Peter Garsden Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 This wonderfullly fast aerobatic slope soarer designed by Colin Waite of www.slope-dudes.co.uk is an absolute cracker. I have seen several of them fly at breakneck speed. It has a vaguely P51D Mustang shape but it is only a nod to any sort of scale. It files so well. There are several flying at Leek and Moorland, so I had to have one. For £150 you get a lot for your money - fibreglass moulded fuselage, vac bagged foam covered with fibreglass cloth wings, various bits with more to add to finish it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 17, 2017 Author Share Posted October 17, 2017 If you want to read more about Colin's kits go to www.slope-dudes.co.uk. Colin met me at the Orme one day, and delivered the kit. When I opened the box it had some very well finished high quality components in particular A moulded fibreglass fuselage with, helpfully marks for where to drill the holes for the wing dowels and tail dowels,, as this uses an all moving tailplane Two foam covered in fibreglass and bagged with a live hinge, carbon tape to protect the leading edge and tips with installed wing mounting tube and hole for the 3mm carbon stabiliser pegs. A bag of bits included moulded plastic aileron servo covers and inner cups, ply covers, main wing carbon rod and tube, a plastic receiver and battery tray and a ply servo tray. One has to supplement the kit with various parts:- Brass tubing to take the wing support pegs, Tailplane carbon 3mm joiner 3mm brass tube to take the taillplane main support carbon dowel 1.5mm steel wire and brass tube. 5mm balsa for the tailplane halves and rudder. Snake for the rudder (lightweight) Carbon rod to control all moving tailplane. So this is what was in the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 17, 2017 Author Share Posted October 17, 2017 So what about servos - I am partially following Colin's suggestion and installing some Ripmax S3150 for the ailerons - a 9mm thick servo used for the D40 and D60 - I think they are marketed in the States as Dymond or Hyperion. Very strong and lighweight and thin. For the fuselage one needs 9gram servos. I happen to have some Tower Pro servos which will fit fine. Colin uses Hitec HS65's which are a bit bigger methinks. The Tower Pros are a bit noisy that is the only thing, but plenty strong enough. What about instructions and a plan. Well there is a not to scale plan with full size to scale drawings of the tailplane and rudder, so you can use carbon paper to outline them for cutting. One needs 4inch balsa for the tailplane but I only have 3 inch so I am splicing 2 widths together to make teh full width. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 17, 2017 Author Share Posted October 17, 2017 If you go onto Colin's website you can download some very good detailed instructions On the plan are all the recommended movements - nothing left to chance - more instructions than you get on some very expensive mouldies - God knows why the designer arrogantly assumes that you know how to put together an F3F plane and don't need any instructions is just beyond me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 17, 2017 Author Share Posted October 17, 2017 So whilst I wait for parts to come, I decided to make some cardboard templates for the rudder and tailplane using carbon paper. I have marked out the tailplanes and rudder, joined the tailplane parts together with Aliphatic and left them to dry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Thomas Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 Looks fantastic, great lines! But I'm sorry, for £150 I'd want the brass tubes the tail plane etc all included. Bet it looks great in the air, do you have a vid? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 18, 2017 Author Share Posted October 18, 2017 Thanks Tom, I don't have a video but there is one on You Tube - **LINK** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 18, 2017 Author Share Posted October 18, 2017 Actually I think the kit was £120 not £150 - SORRY COLIN. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Meade Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 Not bad at all that Pete, looks good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Houghton 1 Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 Mmmm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken anderson. Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 hurray ....... looks good and its made in the UK......thanks for letting us know peter.. ken Anderson...ne...1..... gliding dept.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn K Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 That looks great.. Very tempted with that Martyn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 20, 2017 Author Share Posted October 20, 2017 The tailplane joins the fuselage at a slight angle to take account of the shape of the fin, so I cut slots in my templates to get the angle right as per the plan One can see the brass tube to take the main joiner and a piece of balsa to cap it off when the 5 minute epoxy is applied - not forgetting to cover the carbon rod with vaseline of course. I lined up the tube with a ruler laid on top to make sure it was straight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 20, 2017 Author Share Posted October 20, 2017 I ordered a mini snake and wire for the rudder - the elevator will take a small carbon rod. Dubro do them and I ordered it from Model Shop Leeds I levelled off the balsa caps with my handy David Plane - always use it at an angle - it cuts a lot better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn K Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 That looks great. The rudder looks rather small. I wonder how effective it will be? Martyn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 21, 2017 Author Share Posted October 21, 2017 On a model like this, you don't use the rudder a