Ady Hayward

Hi again Folks, It has been a wee while again since the last update but has not been wasted as the whole airframe has now been covered with 18g/sq metre glass cloth affixed in place with a water based varnish. This provides a smooth light covering that gives a good base for the paint, hides little errors etc and also gives a little extra strength too for a small weight increase. I find that after covering the edges can be sanded down to nothing so with the weave filled gives the effect of a wrap around skin just what is wanted to represent a metal skinned airframe. The pictures show the smooth surface well. When completed I moved on to the ABS nacelles and cut them roughly to shape and then carefully sanded the edges to conform to the wing profile. Where these were a little short I stuck some plasticard to the edges to fill the gaps at the front. When completed a bit of glass cloth covering will have them looking the same as the rest of the airframe plus the ABS is less prone to cracking. I then fixed the nacelle mounting blocks in position, Two at the bulkhead and two at the rear end made from some scrap ¼” ply glued into a balsa mounting. Adrian

It looks very close to that used on the RAF B25 Mitchells

Hi Again Folks, This time I’m attacking the motor bay covers. The intention was to use the original ply pieces to make a cover that allowed access to the main bay. By whatever means I ended up (Like the prototype) with quite a large opening on top which allowed access to the spaces between the main supports and the ply sides of the cowl, ideal for inserting the esc and cables allowing the full internal space for batteries. I made paper templates of the opening and cut 1/32” (0.8mm) ply sheet to suit trimming the ply to fit well with enough gap to allow finger nails to get purchase for opening the hatches. I then put the ply pieces in a jug of boiling water for a few minutes until they went very pliable then rolled them up to give them a curved form when cooled. (In actual fact a bottle of around 75mm would have been ideal) As the picture shows it was very effective giving me a tightly rolled ply cover! Fortunately careful teasing of the ply allowed it to uncurl and nearly conform to the shape required. I then made a set of formers as shown to hold the correct shape positioning them so that the rear was some 10mm from the rear edge and the front former almost touching the firewall. A little sanding here and there had all fitting very nicely. I then marked the position of the front peg onto the front former and cut it out and inserted a small 1/8” (3mm) ply locating peg To the rear I added some balsa to the rear former each side to give the magnets a better seating and made a cut out for two magnets deep each side and glued a single magnet in the bottom of each cut out. The hatch was marked with the magnets position and the second magnet was glued onto the inner rim each side behind the former so that it matched the previously glued magnet perfectly making sure of course that the polarity is correct. The rear was blended in to the existing airframe where required and the front of the hatches were levelled off flush to the firewall. Adrian Edited By Ady Hayward on 01/05/2016 17:06:18

Hi Folks, Onwards and upwards (Why is it that when I cut and paste text when I forget to relocate the cursor I get the next text typed runs backwards?). The tailwheel doors were made from a lamination of 0.8mm ply and 3/16" balsa to give the doors a curved form. I them let points in the internal walls for hinges and fixed a ply strip to create pockets for the hinges which will be sunk slightly within the bay walls. This was much better than having the forward hinges fix only in the foam. The doors were slotted for the hinges also and were then fixed to the tailwheel bay with the hinges and then sanded to the fuselage profile. The next item was a head scratcher in how do I sort out the tailwheel door open/ close system. After much deliberation I dropped the idea of servo operation within the bay. Sprung doors and a drawstring across the tailwheel leg to close the doors as the effort required was too great. I eventually made a compromise in that I made the already hinged doors so that they were held in the open position by using flexible hinging material as a spring and having a simple drawstring to a servo forwards in the fuselage. In hindsight using the flexible hinging material from the start would have been the best solution.​ Adrian Edited By Ady Hayward on 01/05/2016 13:15:48

Hi Jon, Yes, the epoxy does work well and I was thinking a pair of 40 sized 4 strokes would be nice. A whirlwind would be nice but there are many nice planes that could be done but so little building time between them all. Ady