Leaderboard

Hi, I have a quarter scale Sopwith pup that's getting some upgrades, it really needed a spruce up of the nose. I also needed to put a baffle around the engine for cooling. I have a three-cylinder Saito radial engine in it, and to mimic the nine cylinders of the original, I had to put two cylinders between each cylinder. The prototype that I'm modeling has a Monosoupape and my idea was to make a look-alike... A quick effort in Fusion 360 paid off: I designed it to fit over the Saito radial. The print turned out really nice, it's high temperature ABS filament. The test fit was good, but it left room for improvements. I will get back when the printer is done printing out the revised version.

Lots of the forms coming in now and the kits getting close to completing . Nice to get the old fashioned post really . Especially those that put a little note on saying about what they liked in my kits and what they were up to generally . I think Ive spoken to pretty much everyone over the years , so its nice to get a bit of an update . Everyone is pretty much peed off with the weather. Lots are dealing with various health issues , either for themselves or their loved ones . Makes me realise how important the escapism of modelling is . Its something we can actually do and achieve results, in contrast to all the things we can't change . I hope you all like the Tempest . I really do , as its so colourful and aggressive to look at but such a softie to fly . Thanks for your kind words chaps .

Byron was busy this weekend, used 2 newspapers, 6 rolls of masking tape and 3 meters masking film resulted in this.

While waiting to get our bags and cases at the airport, my wife collapsed onto the baggage carousel. She came round eventually.

As promised, there are things being done on the Pup. I moved the engine 25 mm to the rear and installed a scale cowling. The wheels were replaced with DuBro wheels. I made scale wheel locks for them. I designed a lookalike Monosoupape dummy that would allow some cooling to the radial engine. A few hours in Fusion 360 gave this: I printed it on my trusty old Wanhao duplicator 4S using HiTemp ABS. When test fitted it looks like this: It left room for improvements, so version 2 is in the printer as I write this. The repaint has also started. I added rib tapes from Toni Clark before spraying on the custom mixed PC 10. It's old Powermax Polykote paints that I mixed using black, beige yellow and blue. I added a dash of olive drab to get it perfect. The first coat turned out too brown, hence the addition of olive drab. Now it's just a matter of finishing it before the end of May. Btw, I changed the prototype... I model this one now:

A long time ago I said to my father, I said I want to be a comedian. He said, practise in the bath. So I did and now I am one. He gave the same advice to my brother, but unfortunately he wanted to be an electrician.

Finally managed to maiden my Sea Stormer, a David Boddington plan from Aviation Modeller International circa 1993. Here it is at the picturesque Loch Earn where I'm spending the weekend enjoying a waterplane event. 69" wingspan, OS91FS, lovely flyer, as you'd expect from a DB design.

My dummy engine version 2.0 that I printed out is now glued on the plywood baffle (which will later be glued to the engine cowling). I've only primed it yet, but with some aluminum paint and detailing it will look better. The cooling of the engine will be so much better as a result.

I live in NC and fly scale planes. I build from kits and plans or anything that looks interesting. My latest almost ready for the maiden is a 1/4 scale lanier taylorcraft 98" wing.

More like Wales I recon, Gods own country after all.😁

Mike I was like you. But when I got into aerobatics, not only were the electric motors more powerful than the equivalent glows, they were also very reliable and easy to use. Yes, it's a big investment in charging equipment and batteries but it is, IMHO and that of almost all who fly aerobatics in competition, the way to go. It doesn't take too much effort to get your head around this new type of propulsion. It's also a lot cheaper! I calculated that it cost me £2 per flight with my Saito 180 while it was £1 per flight with the equivalent electric setup if I got 100 cycles out of the battery. True, some packs failed at 50 cycles but some went for 200 cycles and are still going strong. There is much more variability in LiPo makes and even within the same make! I absolutely agree with Phil, the Wind will not stand up to being converted to IC. If you really don't want to go electric, why not choose something like the Crescent Bullet or how about this one? Peter

Hoterl Reception.mp4

I drove Reliants from about 1970 onwards. I had my Rialto up to 80 on a straight road. Never frightened myself...unlike motor bikes.My bikes, well one was my show bike that built in the very late 60s

