My late lamented Sea Fury

[Eric Robson]

I drew up this model from a plan in a book for a 60 ic glow motor. I used the outline and former shape and enlarged it to 45" span, it was supposed to be enlarged to 60" for the glow engine. Despite a crash and rebuild due to a TX fault it has given me a lot of pleasure, it is over 6 years old and made mainly from depron painted with home mixed acrylic paint the markings are felt tip pen the white is the white depron. On Wednesday gone the last day before the latest lock down I went to the local club field, there was only 3 members there despite it being a nice day I had a good morning session flying a Fw 190 and when I used all the 4s batteries I changed it for the Seafury which uses 3s. Hand launched no problem, turned and started a high speed run down wind only one other plane in the sky BANG we hit almost head on, his was a Cessna Agrowagon foamie which carried on flying . The port wing on mine showered down like confettie. We picked the pieces up and I took them home, next day started putting them together and thinking of a rebuild the stbd. wing was intact the port wing was so bad there was not 1 rib to take a pattern from. At that point I decided to dig the book out again and build a new one at 57" span again mainly from depron as I had some sheets of the 1/8" black depron for the formers I had some sheets of foam board I had bought for another project. The fuselage was drawn out on some lining paper and the formers enlarged on the printer as the construction is entirely different to the on in the book I had to modify the fit of all of the formers only using the out lines for reference. My intended lock down and winter project was a Brian Taylor Hawker Tempest so I am going to use the Tempest wing plan minus the centre section for the new build Seafury.. So far I have the fuselage made less sheeting and intend to start on the wing today. RICHARD WILLS has thrown a spanner in the works regarding the Tempest build. after seeing the build on the forum and boxes with glossy label's I could not resist it and ordered one , having built his Spitfire and Ju 88 , great kits.

[Eric Robson]

Progress to date.

[Martian]

Hi Eric how you getting on with rebuild ?

[Eric Robson]

Hi Martian, I have slowed up a little being full of cold has not helped. I have the parts from Sarik for a Brian Taylor Tempest and thought I would shorten the wing span but as the two are different scales volume variations i.e. wing thickness created problems . The one I based mine on was from a book and I drew it out to come to 57" span enlarging the sections but only using the outlines as the construction is entirely different. After checking and double checking the enlarged wing was the wrong shape so I redrew it. I will have to rework the B. Taylor wing as it is an old plan and only shows a fixed undercarriage. Today I have cut the centre section ribs from 1/8" birch ply and started gluing them to the main spar. As I am a computer dinosaur I have had to do it all by the old way , having learned how to enlarge using the printer has helped only trouble is thick lines.

Cheers Eric.

[Eric Robson]

Martian. This is the centre section up to now , I will use balsa or depron for the half ribs behind the wheel well I think the centre section will be strong enough as is without adding too much weight.

How are you getting on with the Tigercat I hope you have all the balsa you need for it.

Edited By Eric Robson on 11/11/2020 19:28:48

[Martian]

Hi Eric like you I have not been firing on all cylinders Its a fibromyalgia flare up just got to wait it out, but the cat is of the board i was stumbling with the rudder then clarity happened so that's built hinging nearly done and even made the trim tab that will move 😎 I will have to update the thread .keep up the good work Eric .

[Eric Robson]

Not happy with the centre section I started again , the outer panels are covered on the top I still have some webs to fill in and the servos to fit. I need to make two sub ribs of light ply to support the wing bolt plate then I can sheet the centre section.

[Eric Robson]

Making progress, don't think I will fit flaps ,on our site there are few days without wind and as it will be a light aeroplane I will keep it simple.

[Martian]

That looks very good Eric

[Eric Robson]

Thanks Martian, are you feeling any better? I'm making it up as I go half of the time. Now I have the top of the wing sheeted I am back on the fuselage getting the wing seat right , it is a bit tricky where the exhausts exit.

[Eric Robson]

Port side exhaust outlet started.

[Eric Robson]

I was told that depron does not have a grain , on forming the tighter curves 0n the rear fuselage one piece cracked, I cut another piece out from the sheet and curved it the other way and it formed ok. I found that curving it over the edge of a bench sometimes creased it so I tried over the back of a dining chair with a curved back and found it would bend much more without creasing.

