Thanks for the link Robert. Well last night I cut the wing section and skinned both wings with balsa. (photos to follow). So grateful to those who gave tips, especially the point about cuting from LE to TE proportianally....I would have ruined the foam without that one. Cant belive how much simpler than cutting spars/ribs and so on....although I have only done that once as well. More to follow. We could rename this "the build thread from the totally inexperianced."
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| Edited: 19/04/08 10:53 |
Two wings cut and skinned in 1/32 balsa. What a saga i had. The first one was fine, the second i manged to skin in the wrong thickness of balsa and had to start again. I then started to struggle with cutting the new core. Why? no idea and after cutting 2 perfectly on my first two attempts i was sorely annoyed. eventually after 3 disaters i retentioned the wire and got another good one straight away. Wire stetching possibly????
Next step LE and wing tips. I will post some more pics as I go if anyone is the least bit interested!
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| Edited: 22/04/08 10:37 |
Well, lack of interest has not dampened my enthusiasm. Made only a little progress as work and offspring have been demanding of me. still, I will post my progress and welcome feedback on where i can improve.. First ever go with a hot wire cutter....looks rougher than they are in reality Foam cores skinned with 1/32 balsa. again a first for me. used UHU POR glue as I was afraid to melt the foam. LE strip fitted. needed a fair bit of sanding to get to correct size.. An aircraft takes shape.... easier than I thought it was going to be. Clagged the wing ends on and much furious sanding later got them something like. Was not impressed with the rigidity of the wing, probably due to my dodgy use of POR to glue the 2 X no1 ribs to the foam. therefore went and tried another first for me. Glass fibre. Bought Resin and 75g/m2 cloth. 1 layer of cloth , as per some www site I found. rubbed down ready for a second application of resin. I belive, this ought to make then nice and smooth. Now, do I glass the fuselage or do i use solafilm or similar? OR i had thought of painting with one coat of epoxy. Suggestions please!!!!
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| Edited: 30/04/08 22:07 |
 I am no expert but I would not glass the the fuselage unless I felt it needed the extra strength. I am following what you are doing with interest. I can never have much enthusiasm for building a rib and spar wing (I'm too lazy) so a skinned foam wing has always been attractive to me. I have a question for you. How did you hold the balsa sheet against the foam cores while the glue was curing or did you use the POR like contact adhesive? Keep up the good work
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Used the POR as contact adhesive. If there is an easy way to do something I always try to take that route. The only other thing i thought i could use was epoxy and for that I rekoned i would need to build a vacuum pump to hold the skins down..
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 On my fuzzes, because one of the flying sites on Winter Hill is very rocky (not wobbly, full of rocks!) I ran a 1" bandage and resin under the fuz from nose block to aft of the mainplane te. So now, when the model bounces off one of the Everest models, it doesn't plane chunks out of the wood, just shreds the film over the glass. Other people have run a piano wire skid just clear of the bottom of the fuz, attached at both ends like a cart-spring. (They go boing! instead of clunk!)
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Been away for a week and so not made any progress. However, I have an idea of painting the outside edges of the wings and leaving the inner areas wood. Any suggestions for achieving this? Would Humbrol enamels go over the glass/epoxy?
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I think so, but I'm not sure. Mix up a drop of resin, and paint a bit of scrap wood with it, let it cook, then try it and see! If it makes a horrible mess, it doesn't matter!
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Now ready for radio fitting.....Pics to follow.......
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So there we have it. Ready for the radio to go in. Im quite happy with it as a first ever build....we shall see how it flies soon i hope
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 Cute little thing  Looks pretty robust too.
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Thanks David. The wings have one layer of 75gm2 glass on top and bottom. The rest was just given a coat of epoxy and sanded back as far as i dared. then another really thin coat of epoxy to give the deep glossy shine that is not really apparent on the photos. Wind seats need cleaning up. not sure how to do this yet. Radio needs fitting then all i need is a SW to see how/if it flies.
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| Edited: 21/05/08 23:02 |
That tail couple looks a bit short in the photos', the norm is 2 to 2.5 mainplane chords from le to le for an aerobat. A short tail moment will make the model more sensitive to elevator, and more critical on c/g location. It looks nice, but the lack of colour might cause it to disappear rapidly!
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Still not managed to fly it yet . Next decent day i shall take it along and have the test pilot do his stuff. Hopefully it will be all smiles and not need bringing home in a carrier bag.........
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Anyone know what sort of weight this thing should turn out at? All up with t'radio and balanced? 310g sound too heavy?
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 You're at the top end but it will be fine. Don't expect it to thermal slowly around. That's not what Limits are about. Andy
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Cheers Andy. I rekon i could get a good bit of weight off if needed. If i take off the deep gloss shine from around the tail area  it will need a lot less lead to balance. > 60g saving i rekon. As i like the gloss effect i think i will try it first and see how it goes....
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If you built her right she'll be nippy and twitchy mate. You might want to think about adding a little something for 'orientation'!
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Oh and throw her like she goosed your mother!
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Andy, wil do.....................Cheers once again. My test pilot flies a Zipper and a jart so rekon he should be able to manage her. If not it its clearly the builders fault
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