Neat a 6/9th scale Monosoupape.😉 I appreciate there are scale issues but the Mono was not the usual engine in the Pup. I believe it was only used in the Home Defence version where despite its considerable cost its extra power allowed the Pup to more quickly reach the altitude of the Zeppelins and Gotha bombers. Perhaps scale cylinders that match the three IC ones might actually look neater. Just on an excruciating scale point the Mono Pup cowling was quite complex with four "hooded" vents in the cowl front which I believe matched the air inlet period of the single valve. Note also the four external reinforcements. There is a picture of a Pup Mono cowling with 6 reinforcements. Clearly flexing (and fatigue cracking?) of the aluminium "horseshoe" cowling was an issue that was not found in the "full" cowling used on the 80hp Le Rhone. Of course with electric power the ultimate scale feature is possible with the rotary going round with the prop. A much smaller scale Pup The electric motor is the crank case. It even all stays together at full power.

I used to get diluted with IPA, Indian pale ale, it made me runny. Good to see you fixing the problem Toto, there is a lot of satisfaction in being able to repair something rather than depend on sometimes non available spares.

Hi all! I obtained a quarter scale Sopwith Pup a while back. It was equipped with a Saito fg33r3 radial with a faulty ignition system..... I replaced the ignition system and installed the rest of the electrics. I balanced it at 145 mm, and it works okay there. I flew it today, and wow what an aircraft. Sure, I had to trim a lot of down and a few clicks right aileron, but it flies very scale like. The sound of the radial is very mesmerizing! The loops were quite big, so the power is "enough"... I use a wood 17X8 propeller. The fuel is alkylate petrol with 7% Stihl HP Ultra oil.

Not sure if this is going to be a bit boring, but i am sure i will need some advice along the way from you! Having built the Hemmingway Sparey 5cc diesel (still unfinished business until it runs) I thought another trickier engine would be the ticket to a few more sleepless nights. Thus I bought a Hemmingway Aton Minor Mk3 box of materials, the large parts/GA drg and the book written by the designer on how to make it. The book is great. It seems he wrote it just for new-comers like me so I'm following his advice as well as watching the You tube episodes of Paul's Garage Projects. I will be using the Drummond round bed lathe and the Myford compound slide but have just invested in my first precision pillar drill, all fresh and new from China for £15.99. I have a new small capacity 240V piston drill that will fit, so all those case screws on the Atom design should be true. I've treated myself too with a real parting off tool and a small angle plate to help making the slightly awkward crank case. As i type this, the main case has been faced to 1" width and looks good, the bore for the cylinder is next which needs the angle plate on the face plate I have. The crank casting only just went into my 3" 4 jaw chuck and was looking very precarious, but with light cuts it was good. If the regular watchers are thinking, "oh no! not again" let me know and I'll reduce the thread to simply cries for help along the way. I WON'T be offended.

Got too spend a few hours on this over the last couple of days Hi

yes indeed im using alot of ideas i learnt with the building of the big 12 foot ziroli dakota, many years ago now, so this one will be a slight size drop one. a mini ziroli if you will lol😁

Yep, it's your build. 👍

Hi John yes agreed im with you, its nice to have the freedom to improve something ,it feels good to stretch the idea a bit 🙏

Ah, I don't stick rigidly to plans, If I feel I can improve somewhere, I will do it, you have experience so for me trust yourself.

Ideas on what Paul ?

A bit like the supermarkets today. The Cambria model is £20 more and they've cut an inch off the span 😀

I have a 5 year old Riot which flies on a 3S 3000 on the original motor and a 12x6 prop it has perfectly adequate performance for a poor weather hack. I later replaced the motor for a more powerful one and it will climb vertically. The original set up drew 28 Amps at WOT, the uprated setup draws 38 amps. If you want to run on 4S you may need to drop the prop size a touch. I am not sure what current the original motor is rated for. You may have trouble fitting a 4S battery into the battery compartment, I've cut the bottom out of the battery compartment in mine to make it fit a wider range of batteries.

