Willowlea

LOL you lot don't half make me laugh hehe, nice one chaps. Will start back in earnest on this now that the Velodrome and flying the other models is over so should have more progress reports soon. Needs to be ready for the NATS FF in May. Complete with spiders as pilots in tribute

Hahaha well I might just do that Steve.........after I have cut the other 20billion for the lower wings Don't have any spruce at the moment but am defo going to give that plasterboard idea a go, thank you. Have also been discussing the possibility of converting one to rudder/elevator/engine control which is a bit daunting but looking foward to having a go!   Am afraid I have to dash your dreams guys of the possibility of Wilbur,and his alterego Vilbur, still living- minus a skin It is with a sadness in my heart and a deep regret that I have to inform you that shortly after removing his sorry little body from the box and leaving him on the table whilst I went to look for my spider resus pack, I came back to find poor WiburVilbur was sadly missing.....................and 3 guilty looking ruffians licking their lips! The jury is out on which it was but I reckon the cat did it, in the lounge, with the candlestick! Anyhooooooooo finally got some time to do some more to the build yesterday. Started on the fus....cos I can I built these one side on top of the other in the hopes of keeping them identical, new way of doing this for me but using a layer of baking paper between the two sides so they didn't stick together. After cutting out the front part the longerons were all 1/16th balsa wood, with a scarf joint on the top one. The vertical spacers are also all 1/16th bar the front foremost two that are 1/16"x1/8" were all glued into place and gussets added near the tail plane seat. And I will remember to put the other longerons on the RIGHT sides hehehe   Will get cracking on some more of this  after tomorrows fly in at the Veledrome And yeah I know one of the spacers is wonky but i forgot to reglue it before taking the picture Edited By Willowlea on 21/02/2014 23:56:55 Edited By Willowlea on 21/02/2014 23:59:39 Edited By Willowlea on 22/02/2014 00:03:54

Ribs then added. Now there is an option to add extra ribs for scaled rib spacing......do i do this or not? hmmmmm have left it for now thinking the less weight the better. The leading edge needs to be packed up first with spare bits of 1/32" presumebly so the ribs are all snuggly fit in place? all ribs attached and the gussets added looks a bit wonky on the pic, and it is a tad but nothing that cant be rectified with a spray of water and pinning down over night. using spare bit of 1/16" these inserts were added not sure why lol

Now this is the first time I have done ailerons, so was really excited at doing them. The model can be flown without ailerons especially if wanting to save wieght however adding them means they can be adjusted for flight trimming and I thought it would be fun to have a go. First job was to take a piece of 3/16" x1/16"x1/8" for the aileron leading edge and to adding two pieces for the inside edge on either side. Whilst these were drying I cut the trailing edge from the prestamped wood and sanded the notches in place for the ribs. These were added to the plan along with the front spar Aileron leading edge sanded down to be a bit more aerodynamic and added to the plans too And the outer aileron piece added along with gussets

First thing was to do- the wings. This kit comes with an incredibly detailed plan and 8 pages of instructions so nothing is left out After cutting out the 1,600 ribs the first job was to get them all exactly the same sanded down. This was done by placing a spare spar into the back of the ribs and sanding them all together as one block. A few had an accident, as you can see on the pic- so I just cut a ton more The ribs are a mixture of 1/16" and 1/32" soooo second job was to line up the rear spar. Now this is a new one on me, cos the ribs are put on upside down hehe. But after lining it and pinning the piece of 1/16th for the spar, the instructions call for another 1/16" by 1/8" to be glued on top of the rear spar behind where the ailerons will be Do ya see my nice new jazzy blocks huh ? They work briliantly, cut using my swanky new mitre block (thank you mr cantwell ) so are nice and straight and ideal for lining up to keep things nice and straight angled.

Thanks to the lovely Colin and Steve I now have in my possession two lovely Avro 504's- thank you sooo much guys One is completed pretty much, lovely build Steve, so just needs a few bits doing and covering and the other is a kit and am really excited at getting stuck into building a model with my first set of ailerons....... so here goes! Now sadly, the poor spider that Colin sent with the box did not survive the trip, it was a tad dead. I was thinking of using it as a pilot but after breaking the sad news to Colin he informed me that said spider was called Wilbur who he had trained to say hello to me. So in honour of poor Wilbur, who gallantly speed his way across the counties to me I am renaming the Avro Wilbur in his name hehe. Interesting fact here, the box shows a picture of the full size Avro at Shuttleworth and flying it is none other than my good friend Andy So that was a nice suprise. Plans all laid out and ready ooooooooooo