leccyflyer
-
Posts
6,366 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
68
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Gallery
Calendar
Downloads
Posts posted by leccyflyer
-
-
Was working towards a maiden flight for the Wee Beaufighter on Sunday, the 80th anniversary of Black Friday and that meant getting the markings applied this evening or tomorrow, Had got most of the painting done by close of play yesterday and got the cowls, exhaust stacks and air intakes all together by this morning, before moving on to vacforming the clear cupola and masking the canopy for painting. The cupola turned out just right, which was a big relief. Also sorted out the flight battery and hatch retention and all was going well.
Then this afternoon returning from an appointment in town my car went u/s, with the rear brakes stuck on. Luckily was just around the corner from the garage and they were able to get them freed and the pads replaced in about an hour on a busy Friday afternoon. They said that should be fine to get me home, but to monitor it and bring it back first thing on Monday if it was getting hot, as the brake caliper had been stuck, but they had freed it up. Drove home, broke out the infra red thermometer to get an accurate reading on the brake discs - 220 degrees C So that's me grounded and starting the airbrushing of the roundels, fin flashes, squadron codes and serials tomorrow, but now with no prospect of a maiden flight on Sunday.
-
1
-
1
-
-
Sadly a source for quantities of good quality balsa can also be from one's clubmates long accumulated stashes, some of which may not have seen a modelling knife in many years. Such sales after a fellow modeller has made their last flight do yield precious items, with which one can think back and remember those who have gone. That might be thought of as somewhat morbid, but I tend to see it as a cue for remembrance and I know that every time that I fly a particular model I remember my long lost pals - the same goes for every time I use a precious piece of 1970's vintage Solarbo or Graupner balsa.
-
Congratulations on the successful Tempest maiden Murat, she looks the business. I see you also flew the PT-19 as well.😎👍
-
11 minutes ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:
What's wrong with a felt tip pen straight on the plane ?
It's naff.
-
2
-
1
-
-
Preferably on a printed sticky label inside the battery compartment, remembering that the compartment must be able to be opened without the use of any tool. It used to say specialised tool, until some clever clogs queried what actually constituted a specialised tool, to which the rather unexpected reply came that a screwdriver is to be considered a specialist tool. So no tools to open the battery compartment.
In the vent that a sticky label cannot be fixed inside a suitable compartment, then a sticky label attached to the underside of the tailplane is my second port of call. I'm currently using just laser printed self adhesive paper label stock, but previously had used a Dymo labeller to print on white plastic tape for a more permanent solution. That's the Dymo labeller that prints legible text onto plastic or paper self adhesive tape, not the sort of Dymo labeller that created embossed labels.
-
Spot on Don, you cannot really classify balsa as a foam, because it isn't. A material being porous - such as balsa -does not define it as being a foam. Having holes in it doesn't define it as a foam. As Martin said earlier the most plausible definition is of a material which is formed by a foaming process.
-
There are lots of different foams used in modelling, with different characteristics and different uses.
That's not even including foaming at the mouth.
-
2
-
-
Finally got to the painting stage on the wee Deacon Beaufighter, In the end I decided to go with glasscloth and EzeCote for the wings, to give a bit of protection, since she'll be landing on the nacelles. The fuselage is tissue and EzeDope, whilst the tail surfaces are laminating film, so a bit of a mixture. Paint is B&Q Valspar sample pots, thinned and with a dash of Floetrol and went on very nicely in no time.
Final fettling on the peanut butter jar cowls was a bit fiddly, but all worked out in the end. I left the painting until after that stage, so that I could see the anchoring points through the clear plastic. 3D printed air intakes and hand crafter Porcupine exhaust stacks are yet to be fixed onto the cowls.
-
9
-
-
Some updates and musings on different filament types.
As described in another thread recently I'd experienced some weakness in an ABS spinner that I'd printed for a clubmate, such that I wouldn't have trusted it on a motor in practice. In discussion with others, especially Paul Johnson, I opted to give PETG a try and was duly impressed. It printed beautifully and was very strong indeed. The model has now flown successfully with the printed spinner and it worked great and looked superb in the air. So much better than making do with a "that's about right" spinner.
