Steve Goodwin

I had an email from Sarik Hobbies with an offer of 15% off some plans etc...When I opened the link I was shocked to see that the Peter Miller Ballerina short kit was now £199!!, that's £70 more than I paid 3 months ago. Whilst I appreciate the cost and supply of materials is challenging us all right now, that's a big hike.

Shame, I was very much looking forward to seeing you all.

Nice Graham, wish I’d have been to see her fly. Hopefully this weekend the weather will be kind

I'm a little confused on how to fabricate the trailing edge. Currently the wing and aileron trailing edge is constructed from 1/8 strip sandwiching the ribs, giving me a finished edge of no more than 3mm, do I glue more sheet to extend this ?

Still here EB ? I have both wings almost finished, one job yet to do is the leading and trailing edge pieces which are not supplied in the wood pack ? Do I use what I have and shape or buy the proper stuff?

Thanks EB, probably the neatest solution and certainly the easiest.

So build has been slow this week, I hope to get back in the workshop over the weekend. I'm annoyed that I didn't understand the plan better with regards to the undercarriage. Now the sheeting is on the bottom I do not have enough support for the undercarriage wire. I suppose I could cut into the sheeting and glue two small strips of ply to create a channel, what do you think? Incidentally the other wing is yet to be built so I would have to treat both wing the same I guess. I would rather not go down the route of fitting a fus mounted undercart as I think this will spoil the look of her. Grrrrrrrr.

Thanks KC, can you elaborate on “edge on” please

@Peter Miller can you give me some help here, I’m a little confused as to where I need the support for the U/C. I assume the hardwood block positioned at R1 requires a hole to be drilled for the U/C wire, if so why does the plan call for another plywood brace between R2’s? If you could help that would be great.

I need some guidance here, the plan call for a ply brace ( I have marked this in pencil) for the undercarriage to support the 8swg wire Looking at the shape (on the plan) of the undercarriage, the wire will penetrate into the wing at R1. A 90deg bend will be positioned between the two R2’s. Why on the plan does it appear the the wire penetration between R2’s? Some pictures please

I’m going to use wing servos and extension leads, if these are threaded during the build do I need a tube? not sure that my current servo installation is strong enough, as the ply carrier laminated to the 1/16 sheet looks a bit weak. A chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link ?

I must have not been paying attention, R2 prevents the dihedral brace from fitting so some surgery was required to allow for fitment

Thanks for the tip KC, I shall source some acrylic paint when I can get some diesel ? Onto the wing, as this is my first build one of the first things I have had to do is get familiar with “plan language” Which has been interesting. I started out by removing the ribs from the laser cut sheets and sanding down all the burnt surfaces. Then I drilled a larger hole for the servo lead to pass through and started with the dry assembley. First layed down the lower sheet and 1/4 spars, lower cap strips TE cap strips and dry fit the ribs. Cut and dry fit the insert ailerons. I left out the two outer ribs as I was not 100% sure how these were laminated, I know they are handed. Once I was happy with the fit, I glued the ribs in and left to dry, making sure everything was square. Next was the aileron ribs, again a good sand to remove the charred edges before glueing into place I was a little unsure to the exact fitting of R2b/c and lower cap strip, as you can see from the photo, I cut the cap strip thinner at the TE, not sure if this is correct but should be an easy fix if it needs adjustment later. Next onto fitting the under carriage mount and retaining block, this took me a little thinking time, as the lower sheeting restricts fitment, so I wedged some more ply under the brace just enough to contact all the relevant ribs and epoxied this in place along with the hardwood brace. I will strengthen this further with the triangular stock as noted on the plan, I am very happy with the final result. Incidentally R1 is only dry fitted, as per Peters instructions. So to finish of I still have some cap strips to fit and the spar webs, please chip in if any of this is incorrect. If not I’ll start with the other wing ?

Today I tackled the cowling. First I cut four pieces of 1/4 inch block to rough sizes and got the angles to somewhere that I thought would work, glued these together and left overnight to dry The motor standoffs fouled the cowl at the top slightly so a little trimming was required. I wanted to rebate the nose ring as I thought it would be easier to cover when the time comes, I used a Dremel for this with a small channel cutter which worked really well. Cooling is obviously a consideration so I cut the bottom of the nose ring, which doesn’t look to pretty, and fitted an air scoop from Slec. Carved away a bit more balsa and I think it will do the job very nicely. You can clearly see the extra hole in F1 that will help the airflow, just need to cut an exit somewhere near our pilot, Harry (named after my eldest Grandchild) It looks a bit lop sided in the picture, but when the prop and spinner are on its looks OK, ish! It looks like Ballerina has a cheeky smile or the beginning of a double chin which I like a lot !! The front end looks a bit bulbuse in this shot, but it looks ok, as Peter says “from 50 feet” she’s gonna look like Darsey Bussle ? Next on the list was cutting and fitting the hardwood braces for the servos, I used some liteply for the supports and some 1/4 inch hardwood spars glued in with some Aliphatic, which is my go to glue, small amounts needed for a very strong bond and great gap filling if you’re not so good with the razor saw! So the fuselage is nearly there, a few bits to do but I need to clear the decks in preparation for the wing build, which I am really looking forward too.

