Avro Vulcan

[andy watson]

I love sheeting- it's my favourite job on so many levels.

 

Firstly the plane really starts to take shape into what it's going to be, and secondly the rather flimsy structure of ribs and spars suddenly tightens up and becomes incredibly strong and rigid. I have to persuade myself not to skin too early, as otherwise I end up having to spend ages filling the inevitable dings that get picked up. But today was the day I got the wing panels done.

 

They already had the tops done, but I'd had to wait for servo extension leads to arrive before doing the underside. It was perfectly straightforwards, except cut outs were needed where the servos sit. So overall a nice gentle day with something good to see at the end of it!

 

The servos are Ripmax SD200s, as recommended by Graham. I would have gone with standard sized ones out of habit- it feels strange having minis on such a big plane, but I guess they are up to the job and save some weight. 2 in each wing- 1 for the aileron, 1 for the flap. Both will be covered by a fairing.

 

The leading edge was glued to the existing 1/4" LE and shaped. I love my razor plane- it makes such easy work of jobs like this, although there is an internal angle on the LE which had to be done by sanding. I doubt it is clear on the picture, but the LE on the Vulcan is unusual. It is very sharp, but comes to a point about 75% of the way down the front of the rib. I thought this might be awkward to get right, but actually was easy enough.

 

Then it was time to dig out the sanding block and sand down the sheeted surfaces. Lots of dust later and a light filling and they were done! Just the filler to sand off and they are ready for sealing and covering!

 

[Stephen Grigg]

What sort of filler do you use Andy?

[andy watson]

Hi Stephen,

 

I use 3M Acrylic red stopper (from fighter aces- I think its a car body filler) for the very fine filling I needed here. There will be some more substantial filling needed on the fuselage that is building up parts of the shape. I will be using B&Q own brand light weight filler for that. After sanding there will be very little of the red filler left, so weight is irrelevant. With the B&Q stuff, where I will be using more, it is incredibly lightweight and also much cheaper.

[Graham Dorschell]

Hi Andy - great to see you at the week end - The elevons - I used glass tape top and bottom and then covered over with the sola tex - they are all elevon and mixed as a delta . so no flaps ,,,, the servo s all do the same job . When I was at Colerne I had a look at Cyril Carr s Vulcan and he had two servos connected to the inboard elevator - aleron , as on the full size the elevators inside are larger that the aleron outers- but he made a redution rod to connect them so the aleron moved less . On my model I only use two larger Digital servos and use delta mix . Your set up is recomended as I wanted redudency, so if one servo failed I would still have elevator and aleron working .

[andy watson]

A bit of progress today- although since this is my last clear day of my 6 week holiday it shows how little time I have to spend on it.

 

I glued a couple of chunky balsa blocks onto the wing tips (with a thin ply liner). These will get carved to shape when dry.

 

You might see on the first photo just how much of the filler is removed after sanding.

 

Also the fuselage has been pretty much sheeted too- although there is still a bit to do before it's finished!

 

Lots of sanding needed!

[Ed Darter]

must resist..... want to start my one but too many other projects on the go currently!

Lovely build so far Andy, keep up the good work!

[andy watson]

Been a couple of weeks since my last update, but I have been doing stuff. Sanding. And more sanding. A bit of filling, and then guess what- sanding. Actually I quite enjoy it- I love the finished feel of smoothly sanded wood. If there's one thing I like better than sanding it's using my favourite tool- the razor plane.

 

Whenever I do an update that's had a bit of a gap I check back where I was up to before starting. Unfortunately I realised I hadn't photographed the wing panels which have had the leading edges shaved and sanded to shape, along with the wing tips which I had just glued on the last update. I will photograph them tomorrow so everyone can see them done. They have already been painted with sanding sealer and I am awaiting some glass cloth to cover them. That will be quite exciting- the poly C is waiting!

 

Anyway, the fuselage and wing roots have had quite a lot of sanding, along with a bit of filleting and gap filling. It's nowhere near finished, but well on the way.

 

The other main job that has been done is the nose. There was a vac formed nose supplied in the pack, but I don't really like them. To be honest I only got it for the canopy, but thought it would be useful. I decided to do it the way Graham did the original- foam. I can't remember where I got it from, but I had 2 big sheets of 1" thick pink foam. Using a very delicate saw I cut out 3" wide strips and glued them onto the cruciform. I promptly knocked the cruciform off the F1 former! I glued it back on, added a bit of bracing, and tried again. I meant to take a photo, but never got round to it. Sorry. Then it was a case of chopping off the bulk with a saw (slightly smaller than the rough cut saw used before). Then using one of those long knife blades I shaved off more to a rough shape. Again I was neglectful in photographing. For some reason the famous razor plane tore the foam- so I had to use a naked blade- no accidents to report though. With the rough shaping done it was back to the sandpaper. I used 60 grit- which seems very coarse, but I always sand with light pressure, and the end result seems pretty good.

