john stones 1 - Moderator Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Nice work Chris and Paul with the camera John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Harris Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Chris, Fantastic build and text book maiden, you have got to pleased? I would be interested to know from someone who flies both Helis and fixed wing, is it a cross between both like you first thought? Chuffed Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 Richard, you should be chuffed to bits. For someone who's never built an autogyro this design is easy to build and mechanicaly sound. It works and works well! For some reason I was expecting a nose down attitude to maintain forward flight and head speed but realised afterwards it doesn't because the rotor isn't producing the thrust. Other than that it was pretty much as expected, but much easier to fly than a heli. Throttle still controls height, just not as instant as a heli and shallow bank turns are initiated with aileron closely followed by rudder to keep the tail following the nose. Needs less rudder as the bank angle increases. I would say that if you can fly circuits and fig 8's with heli and fixed wing you're not going to have any problems at all. If you only fly fixed wing but do use rudder in coordinated turns you'll be OK just be quick on the sticks in the hover. If you fly fixed wing & never use rudder i.e yank 'n bank, then learn to use rudder! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn K Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Brilliant. Cant really fault that flight can you M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 Thanks John, missed your post above Richards! Martyn, for my second flight the roll to the left still caught me out a bit. Must remember to hold in some right aileron and down elev near the end of the take off run to keep it on the ground a little longer! Other than that I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to exploring it's flight envelope and some odd looking sloooooow passes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 Took the Atom out for a "spin" in the wind this afternoon. No problems in a 10mph (approx) breeze with some really slow fly bys. Very similar to flying without the wind except the take off run is easier. Looking forward to the other Atom builds maidens now! You're gonna love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 15, 2015 Author Share Posted February 15, 2015 Only a few hours spent on the Mossie last week and from what's been done you wouldn't think it was a few hours work either! With the exhaust baffles fitted I went all over the airframe filling any dents and imperfections I could see with cellulose putty or filler primer. Although it's only a fun fighter there are a couple of details I wanted to add. Wing panels and joint lines were created by masking off the panel and spraying 2 coats of primer. When the tape is removed it forms a raised line for the edge of the panel. Subsequent coats of paint dull the edge to a slightly raised "lip" I also added raised frames for the access door and top hatch. This was done by marking and cutting 2 masks in 2 layers of tape and applying to the airframe. The gap forming the frame was then filled with a thin layer of filler, in this case chemical metal, and when set the mask removed. The frames were then lightly sanded down to soften the edges. Finally after what felt like hours of filling and sanding the whole airframe was cleaned, blown off and wiped down with a tack cloth before receiving a final primer coat with my trusty old Badger single action airbrush. Now it's ready to start "colouring in" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Marsh Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 looking good, Chris. Popping down now - need to get some milk from Co-op and see those colors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 Looks good from here Chris I like your curtain John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn K Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 That's great = a DIY spray booth. Must try something similar What primer do you use? It doesn't look grey in the airbrush M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Water or turps for cleaning it ? John Edited By john stones 1 on 16/02/2015 17:07:02 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 16, 2015 Author Share Posted February 16, 2015 Cellulose thinner! I.ve used a cellulose filler primer to get the surface smooth and am trying Tamiya acrylics for the first time for the colour. A test piece has shown no problems with compatability and it's a lot more pleasant to spray than enamels! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 16, 2015 Author Share Posted February 16, 2015 Martyn the booth is made from Harris poly dust sheet 2m X 50m about £4 even from Halfords. There is a sheet under the ceiling and then sheets hanging down closing off the rest of the shed. I used duct tape to reinforce where I stapled it to the ceiling to stop it pulling through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 20, 2015 Author Share Posted February 20, 2015 A bit more sanding & spraying done over the last few days. The primer was lightly sanded with 240G and a coat of Tamiya acrylic light sea grey applied to the underside. It took just under 40ml which included the engine nacelles and ext fuel tanks. The upper surfaces were then sprayed with dark sea grey (15ml) and then, when dry the camouflage dark green (10ml) was sprayed with feathered edges. The Tamiya acrylics were thinned approximately 20% with Isopropanol alcohol. Total paint so far approx 65ml although some of that would have disappeared as overspay! So that's the base colours, which I didn't photograph since everybody knows how to paint and TBH it'd be as interesting as watching paint dry! The light sea grey is quite green/blue ish so to aid visibility whilst flying and in an effort to retain some kind of scale appearance invasion stripes were added. Each stripe is 50mm wide on the wings and 40mm wide on the fuselage to try to keep the correct proportions. They were masked off with a combination of standard masking tape and automotive fine line tape. Yesterday I treated myself to a new airbrush which I've been threatening to do for a couple of years now, so a Badger 155 and some accessories/consumables are on their way here and should arrive on Monday. In the mean time tonight I got on with the canopy. I did start by filling in the glazing with std masking tape & cutting it back with a sharp knife but it was proving difficult to see the frame lines so I started again! My second approach was to tape outside the frame line with fine line tape to get a continuous straight line & where the tape lines crossed I just left for now. Then, when all the frames were masked off I cut out the intersecting lines with a sharp knife. Finally all the intersecting frames are clear and the bottom frame masked off. The edges where the tape overlaps is then sealed with the back edge of the knife to prevent the paint from creeping in the corners. The remaining glazing was then closed off with overlaping layers of tape. This could also have been done with std tape. The join line between grey and green on the fuselage was marked on the canopy and it was sprayed first with grey then with green just like the airframe. Finally the canopy was held in position and the camouflage feathering