Baron Build. No 1 Build Blog.

[David Davis]

Some four or five of us voted for the Baron 1914 to be the subject of the 2017 Mass Build. It didn't win but some of us opted to build one anyway. I seem to have got the ball rolling hence the No 1 Build Blog in the description. I decided to build one because there are some seven Barons in our club here in the middle of France, either in flying condition or in course of construction. We hope to have a mass Baron flight at a public display in the summer.

The Baron is a French kit which was introduced in the 1970s in the days before ARTF trainers, when you had to build your own model aeroplane. Thousands have been built and have taught thousands of French novices how to fly. It is roughly based on the German Fokker Eindekker of 1915, or the French Morane Type N Monoplane of the same period with enlarged tail surfaces. The original Morane had tiny tail surfaces and was notoriously difficult to fly; it was even more difficult to land! In my view the tail surfaces of the model are too big and I may do something about that. I certainly intend to add ailerons, reduce the dihedral and generally bash the kit. I plan to power it with an OS 40 Surpass.

The kit comes in a one-metre long box with all of the parts in little plastic bags. I don't see any burn marks from a laser cutter so I suppose that the wing ribs have been die cut. The kit cost me only 80€ delivered so it's good value for money.

You even get a set of German WW1 stickers if you want to represent your model as a sort of spoof Eindekker!

The instructions are in French and are pretty sparse. However, they are printed in the form of thirty clear drawings showing the various stages of construction on a piece of A2(?) paper. A novice builder who cannot read French and without experienced help would struggle to build this model. An experienced builder, unable to speak the language, would have no problem building it. The fuselage, fin and rudder are printed onto one sheet, the wing and horizontal tailplane are printed onto another sheet.

I'm not quite sure how to finish mine but I have decided to adopt a British scheme, either a spoof inter-wars scheme in silver with large K numbers under the wings or a rough simulation of Tone Bayetto's Morane.

**LINK**

If I adopt the latter scheme I will need to paint the front of the model in red. I have plenty of red Humbrol but Humbrol is not fuel proof. What would you suggest as alternatives or could I just brush some sort of varnish over the Humbrol?

[Bob Cotsford]

We always used to use clear polyurethane over enamels David. These day's I'd just buy a can of red Solarlac as that's pretty fuel proof on it's own.

Your link is broken. Is this the one?

Edited By Bob Cotsford on 07/12/2016 11:06:37

[David Davis]

Well yes Bob. That link would do if mine doesn't work. The Bayetto Morane is shown on the extreme right of the fourth row. The model on the left of the same row is my old Flair Baronette which I sold before retirng to France!

Did I ever tell you about the time I brought down a Puppeteer while flying it...

[David Davis]

Er... I don't know what's going on here. The first time I clicked on your link Bob, I got a lot of pictures which I had taken! It seems to be alright now.

[Bob Cotsford]

When I click on your link I just get Google front page David!

[Hamish]

Great David, a blog I will follow with great interest. I have started mine from the Svenson plan I downloaded from Outerzone and is a total scratch build. Looking at your pictures there are obvious differences in the wing in that my main longerons are shown as 3x10 where as yours appear to be 5x5. Have changed these two to birch and increase the size of all the others from 4x4 to 5x5. The reason I have done this is I intend to use a Saito 40 4# which is bit heavy and my thought are to make a stronger wing. Any comments gratefully received.

I follow with interest.

[McG 6969]

Subscribed to your build, David.

As I voted for the Baron/Vicomte, I’ll be building one as well as soon as the Bella Ballerina clears the bench.

If you allow me a small correction regarding the Baron 1914, it was designed on a ‘kitchen table’ by Christian Chauzit for one of his friends.

Christian was working for the French ‘Modèle Magazine’ and his boss, Mr Briot, allowed him to have his plan printed in the mag. But there was no kit available at the time and everyone had to build it from the free plan and indeed hundreds of them were built.

Later Mr Briot granted a licence to produce a kit locally and to Svenson to have a kit - named the Vicomte 1915 - manufactured for international distribution. After Briot ceased his activities, Baron Models took over and later Svenson sold his licences to some manufacturer – now apparently ‘disappeared’ as well - in Spain.

