The Annual Dark Nights Fix-up.

[jeff2wings]

So while waiting for the weather to warm up for spraying paint I thought it a good idea to bring the spatman up too the same state. Now unlike the swinger this has flown, abit just the once and not very well due too lack of rudder movement and the silencer coming lose. So as a result of a poor choice of fuel proofer it's a case of sanding down and repainting, well I've had a bit of practice at that now.

 

 

you can see that the proofer has not adhered to the paint 

 

 

and while I'm at it decided to replace the tailplane with some 3/16 wood given that the plane was a little nose heavy requiring all the gear to go as far back as possible to  balance, I will also remove the fin/rudder and return both too the original shape. 

 

 

 

Edited January 22, 2023 by jeff2wings

[leccyflyer]

Really really dreich today, but forecast for tomorrow looks much better, so spent the day prepping and charging batteries for a trip to my old club field in the morning.

Most of the day was spent hinging the elevators on the Beaufighter. Fitting flat plate Kavan-style hinges is never a job to enjoy, as it takes ages to get the hinge pockets correct for a nice fit. I use Pacer Hinge glue, with a dab of petroleum jelly on the hinge pins.

Also 3D printed a new RAF pilot figure and I'm not impressed with the change in the design over what were very usable pilot figures. Instead of having the pilot's head on a ball and socket, so it could be positioned, the alternative heads are cut from the body on an inclined plane, which then shows up when the two components are put together. Definitely a backward step. 

[Ace]

Well spring is almost here so just about the last opportunity to call it Dark Nights Fix-up.

 

My combat Gremlin has given brilliant service for at least 10yrs with an OS46 up front but finally the fuz has given up, gone brittle and disintegrated - 10yrs hard life so absolutely no complaints so time for a new one.

With the interest in using different/unusual materials I thought I would share the use of a length of 3"/76mm plastic drainpipe used for the fuz.

 

Broken front end.

 

Blank new fuz

 

Shaped 

 

Re-assembled

Edited March 22, 2023 by Ace

[jeff2wings]

So what have people got on the workbench for this winter's fix-up??

[GrumpyGnome]

Ooh, here we go........

 

Double Trouble: a seemingly innocuous nose-over on landing means I need to re-attach the firewall. I'd also like to add a cowl....

Wot4: need to solve the troublesome running of my little Stinger 10 above half throttle

Crack Yak: needs a tiny tweak to the aileron neutral now I've started to add inverted stuff to my indoor repertoire

P47: wings need re-covering and painting now I've fixed them following a stall on landing

Riot: fix undercart and replace rx following total lack of control and subsequent..... arrival

 

Probably some other little 'rountwoit' jobs as well. Lots will get pushed down the lust when the WR Tempest arrives....

[Geoff S]

Finish the Fokker DVIII then it's on to the Hawker Cygnet

[leccyflyer]

For this winter's fix-up, on top of the new builds that I have on the go I have a pair of Balsacraft Spitfires - one an ebay bargain, entirely stock, that I bought many, many years ago and hadn't done anything with. Tissue and dope covered, with only the upper surfaces painted in water based paints.

 

 

The other Spitfire is a second hand airframe, fitted with retracts, where the heavily modified nose exploded on the maiden take off, possibly due to a prop strike. This one is covered in Solartex, painted with enamels.

 

 

 

 

The original Spitfire is really nice and lightweight, but reliant on the time honoured method of removing the wing to slide the battery pack into the battery box from inside. Also fitted with a Sp600 in the stock dummy spinner motor mount. I decided to make this one a hand launch, lightweight model and have fitted a Mega 22/30-3 as a drop in replacement, driving an APC 8x6" two bladed prop and with a combined prop adaptor/aluminium spinner. The model also had an ABS moulding for the front top deck, with some nicely understated bulges, so I decided this would be a Spitfire PRXIX and incorporated that into a battery hatch, a few minutes with the Japanese saw yielded a nice light battery hatch cutout. . That also meant cutting a new rudder, not my favourite rudder shape but necessary for this aeroplane, as I wanted invasion stripes only on the undersides.

 

 

 

The other Spitfire is significantly heavier, requires more substantive repair to the nose end, to give back some of the integrity that the weakened motor mounting and long battery hatch had removed. There's a huge slab of steel in the bottom of the battery compartment, presumably to balance a lighter lipo pack compared to the NiCd the model was designed for. This one is fitted with a 35 series outrunner.

