Mike Chantler

I second that! - Fusion is extremely powerful but rather confusing and frustrating to start with. I think it took me about a 18 months off and on to really get to grips with. Given time, I can now generate quite complex fuselage shapes for a 3D printer, but I suspect that the next time I use it I will have forgotten how I exactly did these! The key I think is not to be too ambitious at the beginning. Small things made out of simple rectangular blocks and cylinders such as servo trays etc are a good place to start. The other is to keep really good notes of all the tutorials that you visit and the tips that you pick up along the way! I've found it very useful and like the others would not go back 🙂

Took it up the Sunday before last - and it was a bit like a bucking bronco, suspected CoG, had rough landing, broke front bolt and snapped rear fus. so could not experiment that day. Measured CoG when home, and some how or other it was 3mm further back than intended (duh 🤔 ) Thought I'd been pretty careful with setting it up as well 😮 Anyway, adjusted CG and up hill last Sunday and it seemed to fly very well, PW51 seems a lot more slippery, faster and tracks well. Well pleased 🙂 Somehow or other I managed to get the control horn holes too far forward (again, thought I'd been quite careful here!!) but I seem to have almost twice the amount of up as down!! Rolls are currently very non-axial, which I'm putting down to the tons of +ve differential, and I have a feeling that planks require a little -ve differential? Anyway - will get some programmable aileron and elevator differential added for next trip. Looking forward to getting that sorted and adding ballast 🙂

Ready to go and with nose weight it's 1120g That's about 250g heavier than the laminating film version. That said, I normally fly the lam version with half ballast to give reasonable loops and rolls, so given that it's a lot cleaner it will be interesting to see how it flies 🙂 Hopefully we'll have wind on Sunday 🙂

No space for dinner though 😁

Impressive looking kit of parts 🙂 Will follow with interest 🙂

Thank you for your interest 🙂 Programmed radio yesterday, so all I have to do is nose weight. Was going to do that today - but the Pentlands seem to be in the doldrums so will have to wait (hopefully) until next week. Interested to see how much heavier it will be than the version covered in laminating film.

Soldered up cables and started putting it together 🙂

Made up some linkages, had to replace the 105HV servos with 125WVs, as one of the 105s failed (eek) Drinking straws for servo runs worked well as the normally awkward twisted wiring just pushed through 🙂

Had a bit of a disaster with the Montana Gold. Paint looks as if it dried before hitting the wing - result is a finish rough as 90 grit, and I'm not joking 😬 Didn't hep that I didn't have my reading specs on so didn't realise until I'd finnish - was just way over-confident given success on a previous model. Decided just to go with it as it's just a 'quick' slope model, hay ho ... 🙄 And a bit of a storey behind the wing bolts: used test part print of fus to align tap at correct angle, it's balsa so threads need toughened up with CA a 2,3 times, impatience got the better of me and I managed to retap before the hot CA had completely cured ... Wrecked tapped hole and tap 🙄 An insert nut saved the day, remembered to coat bolt with wax and epoxied inset in and it worked fine, phew! (and one side seems to be enough)

Did 2 coats of light filler tinned to double cream with a bit of talc but no water Went on quickly, was a bit worried about all the bits in the mix - but sanded away quickly, sprayed with deep fill primer and sanded to what I thought was a nice finish 🙂 This went much faster than a PSS I did before, think it was applying the glass early in the process as this gives plenty of warning of potentially wrecking the surface by sanding through to the foam.

There's a good description of using tissue over mylar here, and Mike Woodhouse wrote a very nice article in Silent Flight Jan/Feb 1997 🙂 George Stringwell also had an article published in Electic Flight International March/April 1996 that includes a section on mylar/tissue covering. As folk say above - it does produce a good tough and taught covering over open structures, probably lighter than anything else 🙂 (Materials from https://www.freeflightsupplies.net/index.php/products) He also sells 1oz/yd2 kevlar cloth which is great for hinges and light weight repairs 🙂

Boob! I meant to note that some of the deep fill primer must have got through the 25g glass/WBP combo and started dissolving the foam EEK! Not so bad, and only in one place, so coverup was quick. BUT could of been a bit of a disaster, blush 😞 I think it was where I sprayed too much primer on an area with little filler - silly really, as I just wanted it to show high/low spots after sanding, and probably no need for the heavier deep fill at this stage 🤔

Gave quick sand with 120 grit mesh - surprised at the coarseness of sandpaper that I could use. Sprayed with high-build primmer to find bumps and lows - there are lots!! Saned with 120 and coated in Feddy B's sauce filler mix: Hmmm... lots of specs of talc I think - must siv 50yr old talc first next time 🤔

Added 50g/m2 glass to forward 4"-5" of wing, top and bottom with brushed over ultra-low viscosity epoxy: This may seem a little crazy to put 50g/m2 on top of 25g/m2, but my idea was that light glass + wbp would 'seal' the EPS voids, while not adding too much weight, while the heavier glass + resin would add a reasonable ding resistance (I just didn't fancy the idea of all that very fluid epoxy going into all the voids 😞 ) Rollered off excess with foam roller on toweling - this combo worked really well so will definitely do this next time 🙂 But had afterthought that I should of coated top of sevo boxes and esp. the screw heads in wax before covering in the glass 🤔

Quick weight check: Weight of mk3 seems to have grown from original 860g to 927g. Only difference is I reprinted the fuselage in yellow - so suspect I forgot to set the fill to 0% for some of the components. Mk4 at 874g not bad, but I'm going to add more glass to improve ding resistance and may paint top of wing - this will likely move the CoG aft a bit so will need increased nose weight.