 

This shot doesn't show the nose especially well, but you can see all the pink offcuts from the rough shaping. Time to tidy the workshop again!

 

Just for info I wrapped 50mm wide masking tape round the fuselage behind the nose to protect the wood from the sandpaper. I was very worried about getting a nice rounded nose without bulges or flat spots, but actually it went very well. There are gaps between some areas of the foam and the cruciform, but lightweight filler will sort that out easily enough when I fill the rest. Note the model is inverted in the photos.

 

One interesting thing I came across was the gluing aspect of the foam layers. I used aliphatic for the first ones, but although it dried at the edges it remained wet in the bulk of the foam, as I discovered when I started shaping. To avoid this on the other side I glued using PVA, but that did the same. In the end I finished off using a foam contact adhesive that came with a foam glider I bought.

[andy watson]

I know the updates aren't coming daily (or even weekly), but progress is pottering along.

 

To be honest much of the last few weeks has been taken with sanding, a bit of filling and more sanding. Hours can easily while away with nothing to show for it- well nothing that photographs well anyway!

 

In the last couple of weeks though, there is one job that has been weighing on my mind. Graham has a very neat and tidy access hatch that runs along the bottom of the fuselage. I had given a lot of time to thinking about how to tackle it- specifically 2 areas. Hinging and securing. To be fair there is probably a couple of very simple things I am missing, since being IC orientated I don't really have much experience of accessing the inside of my plane after each flight! Grahams neat hatch ran lengthways for about 18-24" (I never measured it!). It is made up of 2 parts that are hinged along the length and with a catch arrangement they are simply unclipped and fold open. A very nice, elegant solution.

 

I didn't like it!

 

Actually that's not true, I liked it a lot, but I wasn't sure about getting the catches to lock properly, and I think Graham hinged his with the solartex covering he used. I could see mine turning into a mylar disaster! I also had my steering servo in a different place to Grahams, which meant I needed access to the fus area that blended from curved to flat. He was able to build that into the fus- mine needed to to be part of the hatch. Of course I could have moved the servo, but I liked it where it was! Oh, it also needed a cut out for the nose wheel retract. I decided to do it my way, with a 1 piece hatch that would be held in using magnets. Just remember that on the maiden video- if you see the hatch falling out it is all my own fault!

 

I started by glueing 2 1/4" rails along the inside of the fuselage opening. The hatch is going to sit on these. They needed to stop short though, as the front of the hatch needed to drop (well technically rise, but I was looking at the bottom of the plane) to meet the fuselage at the front.

 

I then made up 2 strips that sat on top of these rails, and glued in a couple of cross pieces to get the spacing right. I then glued a second piece across the rear to act as a catch. Simple 3/32" sheeting across the top strips made the majority of the hatch. This all worked very nicely.

[andy watson]

I cut a ply copy of the former that made up the front of the hatch. I then cut it into bits that fit the space and also allowed the retract to raise lower and the push rod to have clear access.

 

Although it was a bit fiddly, and needed a bit of dextrous balancing of greaseproof paper to stop me cyanoing the whole lot into 1 big mess, it was pretty straightforward to glue 2 1/4" strips at an angle to the new front fuselage former. I then built a 1/4" frame to make up the structure needed to fit between the former, the retracts and the rest of the hatch. The frame needed sheeting, so I sprayed some more 3/32" sheeting with water, left it to get flexible, and bent it over the frame.

 

And snapped it!

 

I needed to think about a different way. I rebuit the framework on 1 side, but used solid block where the curveature was needed. I then carved it to match the curve and glued the new sheet in place. I carved some excess from the bottom, and it worked fine. I then realised I could have easily just have reinforced the original open framework- it was obvious where the stress was, so I did that on the other side. I now have a hatch where each side is built differently- but never mind! It looks the same from the outside!

