Flamingo 3.5metre by Chris Williams - scratch build

[Peter Garsden]

 

In error I missed out a photo which shows how I attached the canopy cut down with about 20mm overlap and masking tape then marked the cutting lines with thin Tamiya flexible masking tape. 

[Peter Garsden]

Here are the pictures of the wings which are both covered in Solarfilm with red Solartrim and Clear See Through Hobbyking film which is only available in the Hong Kong warehouse it seems so takes a while to arrive

 

I had to make paper templates for the wing cut outs - that was tricky. Carboard probably would have been better.

 

Here you can see the aileron attached with a length of masking tape which not only holds it in position but also acts as white trim for the clear covering. It means that they can removed if necessary in the future.

 

 

The fuselage is covered with White Solartex - I managed to get some seconds from the factory inexpensively, which seem fine - one or two imperfections but I am going to paint it anyway. I have already painted the inside of the cockpit which seems to blend in.

[Ron Gray]

Nearly there Peter!

[Peter Garsden]

 

I have never mixed paint with film before - always tried to bend film round impossible curves. Chris W suggests using Solartex apart from the difficult to access bits like the wing fairings, inside the hinge joint of the Fin, the Nose and inside the cockpit, and the cockpit. I have applied six coats of Dulux wood undercoat (CW suggest 2 pack but what is the difference anybody?) then rubbing down with 120 then 320 grit, followed by an undercoat of the whole fuselage - am going to try to get thinned undercoat through my new Iwata airbrush - wish me luck. The top coats.

 

I think that Vallejo Ferrari Red will be a close match for Solarfilm Red - we will see. If not I don't think it will matter much.

 

I spent last night masking out the cockpit with bendy Tamiya tape - great stuff to use but expensive. The yellow is a mixture of Tamiya and Frog Tape - again brilliant stuff.

[Peter Garsden]

On 21/02/2021 at 16:50, Ron Gray said:

Nearly there Peter!

Well yes Ron, but we can't fly yet anyway so no rush!

[Peter Garsden]

An Appeal to all readers - can anyone tell me if there is a commercially available airbrush paint which matches Red Solarfilm other than Solarlac which in my experience arrives in a globulous mess unsuited to airbrushes

 

 

As you can see the red is too orangey. I chose Vallejo Ferrari Red which looked OK from the colour chart and indeed the bottle. Maybe more coats would do it?     This whole fuselage only consumed one bottle of paint - cheaper than Halfords Rattle Cans?

 

 

Incidentally I have been trying out my new Iwata Airbrush HP-TH which is fabulous. It appeared in a recent RCM&E article. I mainly want something to airbrush on large quantities of primer or base coat but also fine enough to do free hand camouflage, and I think this will do nicely. It comes with 2 heads - this one like a spray gun with two holes and a conventional aperture for finer work. Also an adjustable air bleed valve to fine tune the air whilst spraying. It is shown without its gravity feed cup

[Ron Gray]

Difficult to see from the photo how much difference there is between the colours but try putting some gloss topcoat on it (try it on a bit of scrap), you maybe surprised at the result!

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Peter, you could try The Airbrush Company in Lancing perhaps? They sell a huge range of acrylic paints. 

[Peter Garsden]

Thanks chaps. I think I have solved the problem by using Scarlet Red which I had in stock! I have sprayed it over the top and I think it will be fine. More coats made it darker anyway as it was layering on top of a white undercoat.

[Peter Garsden]

Well we are nearly there. Airbrushing of the fuselage is done, and I have cut out most of the decals on my Cricut Vinyl Cutter. The airbrush with the fan tail attachment covered very well, but used quite a lot of paint unlike smaller models, but this is the use I wanted from it. For finer work one can use the conventional head with the 0.5mm needle.

 

 

The lines using Tamiya and Frog Masking tape were very neat with no bleed so result there. I used French curves for the nose masking and flexible Tamiya tape for the mid fuselage curves

 

I even applied gloss varnish with the airbrush but finished off with a rattle can. Good tough finish from Plastikote but took 24 hours to harden off enough to apply the decals/

 

 

I have glued in with 5 minute epoxy and microfibres mix the Rudder horns which will hold the closed loop wires and clevises. Next job is to glue the Robart Rudder hinges with J Perkins Hinge Glue - water based and similar to Canopy glue. I wipe the hinge points with a water soaked cotton bud to get rid of excess glue which could jam the hinges.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

That looks a bit good Peter. ?

[Ron Gray]

That looks excellent Peter!

 

When gluing Robert type pin hinges I rub some vaseline into the hinge point, stops all glue from setting in there!

[GrumpyGnome]

Looking VERY good....

 

GG

[Peter Garsden]

Thanks guys, very different and challenging build for me.

 

I am just doing the finishing touches and in particular the closed loop rudder. Not easy to connect. In preparation I have installed some SLEC closed loop guide tubes which are supported at both the servo and rear fuselage.

 

One can use pike trace fishing line which is what I bought. I tried to thread it through but met an obstruction. For some reason the tube was blocked half way down. I used my endoscope to look down the fuselage - no kinks so?? I used a combination of 1.5mm carbon rod left over from a mouldie crash and some 1.3mm wire sharpened at one end into a type of drill point, and a large piece of dowel at the other to rotate it and hopefully clear the obstruction - after a few twists and some pressure it worked and freed - result!

