Nick Somerville

It’s newly finished and I haven’t fully trimmed the flaps/elevator. First impressions are that there is little pitch change at half flap but a slight nose down at full flap. Going flying tomorrow and aim to set up the elevator to flap trim on a flight mode so will report back.

Its just over 90” span and 16 kg is a good weight for the model with 18 kg+ typical. The flaps are large and at 60 degrees fully deployed create substantial drag. .75 kg of lead was required to balance her.

My Fw 190 is somewhat larger than the TN offering and the plan showed for 2 degrees of washout that I made absolutely sure was built in from root to tip. First flights have shown good slow flight characteristics for a 16kg model.

Fw 190 A-8 in the Black 13 scheme of ace Pips Priller. Built over last 15 months from Vailly Aviation plans. Span is 92” AUW 16kg power Valach 85cc twin boxer with self starter. Klasskote paints, Sierra retracts. Just guns, aerials and pitot to add once trimming flights are over. First flew last weekend.

Fabulous. Great to see Tim, congratulations.

Hard to tell difference from the full size! Going to look the part in the air for sure.

Just a short clip of the maiden take off. Flew lovely at the hands of clubmate Chris S who is a far better pilot than I. A few clicks of trim here and there but no dramatics and safely down with a peachy landing. My camera guy couldn’t make it and I was too excited to film the landing.

Well after 15 months the Butcher Bird is ready for her maiden. Taking to the patch tomorrow for a final check over from a club-mate and if all is well….

Not posted for a while, though have been chipping away the at to do list, which has be ome much longer than I had thought. Final transparent matt Klasskote sprayed on the whole airframe, which has evened any differences in sheen between the colours nicely and has also fuel proofed the insignia. The gun hood now has the guns in place that act as a sprung catch. Would be some airbrake if that popped on a flyby! Receiver and ignition isolation switches now wired in. The bowden cable protruding is for a manual choke, yet to be completed. Engine has been bolted on and twin receivers have found homes along with the esc for the engine starter motor. Once I find a location for the starter battery I can put everything together and do my C of G check; though I need to design and make a simple balancer first. Once all is in place I can set the engine up and run it in with the cowl off. Wife is away from tomorrow for five days so hopefully my to do list will shrink.

That’s a shame not being able to get the retracts to twist a little, but understand that it would be an expensive thing to engineer bespoke for your model. I just laid some carbon cloth down back to the spar and to the adjacent ribs around the mounts. Just used Gorilla PVA as it works well with Carbon cloth. BTW compare the length of the mounts on my FW 190. I suppose with such long stalky legs it made sense to spread the load.

That looks as though getting the wheels to sit in the bays has been very frustrating! The retract mounts are very small for such a large model. I would consider some carbon cloth in around the area to mitigate the top skin splitting on a hard landing. I have done this retrospectively on my Sea Fury and the weight penalty is minimal. As you say, lovely curves.

No sign of the wind abating later this week as yet. Had hoped to go to Buckminster on Thursday, fly camp and fly again on Friday before drive home. Tbh I wouldn’t drive 35 mins to my home patch on the basis of the current forecast so no point driving 7 1/2 hr round trip. Pity as was really looking forward to meeting some fellow Laser enthusiasts.

Thanks Nigel, I do have a more basic charger that can be set to LIFE charging so will try that. Good call! The Overlander D100 V2 I use is a replacement to the earlier version I had that went Bang!

Thanks, will make all the necessary checks.

No, nether of the planes have the smart ones.

I have a pair of Spektrum 2S LIFE receiver packs in my P47. For some time when charging them my Overlander charger will complain ‘Connection Error’ after setting either to be charged. I generally charge at 1.0amp using either the LIFE balance ir Charge settings. The issue has been more frequent on one of the batteries. Usually after several re starts the charger stops complaining and they get charged. However, the more troublesome battery is now not prepared to be charged at all. It reads 66% on my checker so it’s not as though it has gone flat. I don’t tend to fly for more than 4 10min flights on an outing so they hardly get much of a drain. weirdly the two batteries in my Sea Fury are also Spekie Life batteries and the charger also complains in the same way from time to time. The issue worsens when charging both batteries simultaneously on the two channels. In fact for both models I always only charge one at a time now because of this. Incidentally the charger sometimes takes up to a minute or so before complaining. When charging LIPO batteries I never have any problems with the charger. Any advice would be most welcome

Thanks Peter, a relief not to have stuffed up the painting. My third model using spraygun and airbrush and I am starting to work out the procedures. Klasskote paint is brilliant stuff and for the insignia etc I use SMS acrylic lacquer from a local model shop in Frome. No second guessing the thinning as it goes straight in the airbrush with very high pigment. White over jet black is a doddle! I used about 25ml of black and 20ml of white for all the markings.

Cheers John, garden certainly lush with all the rain. In fact it rained most of the Bank Holiday so completed the insignia and nomenclature. Stencils and dry rub decals courtesy of Flightline Graphics. One of the working flap indicators and the little red post that indicates Gear Down.

fuselage marking on now.

First time on its legs for a while. Looking forward to adding the markings and weathering next.

Wow, such tiny stencils. Looks perfect!

Like PJ said, a bit terrifying letting loose the airbrush to blow camouflage splodges. It is was it is once underway so hopefully I won’t rue what I have done. There is the darker almost greenish grey to add on the upper areas and cockpit. Wings have had the tops covered in this grey and when cured enough the final large Camouflage patches can be added with the same dark greenish grey.

Finished up the mounting of the drop tank onto the rack and now ready for painting. It’s all adds up to a fair payload! 3 1/4 oz for the rack and almost 8oz for the tank. The tank can be easily removed from the rack and the rack also is easy to remove from the aircraft so three options for flying.

Painting at last, as the weather seems to have almost caught up with the time of year. I gave the all but the moving surfaces a fine coat of rattle can aluminium to give something to rub back to when weathering. With that thoroughly dry and first up to get the spray kit ‘warmed up’ was the RLM 04 flat yellow for the cowl area and rudder. Next the RLM 76 grey, which is actually a light blue grey, for all of the underside and the fuselage and fin sides. Leg covers also in the same colour. Klasskote paint goes a long way and I had purchased the smallest available amounts of each colour (1/2 pint). I imagine once finished I will have enough left over for two more similar sized Luftwaffe aircraft. The paint is mixed equal parts with a reducer and catalyst. For this model I am using the matte catalyst. Compressor is a Bambi ex dental job off ebay and the HVLP spray gun a low cost Fast Mover panel touch up gun. Works lovely.

Interesting discussion. Today I attended my first ever BMFA scale flying league competition. Hosted by a most welcoming club based at RNAS Merryfield. I didn’t know what to expect but was disappointed that it turned out that I was one of only four entries on the day. Have to feel for the judges who had made the effort to be there. Thanks guys. The forecast had been very gloomy leading up to today, so maybe that had an impact. Of the four models flying there was, an FMS foamie Tigercat, a Hangar 9 RV Vans (recovered for scale), a Top RC Zero (nicely weathered) all 3 electric powered, plus my Laser engined plans built Sea Fury. I had fun and learnt plenty from watching the three other very accomplished pilots, but really had hoped to meet some other builders with their models to share a common interest. There is another event coming up towards the end of May, so let’s see what that brings. In the meantime I need to sort some technical issues with my engine (2 deadsticks on tarmac 😱) and keep practicing.