 

The hatch needed a little trimming and sanding to fit, but in the end it went in nicely. Now to hold it in! I have seen a lot of hatches/canopies held in place with magnets, and this was the route I decided to go down. I had some in stock, in a variety of sizes as I was unsure what size I needed when I bought them. Unfortunately I was still unsure. The 5mm "barrels" seemed really strong. The 3mm cubes seemed too weak. I decided on a pair of 5mm at the front (where air might get underneath and lift it off), and 3mm cubes down the sides. These would be matched in pairs on the rails and the hatch. I did this by putting the hatch into position and drilling straight through both the hatch and rail (I had 2 small balsa blocks on the front for the 5mm barrels). All the magnets were epoxied into the holes (taking care to get the polarity correct). Once the epoxy was cured I filled in the holes in the hatch with lightweight filler.

 

Done!

 

The hatch is a slightly different colour to the rest of the underside of the plane as the rest has been sealed and some of the red filler sanding dust has stained the wood.

 

 

It seems to hold well enough, and it simply snaps in and out.. The front is very secure, but I think using the 5mm magnets the whole length would have risked damaging the hatch as I removed it.

 

Time will tell.

[andy watson]

As you might have noticed, much of the recent build has had the fus on it's back. This has meant there has been one job I have been putting off until the last minute- the fin. There have been 2 reasons for this- firstly the simple fact it is easier to turn the model over without it fitted. I have also been using the box I made for working on/transporting the Stuka, and it isn't tall enough to take the Vulcan fus inverted with the fin on.

 

The second reason was more technical, in that the original model had no rudder. I want mine to have one- and Graham acknowledged that not having a rudder was a drawback of the design. Having said that, I can see why Graham decided not to incorporate one. The easy part of adding a rudder was simply chopping the back end of the fin off, and adding a few bits of extra strip to support the 2 parts. The tricky bit was siting a servo to control the rudder.

 

I had a look at all my other models, and the rudder always falls to a level below the rear ofthe fuselage, and below the elevator line. This means a servo can be easily incorporated inside the fuselage and a snake/pushrod run through it. At worst, a servo can be mounted externally, but hidden, camoflaged underneath the stab.

 

If you look at the Vulcan though, things are very different:

 

The rudder is sat abover the fuselage. Worse than that, it is slanted backwards. To get a good geometry for the servo and the rudder, I would estimate on the picture above the servo should be mounted somewhere around the red/blue rectangle. I think that would be too prominent a position though, so a compromise was required. I have decided to mount the servo in the fin, but at the bottom. I can get around the slightly awkward angle by using a ball connector rather than a clevis. This is more visible than I would prefer, but hiding it in the fuselage would be a nightmare, involving a Heath Robinson type contraption of bell cranks- which would also be in/on the fin. If there was a problem, major surgery would be needed. So I cut a hole in the fin (with only 1 tear shed- I hate cutting the sheeting unless it's for a scale reason) and added some blocks for mounting.

 

There is a corresponding hole in the fuselage for the lead. I am hoping that painting the top of the servo will make it inconspicuous.

 

The glueing in of the tail was straightforwards. Epoxy was used for strength. What you might not be able to see is how I ensured it was straight. The wing roots have a small nub sticking out at the back. I drilled these with a 1mm drill, and a piece of fishing line threaded from 1 to the other. I stuck a pin in the top of the fin, and wrapped the line round this. This gave me a way to hold the fin at any angle for a prelonged period of time. A good slather of epoxy was used, and the fine put roughly perpendicular. I then used a second piece of fishing line, tied onto the pin. This was simply used to measure from the top of the fin to the edge of each wing (in effect the wing tip but on the fus stumps). When the distance was exactly equal, I knew it was straight. I then added the extended fairing along the top of the fuselage.

 

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There is some touching up needed where the sheeting meets between the fin and the fus. I still need to add the rudder later, and the fairing at the top of the fin.

 

 

[andy watson]

The fairing at the top of the fin was next.

 

The design is slightly strange, with a flat vertical front section, and the remainder being more traditionally shaped. It does hang out over the rudder, so I taped the rudder in place for the fit.

 

I decided the vertical would be a magnet for hanger rash, so decided to make it from ply to resist bumps. I then sandwiched the ply plate in 2 1/4" balsa sheets cut to shape.

 

I did some very rough planing to shape, then epoxied it in place. Once it was glued, I planed and sanded to shape. There were a few areas that needed a bit of filling, so out came the red stuff again. I will sand it all off tomorrow.
.

Finally I filled the gap between the fuselage and fin sheeting with small pieces of balsa sheeting. This will need a light sanding and filling tomorrow.

I do have one question for people.

 

The cockpit bulge is clear plastic. Because of the small (about 1/18) scale of the build I will not be detailing the cockpit. The majority of the bulge is painted, but the windscreens and side windows are obviously clear. I don't really want people looking in!