Yes,Suffolk...and I live on top of a hill

Thanks John I have seen that one listed on ebay but its electric and i want one for glow

Im not a member of that group so i wont see it

Seen as progression. ..... hey ..... you may even get someone asking for advice ..... now ..... there's a scary thought.... the blind leading the blind. Toto

I converted mine to IC using a YS70FZ, I did need to cut the motor box in half and remove approx 25mm to allow for the motor length of the YS, This was then reinforced with 1/16 birch plywood, and 1/16 balsa to cover up the holes in the firewall, No issues what so ever, Fit a good 0.50 size two stroke and it will be good but not a DLE 20. Jason

Just found the stuff I use. It's here.

I think Petrol power will shake that air frame to pieces, it just wasn't designed for it and certainly wasn't made for it, take a careful look at just how much glue they don't use in the construction. I would think getting the C of G right would also likely be an almost impossible problem.

Got a few hours in this morning, but with a moderate north wind directly across the strip it was freezing, a coat and two fleeces, wool hat and fingerless gloves. A rare outing for my Hobbyking Su35 prop jet which isn't really my sort of thing at all and sounds horrible. Best fun was the wee FW190 and Spitfire, plus my Fatty Me109, plus another flight on my original Parkzone Spitfire. No piccies due to not being the nicest, rather overcast sky.

Thanks for the support! Ok, a few more hours in the garage today. Today was far more fathoming out how to hold the main casting than machining it. This lathe is small so has small features. It came to me with a reasonable 'home made' face plate which is the chosen mthod of holding the casting. However, the 3" angle plate I now have is HUGE and weighs a ton, I would never balance it out for cutting, so used a nice piece of extruded alum alloy to be the substitute for the angle plate. This all worked out great and with the instructions to guide me managed to get the cylinder liner bore all done and re-jig the same parts to align the exhaust stub pipe ready for machining tomorrow. Hope these pics will speak a 1000 words:

Quintessential Hawker looks right will fly right😍

The new Dacia Spring is I believe for sale now in uk in basic form for £15k.

No mate. They are hewn by hand, from seasioned oak, by the coach, using worn out sandpaper, only lubricated by his tears of sorrow.

I was taught at school that by the year 2000 cars would run on water, as petrol would have all been sucked out of the planet.

Intake/tank finished, final ops ,make prop spinner, cop screw,thin mounting lugs and drill, clean thoroughly, assemble and then, hopefully, run !🤞

Not mine (yet ) but Saturday also saw the successful maiden flight of my pal Jim's Fiat CR42 Falco. Jim approached me earlier this year and floated the idea that he would design and build a Falco for my Battle of Britain collection, which I'd told him about. Naturally I agreed and Jim based the model on the example in the Battle of Britain hall at the RAF Museum at Hendon. I provided the 3D printed spats, and latterly the pilot, which is yet to be fitted, as my minor contribution, but everything else is Jim's own design- blown up from a 3-view. She's 50" span (~1/8th scale), weighs 5lb 4oz, for a wing loading of 18.8 oz/sq ft, Powered by a D3548 motor, 11x5.5" APC-E prop and a 4s1p 3600mah Lipo . It was an unseasonable calm late autumn day and with the model 99% finished Jim decided the timing was good for a maiden flight. Take off and the first 20 seconds were decidedly hairy, the surfeit of power and highly effective elevator contributing to her being very twitchy in pitch, but Jim soon had her tamed and the maiden went very smoothly, with a peach of a landing. I've attached my pal Derek's pictures of the maiden flight here - the overcast sky wasn't the best and Derek's pictures were so much better than mine. We are both delighted with the model - Jim just has a few finishing touches to make - some blisters, louvres, a few more graphics, windshield and pilot. Then she'll be joining my fleet. It was a lovely surprise and really made my weekend.?

And now I will tell you that it flies beautifully. A little bit of right aileron trim and up elevator trim and it flies like my "The OHmen" but has a much faster roll rate. Unfortunately the ESC stopped working after the first flight. I still had radio but no motor. Sorry the pictures are not too good. There is a dial on top of my camera which is fairly new and it is too easy to move inadvertently.