Chris's Bella Ballerina HD

[McG 6969]

Indeed, a bit "confusing" - at least for the flies - your "Tiger" theory, Bob.

But not that sure myself as the Bella has electric power.

But I guess John could jump in for some comment as he quite certainly owns a Tiger stacked on a shelf somewhere...

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Tiger Control

[McG 6969]

Hi again, gents.

After this zoological intermezzo, I thought about a reward for the patience of the regular visitors, for Stuart and even a ‘little’ for myself, of course.

So, a bit of 'bench flying' with the parts we have so far.

I noticed too late that I forgot the cowl & cockpit hatch , so let’s have them added for the following pics.

Now, starting to apply the final deco scheme for the Bella will be my next ‘rewarding’ step.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Deco Control

[Stuart Z]

Thanks Chris

It looks great!

[Simon Chaddock]

Chris that looks tremendous.

But with all that decoration work will you be able to risk it all by actually flying it?

[AndyD]

fantastic build,love the scheme if a bit hypnotic,you could try this one next.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Jeez Giraffe tor do that Andy

[McG 6969]

Thank you for your comments, guys.

I really like that decoration part of the build, Simon. But if you remember my previous posts, I'm not able so far to fly the Bella anyway, so at least I'm trying to have her 'looking' good. Maybe I will even have to call you for help to bind my DX6i to the Bella.

Not so sure if your suggestion is that great for the lions out there, Andy. For sure I'm afraid they would all end totally 'cross-eyed' like Clarence. But without doubt, a splendid idea for the zebras.

"tor"?, John. I guess I'll have to dig out my 'urban dictionary' again. ​

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Hypnosis Control

[Rosco]

Holy flying Zebras batman........

Looks good Chris.
To be honest, I've tried a variety of 'orientation' marking s but have found that once the model is away from you, it all blends into everything.

Your Zebra stripes will definitely look good when you're flying inverted and close enough to see them!

Keep up the uniqueness!

Rosco

Edited By Rosco on 29/04/2017 00:28:55

[Rosco]

....maybe even a 'decent' knife edge will look good too.

Note 'decent' - when you are showing your observers the top of the model on your KE pass. I was told it's rude to be showing them your 'bottom'!

[onetenor]

not "tor" Chris but "TER " A colloquial way of saying to, as is Giraffe meaning do you have to do that Hence Giraffe ter do that ?

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Slip of the finger Chris, should've been... to

John..clumsy finger control.

[McG 6969]

Thanks for your answers, gents.

Sorry, but no 'inversion' nor 'KE' planned so far, Rosco. I'm afraid that the Bella will remain AOG till I find a responsible test-pilot for her maiden. Are you planning an holiday trip to BRU - BE in the near future?

Now, if I can convince the LotH to have a photo-session with the Bella, you could have a close view of her "top" and possibly even her "bottom"... well, I mean Bella's, of course...

I might have a 'trick' for you, John. Since a while, I'm thoroughly cleaning the remaining epoxy of my fingers as it helps a lot with the finger tips sensitivity afterwards...

As the weather forecast seems to be positive for tomorrow and as the LotH decided to increase her collection of plants, I will have a dedicated assistance to her needs for potting and replanting and will not get to La Grotte until Tuesday as Monday is an official holiday here in BE, ie. 'Fête du Travail' > translated as 'Labor Day'.

Always thought that it was a bit controversially 'opposite'...

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Bottom Control

[Stuart Z]

Chris

Just a quick one, epoxy is removed fairly easily, whilst not set, with acetone.

HTH

Stuart

[McG 6969]

Thanks Stuart,

... but I'm wondering if John remembered the acetone while extremely busy with his Fantasy Formula One predictions...

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Predictions Control

 

Edited By McG 6969 on 30/04/2017 19:14:13

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

John built fibre glass canoes at school as a nipper, so he knows about acetone, but we never made any paddles

John..up the creek with no paddle Control.

[McG 6969]

Well John, I had a large smile when reading your post.

It must be a pure coincidence, but when still a teenager and having some holiday camp, we used to learn to laminate, carve, sand and finally varnish some... wooden paddles. No canoes around though as we made them for the Nautical Club next door. But those were my early experiences with wood dust, acetone and thinners.

Regarding laminations, as we had a very productive planting/potting Sunday, I remembered some work in progress in the spare room.

Nearly following the Purple Plan, here it is then.

