Member postings for McG 6969

Very neat, Phil.

Superb progress again.

Cheers

Chris

Super good result there, Tim.

I thought your gel coat was pigment coloured in the can as mine does. In the case yours is not - and it obviously isn't - I would suggest adding a few drops of resin or epoxy pigment. A lot easier to visualize your spreading.

I'm adding a few drops of black to my epoxy as well, which is the grey that you can notice in my pics.

... is the glass of wine in yours simply a 'cry out of Victory???

Cheers

Chris

It depends of course of the dimensions and the compound curves of the cowl, Adrian.

Ballerina's cowl is 17cm long by 10cm wide.

Glass tissue > 4 layers of 25gr + 1 partial layer of 48gr at the 'spinner' area + 2 bandages (2 cm wide) at the back (sides and bottom) for the mounting screws.

The weight out of the mould was just under 14gr...

Adding 2 glass laminated ply bits to mount the exhausts + build up filler + primer brought the cowl just above 19gr.

At the thinnest spot the thickness is 0,57mm, while the average thickness is 0,7mm.

Perfectly possible thus

Cheers

Chris

Thanks, guys.

@ Chris > In fact, it will depend on the time I have left later on. The initial plan is to have the pilot bust down to his 'waist', including the back of his seat and the upper part of the instrument panel. But, that's only the 'projected idea'...

@ Dirk > I don't visit a lot of shows normally but indeed it would be nice to meet in Wavre. Are you going Saturday or Sunday?

It will also depend if my flu is over by then. Since yesterday I have it quite badly and I had planned some long session at La Grotte for today.

Iris is home from work since nearly a week now... so, I guess it must be my turn...

Keep an eye on your PM-box, Dirk. I'll send you my contact details.

Cheers

Chris

Hi Dirk,

I love your idea of the internal fillets to fix the canopy.

I've been pondering about a similar idea regarding the 'framing' of the canopy. I thought about heat shrinking a large bottle to obtain a 'copy', then cutting out the PET to obtain a framing that you can slide over the original Vortex one.

Of course you need to make a plug first...

Cheers

Chris

... only one word, Chris > SUPERB...

Thanks for your answer and the bandage idea, Phil.

Cheers

Chris

Hi to all,

Well, it seems I can claim the 200th post here on the Dog's threat.

When I was building up the second fuse half, I forgot to mention that I added a 6mm beech quarter round to join W1 to the former. I don’t really believe it’s necessary, but I thought it wouldn’t harm if the ‘central’ sub-assembly got slightly reinforced.

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that the snake eyelets in the fuse are ‘gone’… (sorry, Martin & Gordon). As I will be using a carbon tube to the back end for the tailplanes, this might be an attempt to compensate for the weight of my quarter round…

The following doesn’t apply to a standard Sabre but the D, K and L versions of the Dog have a totally different cockpit lay-out with a bulkier ejection seat arrangement.

So, for a D-type, the top part of F4 has to be modified i.e partially cut away. A transversal piece of spruce gives the former his original rigidity back while a large part of the top section above the spruce will be removed later. Again, the additional weight will get compensated.

At the moment, I’m trying to figure out what is still needed ‘inside’ before I go on with the planking.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Weight Control

Great and extremely neat progress, Phil.

I assume your servo supports have to be in one piece allowing an extra bracing at the wing junction.

I'm building my wings as two separate items so far, can I split the bearers or is it advised to keep them united?

Cheers

Chris

@ Allan,

You can go on with composites without gelcoat for sure.

But gelcoat is a lot stronger/harder - read 'impact free' - than normal epoxy or polyester resin at the final top surface.

As for using 50 up to 200gr tissue, I imagine you're building parts for full size aircraft, not even Ultralights...

Allow me to wonder how much one of your cowls would weight?

For our - say up to 1:6 scale toys - all we do need is a few layers of 25gr/m² tissue... maybe one layer of 50gr at the end, if you're getting a bit paranoid...

Cheers

Chris

Tim,

As Kevin B suggested, don't do your 3 or more layers at once, the only thing you can obtain is a build up of heat which is a total 'not done' at all.

Wait at least for some 'half-curing' time between them, but that can be tricky with 'fast' resin hardener.

Prepare small quantities of resin at once and repeat afterwards if needed.

Patience is your friend with composites, young man.

Cheers

Chris

Hi Steve,

Nice to have you back at the building board... and already close to join your fuse halves.

Cheers

Chris

It just doesn't seem that you need much help, Tim.

Just don't make the gelcoat to thick as it is quite heavy and can become brittle and crack if applied too thick.