Concerning the ‘language’ problem, there is the Svenson Vicomte 1915 free plan on Outerzone and it offers the construction sequence & progress in English as well. That might be of help for those interested in joining you.

There is also a group of Belgian modellers & friends who bundled together and recreated a CAD drawing & laser kit following the original Svenson Vicomte 1915 drawing. As there were 4 of them to ‘participate’ to the project, they called their product the ‘Mousquetaire 1916’…

I just bought one of their kits with the optional ‘lightened’ wing ribs and it is really superb.

Are you going to post a build blog, Hamish?

Enjoy your build over there, David.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Mousquetaire Control

 

 

Edited By McG 6969 on 07/12/2016 12:13:59

[Hamish]

Well Chris I may give it a go once I work out how to add pics which this is a test.

My build will be very basic with no building jigs, all parts cut out my hand etc.

Try this. Hamish

[David Davis]

I'm starting on the wings with mine. This is unusual for me as I usually start with the fuselage, then the wings and finally the tail surfaces. However, I plan to do a fair bit of "bashing" to this kit including reducing the dihedral and fitting ailerons. The piece of cheap plywood within the wing structure will retain an aileron servo. I had to open up the slots in the wing rib to accommodate the spars but otherwise the build has bee straight forward.

I have also modified the wing tip by building it flat rather than under-cambered as shown on the plan.

You may call mine the "Mark 2 Version!" .

Edited By David Davis on 23/12/2016 16:41:00

[McG 6969]

Hello David,

Great to see you starting your build, but may I ask you why you are discarding the under-cambered wing tips?

Is your choice purely 'cosmetic? Are you sure this couldn't compromise the Baron's flight behavior?

Cheers

Chris

[David Davis]

I chose to make them flat as they are easier to build that way! I don't think that changing the wing-tips will make that much difference to the flight characteristics of the model. With a model like the Baron the wing loading and the size of the tail surfaces are the main determinant of it's flying characteristics.

In two world wars and other conflicts, aircraft have been very badly damaged but have still continued to fly.

[John Tee]

I have one of these kits brought from the estate of late club member. Everything is there including the bill with the exception of the plans. Will have a look on Outerzone to see if I can get started.

John

[David Davis]

I've just had a look on-line and the Vicomte 1915 plan is closer to my Baron. The one called "Baron" looks like a simplified version of my model.

[David Davis]

For those who are interested, this is what the model looks like, in ARTF form anyway.

**LINK**

[John Tee]

David thanks for your kind offer. PM'd

John

[Hamish]

Thanks for that excellent link David. Model varies from the plan I am building too, some of which I will introduce into my build.

Hamish

[McG 6969]

Hello gents,

@ Hamish > The Topmodel ARTF example is a nice one and had the production benediction from Christian Chauzit, the designer of the original Baron, but it's differing quite a lot from the 'original' plan, so I should be careful with taking over some of the design mods specially with or without ailerons.

@ John > If you intend to build strictly from the Outerzone Vicomte plan, please be aware that there is a scanning issue with the .pdf and that you should build the fuselage sides following a steel ruler and NOT following the plan as the top fuselage longeron is not straight and NOT the same on both side views due to a serious 'scanning' problem with the Svenson plan. As I have an original one, I can confirm that the Svenson design is 'perfect' but the person who provided the plan to Outerzone didn't use some quality scanner device. Hence the 'elliptical' problem...

Cheers

Chris

[Hamish]

Chris, Merry Christmas.

Not intending to fit ailerons on the Vicomte but will on the Duke. What I will add is the cross bracing at the wing roote as that is where my Baronette failed.

Totally agree what you say about plans. I, stupidly, purchased a set of plans off eBay and then downloaded from outerzone to find the same plan is different. I also, stupidly was influenced by a comment, "as plan shows both sides of fuz I can build both at same time".BIG MISTAKE as plan is different. In future I will build one side then build other on top of.

Have been making progress and will update my build blog

[John Tee]

McG 6969. Duly noted. Thanks

John

[Steven S]

I hate to high-jack this thread, but as I intend to scratch build one also I'm now wondering which plan to use.

