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K5682 - Martyn's Fury


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Fury update.

It's been a funny old week. I decided that I wasn't happy with the modelspan covering over the doculam. Just too many imperfections so I ripped it all off all surfaces except the fus, fin, ailerons and underneath the upper centre section where it was a total sod to cover.. No damage to the doculam underneath, the tissue just peeled off.

I ordered some polyester tissue from Mike Woodhouse at free flight supplies which arrived very promptly. Its heat shrinkable not water shrinkable so I wouldn't run into the same problem if the tissue clinging to the doculam as it shrunk causing micro creases.

The heavyweight polyester on the wings went on beautifully, but it was a challenge to bend it round the LE. Compound curves were a bit difficult as well. However, quite pleased with the final result. As Mike says, the polyester tissue is very tough. That's wrong, it's very very tough. I'll be using it to cover the flying surfaces of my 36" span Bucker without needing to double cover when I get round to it.

The lightweight polyester is very reminiscent of prewar jap. Very light (but I don't think as light as jap) with a very distinct grain.

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Vert easy to see the grain in this shot

Difficult to tear across the grain

So progress has been limited to the recovering of most of the tissue and finishing off the tapes on the fuselage.

Next job was to start the stitching on the wing and tailplane. I made up this little jig to wrap thread over a piece of lightweight polyester.

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Made an estimate of the spacing on the wing, laid down some cling film and glued the cotton to the tissue.

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Allowed to dry, cut a strip and the cotton fell off. Hey Ho. Added a bit more glue and tried a take 2. A little better. The strip I sliced was the same width as the ribs and has disappeared..

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Covered with a strip of heavyweight modelspan as a rib rape and the stitches are barely perceptible.

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Added a second strip but with lightweight polyester as a rib tape and the stitches are more visible but the rib tape has disappeared.

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Jury is still out.

Just checked and counted 17 stitches on the tailplane ribs, far higher density that the wing do will need to redo anyway.

Things have Slowed down.

More to come

Martyn

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Posted by Martin McIntosh on 31/10/2020 21:54:51:

What the hell is doculam and why would you wish to double cover a model? I have never been able to get my head round this.

Hi Martin

Doculam is a very tough but lightweight film. Provides the toughness.

Tissue on the top to give the correct texture

Martyn

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  • 4 weeks later...

A bit more progress. All a bit slow because these bits are slow going.

Managed to sort out the technique for making my stitches. Using the frame shown earlier, add a layer of klingfilm then a layer of lightweight tissue. Tissue to stretched tight using masking tape to secure. The thread is wrapped around the pins at the side of the frame then tacked into place on the tissue using paste (clear paper glue from hobbycraft) and allowed to dry. Takes about 24 hours at room temperature. Next bit came from experience. One coat of dope over the thread and tissue or some of the 'stitches' will fall off during the trim process. This kept it all nice and secure. Then simply trim the strips and dope them down. Still a slow process but much quicker than doing the stitches individually.

SO the stitches went down (top surface only) - these were about 4mm wide, equating to 1" stitches on the full size. When dry I stripped some lightweight polyester tissue rib rapes - about 6mm wide and doped these on top. At this point, the whole lot is pretty invisible. No photos.

A coat of grey primer identified a few places where the tapes hadn't stuck down so dope was rubbed in with the fingertip until all the bubbles disappeared.

24 hours later a thin coat of silver applied. I am using 'proper' cellulose paint from my air touch up gun, applied fairly dry. No runs at all.

The result looked like this.

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The paint is a bit patchy as expected - its a thin coat - but the stitches are a bit prominent.

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The lighting is set so it shows how bad it is. The tailplane was actually a lot worse mainly because I made a real hash of the rib tapes so I have stripped the covering off and redone the top surface of the tailplane. One thing different though, I have applied the stitched strip with the stitched downwards and the tissue on top. Hoping that the extra layer of tissue will help lose the obvious un-scale like bump.

Underneath, the rib tapes look quite nice

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Very subtle. Pleased with those..

What I think the problem is that the tissue isn't shrinking enough over the stitch, causing a ridge. Polyester tissue is heat shrinkable so I am going to go over them with an iron in the next day or so and try and nip them up a bit. If not the covering will come off again and I'll try again with a thinner thread but I don't think the thickness of the thread is a problem.

The fuselage has also had a bit of work done. The very smooth hatches immediately behind the cockpit are apparently painted fabric covered ply. I decided to use lith with the hatched cut out and then sanded down on the two short edges so there is a small gap. All sanded and roughened then painted. These appear to have come out quite well.

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Quite pleased with that. Its starting to look like it may fly one day

More to come in dribs and drabs.

Martyn

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  • 1 month later...

A little while since I last posted. The Mystic and Christmas have distracted me a little but I have made some more progress on this while waiting for glue to dry.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I managed to get a second coat of silver on the model (outdoors) which was a minor disaster unless you like milky silver. Basically it was cold, I left it too late and the finish bloomed badly. Fortunately, I did manage to fix it by spraying on a coat of cellulose thinners then getting the model back into the comparative warmth of the shed. Hey presto, no blooming and a lovely flat silver finish.