 

Am I better leaving the glass clear, relying on the paint to make the inside dark. Or should I try something like silver paint on the inside of the cockpit to give the illusion of glass.

[Graham Dorschell]

Posted by andy watson on 29/10/2011 00:15:59:

The fairing at the top of the fin was next.

 

The design is slightly strange, with a flat vertical front section, and the remainder being more traditionally shaped. It does hang out over the rudder, so I taped the rudder in place for the fit.

 

I decided the vertical would be a magnet for hanger rash, so decided to make it from ply to resist bumps. I then sandwiched the ply plate in 2 1/4" balsa sheets cut to shape.

 

I did some very rough planing to shape, then epoxied it in place. Once it was glued, I planed and sanded to shape. There were a few areas that needed a bit of filling, so out came the red stuff again. I will sand it all off tomorrow.
.

Finally I filled the gap between the fuselage and fin sheeting with small pieces of balsa sheeting. This will need a light sanding and filling tomorrow.

I do have one question for people.

 

The cockpit bulge is clear plastic. Because of the small (about 1/18) scale of the build I will not be detailing the cockpit. The majority of the bulge is painted, but the windscreens and side windows are obviously clear. I don't really want people looking in!

 

Am I better leaving the glass clear, relying on the paint to make the inside dark. Or should I try something like silver paint on the inside of the cockpit to give the illusion of glass.

Hi Andy - Things coming on well - shes realy looking the part now and you will be feeling better day by day on your build , sorry not been incontact am away at the moment . just one thing I noticed . The rear set of wheels neads to double up , on most of my landings I had to instal two more on each because the EDF model has more weight than the pusher and also looks better too . Trust me you will need two sets on each . Great to meet up at Barkston and very well done on the site and your project .

[andy watson]

Grahams comment above really worried me- I couldn't remember if there was room for both wheels on each oleo. I had placed the retract unit in its position, and I had a nagging thought that it was too close to the outboard rib. There must have been a reason why I had only put one wheel on each, and why they were mounted inboard, when they would obviously look better outboard.

 

Moving those retracts would require major surgery, pulling out all all the bearer plates and remounting them.

 

I took the wheel off one oleo, and tried it on the other as a double unit. I immediately remembered the problem- I didn't have any axles that were long enough!! I sent off to model fixings for some long M4 cap head bolts, which turned up the next day to use as axles. Both wheels went straight on, and the retract unit slipped the wheels neatly into the newly enlarged well.

 

Phew.........

[andy watson]

The last week has been taken up in glassing the plane. I am using 25gsm cloth and poly C.

 

I love poly C- it's so easy to use. Some people claim it isn't as hard as using an epoxy resin, but I am not sure how much difference it really makes. I have read it described as slightly rubbery. I would agree with this- for a week or 2. It dries in 20 minutes (in a warm room), but seems to keep hardening for weeks afterwards.

 

For those that haven't used it before- here is a description of how to do it.

 

Note that before using it the wood MUST be sealed with sanding sealer- otherwise it will warp.

 

Lay the cloth across the surface. In this case matters are complicated with the presence of the 2 servoes, but nothing major.

Then cut roughly to shape- about an inch overhang on all sides.

 

Tools required- a small pot and a paint brush. I normally dry brush the cloth over the piece at this point as it makes the application of the poly C even more easy.

 

Start painting the poly C onto the cloth. It goes on easily enough, and any small bubbles collapse before it dries, so can be ignored. This first coat is simply glueing the cloth to the wood. I always start in the middle of the piece and work out- it seems to make it easier to brush out the wrinkles and folds that will inevitably occur.

 

It's as easy as that. There will be small wrinkles as the cloth tries to conform to compound curves, or where it snags slightly. These can normally be simply brushed out, but they tend to be a little more difficult at the edges. These are simply done by lifting the edge of the cloth and brushing it back down. I know that makes it sound as if it's really difficult to get smooth and wrinkle free, but it really is very easy. The wing panel I photographed took about 20 minutes- and that includes cutting the holes for the servos.

 

As I said above- a warm room will dry the poly C in about 20 minutes. This takes a lot longer if it is cooler- I am working in an unheated garage and it takes a few hours.

 

The cloth is cut to shape- I use a scalpel blade, and the other side is done in the same way. The top of the wing will take about 10 minutes.

