Steve Houghton

Phil, Thanks for the rumour - I look forward to the public announcement! Who knows, with even more time to build, and more builders able to participate and finish, this could be the 'massiest' mass build ever. I hope you bring your wide angle lense for the group photo! Ikea desk now completed and looking good - ready for her 'not going' to University in the Autumn, and having to study her degree online from home.

Hi Steve, Thanks for you inspiration on this one, for using a template strip on the wing. Yes, I followed other builders' fairing advice (Phil and Dirk, I think, but may have been others too), and left a lip over the rear 3 inches of the fairing to allow the building of a fillet. I've struggled to get my head around what shape each part of the wing fairing and fillets should be. It seems to take a long time for little progress, so will be glad to finish this bit. Slight delay to the build at the moment, due to house decoration taking priority. My eldest daughter is assembling her first Ikea flat-pack tonight, so I'll try to encourage her to progress to model building if I can!

Chris, Thanks for looking in. I would say we're roughly neck and neck, although you've done more on the tail section of the fuselage. Trying to keep safe - just ordered 200 face masks from Sarik, ready for the new rules for shopping only with a mask - bang goes the budget for my next balsa order!

Make Way F6 has now been trimmed back to make way for the flap torque rods. I added a cross-brace after the hatchet work, to compensate for the removed rigidity: Are you Seated Comfortably? I followed other builders' suggestion of lining the wing seat. In my case I cut the fuselage sides back by 3/32" above the wing using Steve McLaren's idea of pinning strips of balsa to the wing to act as the trimming guide - not shown here. I in-filled the missing corners of the F14 keels to make them up to full height, to support the seat sheet: A little tirimming of the wing bolt plate to clear the torque rods, then I chamfered the bottom of F7 and added a 1/32" ply facing plate to protect the balsa fuselage planks: Put on a Happy Face Despite lagging behind most builders, I thought I'd put on a happy face with a cunningly shaped 1/16" ply load spreader plate under the wing bolts. I made mine the full width shown on the plan, aware that other builders have narrowed theirs down to fit within the under-wing fairing, still to be added: I left a small gap at the back to allow for the addition of a final 1/32" ply facing when the fairing is complete: The top side is left with a small shelf to be filled: A single piece of 3/32" balsa filled the ledge nicely and didn't interfere with the wing seating: Standoffs I borrowed Dirk's idea of circular stand-offs on top of the wing bolt plate to prevent wing crushing: I angled the stand-offs to suit the concave shape of the top of the wing: Congratulations to those of you who have already finished (and flown!). I'm relieved we have been given a little more time, so I'm still hoping to see you up the Orme with a finished Sabre in due course!

Pete, Congratulations on your maiden. Glad it went well. That's a really nice looking model - great work.

Stan at Phoenix Model Products is still showing stock of Flash 8 TX. It might be worth giving him a ring: Phoenix Model Products

Chris, Nice neat work with the wing sheeting. I enjoy following your progress and hearing your interesting questions. Keep it up.

Ah, The Torque Rods! Nothing very exciting tonight. Just trying to convince myself that I am progressing. The flap torque rod slots were gouged out on the bottom of the wing using the traditional sharpened brass tube, plus a round file: The ends of the root TE were reinforced with 1/32" ply for ding-resistance, and to support the torque rods: The torque rods had full length plastic tube bearings which were buried just below the surface, allowing a finishing filler of 1/32" balsa to be inserted to cover the slots, after the application of a smear of vaseline to the sensitive rotating areas: Chiselled ends to the rods, to minimise the risk of bursting out of the flaps: Ball links on the rods, and kwiklinks to be used on the servo end, although not yet trimmed to length and fitted. I noted Phil's comment about possible trim changes from the horns rotating, but mine are far too stiff - would need brute force to twist them round.

Ade, Thanks for the insights. I'd never thought of using MDF. So far I have a balsa plug that I covered in P38, but found it unsandable so chipped it all off again. Anyway, I don't want to divert your thread so congrats once again on a fine product.

Thanks Ade, It's useful to have a contact like that. I'm still moving on slowly with my Zlin 526 in the background, and will need to form my own canopy, so I'm interested in everyone's approaches as it's something I've never done.

Brilliant finish on that plug, Ade. I've seen cars in the showroom that aren't that smooth. Great job. Did you pull the moulding, or use a vacuum rig?