lined up with the fuselage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 21, 2015 Author Share Posted February 21, 2015 And the finished canopy after removing the masking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cymaz Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Lovely work...still watching Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Marsh Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 I used the same idea for doing my Magician canopy - much neater, but takes a while to mask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 lol takes bleedin ages to mask! Next up a break from painting and time to think about some guns! After some brief consideration I have decided that the .303 machine guns will be removeable since they are likely to get broken during transport. I used 2mm bullet connectors on the rigging for the Dawn Flyer last year and decided to use the same idea again. The bullet connectors fit inside 1/8 brass tube nicely so the tube was cut by rolling under a stanley knife and soldered together. Trying for ages to come up with an idea for the tapered gun muzzel I spotted some pippettes in my paint box... A small piece of heat shring tubing will form a step behind the muzzel and then I'll paint them. The female bullets have been fixed into the nose with epoxy along with a larger diameter brass tube to line the hole for the gun camera! More photos on this over the weekend! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 Back to some painting! With permission from SWMBO I have treated myself to a new airbrush for larger areas. I went for the Badger 155 as it has a tapered needle and nozzle thus negating the need to different diameter needles and nozzles. So with a new airbrush my enthusiasm for more painting was renewed! To start I drew out the identification numbers on some card. A piece if Frisket masking sheet was laid over this and the tape side cut with a new blade. After cutting to keep the mask together it was reinforced with a strip of std masking tape The letters have been spaced out on the mask to allow for the fuselage roundel. I find it easier this way rather than trying to get separate masks level with each other and equally spaced. The wing and fuselage roundels were cut with a compass cutter with just enough pressure to go through the film but not the backing sheet. I also made a mask for the rudder ribbing detail which was sprayed with a thinned coat of black. Unfortunately even a light misting was too much so I had to spray over it with a light coat of grey to reduce the effect. The first mask to be applied was the ID letters and sprayed with sky paint. Many aircraft had their invasion stripes painted over the ID letters so I masked off the lower half of the letters with tape. This was a mistake as the "T" fell outside the stripes and as a result I had to mask off and spray the bottom half of the T after removing the mask! This made me realise something! By taking photos as I went along if I got it wrong or messed it up I'd have to start again, but what about the blog? Should I just show the "good" photos or fess up if it goes wrong? I decided to go with the humiliation of potential failure and take the photos as each colour was applied! The masks were laid in place and I also cut a mask for the fin flash and the red lines over the radiators since I wanted to spray all the red, white, blue and yellow in one go to minimise time cleaning between colours. Radiator mask. Wing roundel mask in position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 The red part of the mask was removed then sprayed red After drying the red mask was replaced and the blue removed... The blue was then replaced on the fuselage and tail only and the white removed... Finally the white was replaced on the fuselage and the yellow removed... Now it's time to remove all the mask and see if it's worked! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 Wings... A little blue overspray outside the mask that'll need removing with some fine scotchbrite before the clear coat but other than that I'm happy. Fin flash OK! Now for the fuselage sides! I promised myself that I'll show the photos as it's unmasked regardless of what's underneath, so this could go badly wrong and may be my last post! Outside mask removed first... Lots of yellow bleeding under the mask. That'll be because I had to do several coats due to the white invasion stripe! Blue mask removed... More bleeding! I'm packing a bag! White mask... Still not good. I'm going to have a lot of touching up to do! Finally red mask... Well one had to be close at least! I'm still here though because the other side looks like this! Again not perfect but a lot better. So a bit of cleaning and touching up required but not a total disaster...yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 Doesn't look too bad from a distance though! Maybe if I fly it fast enough nobody will notice? A little bit of detail added. I'll do a seperate post on this later on! Trying to make up for such a poor job I installed the cockpit. I had already made and painted the transmitter and receiver boxes and the pilots arrived today. I didn't want twins flying so had ordered a WWII British and German pilot. The Brit was trimmed 4mm shorter & the German had his body cut off at the neck. The German had his green hat repainted brown and both pilots had their faces painted a more lifelike colour. The Brit was also treated to black eyebrows and a moustache, being a hero an' all! Say hello to Air Sick Sidney (navigator/radio operator) and Trevor (Pilot) The skin was textured by painting & then stippling the drying paint with a brush as required, then repainting when dry. Edited By Chris Barlow on 27/02/2015 02:19:42 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim C Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Chris, A tip to stop/reduce bleeding under mask edges is brush a bit of clear around the mask edge to seal it first, if your using Tamiya the Tamiya clear works a treat, you can thin it slightly, and just brush a very very light coat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Looking very good Chris shame about the bleeding but i'm sure it'll be sorted before it leaves the hanger John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 Excellent tip there Tim, I'll try that when I do the reg number. I suppose because the lacquer is clear it's not seen if it does bleed under the masking. Thanks. Thanks John. It'll get touched up over the weekend because each time I look at it I want to sort it out! BTW the guns are coming along nicely. At the beginning of the build when choosing the power setup I thought I would just use ply rings to space off the motors to get them in the correct positions but after a motor change that spacer needs to be 12mm! Instead or ufing several rings I cut 2 spacers from 12mm ply with a hole saw and machined out the middle for the prop adapter and motor mount screws. The spacers were reinforced by soaking the edges in thin cyano then when dry glued in behing the motor bulkheads with 1hr epoxy. A lot harder to photograph that it was to actually glue up! This means the motor bolts are now inside a cut out behind the prop. And with the prop fitted the gap between the spinner and bulkhead is now correct. Finally one last shot of exactly how she stands right now in the shed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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