Balsacraft Fw190A

[Gary Binnie]

Worked in the house today.

 

Have finished attaching the sheeting, it was quite difficult despite almost saturating the wood with water, one side was more difficult than the other, a slightly softer grade of balsa would have helped.

 

Was slightly confused by the die-cut cockpit cut-out being too far forward and a half inch spare at the front former. I checked the distance from the sternpost to the front former, 820 mm on the fuselage and the plan, it is what it is.

 

Razor planing and sanding the excess off next.

 

 

 

 

[Gary Binnie]

Monday already...!

 

Was warm and dry enough to razor plane and sand the fuselage outside today.

 

I need the fin mostly built to see how much trimming and blending needs to be done.

 

1. Fuselage sheeting mostly trimmed and sanded ready to fit flat sections of sheet top and bottom. I will leave the front area unsheeted for the time being, it will make motor/esc installation easier and will probably need nose weight secured in there somewhere.

 

 

2. Simulating the tailplane with a scrap piece of wood, it's a very handy trick when sanding fin fillets (this model has none).

 

 

3 and 4. Having a look at the fin/fuselage joint.

 

 

 

5. This sandwiched pack of balsa will eventually form the blend.

 

 

6. I had to get inventive building the fin, the Liteply core wanted to curl so it had to be held straight while adding the fin post.

 

 

7. Adding a thin strip of balsa to correct the position of the cockpit cut-out, without it the top of the instrument panel former would be exposed.

 

[Gary Binnie]

Lunchtime update.

 

Spent all of yesterday completing the fin, a problem with the Liteply base of it caused some head scratching.

 

1 and 2. Ribs have to be made from scrap 2.5mm sheet, I believe the sheet sides are intended to sit on the edge of the Liteply base but it's too wide. I chose to make extra ribs and sand the excess of the base off. It probably would have been better/easier to make another base.

 

 

 

3. The sheet grain has to go fore and aft as the section changes at the bottom. I didn't notice that one of my load spreaders had dried epoxy blobs on it, formed some nice dents!

 

 

4. Another view of the too wide base.

 

 

5. Where I am at the moment, gluing on the blend pieces.

 

   

[Gary Binnie]

More fuselage work today, might make a start on the wing tomorrow.

 

I'm trying to follow the instructions but I do go off at a tangent sometimes!

 

1 and 2. A small job that needed doing was to attach F3A, this supports the parallel section fuselage sheeting at the nose. Still stringers to be added there but I'm leaving them for the moment.

 

 

 

3 and 4. More sanding of the upper rear fuselage and fin blend, just a bit further to go on final assembly.

 

 

 

5 and 6. Popped the tailplane parts out of their die-cut sheets and glued the tips on.

 

 

 

7. Popped the rudder parts out, four pieces of 3 mm balsa to be laminated.

 

 

8. Obligatory 'looks almost like an aeroplane' shot!

 

 

9 and 10. The rear lower fuselage is 6 mm balsa, I drew round the fuselage and cut off the excess to save hours of razor planing!

 

 

 

11. A job that I did yesterday was to infill between the wing seat longerons and inner structure with 2.5 mm sheet. I wondered why it's only done to these rear four bays then realised that it's to strengthen the wing nut plate. Thin ply sheet and fairings to be added.

 

[GrumpyGnome]

It does result in a gorgeous airframe.....

[Gary Binnie]

On to the excitement of the wing...!

 

Didn't do any building yesterday, messed about with some astrophotography stuff (learning camera functions and editing software).

 

Started today by building the main spar, it's quite unusual as most spars I've built have been one or two spruce strips with or without webbing. There is a full size drawing of the spar on the plan and also a standard sketch of the dihedral measurement under one tip with the other panel flat (in case you miss the enormous spar drawing I suppose?!).

 

The skins are joined first then the rib positions are marked on. The skin joining is the same as the fuselage sides but there are diamond-shaped sections which makes it a tiny bit tricky. I made a small mistake with one fuselage skin, I taped it together on the wrong side (the taped side should be the outside as it should have no glue excess and the join line can be easily sanded to invisibility.) 

