

Next covering job was the wings; I still had some work to do to finish the wings but covered them together with the ailerons.  You can see that the top wings are in Solartex White and the bottom wings are in Solartex Natural. The natural is easier to apply; this is probably due to the fact that as it is not prepainted it is lighter and the heat transfer more effective. The top wing is covered using two pieces. The recommendation is four pieces, top and bottom on each wing half; my preference is one piece top and bottom as I hate the centre joint. Again this is tricky to do but worth it in my opinion.

So there we are we can now see the plane starting to look the business, albeit a gaping hole at the front without an engine and cowling

The replica engine and pilot are on their way from William Bros in USA.  Once I have these we can proceed to complete the cowling.

Awesome... I feel lucky that I would be around for the maiden

Aha! Looks like a proper airplane now! Nice work, I have never been able to cover the entire wing in just two pieces, admire your skills in doing that +1 

It's coming up very well.  Looking forward to the "end result". It's going to be great, I can see!

Engines……

Those who have been following this little story will have noted the vacant bit at the front of the plane. The design shows a card and balsa cowl, which I didn’t particularly like. I have always used fiberglass cowls for my models obviously there are none commercially available for this plane.

The cowl comprises two 1/8” ply rings, outer and inner, clad in card.  The immediate problem here is getting the outer ring to match the already finished front bulkhead outline. Although I cut the ring using template from the plan, it didn’t match. I got round this by taking a piece of clear acetate sheet and attached it to the front of the bulkhead using double sided tape. I then drew the outline of the bulkhead with marker pen and cut the outer ring using this outline, I reduced the outline by 1/16” as I am not using card but 3/32 balsa for more strength and I can sand it to give a better fit.  The inner ring is a circle which is easy enough to do.

Using two pieces of 3/16” balsa formed in a “X”  the two rings are spaced at 66mm and glued centre I then fixed the balsa cladding using segments and hey presto… one cowl. The “X” former are removed now.

I fixed the engine without the exhaust and trial fitted the cowl, cutting away for the cylinder head and was really pleased with the result.  Fixing the exhaust was not so easy; the standard Saito exhaust won’t fit inside the cowling, so I used a bendy exhaust with the muffler fitted at the end and a aluminum clamp fixed to the bulkhead to keep it fixed in place.

The other aspect of the cowl is how to fix it.  Normally you fix blocks to the bulkhead and then screw through the cowl. I wanted to avoid this as it is not scale and unsightly. The plan shows wood retainers and a spring, which I didn’t like either

What I devised was a system of 3 metal “Z” sections glued to the inner ring and 3 retainer blocks glued to the bulkhead. The idea is that you offer up the cowl flat to the bulkhead, a small twist to the right and the “Z” clips and retainers engage and the cowl won’t pull out.  A small fixing screw accessed through the front of the cowl to lock the cowl in position and job done.

Getting the exhaust and cowl set up so it all fitted and worked took a while but I was happy with the result.


OK the BAD news; one thing I completely overlooked during the whole build was the engine needle valve.  My excuse for this oversight is that normally this sits in front of the bulkhead and is accessed through the cowl. In this case because I set the engine back it is sitting inside the fuselage and when I eyed up the potential exit point it is coming right in the middle of the front strut fixing.  This is not disastrous as all I need is a 1.5mm dia hole to slot a wire into the end of the needle valve but it will be a headache if hits a fixing screw. As is happened I carefully marked the point on the fuselage which I thought was right a drilled a hole and luckily it was spot on.  I silvered soldered a hex cap nut to a piece of 16g wire with a brass tube sleeve to act as the needle valve extension.

All that’s left is to fiberglass the cowl and the fit the dummy engines when they arrive.

Nice!
I also like the idea of cowl attachment as described by. May be a few picture of the attachment would help us 

I have put a couple of close ups: The Z fixing is 1mm steel about 15 x8mm bent and glued to the cowl ring. The retainers are 1/4" ply about 10 x8mm and I have cut a slot in half of the back face which receives the  Z clip as you turn it in.

You can also see the 1.5mm aluminium bracket which takes a 3mm bolt to fix to the bulkhead. I have used a T nut to take the bolt.

Hope this is clear!!!