[Eric Robson]

Now the wing is fitted I can concentrate on the cowl and engine mount, I had to drill the dowel holes before the front former was glued on. I need to make the tail end up before the last sheeting is fitted to the rear, depending on the balance I may fit the rudder and elevator servo at the rear. The small canopy is off the written off Seafury I have ordered a Brian Taylor Tempest canopy which will have to be cut down to fit , but only slightly. Speaking to Sarik yesterday they are still suppling complete kits so they must have bought up a lot of the balsa.

[David Ovenden]

Looking good Eric. I have never used depron. Interesting that it has a "grain". Must be to do with the manufacturing process. What glue do you use to stick it to the balsa?

[Eric Robson]

Good morning David, I use UHU POR for most internal gluing , the fin is quite large so I made a balsa frame (from the scrap box) and used aliphatic resin to glue the 1/16" sheet depron on as it had to be sanded , the problem with UHU is when sanding, it tends to catch the glue and pull it out as it remains flexible for a long time. Using wood glues on foam is ok if it can get the air to dry it, I once glued the undercarriage blocks into a foam wing with PVA and months later when I went to fly it the blocks came out on landing and the glue was still fluid . It had only dried around the edge. I have made a few aeroplanes from depron and they all flew well but the depron I have left is the last I could get as it is out of production. I have 4 conventional kits to build so that will keep me going for a while the only reason I made this one was to replace the small one which I had a lot of good flying with. Still following your Condor build.

Cheers Eric.

[Eric Robson]

After over a week of inactivity due to not feeling too good I am getting back to the Seafury. The tail feathers are covered in brown paper. The rest of it will be covered the same , I wanted to try it out a small part at first as I did not know what reaction it would have on the depron . The front of the cowl is pink foam shaped by hand as it is too big for my micro lathe

Edited By Eric Robson on 24/11/2020 20:42:40

[David Ovenden]

Thanks for the info Eric. In fact, I have enough balsa in stock for one more plan build; plus 2 traditional balsa kits and a 1/4 scale Tiger Moth to finish off. So I don't suppose that the lack of Depron will be much of a worry to me. On the other hand, what you have achieved with is it quite excellent. Looking forward to seeing the finished model.

[Phil McCavity]

What do you finish the brown paper with?

[Eric Robson]

Thanks David, Paul, as it is electric I just use car primer from a rattle can. I done this on my Warbirds Spitfire and it has been fine despite wheels up landings on wet grass. I have a Brian Taylor Tempest to build ,that may be fitted with a glow engine , If I do I would give it a coating of dope to seal it ,glassing is too messy for my liking. The Ju88 I have built on another thread has the same brown paper covering , the paint on that is Halfords yellow primer.

[Eric Robson]

The Ju88 I mentioned.

[Phil McCavity]

Interesting, thanks. So you dope, aerosol prime and base coat on the paper followed by a clear or a fuelproof coat? How resistant to dinks and knocks is that?

[Eric Robson]

Hi Phil, I have not used dope yet as the models are electric. I don't know how ding resistant it will be on the depron Seafury as this is the first time I have tried it . The Spitfire is brown papered over balsa and is very strong as good as dope and tissue. I used a mix of 15% water to the PVA . The Ju 88 is mainly veneered foam this is even stronger . From what I see on the tail end o the current model Seafury the BP has more than doubled the strength of the depron. My original Seafury was just the depron no covering, painted with emulsion paint It was easily marked but had a lot of use over the years

[Graham Davies 3]

Hi Phil,

I used brown paper for the first time on my Warbirds Replicas Tempest (there's a thread on here) as a result of Richard Wills suggestion. It's really easy to do. Apply thinned PVA to the paper, apply the paper to the airframe and iron it down. Leave it for a good day to dry and then give it a coat of sanding sealer or non-shrinking dope, then paint with whatever paint you favour. I used acrylic rattle cans.

My Tempest is electric, so no need for any fuel proofing, and 30 odd flights (and 2, er, 'heavy landings with a triple sulko finish' later and it still looks great. It's pretty tough and creates a hard shell, but has no flex. This is good as it shows underlying damage. I may have not noticed the damaged fin had it not been for the fine crack in the paper.

It's a good method, and dirt cheap.

Graham

[Eric Robson]

Hi Graham, I should have twisted Richards arm for a Tempest wing for my Seafury as they are very similar. It would have saved a lot of work and UHU POR.

[Graham Davies 3]

You could have Eric, but I really enjoyed the hybrid material construction. Whilst we may not have much balsa, there's plenty of ingenuity out there!