 

 

Both models have been stripped back to bare balsa and had a number of defects fixed, the PRXIX has ben subjected to multiple rounds of filling and sanding, prior to recovering with 38um laminating film. I've used some ancient Powermax stitched fabric hinges for the elevators and been very impressed with the nice lightweight, airtight, free-moving hinge Pin hinges for the new pointy rudder.

 

 

Paint mixing used two different samples of PRU Blue and neither were quite right, so I settled on a 50:50 mix of the two B&Q paint sample pots that I'm happy with. The variation in colour that you see on pictures is remarkable and the three BBMF Spitfires in PRU Blue are three completely different colours.

 

I'm just in the process of adding the panel lines, in combination of HB pencil and light grey water-soluble pencil and will then add some light weathering. Markings are a combination of vinyl roundels and serials and (fingers crossed) some homemade waterslides for the logos.

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by leccyflyer
Added picture

[David Davis]

See my thread, "Repairing an ARTF Trainer" for current activity.

 

Once that's done I plan to finish my Galaxy Models Mystic and DB Sport & Scale Auster.

 

Happy New Year Gentlemen!

[leccyflyer]

Getting there. Ready to move onto the fuselage panel lines.

 

 

[jeff2wings]

Well done Leccy, making good progress with your spitfire pair,always a bit of an adventure delving under the surface of a 'pre-loved' airframe 😅 !

And that brings me onto my projects, I was already building a couple of new models when having been frustrated with not being able to find something/everything getting in my way, I spent 5 days cleaning/reorganising the workshop during which I found a pair of wings, ah! I thought, I use these too fix my bi-fly 48 that I pranged after the engine faded on takeoff (first flight after extensive rebuild 😒) .............

bi-fly before the unpleasantness 

this is the upper wing ,wing tips removed 

lower wing, water damage to aileron all four will be replaced 

the white came off without a great deal of work but the blue, the blue......😭

luckily this was only surface damage managed to sand it down 

[jeff2wings]

So after about 8 hours of very careful sanding and scraping................

 

........we have a usable wings ready for mounting on the bi-fly, er,no,so the story is that when I picked up the decrepit Flair D7, my 'friend ' also gave me an equally decrepit airframe of a cermark Pitts Special S 2b , well it saved him a trip down the local trip! And ten years later I'm going to resurrect it.

So here's the fuselage 

 

the canopy (and the pilots head ! ) were missing 

Well now that I've had a bit of practice at getting the blue off...

Going to need a few cups of tea to get through this 😐

oh dear, think I will need my angle grinder to sort this out

20210508_174220.heic

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Engine you putting in the Pitts Jeff ?

[jeff2wings]

,Well it was originally flown with a os 120 fs but I don't have one of those in my collection, but l do have;

Enya 120f (bit of a lump)

MDS 148 (silencer bit awkward) 

Laser 150 nib humm 🤔

 

[jeff2wings]

And the bi-fly is having it's wings repaired now I splashed out on some gorilla glue 😄

 

Top wing holes filled in and marked out for new strut fixing 

 

 just needs new plate and servo mounting 

[jeff2wings]

So back to the Pitts repair/remodeling of the fuselage 

so having forcefully removed the pilot who put up a bit of a fight considering his disability of not having a head, l need too add a floor and extend the upper fuselage deck forwards in order to convert to single seat

I took the easy way out by  using some balsa blocks 

next the  front decking needs extending back 

 

 

All the upper fuselage decking is made from foam with 1/16 sheeting, the foam being hollowed out to 1/2 so not overly robust, so l used 3/32 for the extend and added some 1/32 on top of the original deck 

 

Edited December 28, 2023 by jeff2wings

[jeff2wings]

Making progress with the Pitts 

added triangular stock for u/c

After filling all the holes adding engine mounting reinforcement, square bit sets the side thrust 

Filler panel with access to tank 

now the real fun bit,dealing with repairing the cowling after captain hackers efforts 

 

 

 

[David Davis]

I rebuilt the club's Seagull Boomerang trainer in twenty days in December which is a record for me! Before and after pictures below, build blog here: https://forums.modelflying.co.uk/index.php?/topic/54030-repairing-an-artf-trainer/page/2/&tab=comments#comment-985092

 

I'm currently getting two Barons ready for La Coupe Des Barons competition in June. More info here: https://forums.modelflying.co.uk/index.php?/topic/54099-la-coupe-des-barons-2024/&tab=comments#comment-985643

[GrumpyGnome]

On 26/12/2023 at 23:03, GrumpyGnome said:

Ooh, here we go........

