Member postings for Chris Barlow

Sorry Pete, my wife says I'm not allowed to comment on that particular post!

Note that's center to center so take off whatever thickness one of your ribs. I say this because my ribs aren't 1/8th!

76mm center to center Alan

I can cut the nose & tail off... the rest is up to Pete!

Chainsaw is ready when you are...

Pete, still enough time to cut off the tail & build a really light one and modify the nose to move the battery forward.

Hi Trevor. I intend to epoxy the spinner on after the painting is finished. There is only about a 6mm ring of F1a to glue to F1 but as there is no extra weight in the spinner I think that will be enough. The extended box touches the inside of the spinner too so should provide a little support for pitchy landings. Anything worse and I'm probably looking at nose repairs anyway!

Since the battery is now nearly 2" further forward I am tempted to use a hall effect switch in the forward fuselage instead of extending the power wires all the way back to an appendage to use as a switch. RX is probably going up front on top of the original battery box. Every little helps!

In a vain attempt to keep the Hurricane off the pork pies I have moved my battery forward by approximately 45mm and it now sits within the spinner.

I cut a hole in F1 to line up with the inside of the battery tube and epoxyed in a ply extension box which sits 50mm inside the existing battery box and projects 45mm forward of F1. I had to sand off the corners of the extension to fit inside the spinner. I hope that my remaining balancing weights will fit on the front/sides of the battery box extension.

The captive nut will go a long way to spread the load Ade. I might be doing the same but my first plan is to cut the former and extend the battery tube up into the spinner, getting the battery as far forward as possible.

Nice airbrush work there Pete. Looks like it's fighting the battle just sitting there on the bench!

One of my favorite phrases Phil. "Made, not bought"

You're right Nick, I've "worked" it the wrong way! Still equates to around 100g and the entire tail plane and rudder is only 57g!

Getting on with the wing fairing and final sanding before covering. Tonight I had a go at making the famous landing lights!

Going back to some old methods I drilled a hole in a scrap of ply slight smaller than a 5/8th glass marble

Then clamped a scrap of acetate sheet over the hole

Heated the sheet over the hole with a hobby heat gun

After approximately 10-15 seconds the acetate started to "move" so I removed the heat and pressed in the marble

and allow to cool, roughly 1 minute

I removed the marble and acetate from the ply former and drilled a 5mm hole to accept the LED

Then cut it out in ever decreasing spirals until it looked about right

Using a scrap of balsa to save my finger tips I sanded the cut edge carefully to get it flat and even

Poked a white LED through

Then painted the back of the reflector and LED with Humbrol silver

A quick test on the breadboard (which also makes a great stand whilst the paint dries)

I can't remember what this technique of moulding is called but I haven't done it for at least 30 years. Forgot how easy and quick it was.

I agree Andy. Even if you build the tail extremely light you're still going to be adding some nose weight to balance. Anything 3 1/2 lb to 4 lb would be "normal" I think.

Trevor, 3/16 would be ideal. I used 1/4 but sanded it down a lot after building up the surfaces before adding the 1/16 x 1/8 "ribs". It creates a nicer finish but I wouldn't worry too much about the weight saving as mentioned above. Nose weight is unavoidable.

Thanks Andy, Alan. Not sure how much good it'll do r.e. balancing though.

A bit more done today as the DVMFC fly in was postponed for the weekend after strong winds stopped play!

Ailerons cut and twisted with ammonia to match the wash out. My ailerons are 3/8 ths thick as I added 1/16th strips to carry on the rib and fabric theme.

I have also added the switch gear for the landing lights. Just a 5g servo and 2 micro switches to select either left of right lights. You can see the pull through for the wires.

I have drilled the hole for the wing bolt using this nifty sharpened M6 steel bolt wound into the captive nut. Just insert the wing via the dowel and push it onto the wing seat & the sharpened bolt marks the position of the hole! I think it was Peter Millers idea I nicked!

After covering the tail surfaces, gluing the fin/rudder and hinging the elevators I have had another look at the balance. Hmmm.

So, with the tail, wings and Fuzz assembled the required nose weight is approximately..........9oz! That's after planing loads off the underside rear fuselage and heavily sanding the sides and curves at the rear!. The nose is approx 250mm ahead of the CG and the tail seat is 650mm behind the CG point. Using the CG as a fulcrum the difference front to rear is a factor of 2.6. To avoid having to add any nose weight at all I would have to remove approximately 24 oz from around the tail seat! The entire tail section doesn't weigh that much!

Weighing all the bits my projected weight is looking like 2lb 9oz plus another 9oz of dread in the nose.AUW looks around 3lb 2oz, probably more like 3lb 8oz after filler!

Excuse the mess, I'm in a rush!

Excellent news John & team. Will be better prepared next time. Bringing a kite... and a boat!

Simon, bring a Wot4......with floats!

Always calm in the evening... when the Goblins come out to play!

Pete, even with my built up tail surfaces preliminary balancing indicates I will need some lead in the nose too if I keep everything as planned. Hopefully a few changes and more abuse with some 40 grit on the rear of the fuselage will minimise that a bit.

Opposite effect here Dirk. 2am and still 18deg C in the shed. Great for setting aliphatic glue in under 2 hours!

I like that Mark!

So, you'd think that having a few weeks off from the build would put me quite behind and as such I wouldn't be faffing around with trivial scale detail that adds days onto the job....

Finally got started again yesterday since my car was in for it's MOT and I couldn't go to Wrexhams' fly in. Hammered out the wing ribs, cut the 1/16 sheeting and stuck it all together.

OK so not all that was done in a day but I did make sure I had all 3 panels glued up and pinned to the bench to dry overnight. Stuck the 3 sections together this afternoon and added the leading edges and wing tips.

I also got started with the tail feathers this afternoon. The rib and canvas tail is quite distinctive of the Hurricane so I wanted to replicate it and also keep everything light, in view of the occasional windless PSSA meetings.

Yep, that's going to add plenty more time to the build for me, hence the 2am finish.