Thanks for the concern, I’m quite happy with the current build and Ballerina will not loose her wings I can assure you, be assured I know the difference between balsa and ply ?

? Emmmm my kit was supplied with only one wing plate, so that's where it has been fixed! Seems odd to me that they bothered to cut out the outer wing plate but not the inner, or perhaps it's lurking in the packaging somewhere, possibly ?. I remember a line from Apollo 13 when Tom Hanks says "Looks like we've had our glitch for this mission" lets hope this is my only mistake, anyway no real harm done, I can always cut another piece for the outer.

More progress albeit a little slow, but as I mentioned earlier, I am taking my time. The four mounting studs and magnets for the battery hatch were next on the build. I found that this method was perfect for any slight warp or misalignment with the hatch. Although not commonly used together these two materials worked well for this. Next was the upper deck stringers, I found this quite fiddly as I wanted the spacing to be accurate, which it's not ?. They will be covered I know, but I still try. The infills looked ok with the little scallop detail, spacing at the rear is nowhere near as neat, but I'm enjoying this more than I thought and I'm learning loads. Next was the bottom sheeting and epoxied in the wing fixing plate, pretty much as easy as it gets, I am starting to get the feel that things are coming together The motor standoffs were next to fit, again pretty straight forward (pardon the pun !!) I used 4mm stud with nylocs and washers either side of F1 and I'll do the same on the motor side. This gives a very strong motor mount and makes the conversion from IC to electric very easy. Notice the extra aperture in F1 to allow for additional cooling for the electronics, my plan is to build an exit ramp and encourage air flow via an outlet near the pilot I have yet to look at the cowl, as the fillets for the rear control surfaces mount is giving me lots to think about. Fixing the elevator (after covering) to the fuselage before attaching the infill fillets seems to make more sense to me as I will have so much more "real estate" to glue to. I notice that other builders have created a dummy tail and fin and glued 1/4" scrap to F10 and shaped it from this and removing the dummy when complete. I would guess it would then be a case of sliding in the preassembled tail pieces but removing lots of glue in the process?? ? Not sure this gives any wriggle room when it comes to final assembly? Please feel free to chip in ?

I have another question. Regarding the creation of a "T" to simulate vertical and horizontal stabs, am I right in thinking that the only glue surface for the scrap (to create the tail plane mount) is onto F10, this would mean an end grain surface for gluing, not the best me thinks?

Ahh...and there solves the confusion, I only have a single ply brace in my kit, so I used it on the inside. I made the correct choice!

Enjoyed this build blog very much @EarlyBird and your model looks solid and really well built. As you may know I'm building Ballerina as my first build too and have noticed that I have done something quite different to you ?. I epoxied the supplied ply wing fixing plate to the fuselage, you have used the ply plate on the outer skin of the wing. Your wing fixing blind nuts are installed in what appears to be balsa, have I got it the wrong way around?

My first time build is the Peter Miller Ballerina, all's going well. I shall be starting the wing soon, whilst reading various build blogs I have seen the word "Webs" mentioned. What are they?

Not really sure what happened to the cockpit, but I am very pleased with my work around, this the first time I have attempted to bend and shape balsa outside of its natural limits, the lines are very tactile and now smooth are better than I could of hoped/wished for.

Not fitted yet but next will be the securing for the battery hatch. My idea here is to epoxy four small hardwood blocks with small hex head machine screws, about 1-1.5mm below the fuselage sides, along with matching magnets on the hatch, this will allow for and minor adjustments as my hatch does not sit flush on all four corners, one of the learning steps ?

Next was the battery tray, nice and easy coffin style with a foam insert for the battery to sit on, quite handy as the tray will sit just above the motor mount threaded rod, I will epoxy this in to give extra strength, not that Ballerina will need it, she’s very strong anyway

More progress to show those who maybe interested ? so far the build is going great and I am really enjoying it, only a couple of small mistakes, but as a good friend once told me “every day is a school day” how true with building. The forward turtle deck and battery hatch is next, I figured that the hatch is going to get lots of handling so I doubled up on the outer sheeting and braced the internals with some soft balsa, nice and strong and a pretty good fit for a first timer ?