I've printed another few things with the PETG and the strength is impressive, albeit with a little more stringing than with ABS and the toughness of the plastic does make any post printing tidy up a wee bit trickier. The main thing though has been the tenacity with which it sticks to the PEI build plate. I destroyed my previous plate in printing the mould to vac form the observer's cupola on the wee Beaufighter, The top layer of the build plate came away with the printed part - very firmly attached. I've printed another couple of very small items today, on a new build plate and again the adhesion is extreme - very difficult to get the work off the PEI build plate. The surface texture of the small items was also rather coarser than I'd like, so for those, where ultimate strength isn't needed, I'm going to be reverting to ABS, I just prefer the styrene as a modelling material for non structural components, as it cuts, sands and glues so nicely.
-
-
Tonight, 4th February 2025 9pm Channel 4
Top Guns: Inside the RAF.
Series two. Episode one.
RAF jets rapidly redeploy from Romania as Iran threatens Israel. And a close call over the Black Sea for a rookie pilot scouting Russian military activity. -
AR620 failsafe setting instructions back in this thread.
If you rebind with the throttle trim all the way down to the bottom, when you test your failsafe the motor should stop completely.
-
1
-
-
I have a plastic box containing thousands of Swann Morton 10A blades with the best intention of resharpening them one day. However, since I've been filling, emptying and refilling that box since 1988 and have bought several boxes of 100 blades a year, whilst not resharpening a single blade, that is unlikely to ever actually happen. I was buying boxes of 10A blades from Webbies for years before I got back into model flying and was going through a packet a day - draughting film is very harsh on blades and they need to be very sharp to neatly scratch out dashed black ink lines on drawings, without looking horrible.
-
Don't think I've ever cut myself with a newly fitted scalpel blade. I've cut myself loads of times with scalpel blades that were just about ready to swap out for a brand new one. I go through a lot of scalpel blades, especially whilst covering a model. In terms of numbers of models that are blood stained, that would be very few, as a cut finger typically goes straight in the mouth and is then given a drop of odourless CA. Stings a bit with the heat, but stops the bleeding, rather that getting it all over the model.
-
1
-
-
TBH I'm not seeing what the issue is with calibrating the ESCs on these models. As Chris says they are essentially plug and play models. You plug the servo plugs into the correct slots in the receiver, or via a wee blue box, set up the model on the transmitter. put a battery in, bind the RX to the TX and they usually just work. You set up the rates, throws etc to your preferences, or to the typically well appointed manuals in the case of Flightline products and you are ready to go.
I do have to question whether putting together a relatively complex model, with additional features such as retracts, flaps, bomb doors etc, to sit on the shelf for quite some time is a good step to take before getting the Super Cub operational and ready to fly when the weather is suitable. That problem has already lost a couple of flyable weekends and it's now February.
-
2
-
-
Yep - CA must not be used for canopies - almost guaranteed to fog the canopy.
There are lots of eBay sellers who will provide Canopy Glue or RC-56 with free postage, It'll cost about £9.00 a bottle. You can get it for about £7 a bottle, with £3.25 postage, if that is preferred.
-
40 minutes ago, EvilC57 said:
In my experience UHU Por has a tendancy to go brown after a few years if used on joints that are exposed to sunlight. Canopy glue always just looks like watered down PVA to me (although I could be wrong!).
Canopy glue looks like RC Modeller's Glue - AKA RC56 - which is more like slightly thickened up PVA. I suspect that many such adhesives are PVA derivatives.
Other options, if not wishing to incur the costs of mail order from a model shop include double sided tape, tiny screws into CA-hardened or inserted hard points, a strip of iron-on covering or if one pf the Gorilla glues is Gorilla Glue clear, that would do the job.