 

 

 

The starboard tube was also blocked at the end but this was just some aliphatic resin that had clogged up the tube. Again I managed to push it out with the carbon rod. I am very relieved I managed to fix this because if not I had visions of having to somehow remove the tube and replace it - not easy particularly as the fuselage sides are .8mm ply! I was annoyed because I had spent so much time finishing it off with Solartex and paint. Anyway, next job should be easy - connecting up and tightening the wires with the SLEC connectors and some brass tube to crimp the tube into place.

[Ron Gray]

I can imagine the cold sweats when you found date blockage! Glad its all sorted.

[Peter Garsden]

 at

 

Because I have used Barbie Ken at £11 instead of a bespoke pilot at a lot more for whom my wife has made  a new outfit including pretend safety harness and a cap, he is 1/6th scale as opposed to 1/5th scale, so he is slightly small. I haven't told him that because it might offend his pride. It means however that he doesn't quite fill the cockpit and I decided that he needed a seat.

 

I didn't want to glue the seat to the cockpit because I need access through the hole behind him to the servos etc, so I decided to glue the seat to Ken with some hot glue to the back of his shirt, so that when one removes him from the cockpit the seat will come away with him. The canopy has to slide behind the seat. I looked online and found a WW2 glider seat so vaguely tried to replicate it.

 

[Peter Garsden]

Let's hope that Barbie Ken is not an RCM&E subscriber. He has a badly burned neck where I tried to bend his arms inwards with a heat gun and managed to melt his clothes and give him an orange peel burn on his neck. If I am arrested, I will of course make no comment. 

 

Being new to scale gliders I didn't know how to secure a battery to a complex curved fuselage with an open cockpit. Usually there is a crevise to bury the battery but not here, so I emailed Chris who replied straight away with a photo explaining how he does it, with a 3mm ply plate supported with triangular balsa. I am sure he won't mind if I upload his photo to explain.

 

 

I am using a 5 cell Nimh battery for which there is just enough room laid flat at the front of the fuselage, but it slopes backwards and is circular, so the flat plate irons out the curves. I used my handy curve copier to get the shape and my circular sander to trim to size.

 

 

I have used a commercial strap with a tightening loop. Rather than use male and female velcro Chris says use 2 female pieces which just stops the battery sliding off the plate when installed. Works well.

 

I have installed with hot glue, one of Pico electronic magnetic switches so that I won't have to remove the canopy to switch it on. Also only a small hole to see the bright blue on light through. I find them much more reliable than conventional switches albeit a bit more expensive. I switched (see what I did there) to electronic switches after crashing 2 PSS models after my scale piano wire rods attached to switches internally failed and switched themselves off on landing. The magnetic types are available from T9 here or from Practical RC here

[Ron Gray]

I tend to use the anti-slip drawer liner stuff to stop batteries sliding, works a treat and is ‘cheap’!

 

Those pico switches are excellent, I got mine from Hyperflight but I see that they also do one with power redundancy built in, a bit more expensive but not when you consider the time spent on building etc.

[Peter Garsden]

Great tip Ron. Never thought of draw liners. I do have some of that, and have tried to replicate carbon fibre by spraying silver through it over a black background, but it was an unmitigated disaster. Will give it a try. I would have used velcro to keep it in place ordinarily but that would stick it down too much if you also use a strap.

[Peter Garsden]

This is a top view of the cockpit showing the ply plate glued in with 20 minute epoxy, lined with female velcro both on the plate and underneath the battery, all held in place with a commercially sourced strap I had lying around.

 

 

You can see the towline servo and switch blue light on because I was making sure the rudder servo was central before I locked off the brass tube locking tubes by pinching them with the snips. Next job, once the grey paint for the seat base dries, is to glue the seat back to the back of Ken and glue in his velcro to the   seat base. My wife has already stitched the male velcro to the bottom of his trousers.

[Peter Garsden]

 

Hot glued the male velcro ready for Ken's bottom (ooh...)

 

 

Ken's back and shoulders hot glued to the seat. I told him "Sorry Ken but you're stuck with it."  He said nothing.

 

 

Sorry for the obscenity but Ken's stitched female velcro ready for attachment and bottom of seat.

 

 

Ken in position with receiver also velcro'd to side of fuselage and aerial wires routed through scrap pieces of SLEC outer tubing secured by Hot Glue.

 

 

Canopy on with seat inside

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2021 by Peter Garsden

[Peter Garsden]

Just discovered that flying is permitted from Monday so  may be able to maiden sooner than I thought - recreation travel permitted but can't meet more than one other person - https://bmfa.org/News/News-Page/ArticleID/2726/COVID-19-Regulations-Update-%E2%80%93-06-03-2021

 

 

5 months and 2 weeks start to finish - long build by my standards but there was a lot of work in this - more than I am used to but it was a very satisfying build. Proper balsa bashing. Goodness know what the cost will be when balsa goes up in price?

Edited March 6, 2021 by Peter Garsden

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Enjoy the maiden Peter, cracking model. ?

[Ron Gray]

Looks superb Peter and don't forget to video the maiden (flight)!

[Murat Kece 1]

That is superb Peter. Enjoy te maiden??