Start with your layers of glass tissue when the gelcoat is still tacky.

One thing to remember is that an overdose of resin doesn't give any additional strength, only extra weight...

You should still be able to see the wave of the tissue between the layers you apply.

Cheers

Chris

Hi John,

... and thanks for your comment and compliment.

Luckily I'm 'on parole' and fortunately the guys I need for my progress are out there as well...

I'm just hoping that balsa cement is not on the black list for the others and that they will be released in time for the Great Orme.

By the way, are you still on that little rock in the Frisco bay or have you been able to go on with your Sabre... ???

Cheers

Chris

Thank you both for the compliments and 'boost', gents.

I think I might risk a proper guess about Ade's 'special canopy' plug. He also ordered a big lot of balsa some time ago, stating that it could be for "more than one, but less than three"... So, he might be building a 'dual stick' version, Martin... ???

You're very probably right, Dirk. I should learn to talk LESS, so I might be building MORE...

Cheers

Chris

Thanks for your comments, gents.

@ Ade > I wasn’t really thinking of your build as I remember you told us being ‘delayed’ till February.

But there are so many other builders that just seem to have vanished…

.. and don't forget to show us that 'special' canopy plug you were planning...

@ Martin > the ‘views’ are fine but the visitors don’t realize that even a short comment is doing miracles especially when you get a little ‘building dip’. This forum is really missing a ‘Like’ button…

I’m afraid I can’t share your enthusiasm when you write that the blogs will revive ‘soon’.

Taking pics of ones build and writing a text to go with it, takes quite some time and the builders will try to concentrate on their build if they feel they are already late with it, don’t you think?

You must be right concerning the “quite fast build” for experienced modellers, but it doesn’t really feel that way for an apprentice without much experience.

So, I’m afraid I will I’ll have to come back bothering you or Phil when I get stuck… and I already have a bunch of those ‘grey points’…

… and thank you again for your tip for the tapered planks at the fuse back-end.

Cheers

Chris

Hello everybody,

I’m somehow surprised by the participation rate to the blogs of the PSSA Mass Build 2020.

I can’t remember the exact figures but it seems to me that the Hurricane and the A-4 got more builders having a regular build blog of their progression… It just could be a deficiency of my memory though.

Anyhow, months before the build even officially started, a lot of forumites claimed their chosen deco scheme, without any news since then regarding their progression.

I don’t think it’s fair to come up publicly with a list of forum nicknames but some apparently never started, some started and then ‘vanished’, while some gents wrote they were being ‘delayed’. There are reasons enough for that to happen unfortunately.

As Chris B wrote some time ago, it’s surprisingly ‘silent’ those days while his own finishing tasks always take him more time than he projected… and he’s already at the finishing stage with his ‘Canadair’ build…

At times, there is/are only one or two build blogs present in the 40 ‘Latest Posts’. Are the ‘silent builders’ just going to show up at The Orme in June? Is this ‘normal’, meaning being the ‘norm’?

I’m certainly not blaming Martin & Gordon, Phil, Chris B or a few other participants. They certainly have been more than prompt and helpful enough when needed, but it gets a bit annoying for me when/if I can only direct my beginner’s questions to these few…

Apologies for interfering in your respective builds, gents…

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Mass Build Progression Control

... it is well known that most of the solvents allow most vegetables to keep their natural 'green & shiny' colour...

... mind you, there are some exceptions like radishes, cranberries and even strawberries... even if the two latter ones are fruits.

Cheers

Chris

Amazing, Chris.

You really make it look easy.

But, I guess I'll stick to the Dog's balsa planking for a while...

Cheers

Chris

Hi again,

Well, while the PSSA Gods are talking Autodesk and .stl files, I’m still trying to get some wooden bits together…

Regarding the “internal bits” not to be forgotten, one of them was my ‘balance weight’ provision.

I prepared a few laminated ply rings with an internal M4 blind nut and now epoxied to the Dog’s F1. It should carry a few lead roundels as needed to obtain a balanced CoG. Martin’s prototype needed around 100gr at the front end of the battery box, so we’ll see what this gives as it is a bit further forward.

My ‘radome’ nose is planned to be removable and kept in place with a pair of dowels and magnets, allowing me (hopefully) to ad the lead roundels if needed.

Regarding the posted pics, I’m a little ashamed now as I thought I was ‘acceptably clean’ with my Dog build. Well the macro-type close-ups show it totally different… even my cheap Chinese marker pens doesn’t seem waterproof… ppfff…

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR CoG Control