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Chip off the old block


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My modelling career started with a Keil Kraft Polaris chuck glider, graduating through built up free flight gliders, profile control liners and the odd Jetex model that usually went up in flames.
R/C started with Macgregor single channel in a Mercury Matador then a lot of pocket money + birthday and Christmas went into a Waltron 4/5 proportional 27Mhz set and 3 servos. These served in various models from DB Tyro to Cambrian Capstan and various other sports models and gliders.
A big gap just as many others until picking up as electric flight was just becoming viable. Fast forward through many plans kits & ARTF's to find that all my scale models are ARTF, or foam, or built by someone else. Except for a cute little Model Designs Spit.

So, it's about time I used the experience I do have, to produce something I've not done before. That's a decent scale model that I can be proud of.
The help here is going to be invaluable.

My intention for the Chipmunk, is to make it the best scale model I can, while not going overboard. I want to do something I can definitely achieve, and I also want to end up with a model that I'm happy to fly regularly.

So if an addition looks like it may take many many hours and not add massively to the effect, then it may well be left off.
I like "practical" too. So there will be hatches, everything will be accessible for maintenance, and it will be as simple to operate as possible.

It will be electric, and the battery will be as easy to change as I can possibly make it.

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  • 4 months later...

I thought it about time to shift my build thread off the bottom of the pile.

This one's going to happen in fits and starts I'm afraid, I'll be building and posting whenever I get the chance.

Being a little behind other folk has it's advantages though, as I have the advantage of hindsight to some extent.
Having followed a few different methods, I've dreamt up yet another one for constructing the tailplane.

First I decided that my not brand new copy of the plan has some inaccuracies on it. For a start I can't line up the hinge slots, not even a couple of them, with the laser cut spar. I measured the slots in the spar, and they are equidistant from either end, so decided I'd use that spacing rather than the plan.

Here, after the front of the ribs were slightly chamfered, just the ribs next to the hinges are attached to the spar.

chip1.jpg

Also in the pic above, are a couple of oversized leading edges and a couple of other spacers.
Keeping everything as square as possible, these were attached next. 7

chip2.jpg

The whole assembly will now sit flat on the board, and stay flat and square.

The other ribs were chamfered and then offered up to wherever they would fit, by length. No glue is applied here. There was no real need for this step.

chip3.jpg

Finally it was offered up to the plan. The photo shows that the rib spacing doesn't match the plan, but short of adjusting the length of each rib, and maybe making the odd new one, I decided that this was close enough.

chip4.jpg

Glue has been applied, and now I'll have to decide how to proceed. The ribs will have the long sanding block rubbed over them to even them up before sheeting, but a steel rule shows they are very close already.

Now, I could add the sheeting butted up to the L/E, or I can take the L/E down to match the rib shape and sheet over. With the second method I can still leave "jigging legs".

It may have been better to use a 1/4 sq L/E and add jigging legs to that at the start.

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