The triangulation has been glued and the last internal piece of lamination is presented and measured to be cut into bits filling up the space between the ribs.

The idea is to obtain some kind of tenon & mortise with an increased hold and glue area. Well, that's the 'idea' at least...

As I know myself a little, I'm pretty convinced that my first task at La Grotte will be to give it a little surface sanding before resuming the deco of the Bella.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Selfknowledge Control

[McG 6969]

Hi again everybody,

Some unexpected tasks had some chip-chop with my 'nearly perfect' day planning, so I didn't manage to progress a lot.

Well, at least I was right regarding my' selfknowledge'.

During the few moments spent at La Grotte, I grabbed a piece of sanding paper and cleaned a bit both sides of the Vicomte/Baron fin and rudder.

Somehow happy with the result of my first lamination, but also totally convinced that I will enjoy to work with some balsa later on.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Balsa Control

[Peter Miller]

Balsa is the most satisfying material to work with. One can use the grain to good advantage. it feels right.

I like metail (Mainly Dural) for some jobs, not in the modelling field but balsa is great

[McG 6969]

I can only second your wise words, Peter.

Besides some LE & TE straight bits for the Ballerina, I never really assembled some balsa wood.

I had some ali, Dural, steel, stainless, hardwood, glass & carbon in full size, but the Vicomte's balsa vertical fin was a 'première' for me.

I'm fully convinced that I will enjoy starting to build that next 'full balsa' project.

Thank you for commenting.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Future Joy Control

[McG 6969]

Hello everybody,

Before going on with the final decals, I added a yellow trim-line to ‘cut’ the fuselage between the top silver covering and the bottom white. I think (hope?) it will combine quite well with the yellow LE of the wing.

The line is slightly tapered from 16mm at the front to 12mm at the tail end. This should give the fuselage side a ‘longer & slimmer’ shape.

Probably due to my graphical background, I always liked to work with colours, shapes, company’s logos or even creating my own ones if needed.

I scaled and grouped several drawings I made in Illustrator and printed them on A4 decal paper with the LotH’s standard inkjet printer. I then covered the sheet with two thin layers of acrylic satin varnish after the ink was fully dried to protect it from the future water.

As I’m not sure at all if the water transfers will still work properly for the larger logo dimensions, I also forwarded the resulting ‘.ai’ file to Roger ‘Publiaplic’ to have it printed on 40 micron vinyl as well. Still that ‘learning curve’, I guess.

Grabbing the tiny vinyl cutter knife and the rounded scissors will be the next step, but I think I’m somehow loosing my slowly acquired Photoshop skills here… or maybe Gaston decided to keep it as a ‘surprise’ for a while by adding some very rough ‘potato-pixels’ to the pic…

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Logos Control

[McG 6969]

Well, gents.

As there were 'no tears', 'no begging' to see the deco sheet, 'no insults' pointing to Gaston's responsibility (that's allowed by the CoC, I guess), in fact 'no comments' at all regarding the last picture, I'll conclude that either a large part of the visitors urgently need some reading glasses or 'nobody' has a real urge in having a look at the mentioned sheet...

After 'Nostalgia', now it is even 'Curiosity isn't what it used to be anymore'.

At least it allows me some time to finalize the Bella.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Curiosity Control

[Peter Miller]

We were all waiting for ypu to put a good picture up of the deacals!!!

[McG 6969]

Oh well, if that’s the point, Peter.

I won’t let you gents wait too long then. Here is the ‘standard’ picture.

I combined more graphics than really needed but - being my first ‘model’ scheme - it will allow me to have the possibility to make some choices.

I started with the positioning for the aft fuselage first to have an idea how it should look like. Please note the official ‘PM’ registration.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Choices Control

[McG 6969]

Note so sure your statement that "we were all waiting for..." was the correct reason, Peter.

At least looking at the surprising amount of reactions since my last post, it doesn't really point in that direction.

Never mind, I just hope you enjoyed the 'initials' of the Bella's registration.

I also hope the weather in the UK is better than our windy and rainy one around here. Even if the Ballerina was finished now, I couldn't even have some nice photo session outdoors at the moment.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Forecast Control

[Peter Miller]

That looks very smart indeed.

We had a bright but breezy day. I my Suoer Marauder to cope with it.

Unfortunately the aileron servo stopped working while I was setting up for the landing. Not too much damage considering. If it had happened a few minutes earlier the model would have been at about 500 feet!