Fouga magister 1/4.5 moulded from scratch

Hello all !

The epoxy dry'd well overnight so i could start to remove the overhanging fabric with a sharp knife.Everything higher than the mould must go !

The white paint was easy scraped away with a wooden mix stick.

Being carefull not to damage the mould or the new part ,it took two hours to get the trio ready to assemble.

Glueing them together will also take some time so that's for tomorrow.

Trial fitting the new parts i noticed some little airbubbles in the sharp corners: Not enough thickened resin !

I'll try to fill them with a resin filled needle

(right upper corner )

Together again !

Good day all !

First thing i did tonight was prepairing some cloth ribbons of 100gr fabric to seal the seams when the 3 parts are joined together.

The area where the fabric has to come must be sanded first for a good grip so i sanded all the edges of the parts with 60 grid paper.

The plan is to join the two side parts first , so i placed a ribbon on the inside of one side.

The following step is to join the two sides and squize a second layer of glass cloth in the fin.

As i had to much on my hands , i forgot to take pics of the following steps !

The places i couldn't reach to cover with cloth are just glued together with thickened resin .(like the trailing edge of the little fins )

Just behind the leading edge of those fins , i glued in a little balsa block to accept a dowel later(barely visible in the pic )

Last i placed the third part and covered the seam with two layers of cloth on the inside. (not easy as it is 20cm deep )

Finally , everything was bolted together and left to dry.

Hopefully i'll have a new cone tomorrow ! Again fingers crossed !!

Hi Gents (and ladies) ,what a glorious day !!

We have a tail cone !!

Not much to do before opening the mould ,just trim the edge at the opening.

The same way like before ,sqeezed a knife between two mould parts and gently applyd some pressure with a few wooden sticks. They parted easy !

There was a minor issue on one of the little fins , where a little piece of the black mould resin came loose from the rest.

No worries as it's already repaired !

The second and last defoult is an airboubble at the trailing edge of a fin. Nothing a little filler can't handle ! I think i forgot the thickened resin in this spot at the lay-up ...

I test-fitted the cone on the fuselage and rudders : Me happy !!

At 84 grams it's a lot lighter than the cone on the pss model

I mixed some resin ,filled a serenge and sqeezed the resin in the gap between the paint and glass. To my surprise it worked out well !I got the serenge in for about 2 cm so it was a big airbubble !! (well relative big)

Another item removed from the to-do list and another milestone in this build !!

Think i'm going to take a day off now.....Naaaaaaah !!

... you might really feel guilty if you take that 'day off', Dirk...

Anyhow, congrats with your new milestone, young man.

Cheers & stay careful

Chris

Loved watching this as its developed. Amazing and glad it was a great success

Brilliant

Martyn

Edited By Martyn K on 19/11/2020 09:51:15

Well done, a great deal of work, but you just nibbled away at the task until you got your result

Cheers

Danny

Thanks for the comments guys!!

With all the materials and products on the bench , i prepaired the cone moulds to make a second cone , one without faults !

In the mean time i was thinking about the next step. It's still a long list !

- The canope

-fuselage moulds

-wings

-thrust tube etc...

I've been thinking about the the thrust tube for a while now , as it's not going to be a simple task !

It has to fit perfect to the fan ,the exhausts have to fit the fuselage , and most of all ,this part has to have a smooth surface ON THE INSIDE !! That's one to think about !!

Like every part : it begins with a sketch....

Hi all !

This evening i got the second cone out of the moulds .No faults this time !

Clean edges and no air bubbles !

I got a video wich i will post asap !

Stay safe out there !!

**LINK**

That's first class modelling Dirk ,you looked very calm breaking out the mould.

Change of plans !

Instead of making the thrust tube plug the traditional way (foam and ply ) I asked our friend Andy Meade -3d print specialist-to print the tube and to use it as a plug. I'm very pleased he took on the challenge !!

This will sure speed things up ! this gives me the chance to start the next thing on the long list of things to do !

So , the canope it is !

The moulds for this 95 cm long canope made for the PSS fouga , sadly did no survive the first pull !The reason is that the gel coat i used in 2016 came loose from the mould...

Thank God the plug is still in perfect condition !

This is the reason i don't use gelcoat anymore ! To much work is lost this way !

As it's not a complex shape , i'll have a new one in a week or so .

Are you joining ??

Let's go !

Hi all !

The first step in the canope story is prepairing the plug to make the moulds. I decided to make it in four pieces : an upper and a bottom half. Both pieces are going to be split in the middle (lenghtwise)for easy demoulding.

I screwed a base to the bottom of the plug and made it follow the bottom curvature

Added the marbels for a exact line-up. Six in total.

At the back side , i need to place a wedge to make demoulding more simple. Without it , it would be impossible to remove the moulds .

This little piece is going to covered with some epoxy to get a glossy surface.

I also prepaired the parting board to split the upper mould.

The rest is for tomorrow !

See you !!

Not much building time as my tow-truck needed the radiator replaced !

Just fixated the upper parting board with epoxy and some scrap foam blocks. At the same time, I tryed some alternative to fill the gap this time . I covered the edge of the parting board with a fillet of car body filler , but mixed with a small amount of harder so that it cured much slower than normal. While slowly drying , i removed the filler that was sqeezed from between plug and parting board with a putty knife. Works fine !!The advantage here (relative to the plasticine method ) is that you don't push the plasticine deeper while waxing , so cleener edges on the mould !

Ready to wax and PVA !!

Cheers , Dirk.

Tubes modelled, and print started off. I've given it a light infill (3%) to make things a bit more sturdy for your mould making Dirk. Printing underway - about 42 hours to go!

Edited By Andy Meade on 30/11/2020 14:22:51

That's looking good Andy !

This would take at least a few weeks to make it the traditional way ! Even then , getting the two sides identical , wich is crucial , would be very dificult !

Thank U very much for the effort !

Just a little note : The 14 mm dimention , that is the offset between the two diameters , right ?

Cheers , Dirk.

Hi Dirk, yes it's the offset measured from the plan you sent 👍

A quick check on the webcam to see progress (upside down, wrong way round etc). 37% of the way through!

Dirk can you also check your emails please, ta

Thanks a lot Andy , this is going to save me lots of time !

While the thrust tube is being printed som 500miles away from me , i made some progress on the canope .After the waxing and pva it's time for the first layer of the mould : the black moulding resin applied with a brush.

Second layer is 50gr cloth , then 100 gr and then 6 layers of 200gr. It's a very time consuming job and after the 4th layer of 200 gr it was way over midnight and called it a day . To get the following layer adhere to the last (wich will dry overnight )i sprinkled cloth snippers over the wet resin.

The last two layers are a fact now and everything is left to dry overnight.

Tomorrow i can hopefully clean up the edges and remove the top parting board , clean up the other half and start waxing ! No time to waste !

Just stumbled across this by chance Dirk. Great work - very impressed. I remember you saying this model was in the planning stage. Glad to see it come to fruition.

Will follow and catch up from the beginning