Not much done over Christmas but I have made a start on the metalwork in the past few days. Nearly all litho. Feeling quite pleased but I still have the tricky bits to do.

Some photos..

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The gun troughs are done with mick Reeves self adhesive foil. They will get redone in lith.

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And

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More to come

Martyn

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  • 1 year later...

A bit of progress on the Fury

 It was originally going to be silver and i have used scale like litho panels all the way down the fus. Until i got to the nose. I just could not get those compound curves to look right. In fact, they were horrible. So after numerous attempts, i abandoned that scheme and went for 217/M of the SAAF which was stationed in Ethiopia between 1940 until 1944 when it was eventually destroyed. This aircraft saw action against the Italians, one of only a handful of Furys that saw action in WW2 in RAF colours. DSC_1029.thumb.JPG.a84f5ead4e93f480f07a66f5d1bea50b.JPG

 

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Lots more to come but some real progress after a very prolonged house move.. 

 

PS I know the camo scheme isnt correct but I can blame that on duff info on the Internet ... 

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  • 1 month later...

4 weeks holiday in France slowed things up a bit then last week, i fell and fractured a bone in my back. 

 

However i have been working on the Fury in parallel with the Robin. 

 

Mainly working on scale detail although the fin and rudder are now fixed in place. 

 

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I used a cf tube for the rudder post. This area needs tidying up a bit yet. 

 

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The fin stands off the tailplane as per full size. The front post is just a steady, pushes into a hole in the tailplane. 

 

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I have tried to replicate the hinges. These are made from gf sheet and are similar to the original but the air gap is slightly too wide. Fairly pleased with them though. 

 

Being laid up allowed me to do some cad work and a pair of mark IV Vickers barrels and cooling vents have been crafted. 3D printed and sprayed satin black. 

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The cooling slots aren't quite correct, I may redo them. 

 

The joystick was made from a mix of plasic tube, ali tube , rubber tube, black sleeving and button thread binding. Enjoyed making this. 

 

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Note how the rubber split just after it was all glued togerher. Sigh. The thread binding went on afterwards and mainly hid the split. 

 

Instrument console was laser cut. The Vickers breeches are balsa with a 3d printed arming? lever glued to the side. 

 

Brake, elevator trim wheel and throttle & mixture controls are also 3d printed. The pilots seat is balsa.  All in, a real mix of build technologies.

 

A couple more instruments yet to be added but its getting there. 

 

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Sorry these are upside down. 

 

The coaming came from a strap of an old handbag. It already had padding inside. Quite pleased with that. 

 

Need to sort out a pilot next and then crack on with struts and rigging

 

More to come 

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  • 2 weeks later...

A bit more progress. Wirk on the Robin DR400 temporarily suspended while i was waiting for paint which has just arrived. 

 

I have 3 big tasks outstanding. Wheels, wing rigging and detail. 

 

As i have damaged my bacj, i thought that o would work on tje detail. 

 

I purchased a highly detailed 3d printable ww2 pilot. Actually a spitfire pilot but dont tell anyone please.  I printed slowly to get the best resolution. The file blurb said approx 1/6 scale and 40 hours of printing later i had a very nice pilot about 10% too big.  So scaled down to 84% and 35 hours later it fitted perfectly in the cockpit but just a little too tall. 

 

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a bit ghostly. Needs to be reincarnated. 

 

While i was printing for almost 3 solid days, i started on the gunsights and windscreen. 

 

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Mmm another upside piccie. Sorry, it looks ok on the phone.  The long sight was made from a length of plastic tube with lith strips wrapped around as appropriate.  Held in place with pins padded out slightly with ali tube.  The cross hair gun sight was 3d printed. Took an hour to cad it and 10 minutes to print it.  Nice and flexible, it should survive ok. 

 

The windscreen base is balsa then added a PETG plastic windscreen and lith frames. I would be pleased with it if it hadn't clouded slightly when i wiped off the excess epoxy using acetone. Hopefully, I'll be able to polish it out. 

 

Reincarnating the pilot with paint took about 3 days but i am quite pleased with the outcome. 

 

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Paint still a bit wet here but when dry, he slotted straight in and felt quite at home. 

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He is a tight fit.., (just spotted that i need to trim the lith on that lower frame..) 

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Hand on the joystick.. Just. 

 

The other big job was to fit the underfus radiator housing.  The mesh came from an old sieve and the slats are from balsa. I had previously spent a great deal of time adding all the distinct rivets and other fasteners. Its held in place by a slide at the rear and 4 10mm neo magnets at the front.  I need to be able to slide it off to get the lower wing centre panel off. 

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And

 

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Far too clean.  Needs weathering. 

 

Next job. Wing struts and rigging. 

Thanks to Danny i have ordered some neoprene cord for the tyres.  May have to remake the wheels though.. 

 

Real progress. 

 

More to come.. 

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