 

To fill the weave of the cloth will take about 6 coats. The second and subsequent coats are really fast to apply though- it really is as easy as painting the poly C on- just slap it on. So a new coat on both wings will literally take 5 minutes of work.

 

The fuselage has been done earlier in the week. It was done with a single piece of cloth, except for the fin. That's how easy it is to get it to conform to the curves.

 

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You can see the glossy coating in the flash. I am simply adding a coat a day, although for the fuselage I am having to do the top one day, then the bottom.

There will be the odd drip, and I seem to be attracting a few little flies getting stuck in the varnish. The whole lot will get a good sanding with a fine (600 grit) sandpaper to smooth out any little lumps and provide a key for painting.

Simples.

[Tim Mackey]

Nice one Andy

I too have loved this stuff since I discovered it a few years back - its just so much nicer to work with than resins - easy clean ups too.

The model is really taking shape - looking great

[andy watson]

Really feel like the back of this build is now broken.

 

Poly C needs a few coats- I think the instructions call for about 8 to fill the cloth weave, although I find 5 does it comfortably. This should be straight forwards with a 20 minute drying time, but the cold weather really does slow things down. It is taking several hours for a coat to dry. A smaller model could easily be hung up, but the size of the Vulcan meant I was doing the top one day, the underside the day after, and only getting one coat on a day- possibly 2 if I got one done early, and one late. So things slowed down a little, as there isn't much you can do when it's wet.

 

I ordered the paint from Fighteraces.

 

I have been guilty of spending the last couple of weeks "pottering". I was doing stuff, but in a disorganised way, and spending a lot of time thinking or generally fiddling. I decided to get a grip of the situation and made a list of all the jobs remaining before primer could go on. It wasn't a big list, but little scale details and awkward bits I had been putting off.

 

First I did the refueling pitot. This was very important since the Falklands raids couldn't have happened without them. I drilled into the fuselage. Fortunately I had planned for this, and tripled the width of the balsa in the nose cone in this area. I toyed with making it permanantly fitted- it would have made the fairing easier to make and fit; but in the end I decided it would add to the difficulty of moving the fuselage around and was likely to get knocked around. I cut a length of dowel to the right length, allowing about 5cm to fit tightly into the drilled hole. I considered magnets or bullet connectors to lock it into place, but in the end I think a friction fit will hold it easily. I then drilled through a block of balsa, and carved it into shape as the fairing. The bare pitot was plugged in, and the fairing was slid over it into place. The fairing was tacked into place, then glued more substantially and filled where needed.

 

In the picture it is not fully slid into place as it is wet with poly C- I just put it in place for the photo! Also you can see underneath the little nubbin on the nose. I used another piece of dowl, but drilled and pinned it to make it a little more secure.

 

You can also see the canopy in place. Firstly it was sanded to a fit. I went with the silvered window option. It's simply been sprayed inside over the windows. Once the paint was dry it was glued into place with canopy glue. Once the glue dried I added a strip of glass cloth and poly C'ed it into place around the edges- this is to add a little reinforcement to the join. Tomorrow I will add a little filler to round off the transition.

 

The canopy and pitot really add the final touches to the shape.

 

Finally there is a box on the rear cone which needed adding. I was tempted to leave it off, as quite frankly it looks better without it. I need to look at one of my books to see exactly what it is- it seems a bit strange stuck on the side where it looks to screw up the aerodynamics! I think it is probably some ECM box, as it was significantly upgraded. Anyway, I put it on regardless.

I also filled the rear cone as it had some lumps and bumps. A lot of the filler will be sanded off tomorrow.

 

One job I decided not to do was add the splitters in the air intakes. I decided against it as I was worried they would screw up the airflow into the fans.

 

Tomorrow will be a little more poly Cing, and some fairly major sanding. I could be priming by the weekend!

[Ed Darter]

coming along very nicely, can't wait to see the finished model. Will you test fly it before painting?

[andy watson]

Not sure Ed, I might well prime it nd fly it then- after all if it's good enough for Tony Nijhuis, then I suppose I could condescend to give it a go!

 

People that get the mag will have seen Grahams original in this issue. I'm looking forward to a more detailed look as promised in Nigels article.

 

There have been a few jobs done in the last week.

 

Firstly the wheels. Graham posted above that the double bogey was necessary. I used long M4 cap bolts as axles, and fitted the wheels. Very straightforward.

