RickenBangler

Nick - good to see you finally got her sorted! Don't think I'm going to have too many problems with the decals - just roundels and letters really - will revisit when we are closer to the finishing stage! Our thread contributor Piers has some ideas about my cockpit canopy so I'll be passing some bits 'over the wall' to him to fiddle about with now I have the base of the cockpit faired in. The majority of it is do-able with flat sheet - just the central bubble over the pilots heads that may be 'interesting'. I think I mentioned earlier in this thread that I'd knocked up some art for the cockpit - here it is: Feel free to print out and tweak if it's of any use - might need to be a bit creative as it's about right scale (and detail) wise to the real thing - unlike my cockpit... I've now made a decision about the UC - I'm not having one. The physical weight of all the powered retracts scares me and I stalled completely trying to get the nosewheel sorted. That, coupled with the lack of a suitable runway, made me decide to go down the bungee launch route - or maybe just a good chuck... It's getting there... Cheers, Robin

Finally finished the dreaded cockpit / fuselage interface and I'm quite pleased with the results! The rest of the cockpit structure will be built on top of this... Though I have all the bearers in for the gear, I'm now seriously considering making this a bungee launcher as a) it will be a considerable weight saver and b) access to a long enough tarmac runway is a bit of a pain, whereas we have plenty of long grass around here. I think I need to make a decision on this soon... any input gratefully considered! Piers - it's not raining, so stop playing with that tractor and get the foamy thing flying - camera batteries are charged R

Graeme - Back on the case again now. Starting to construct the cockpit as we speak - first attempt ended in failure but 'Plan B' seems to be working out OK. Will try to remember to get some pics of progress. I keep looking at (and weighing) all the U/C gear and thinking hmmmm... maybe a bungee/belly approach would be more realistic - jury's out on that at the moment. Nick - that looks great - with hindsight I wish I'd have stuck to the balsa I know and love. Your nosewheel treatment is interesting. I had a fight with that and have parked it while I do the cockpit. Frank - it's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one that takes an age to get around to things! Good to see a steadily growing squadron of Vampires - keep posting chaps. Pip Pip, R

@RottenRow "On your model, is the fuselage as per plan from the cockpit back?" Yes! It's really only the section forward of that which was extended to get the T11 shape. I guess one advantage of going the foam route was that it allowed me to get the profile about right and then refine that with a bit of judicious 'sandpaper sculpting' @Frank "Hows the boat going..." Oh... don't ask! Not so much the boat - more the 'new' outboard . Long story short, we're having to rebuild the whole thing - at least the new cranks, pistons etc. are all in now (which is when the stator/magneto decided to fail) - It's all coming together now though - the end is in sight (I hope) - so I'll finally be able to get back to the Vampire again! Full engine details here and boat rebuild details here if anyone is interested. Hitec Mini's sound good to me - that's what I'm using! Finally - I'm off on my hols next week - an ATR72-200 and BN Trislander will be involved - any guesses? Robin

@Brian - I like your 'easter-egg' approach. If I was doing this again, I too would have used the more traditional timber planking method. Are you doing the T11 variant or sticking to the single seater on this particular build? As far as the retracts are concerned I'm using HK jobbies - these for the mains (quite substantial) and this for the nose - could probably do with something a bit beefier but I'm confident it'll only ever gently kiss the tarmac due to my test pilots exceptional flying skills (no pressure there then...) @Frank - Looking good sir! You'll be finished before me. Your photo's are very interesting to me - keep 'em coming! Robin Edited By RickenBangler on 30/04/2012 10:47:10

Posted by Frank Newburn on 20/04/2012 15:51:51: If your interested I`ll post some pictures. Yes please Frank! Would be very interested to see your build. Mine is taking a back seat for a few weeks while I'm sorting out the outboard for my boat - something that is proving more time consuming than it should - hey ho... Robin Edited By RickenBangler on 20/04/2012 16:11:52

A quick update for those that are watching... Finally finished the fuselage and glassed with Poly-C and almost completed the wing mid section now. Doesn't sound to bad when you say it quickly but it took me quite a while to to build the mid section accurately as it is all done 'up in the air' - so I had to contruct a home brewed jig in order to keep everything true. I made the efflux tube from 0.4mm ply which I also used for the dreaded intake ducts. I approached the latter by first drawing up the shapes on a bit of thin card and - after a bit of trial and error - transferred the final shape to the ply. I then offered these up to the framework which allowed me to mark and cut out the holes in the fuselage side. Each duct was made up of a top and bottom section and I used 5 minute epoxy to hold them in position. I then set about sheeting the top of the centre section. The only thing I'll say about that is getting smooth compound curves in 1/16 balsa is not my idea of fun... Sorry about the lack of pics but here's a couple of shots of progress so far: Goblin Whistle Decided to run up the motive force prior to it getting deeply embedded. Not having any prior experience with these, I was pretty impressed! This thing really screams and I think it's going to sound great in the airframe. The original DH Goblin engines had a unique whistle to them as well - so I'm a happy man. Next up is a bit of head scratching as I'm working on the cockpit and front nosegear door - both of which I'll have to scratch-build, hmmmm.... Happy Landings, Robin

Hi Tony, Only just noticed this and would be grateful for a bit more info please. Which plans are these? Your pic shows my beloved T11 (DH115) WZ507 - which as you probably know I am building from modified DH100 plans from FSM - I believe these also pop up on eBay as well... Mine is 59" span and 90mm EDF - so we're in the same territory here. Very interested to see how this progresses - and good luck if the plans are the same as mine! Cheers, Robin

Chocks Away Chums - progress report incoming... Confined to quarters due to bad weather and coming out on the losing side of a log basket/ice/garden path/force of gravity scenario, I've finally found a little time to dedicate to matters aeromodelling. The original designers building notes for the fuselage are quite simple - cut out formers, stick between blocks of blue foam, hollow out and carve to shape - simple eh? This caused me a fair bit of head scratching. I kept looking at the two huge chunks of foam and trying to work out just how I could end up with a true and straight Vampire shaped tube. The light-bulb moment!Prompted by a comment from fellow forum member 'Piers Bowlan' (who, incidentally, is friend, neighbour and test pilot for this Vampire), I decided to apply some boat-building tactics to the task in hand. Long story short but this is how I did it... Firstly I cut the various formers, the main engine mount/wing spar former from ply, the rest from 1/16" balsa. I cut two sets of formers and having carefully marked the fuselage centre line and then cut them in half laterally (it's easier to see in the picture than explain in writing).  I then hot-wired the foam into blocks and glued the appropriate former at each end of its appropriate block over the plans. This allowed me to scoop out the inside and shape the outside of each individual block with my hot wire, using the balsa former at each end as a guide. Sorry - I forgot to take pictures of this stage but I hope you're still with me. The final stage was to glue all the (now shaped) blocks together over the plan, to end up with the top and bottom halves of a fuselage. This all went smoothly enough and I'm pleased to report we now have a straight and true Vampire fuselage! A noseblock was then cut and shaping and fairing in is now well underway.  I offered up the engine and naturally it didn't fit - I'd forgotten to take the intake lip into account or any exits/entries for the wiring etc. - so quite a bit of additional foam gouging has had to take place on the inside with the result that everything is now fitting together well. I won't be using foam again - I really didn't enjoy working with this stuff and it suffers dreadfully from hangar rash - can't wait to get it encased in glass/Poly-C... Still a fair amount to do on the fuselage before I can move on - nosewheel, access hatches etc. etc. but I'm pleased to have conquered a big 'hump' in the build. RB