-
Decent turn out this afternoon, but the weather conditions changed so much over the few miles and 8 minutes trip - declined wearing my big thermal suit, as it was bright sunshine and calm. Got to the field an a moderate breeze, swinging about, grey overcast and cold. Crosswind to the runway, but didn't stop the flying and had the usual great laugh with up to six wee fellas in the air at a time. I'm really enjoying the FMS Super Cub as a winter hack, especially on days like today. Hope for more of the same tomorrow morning.
-
Derek thinks it's his old batteries - I throttled back as much as I dared and still stalled a couple of times. It was a grand day though - pity you missed it Tosh. 😎
-
2
-
-
-
Another beautiful January day up in the North East. Chilly, but with a fairly gentle breeze that swung round from a NW early on, into the much preferred S wind after lunch. Had a curate's egg of a day - lots of good flying, chasing Ripmax funfighters around the sky, some good flights with the Supercub and the usual wee fellas. However my transmitter wouldn't speak to the receiver in my Warbirds FW190, despite much faffing about, so that was not able to fly. Fired up no problem at all once I got her home to the bench. Didn't need to rebind or anything. Frustrating.
Then the maiden flight of a recent FB Market place bargain of a winter hack electric glider almost ended in disaster - model went away no bother from a smooth hand launch, got to about 50ft altitude in a nice climb when I lost power, called the deadstick made a circuit and had to land downwind, which was no problem. Tested the motor on recovering the model which literally fired up, with smoke coming from the nose. Whipped the hatch off , disconnected the battery to investigate - battery and esc perfectly cool, but distinct smell of burning from the motor. I'll strip it down tomorrow for a post mortem.I shot some video, but our steam internet is telling me that it will be at least a couple of hours to upload a short clip. So that brings January to a close - 90 flights in 13 sessions, which is not bad at all, given the spells of bad weather that we'd endured.
-
Finally managed to get the wee oil coolers for the Deacon Beaufighter designed and printed so that they actually fit! It took four complete redesigns before i got something I was happy with. The thick wing section on the Deacon plan was consistently defeating me . ending up with a much larger diameter opening, as I just could not get the taper right, After much trial and error I've got something that more of less fits. The air intakes were not quite as tricky, but I discarded the vacforms that I'd made years ago, as they were both different, Very happy with the new ones- sure they aren't perfect, but they will do.
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 796x53
The observer/gunnery cupola has been more of a challenge, but with a bit of lateral thinking and reworking of a file for a pasta scoop from Thingiverse, I think I'm getting there., Will know in the morning when it comes off the printer and fire up the vac-former. In the meantime it's been design and print some wee brackets to fix the 3D printed Bristol Hercules dummy engines inside the cowls, This 3D design and print stuff is addictive.The fuselage covering is completed. Laminating film on the control surfaces and lightweight tissue with Eze Dope for the rest. Have still got the wing to cover, before starting painting.
OI course, in the spirit of Dark Nights Fix-ups, I fell for the progress killer of simultaneously starting to finish the wee 30" span Model Designs FW190 at the same time, with maximum faffage in trying to get the single central aileron servo in the wing. Got that very fiddly job done, only to find that the servo had stopped working. All finally fixed now, just need to hunt out a motor before gluing the nose on. Pictures to follow in due course.
-
1
-
-
With Webbies now gone MSL are my main mail order model shop provider and the service I've had from them over the past few years has been perfect.
-
2
-
-
19 hours ago, PeterF said:
Similar in Peter Miller's book "Designing Model Aircraft". If you have ever built a plan by Chris Golds or built a Tony Nijhuis kit like his large Vulcan then the ribs in these are basically a web of lightening holes surrounded by precious little wood.
Webbies used to sell sheets of lightening holes. They were bagged up and hung from the boards right next to the left handed sandpaper, which came in useful when you had taken just a bit too much off with conventional sandpaper.
-
2
-
4
-
The Annual Dark Nights Fix-up.
in All Things Model Flying
Posted
It was a bit warm- you could feel and smell the heat. Luckily the pad had worn through just about a mile from the garage, so it was metal to metal, but the disc had not been damaged at all. I had the front brakes done just before Christmas, but the rear brakes were okay at the time.