lot other than for stall turns and spins, and sometimes in landing for crabbing, but it is a reasonable proportion of the fin if you look. I think it will be fine as the moment arm is quite small. More of a problem is slowing it down to land. Colin recommends flapperons both moving up and some down elevator mixed it. Having seen the speed they fly, I am not looking forward to landing this one. It is however very light so maybe it will take a fast landing speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 21, 2017 Author Share Posted October 21, 2017 On a model like this, you don't use the rudder a lot other than for stall turns and spins, and sometimes in landing for crabbing, but it is a reasonable proportion of the fin if you look. I think it will be fine as the moment arm is quite small. More of a problem is slowing it down to land. Colin recommends flapperons both moving up and some down elevator mixed it. Having seen the speed they fly, I am not looking forward to landing this one. It is however very light so maybe it will take a fast landing speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 25, 2017 Author Share Posted October 25, 2017 Thought I would show you a picture from Colin's site showing the size of the rudder - this is the closest I could find. I am sure it will be fine. You can also see a picture of the bag that Colin made for it. Shows you how small a size you can condense this model into. I will be making a bag, but out of Wickes Radiator insulation not as smart as this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn K Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 I am sure it will be fine.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 25, 2017 Author Share Posted October 25, 2017 So my Ripmax D150 servos arrived - only 1.5kg of torque - will it be enough? Colin uses these so hopefully so - only 9mm thick - tiny. Seems to work OK. Spent ages fiddling around with the servo covers, and blocks for securing them I used 6mm square spruce but had to file down one side to make it fit. These clamps are great for this sort of application. Normally one has to screw the screws in from the top, but not any more. Curiously, the servos came without any mounting screws - curious indeed. Fortunately I had a lot of surplus screws from my KST servos mounted in the wings of the Stormbird using frames with their own screws. I had to use a tiny drill for a pilot hole. Colin supplies moulded plastic vac formed iners for the servo wells - nice - Also servo covers which glue to the ply plates - will be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 30, 2017 Author Share Posted October 30, 2017 Well the servos are now installed. I used some surplus control rods which have produced a slop free linkage. It was a bit of a fiddle getting the mounting blocks in the right place so that the linkage was at right angles to the hinge, the screws lined up with the mounting blocks and the blocks didn't foul the servo, but we got there in the end. Not much wire to the servo, but just about enough. I used my Proxxon (Dremmel) to grind out the hole for the very nice fibreglass control horn and glue in with some epoxy mixed with microballoons. Next job is to cut the hole in the fuselage for the wing joiner tubes, which I am not looking forward to one bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 30, 2017 Author Share Posted October 30, 2017 As the clock went back on Saturday night, I suddenly had an extra hour before bed (I then realised I was staying up an extra hour and had to rise an hour earlier this morning - doh!) So I did a bit of work on the tailplane. As advised, I lined up the pivot on the main rod and marked a hole I used my micrometer to judge the o/d of the tube and drilled a hole in the pivot so it went through easily. I lined up the rear tube, by cutting it in one piece to ensure it all lined up. I then cut the 1.5mm wire to length and made sure it slid smoothly onto the tube. I slid the carbon 3mm main joiner into position and made sure that the rear tube would fit properly. I adjusted it to fit. I then cut the rear tube in half, vaselined the wire, mixed some 5 min Epoxy, and glued the tubes in position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 31, 2017 Author Share Posted October 31, 2017 So - wing joining tubes in the fuselage - thankfully, Colin had marked the positions of the holes with a black marker pen, so in faith, I started with the front main hole - the rear is held with 3mm positioning pins (not supplied) for which I have used carbon rod. Fortunately I have a pillar drill and the fuselage is flat sided and parrallel over the wing so this produces an accurate 90 degree hole. I started with 3mm and worked up to 8mm - the o/d of the aluminium tube supplied. Perfect fit and the wing was straight and level when I checked it. No matter what I do, I cannot rotate this picture into the correct position - there are no tools Mr Moderator methinks, though it looks OK on my phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted October 31, 2017 Author Share Posted October 31, 2017 I decided to put the wire catch in the canopy. I first of all installed the wire with some superglue hardened quickly with accelerator, then mixed some 5 minute epoxy with milled fibreglass - brilliant for gluing to fibreglass fuselages. Epoxy on its own is the wrong viscosity (is that the right word?) and pings off. You can see above that I put some on the inside of the wing joining tube to hold it in position as initially these tubes are just superglued in which is not strong enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted November 2, 2017 Author Share Posted November 2, 2017 As you can see I sanded the tailplane to an aerofoil shape and spread some balsa filler over the joins to make it stronger. I dabbed off the excess resin - only 80gram cloth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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