Member postings for Mark Elen

I got a bit more done today:

Not much to do now...

Cheers

Mark

Hi Gents,

Many Thanks for your comments.

Nigel, That’s good to know, I had a look at the Chilton, that looks like a nice model, I’m surprised Mr Miller hasn’t had a go at that one, maybe its because it’s been done a few times before? It looks like it is right up his street.

Chris, there are benefits to being in lock down with no work... the downside will be no money coming in very soon.

Piers, I have always liked the look of the Cougar. This is the second set of plans I have had for it. I bought a set in the late 80s, but never got started on it.

Dale, Thanks for that. I have been buying balsa and ply for this build over the last year or so and I’m pretty much ready to go. Good to know though

I have been formulating a plan for the radio install, the plan shows a single servo for Ailerons, on snakes, a single servo for flaps, on torque rods and a single servo for both throttles, again on snakes. These will all be replaced with a Hitec HS85MG on each surface/throttle. That’s 6 servos in the wing.

The Elevators and the rudder will have 1 standard size servo each, then the noseleg steering and the retract valve will have a HS85MG each - fuselage 4 servos

The HS85MG is 3Kg/cm @ 4.8v and 3.5Kg/cm @ 6v, so should be sufficient.

I’m using Frsky Tanaris, so I had thought about using a couple of S-bus decoders in the wing, but have come up against the 9ms problem with analog servos, so have decided to use a RX8R redundancy bus receiver and a RX8 receiver to give the full 16 channels with redundant antennas, if I locate one of these in the wing, I will only need a 6 way connector for power and Sbus between the receiver in the fuselage and the one in the wing.

I will also use a pair of Life 2100 receiver packs and a power box switch/regulator.

The above is the outline plan. It may change

Cheers

Mark

As I am about at the end of my Peggy Sue 2 Build, I thought I would start a build blog for my next project.

I have had the plans for this for the last couple of years, and have been slowly accumulating the bits and pieces needed. I originally saw this model when it first came out in the 80s and I wanted to build it then.

The original design calls for Goldberg mechanical retracts, I have managed to get hold of a set of Robart air up, spring down 12 lb with firewall mounting noseleg. There will need to be some re-engineering of the wing to allow these to fit.

It also is based around a pair of OS Schnuerle ported 2 strokes, my plan is to put a pair of Saito 40 4 strokes in it. This will mean that the firewalls of each nacelle will need to be moved back and the tank bay will be shortened. More on this as I proceed.

The plan and build article are both here on outerzone: **LINK**

I'm looking forward to getting started.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Gary,

I put a Saito 40 4 Stroke in mine. It flies a treat. Just the right amount of power and it sounds beautiful. It was my first 4 stroke, I’m that impressed, I have bought another to go in the Peggy Sue 2 that I’m building.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Peter,

Yes, I’m very happy with it. It took a lot more heat than my iron would give to get it to shrink like that, but it wasn’t overly difficult. One thing I did find that as it shrank, it wanted to pull the 1/4” overlap apart, I ended up doing a bit with the heat gun, then ironing the overlap down, then another bit with the heat gun etc.

Thank you!

Cheers

Mark

Hi Gents,

Many thanks for your kind comments.

The last couple of days have been consumed with covering. I managed to cover each of the sides and half of the top and the fin with 1 piece of covering. Not easy.

I started by tracing the plan for each side,top and fin and marking out where the horizontal stab would end up, then laying that onto the covering and cutting out the vertical stab 1/4 slot:

This was then ironed into place, starting with the bits around the horizontal stab, followed by the side:

Then the fiddly bit was to get it well stuck down onto the central stringer on the top and all around the fin. Once this was done, I got the other side up to the same point. There were some pretty nasty looking creases in the covering at this stage.

I did try to carry on using my iron to shrink it all down, but ended up having to use the heat gun, as the iron just wasn't hot enough

The covering is too shiny, its picking up loads of reflections in the photos.

Then I got on with the white for the front:

Still some more to do with that around the nose, but its nearly there.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Gary,

Very carefully, with a sharp scalpel, break the joints and move it where it needs to be.

I had to do the same on mine, as when they had dried, they didn’t look right.

Cheers

Mark

Thanks John,

I like purple....

