Andy Meade

Well, two house moves in 18 months hasn't helped any of my builds, but one of the bigger sticking points for me was the front plexiglass dome from the full size. I'd 3D printed a "buck" (or plug) that I'd designed in CAD to match the shape as close as possible, and then at the weekend I actually got to try it out. Success! My little DIY vac forming setup worked very well, and actually pulled enough vacuum from my shop vac to pull a hole through the undercut. Thankfully it was on the undercut, and with just one attempt, I have a nose for the Libby and the buck is untouched by its ordeal in the heat! It was printed in PLA with 6 walls, and a high infill. It feels like a solid piece of plaster in the hand, so is very stable for crush resistance. I did use some P38 to reduce the few layer lines that were visible, then hit the entire thing with a random orbital sander. OK, the Libby can progress and get out of analysis paralysis at last.

That extra paint in the panel lines really adds the contrast and makes them "pop"! Well done Dirk, she's looking great so far.

Wow, you've got that masking process pretty good Dirk!

And it's been bumped back in the queue after his JP build too! T33's next I think.

Ah, I got an email after passing that showed me exactly what to do, well done BMFA 👍

I have no idea where to upload my new certificate - anyone done this successfully yet?

Usually anything out of the ordinary. Most of my fleet are gliders, so canards and big deltas etc feature heavily. On the PSS side, I prefer stuff that's rarely modelled and flown in the genre - i.e. F104, Hawker Typhoon, SBD, C17 etc. There are some modern jets I do like the look of, but mostly my juices get flowing for anything from British WW2 to British Cold War.

I followed the same method on my big 262. Just make sure there's a sealing coat of varnish down before you get into the oils, as at least you can get rid of mistakes or make changes without affecting the paintwork underneath.

A few more shots of the big Schwalbe from this year's PSS Fest on the Lleyn Peninsula. Still flying great, now has more decals, weathering, pilot etc.

A fantastic long event, with 9 days of flying out of 10 on the slopes. Great pics too Phil, many thanks.

"hybrid" pinch, and a harness most of the time. Very useful for solo slope launching.

Its the last Weston Park show to be organised and run by the Bishops, not necessarily the last one ever. We had great fun from Thursday night till Sunday afternoon with all of my other flying buddies there, some great buys in the swap meet again, and stocked up on balsa and hardware.

It's looking beautiful Dirk - great work.

She looked the part Phil, great work. I'll try and get one of my Sea Hawks sorted for the next even so we can fly some formations 🙂

Such a shame, never knew about the triple champ bit. Blue skies Chris.

Can you post some pictures of the nose - one side elevation, one plan view? And then maybe some accurate measurements of width and height, then I can create the files quickly to the right size.

I've still got my Dad's half-started Aerotech Welly in the container - she'll be PSS at some point Chris 😉

It's possible to flash a 3rd party firmware onto the controller so it transmits at a higher power output, thus extending the range.

She's a stunner Glenn 👍

Hi Jason, Thanks for the kind comment. I don't have any video of it myself - it's pretty rare actually that any video is taken at our meets.

Hi Chris, sorry to hear of the trials and tribulations of the non-modelling life. I hope everything gets back on track soon with mobility and then the modelling. Take care. Andy

Looking great, very neat office!

A few still appear on the BMFA ads every now and then - people clearing out lofts I guess?

That's good to hear Cuban - I've recently been voted in as Treasurer and member administrator at our club, and I'm slowly moving everything from cheques and a paper membership list (!!) to an online shared spreadsheet of members and a bank that has an app for scanning cheques if need be. I'm totally lost on the membership admin side of things (I'd heard about stickers and SAE's and all sorts of steam powered horror), so hearing that it's a simple online affair now is music to my ears!

One other thing with your Z height - I seem to remember that the offset goes straight in to the settings but doesn't move the axis in case of collision. Check your readout on the printer - that should change once you applied your offset. If you then need to check zero, go to move axis and jog it down - the offset should have stuck.