 

The next job was fitting the batteries. With a huge fuselage area, this wasn't going to be a problem. What was a problem was checking the C of G. This is a really big plane (check out Graham holding his in the article (although he is very small!)), and the delta wing means you can't easily reach underneath the wings to lift it. In the end I had to wrap strong string round it to lift at the Cof G, which took some fiddling to get in the right place. I expected to be putting the batteries on the C of G, then shifting them forwards/back a few inches to get it right- after all 4*4000mAh 4S batteries are fairly hefty! Hmm, not when I saw how tail heavy it was! In fact to get the balance correct needed the 4 batteries right up at the front of the access hatch. No problem, except the nose wheel retracted right into the middle of this space!! To be honest it wasn't the hardest thing to sort out- just an unexpected problem. I moved the escs forwards, so closer to the C of G, and pushed the outer 2 batteries further forwards, the middle 2 could be pulled behind the space needed for the nose wheel. I built some lightweight struts to hold the batteries in place (with a velcro strap as well). This process took a while, but it was mainly getting the plane set up to be able to measure the C of G.

 

The steel rule is actually on the position of the C of G!

Apart from this, it was basically all about sanding. Poly C sands really easily once it has been left a week or so to cure fully. New sharp 100 grit sand paper rubbed gently over the surface will take off all the little sharp lumps that seem to get stuck. One problem I have found is when using it in an unheated garage in November is that you do get some drips because it has taken longer to dry. These take longer to sand out, but I use a sharp scalpel and cut the tops off them first. A solid days work saw the back of the sanding though- especially with some "help".

He wasn't so keen when I fired up the 4 engines though- he ran out! The thrust was enough to push the plane along the stand upside down! I nearly got taxi trials done in the garden!

 

I do think I need to spend some time tidying up the wires, but I do worry that tieing them all together might lead to overheating. Maybe I just need to build a nice 4 servo model without the spaghetti! 4 batteries, ESCs and motors and retracts was always going to be a tangle.

Actually this was taken AFTER the wires were tidied up!

 

[Graham Dorschell]

Wow Andy , looking good - need little helpers with my models in Thai - lol . Your project is really taking off - pun ? Home in three months , would love to see her fly . Looking at your elevons - On my model they are all connected as elevons but on some pusher version s they make the inbord elevators and outbord alerons. What are you doing Andy ? Has any pics or articals gone in any mags ? Am looking forward to the utube vids ??? Please get more little helpers with camaras ??

[andy watson]

PAINTING!!!!

 

Well the building part is just about complete- even to the point where I have opened the box of the next kit on the bench!! Now it's time to get the paint on. I said about a month ago that I was aiming for a maiden on our boxing day barbeque, and it looks like I should make that. I did think it might be in primer, but maybe it will be properly finished!

 

So I have been sanding for the best part of the week- or is it 2? The poly C has a mirror like surface, and is ready for the paint. I have no artistic ability at all, so I try to make up for this with decent technique- ie I follow the instructions to the letter!

 

For the record I am using fighter aces paint- they gave great results on the Stuka, and a cheapo £10 spray gun which is run off an ALDI compressor. I turned the shed into a spray booth by taping polythene dust sheets all over:

 

 

 

So first is the primer. I spray a mist coat on first, then 2 "proper" coats- letting them dry inbetween. Then I get out the orbital palm sander and a fine sand paper and sand most of it back off again! It's incredible when I think how much sanding/filling I have done to get a smooth surface, because this really shows up all kinds of lumps and bumps. Because the high points lose the paint, and the low points keep it, this acts as a leveller, but also makes it easier to see any variations. By the end of this process the surface is very flat.

 

Then I spray another 2 "proper" coats and it is primed.

 

(The wings are only on loosely, as I thought it was as good a way as any to hold them for painting!)

[Stephen Jones]

Nice to see all that space go to good use rather than doing something stupid like putting a car in there

[andy watson]

I made a mistake Steve.

 

When we moved into the house we had an integral double garage as well as the wooden detached one. I turned it into a 4th bedroom (it's a bungalow) so now we have a large en suite bedroom, as does Ellie our 15 year old daughter. I should have kept it as a perfect modelling room and made her have one of the smaller ones!

 

I would be much more comfortable and have even more space!!

[Stephen Jones]

Kidz ....

 

I too lost my space due to um

 

[jez]

hi andy looks great hope she flies as good as mine

cheers jez

[Graham Dorschell]

Hi Jez - Wheres the utube vid then - come on slow boy . How dose she fly ? Some little birdy told me you were scard to get her into the blue . Did you hand launch her or did it take of wheels down ? UTUBE please ,,,, so far away and so much going on - save us any mags with the Vulcan stuff in ?? regards big G.