 

Double Trouble: a seemingly innocuous nose-over on landing means I need to re-attach the firewall. I'd also like to add a cowl....

Wot4: need to solve the troublesome running of my little Stinger 10 above half throttle

Crack Yak: needs a tiny tweak to the aileron neutral now I've started to add inverted stuff to my indoor repertoire

P47: wings need re-covering and painting now I've fixed them following a stall on landing

Riot: fix undercart and replace rx following total lack of control and subsequent..... 

Double Trouble fixed

Crack Yak fixed

Riot 80% fixed - needs new prop shaft

P47 pushes down by fixes to Valiant, Ruckus and FunnyCub, plus refurb of SE5.

 

WR Tempest will still play havoc!

[jeff2wings]

Engine/cowling sorted 

[GrumpyGnome]

Good job! What paint will you be using?

[Robin Colbourne]

This is a Cat 500 designed by Harry Gilkes (RM450 from Sarik).  I bought it probaby 25 years ago or more and flew it regularly for a few years.  Firstly with an OS25FSR and later with an MDS38. 
A heavy arrival resulted in a broken silencer, broken wing dowel and elevator horn, plus some damage on the wing leading edge, which projects forward from the spar along the side of the fuselage and a twisted undercarriage.  It then got put aside whilst I flew other models then full-size gliders for a number of years.  The recent wet and wind weather gave me a good excuse to get her sorted.
The broken elevator horn crubled to dust as I removed it.  A salutory reminder to check all the other nylon fittings.  Here is the broken horn next to a complete one.

 

Edited January 22 by Robin Colbourne

[jeff2wings]

Bi fly new struttery finished 

and a TT91 installed, just radio gear and a bit of covering to go 

[Simon Chaddock]

The only reason I need to fix planes in the winter is because I still fly them usually in unsuitable conditions. 😊

On a day before the last storm I flew my go to Depron own design pusher Big Dragon. 

Unfortunately due I suspect to its big battery moving rearward on a hand launch it suffered the rear CofG "only fly once" syndrome.

I tried to alter the sequence of the repeated stalls so it would level out close to the ground but I failed. It "nosed in" hard.

Damaged the printed nose cone but more seriously snapped the LH wing completely off near the root.

The problem is the 2mm Depron skin over printed ribs wing uses a 2mm balsa top and bottom spar flange imbedded in the wing skin itself. Any attempt at a scarf repair would be very difficult.

After some thought I decided to choose the easy option to simply glue the wing back together and then apply an external carbon fibre tow on the outer surface. The fibres were soaked in a hard setting Depron safe glue before being applied.

   

Not elegant but hopefully when filled and painted it won't be too visible and more important strong enough!

The end result.

 

Note the new printed nose cone.

With yet another named storm on it way it may be a few days before it can be tested. Next time the battery will not be able to move! 😉  

[leccyflyer]

With the first of my Balsacraft Spitfire fix-ups nearing completion I'd added in my venerable Balsacraft Hurricane for a fix up as well.  It's been absolutely hammering down here today - so much so that it was after lunch before a momentary gap in the driving rain to let me dash over to the workshop. Just a bit of painting on my RAF 3D printed pilot squadron first and then I bit the bullet and decided that my Hurricane fix up was going to have a battery hatch after all. My original intention was to keep it as in it's original sp600s and Nicds configuration, with the wing acting as a hatch, but these days I prefer to leave the funfighter sized models fully rigged for storage and transport to the field, so a battery hatch makes more sense.

Set to with the scalpel and Japanese saw and fashioned a hatch in the top deck, without disturbing the internal crutch too much. That will let me insert 3s1p 3300mah or 3s1p 4200mah lipos in and push them forward into the nose and not compromise the nose structure at all.

[jeff2wings]

And that's it,fixed ready for maiden v2.0 and I'm done, bye!