Nick Somerville

Great video Chris and a lovely colour scheme. I guess this must be a later version of the Kite as it has a wheel. The one I built in 1988 from the John Watkins plan just had a sprung skid.

Thanks Thomas. Nearly there with this stage of detailing so hopefully next week I can lay down the final primer coats and set to some rivets. I may be a while!

Looks brilliant David. Great photo of the front end too that really shows just how long it is up front. You won’t be needing any lead up there for sure.

Good observation on the curve there David. Might just go check on mine; though they are done and dusted with stitches and pinked tape, so won’t be starting them over. What covering material are you using. I used some Oratex but wasn’t convinced it is as light as some other options might have been.

Interested to hear about opinions on this as have ordered 3 packs of 2s Molicel Li Ion’s. 2 for dual battery setup and one for the ignition on my Fw 190. All 4200ma, which is more capacity than I need in reality but I am going to need ballast up front in any case.

Work continues laying panel lines and adding access hatches on the fuselage. The large lower access panel has been simulated with thin tape to accentuate the edge, but no litho added as I am low on the really thin stuff and I am trying to avoid adding any weight aft. The raised blimp behind for the loop antenna which will be removable for transport. For now I have simply cut a strip of 1.5mm plasticard which seems to work well enough. Fixings are 2m csk machine screws. The port side hinged large hatch I have added with litho as it makes simulating the latches easier. The piano hinge is brass rod sanded flat on one side, so it doesn’t sit too proud, and slots cut with a razor saw. This cold spell of weather has been helpful as there is still quite a bit of surface detail still to add. Hopefully all will be ticked off by the time it warms up and I can then lay the final few primer coats ready for adding rivets

Here’s the completed lower outer gun cover fitted with the cartridge exit chute. The front outer corner has been separated and glued to the servo hatch.

I saw it Bert. I like the scarf on the pilot flowing in the airstream. Looks great!

Moving onto the lower wing the first job is to fabricate the outer lower gun covers. Pity these weren’t included with the other vacuum moulded abs parts from Vailly Aviation as they are a bit tricky. To keep weight down I have started out with 1/16 balsa and some shaped block. I shall glass cloth these and then add the spent cartridge chute made from formed Lithoplate afterwards along with the latches. The cover overlaps the aileron servo hatch so I will have to decide whether to fix them in place with screws or separate them along the servo cover line and glue in place.

With most if the primer now rubbed out I have been working on the detailing of the wing. Top surface first I marked out the panel lines and applied a double layer of pvc insulating tape cut to 1.5mm width. My previous warbirds at a slightly smaller scale used 1mm chart tape but by the time the top coat was applied the impression was somewhat slight. With the tape in place I have brushed two layers of undiluted grey primer filler either side and when dry sanded back to blend out the brush stokes. The wing will have two coats if diluted primer sprayed on before removing the tapes and then some silver/aluminium applied along the panel lines and other high wear areas. I had considered a whole coat of silver/aluminium but Luftwaffe aircraft tend not to show much wear or oaint flaking due to the use if quality etch primer undercoating. Unlike Japanese fighters and some American examples. Also added are the gun and ammo covers. These came as vacuum mouldings so not too much work involved.

On the hunt again for a four servo connection between wing and fuselage. Found these after some googling https://www.3waycomponents.co.uk/12-Way-Universal-TE-AMP-MATE-N-LOK-Wiring-Connector-Kit-With-Seals?search=Mate-n-lok&page=4 cheap and robust looking but the blurb says for 18-20 gauge wire. Given that heavier duty servo wire is 22 gauge the unit may be a tad robust. The model will have twin 3200ma li ion receiver batteries on HV servos. Any electrical gurus who can comment please. They do look somewhat easier to solder up than some others discussed here, which will suit my less than perfect soldering skills.

Nest solution and material choice for the high wear wing mount area. That’s going to be very satisfying when you come to assemble at the field. The greater the span the harder it is to be precise when mounting.

I am afraid I can top that one Brian. Many years ago I purchased a second hand camper-van. It came with a, still in a sealed wrapper, compact Portapotti. As we didn’t want it I asked my daughter to list it on Ebay. There was another Portapotti of the same model being sold at the same time but this was listed as ‘Used and a Firm Family Friend’! To our amazement it fetched more money than our new one. Figure that one out if you date!

With some warmer weather this week a chance to lay down a first primer coat on all of the parts. Most of course will be rubbed back after spot filling any areas required with 3M cellulose putty. Happily not too much required. Primer is U-pol P88 thinned 50% and sprayed using an inexpensive Fast Mover panel touch up HVLP gun. once all the rubbing down has been done I can move on to the numerous access hatches and panel lines. For the hatches the plan is to cut slightly oversized panels from plasticard, temporarily adhere in place and then spray around the edges with primer filler and blend back. This should give the appearance of the actual sized hatches being recessed.