[McG 6969]

Hi Steven,

... and sorry as well, David, for 'overloading' your thread.

You can use the Svenson Vicomte 1915 free plan from Outerzone as long as you keep in mind that the fuselages shown on the plan are not really the same because the plan was somehow 'warped' during scanning.

So, just use a ruler - or aluminium profile - to maintain your first fuselage side longeron 'straight' on the plan and build the second - mirror - fuselage side just above the same ruler. So you end up with two 'equal' fuselage sides.

Maybe I should start a new thread 'Vicomte 1915 / Baron 1914 - General Info'... ?

You can always PM me for further info, gents.

Cheers

Chris

[David Davis]

I built my first model aeroplane, a Keil Kraft Ajax, about 57 years ago. Since then I've built thirty or more models from kits, plans and plan-packs as well as rescuing lame dogs and other people's unfinished projects. However, the Baron 1914 is the first model I've ever built where only one wing-half is shown on the plan. Nowadays you can take the plan to Office World and have a mirror image printed but traditionally we smeared the underside of the plan with paraffin and hey presto, you've got the other wing-half.

That's exactly what I did this afternoon using white spirit. It smells a bit but does the job. Pictures show the port wing under construction. The slots in the wing ribs are an extremely tight fit on the spars. To speed things up I have used cyano glue to build the wing which is a first for me.

[Hamish]

How did you get on with the cyano? I use £land cyano and have had no problems. What are you using?

[David Davis]

I am using Zap, the type with the green label, though I've recently ordered another sort which appears to be unique to the French supplier Weymuller in case I run out! I use cyano with some reluctance. Years ago I built a double sized Tomboy, which was drawn up by my late uncle who was a draughtsman, and I somehow succeeded in getting it into a terminal spiral dive. The fuselage, which was glued together with cyano, collapsed in a big yellow bag of matchwood. I've used mostly aliphatic glues since then with epoxy in high-stress areas.

However, in the case of the Baron, the fit between the spars and the slots in the wing ribs is so tight that I have opted to use cyano. I'm also a better pilot these days so don't envisage crashing a basic trainer even though I will have modified it from stock.

Having decided to reduce the dihedral I had to make up two new plywood dihedral braces; these are shown below the original brace supplied with the kit. Except for the joint with the wing rib at the end of the brace, I have decided not to cut slots in the brace to produce a housing(?) joint as per the original kit, but to simply butt-join the centre section ribs to the dihedral braces using slow-setting epoxy. If I add gussets to the joint, bearing in mind that the centre section is fully sheeted, I feel sure that be strong enough.

To increase the glueing area I filled the space between two main hardwood spars with scrap balsa.

The wing ribs in the centre section are arranged in four pairs which I have glued together using aliphatic glue.

 

Having glued the dihedral braces to the starboard wing half and having allowed the slow setting epoxy to dry all day, the two wing panels were then clamped together while the epoxy set overnight. The space between the braces was then filled with scrap 4mm (3/16" balsa. This has resulted in a dihedral of about 2.2cms or a little under an inch, under each wing tip.

Is everybody else's building board as untidy as mine? .

I am leaning towards finishing the model in a WW1 Russian scheme and using the original overly large fin and rudder supplied with the kit. I quite fancy a skull and cross bones on the back!

P.S. If you opt for the paraffin method of exposing the port wing you have to work pretty quickly. The image disappears in 24 hours as the paraffin evaporates!

PPS. Happy Hogmany Hamish!

Edited By David Davis on 31/12/2016 06:22:58

Edited By David Davis on 31/12/2016 06:23:47

Edited By David Davis on 31/12/2016 06:47:00

Edited By David Davis on 31/12/2016 06:53:28

[David Davis]

Picture of the wing joined together and removed from the building board, awaiting centre section sheeting, cutting out of ailerons and further diagonals. The wing in the bag is from a 6ft, (180cms) Telemaster 40.

Tail surfaces pinned to plan waiting for the glue to dry. One day I'll buy a full set of modelling pins but I was always brought up to be cautious with money so until my stock of dressmaker's pins is exhausted I'll use a hammer to drive them into the building board and a pair of pliers to remove them! .