Phil Beard

Glass clothing of the fuselage has started.

Glass clothing of main fuselage has started tonight with the fin.

Martin thanks for that. The PSSA guys told me where to search on the internet for paint schemes and I found that paint scheme and I thought it looked good and I don't think anyone else has used it also.

With the BAe Hawk now being painted I've brought the F86- Sabre back onto the building board. This will end up being painted in the Imperial Iranian Air Force paint scheme. Hopefully this will also be finished for the PSSA event on the Great Orme in May.

Having sanded down the Freddie Mix on the whole model to the point the surface is as smooth as a babies bum, it's now ready for painting. I'm going to be painting it in the scheme of XX285 as seen in the photos.

BAe Hawk fuselage and ailerons now been covered with the Freddie Mix ready for sanding tomorrow once completely dry.

Fuselage ventral fins now added. These were left till now as they'd get in the way for glassing of the aft fuselage.

Final quarter of fuselage glass clothed this evening all ready to finalise the final fiddly bits that need to be covered before applying Freddie mix to the whole fuselage and sanding down ready for primer coat of paint.

Forward Starboard fuselage has been glass clothed this evening and hopefully tomorrow evening the forward port side will be done also finishing of the major portions of glassing the fuselage.

Stbd aft side of fuselage has been covered in glass cloth tonight. Port aft side was completed yesterday. Having to undertake the glass clothing of the fuselage in 4 different sections due to the engine intakes getting in the way.

Glass clothing of the fuselage has started tonight and this is the final part I need to do. Currently making the decals for XX285 for when it's finally painted also.

Andy nothing is glued down yet and is only trial fitted including the canopy which has been cut to size and trial fit. Fuselage will be fully glassed before the cockpit is populated and the canopy will only be fitted once the fuselage is fully primed and awaiting the top coat to go on. Thank you for the challenge as it's good for external people like yourself to guide me.

Pilots and control panels painted with the ejection seat handles just being painted at the bottom. Now to fit and final trim of the canopy.

Glass clothing the rudder this evening.

Cockpit starting to take shape with the pilots being painted and the headrests and control panels getting Sorted.

Just added pieces of balsa wood to either side of the fuselage to act as rails for the bottom of the cockpit to sit on and mount the pilots onto. Also started to build a housing for the battery to sit upright into which will be glued onto the aft side of F1. Note the battery will not be accessible once the cockpit floor has been glued in place. Also put at front in an upright position so as to give maximum fwd mass to reduce any extra that maybe need at the front once aircraft is completed and C.G. position being fixed.

Pilot is being painted and best position so it dries ok. This is the pilot for my F86 Sabre, the 2 BAe Hawk pilots can be seen on the right.

Well what I used previously did work very well as the Freddie Mix I was informed by the PSS guys that i should use lightweight filler instead of the Micro Balloons. Good news is that lightweight fillers is substantially cheaper. See photo for ingredients. I've now applied the Freddie Mix to the bottom wing surface and also a photo of the Sabre tailplane which once sanded is as smooth as a baby's bum.

Well I'm back after a week and a bit without posting, been busy on full size aircraft. Today I decided I better start looking at making the Freddie Mix which is used to fill the weave left in the glass cloth. The Freddie Mix is made up of equal volumes of floor varnish and light filler. A good shake of talc and some paint to give it a contrasting colour. Mix well into a paste and add water until it's like pouring cream. You should be able to paint it on and it will flow into the weave. Tried it initially on my Sabre tailplane and if it works ok I'll let you know and then proceed to use on the BAe Hawk. Picture shows the various items I used for the Freddie Mix in the foreground.

Couple of shots of the BAe Hawk PSS Glider assembled with the parts as off now. Still lots to do before the PSSA Event on the Great Orme in May.

Wing has been glass clothed on both upper and lower wing surfaces. Just waiting for the upper surface to dry and excess cloth will then be removed. Next step is to apply the Freddie Mix which is a mixture of floor varnish a light filler and a good shake of talc and some paint to give a contrasting colour. This mixed well into a paste and add some water until it's like pouring cream and this should then be able to be painted on and will flow into the weave. Then once dry sand it flat. Have to say I've never made or used this stuff yet so it'll be my first time when I do this so I'll try it first on an elevator. Plus I've no idea why it's called the Freddie mix, but that's what the PSSA guys call it.

Wing tips sanded to shape so wing now ready for glass clothing.

Fuselage saddle put together and sanded to shape. Wing tops needing now sanding to shape and the wing will be ready to glass cloth.

Reinforcing for wing bolt cutout and fixed in position as shown in plan. Fuselage saddle being attached to lower skin after fitting wing bolt reinforcing. Plan does not detail the fuselage saddle unfortunately.

Decided to start glass clothing parts of the model and have started with the elevators. As can be seen from the photographs I'm using 25g glass cloth and epoxy skinning resins from Fighter Aces as I'm going to be spray painting the model later as XX285 as can be seen in the final photograph.