Slightly off topic but I consider worth mentioning. I subscribe to the Laser Engines FB group and purchased a V200 advertised thereon by a Georgia Ward. Without going into details I was scammed. Turns out he has sold Laser Engines he has said to have purchased from ‘Steve’ at Kings Lynn Models before but also these never appeared. Naturally I feel a complete idiot for being scammed for the first time in my life and trust I have learnt my lesson. I do like Laser engines though. On a positive note I rarely have good things to say about banks. However, after a lengthy phone call to Lloyds, they have refunded the the whole amount regardless of whether they can retrieve it from the scammer.

So how often do people change their plugs? I have been back modelling for four years now and have been running four Laser engines (one a twin) and an OS 120 fs. All have OS F plugs and I have a few spares, but haven’t had cause to use them. Do they get stuffed due to improper power to them or do they just eventually wear out. If so what is the typical life expectancy?

Fabulous looking wing, David and the gun sight is superb. Interested to note the V you need to remove/soften at the lower wing joint. That’s been bothering me a bit on my 190. I am hoping to disguise most of it with the bomb rack, but the rear portion will still need some work.

This stuff works very well for iron on fabrics. Reasonably price too.

Its Sunday Ron. Hands in pockets and just admiring the snowdrops!

First time with almost everything assembled less prop, batteries, receiver, ignition and paint. On the scales at 26.2 lbs. C of G about 3cms behind for now. Happy with that!

As the cold weather negates any chance of spraying primer in my unheated stone shed, I have been hacking on with surface prep and fiddly details. The cowl has a total of 13 latches and although simple in their appearance attempting to gain some realism has been surprisingly tiresome. Ideally some from of 3d printed part could perhaps have made the task both more accurate and faster. As I don’t have either the equipment or necessary skills for such wizardry its been old fashion fettling of bit and bobs. The four piano type hinges had previously been added and blended in with car body filler. For the cowl latches I cut and drilled them from thin alloy sheet and epoxied them in place. As they should be flush I built around the edges with 3M cellulose putty and sanded back. The flat head slotted screws were the smallest brass screws available from my local independent diy/hardware store with the dome sanded of on a disc sander. The cowl panel lines are deeper and wider due to the fact they are openings with inside ledges so two layers of insulating tape were cut and used building ip with the putty again. Only the front circle, not moulded on the cowl, has a single layer of tape and will just have the primer paint to accentuate it. side bottom top Its looks a bit scruffy at this stage, but fingers crossed once the primer goes down the detail should come to life.

Flew my BT P47 for the first time this year at the weekend with beautiful weather at our patch. Despite the cold the Laser 180 was thriving on the conditions and gave me it’s absolute best. However the only slightly thawing permafrost played havoc with monumental frozen worm-casts sporting to nose her over both on take offs and landings. Despite touchdowns being as gentle as possible they were still brutal on the uc/retracts. As per G Gnome the clean up was afterwards was also significant. Two flights and I retired whilst still ahead, so to speak. Roll on spring.

Hi Skeet, you are not wrong about the way pushrods sticking out of the underside of wings can really spoil a scale model. However 1/4 scale is big and the weight of both the surfaces and loads of ailerons and flaps can be considerable. For that reason alone the exterior pushrod setups are both easy to set up, easy to service and are very reliable. Danny Fenton, who regularly posts here is a champion of the RDS (rotary drive system) and following his guidance I set up this for my 1/5.6 Bates Sea Fury ailerons (page 2). It’s also worth noting that the majority of composite Thermal and slope race soarers use hidden linkages and certainly for the F3F type model, these need to be very powerful and slop free. Interestingly we don’t really see this type of precision technology being used much to hide control links in large scale warbird builds. Back to the RDS system I employed, it wasn’t without its challenges. The hardest part is finding the necessary servo output parts to hold the torque rods. I had one failure of what I had done that fortunately didn’t cause a mishap and I have re fabricated the output discs to make that weak point more reliable. With so many variables in model design/proportions every subject requires individual decisions to be made. I suspect there is a hidden linkage solution for most, but the extra work and serviceability can mitigate us from exploring them. Just my opinion. BTW I was pleased to find that my current build Fw190 has an external aileron horn as scale. Though the flap links are hidden.

Framing of the sliding canopy all finished and just the aerial pulley and top hinge to put in place. The tail doesn’t quite sit down as tightly to the fuselage as I would have liked but I shall have to live with that. There is just enough room to fit a 100mm Hitec linear actuator to operate it, but as the weight is creeping up and I still have some hopes of completing the model to under 15kg; that can wait.

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