Cheers

Mark

Hi Chris,

Awesome work, as always mate. Your attention to detail is always inspirational.

Hope you are both well and staying safe.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Nigel,

Yes, I'm a big fan of sticking bits on that are too big and then sanding them back to final dimension. If you are careful, you can get really good results.

I used to have the disc sander set up on the main workbench in the garage, away from my building board. I found that I was forever walking back and forth just to take a 'smidge' more off things. When I moved it onto the end of my building board, I couldn't believe how much more I got done each session...

Its the one tool that I don't think I could do without now.

I have found it really useful for compound angles too.

Today, I have been covering the fuselage, starting with the bottom:

Then onto the horizontal stabiliser:

I found that using a scrap piece of 1/4 square, I could align the covering and get it to line up with the 1/4 pieces above and below the tailplane:

with it aligned as above, I ran a cool iron (just enough to grab the adhesive) behind the 1/4 so that the covering didn't move, then remove the 1/4 and run the cool iron right up to the corner. Then up the temperature and shrink it all down.

Done.

I'm going to have a go at covering the rest with just 2 more pieces, 1 each side - I want to have a go at the fairing as per Peters instructions in the magazine.

Cheers

Mark

Edited By Mark Elen on 23/04/2020 21:19:44

Thank you gents for your kind comments.

I should have taken some photos before I put the sanding blocks to all of those. They were all fitted oversize and sanded back to finish. The front mounting was a piece of 3/8 soft sheet, it took a while with the disc sander to get it to fit, then I used the pointy wing bolt trick, with the wing bolts fitted from below to mark where to drill.

The rear block was done the same, but with a piece of 1/4

The little covering pieces were 1/4 square

Everything then got masking tape where I didn’t want to sand and then the time consuming sanding began. I roughed out the wing mountings with permagrit blocks, then when they were close, changed to sanding blocks.

I have a little proxxon disc sander, it makes getting joints a good close fit easy.

Cheers

Mark

Thanks Gents for your kind comments.

Today, I spent most of the day finishing the final bits on the fuselage ready for covering.

I filled up the space between the wing and the wing retaining plates, both front and rear, and 'drilled' out the holes for the wing retaining bolts to 6 mm. I really need to re-sharpen my 6 mm drill...

Then I made up a few small pieces to go just behind F4 as somewhere to attach the rear covering to:

and that's it. Not much to show for pretty much all days work.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Gary,

Yes, you should enjoy the fuselage build. I’m a wing man. Never have enjoyed building fuselages until I built the Ballerina.
Those wings look spot on👍
Cheers

Mark

Edited By Mark Elen on 22/04/2020 18:52:44

Hi Nigel,

Thanks for your kind comments.

Today I set about the scallops. First I taped the covering to the board, followed by the tracing, then carefully, using a new circle cutter blade cut the scallops and the diagonal. I really should have used a new blade for each of the pieces, as after a couple, the blade was dull and it started causing me problems.

I'm pleased with how it has turned out, now just the wing bolt holes to cut out and ailerons to glue in then onto the fuselage. I still haven't quite come up with a covering plan for that yet.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Gary,

Looking good. What are you using to take photos with? I have found that I have to take my photos ‘landscape’ to get them into the forum album the right orientation with my IPhone.
Keep up the good work with the Ballerina, it’s a beaut.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Geoff,

I had planned to use the no4 cap head wood screws from Modelfixings. Although, I did also consider using 3mm cap screws and T nuts - not sure if they would work in beech. You could make up a tin plate with nuts soldered on and screw it to the underside. The cap heads would be easier.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Chris,

Looking good mate. Good to see you getting on with it. Keep up the excellent work👍
Stay safe

Mark

Bit more done:

Cheers

Mark

Hi Gents,

Thanks for your kind comments. I’ll take OCD Chris👍
I spent about 3 hours today, here is the result:

I thought I would get all of the fiddly bits done first, just to get my hand back in covering. I needn’t have worried, it’s like riding a bike. It helps that this Oracover is a joy to work with, it shrinks beautifully.

i still need to cover the other side of the elevators, a job for tomorrow.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Peter,

I know it’s a bit OCD, but it keeps me amused...

Cheers

Mark