 

1. Main spar is two pieces of 3 mm balsa with 0.4 mm ply braces.

 

 

2. Releasing the Liteply ribs, I'm cutting the centres out and cleaning up the nibs before removing from the sheet, seems a tiny bit easier/faster. I remember from contemporary build reports that the ribs were the parts most prone to warping so I will only cut them out as I need them.

 

 

3. A pile of 12 1.5 mm balsa sheets, a few quid's worth nowadays! The spar drawing is just to the right.

 

 

4. Trimming the sheets as suggested on the plan/instruction sketch.

 

[Capt Kremen]

I made mine into one of the (few) FW190S (Schulflugzeug) twin-seat trainers.

Flew, just about, on a SPEED 400 direct drive and 7 Red Sanyo back in the day!

(No tail insignia as I took the model to fly at the Aspach model meet in Germany).

U/C and three-blade prop is for static display.

Lovely model/kit, wish they were economic to produce for us now.

 

[GrumpyGnome]

A speed 400?  Not surprised it struggled...... designed for Speed 600 I think ? 

[Erfolg]

I really like the conversion.  Does show what can be done with the basic kit. This thread has caused me to have passing thoughts, if I have enough patterns etc from original kit to undertake a Ta 152H. Then I think, perhaps just finishing the models you have on the go, should be the priority.

 

I did have the opinion the kit could be simplified, but using laser (or in this routing) the interlocking aspect does not create the problem as the old style kits.

 

It may help others, my 190 A  uses a Turnigy 480-V, 1370Kv, revs 10,350 on a 10*6 prop, drawing 431w using a 33,000 lipo. the all up weight is stated at 1.516kg

The 190D uses a E-Max 2815/09, 9810rev/min drawing 476w using a 4400 Lipo, all up  weight 1.497 Kg

 

Keep going Gary, it does look very good. I did from memory find creating the shells was for me time consuming, and a challenge in some areas.

Edited October 31, 2021 by Erfolg

[Gary Binnie]

All food for thought, I wish there had been an Me 109E in the range.

 

Pushed on with the wing, all straightforward stuff and quite enjoyable (so far!).

 

1. Adding a segment of wing skin, had a couple of goes at getting the angles exact, mindful that I couldn't waste much.

 

 

2. Marking the panel for ribs and spars.

 

 

3. The trailing edge of the sheet is trimmed to the plan, the leading edge is oversize. Adding the trailing edge which is rectangular stock.

 

 

4. Battery fun! I am using some to hold the sheet down (to stop it moving) and the rest to push the strip against the sheet (butt joint). No pins used.

 

 

5.  Prepping to add the spar, the aluminium bar marks its position and also keeps it vertical.

 

 

6. Spar glued in and drying.

 

 

7. Ready for ribs.

 

 

8. Rib tails added, none of them tried to warp. The root rib is angled for the dihedral, a jig is provided.

 

 

9. Prepping the rib noses.

 

[Gary Binnie]

A tip laden lunchtime update!

 

I've been working steadily on the rib noses, a minor problem with one rib (size) was fixed.

 

1 and 2. A very easy and accurate way to add ribs is to place a square/rectangular block against the spar and on the outside line (chordwise) then add glue to the rib and slide it into position, no eyeballing or guessing needed. The block can be removed fairly quickly or left for a while until the glue sets, just make sure the block is not wood or a porous material as it will stick (the black block is anodised aluminium).

 

Although this spar doesn't have webs (vertical sheet spacers) I will share how I do webbing (which can be tedious with a large span glider).  What I used to do was glue all the ribs then make bespoke webs for each rib bay (they would be slightly different widths and angles at each end) which was quite time consuming. I eventually realised that designers usually use equal distance rib bays for the whole span, so...if I cut webs from a parallel sheet and worked add a rib, add a web. add the next rib etc from the root to the tip I would end up with marvellously neat webbing!

 

 

 

3. A minor problem with this riblet was that it was slightly too short, it's important that the false leading edge is well supported here as the plan view changes (marked sweep forward). I just added some Liteply to the rear of it then trimmed it to the right length.

 

 

 

4. The lower edge of each rib nose curves up to produce an aerofoil section, the lower sheet has to be curved up then glued. The rib noses are initially glued at the spar and about 10 mm of the lower edge.

 

 

5. The instructions say to lift the wing from the board. press the sheet together at each rib then run CA along the joints. A better way (I think) is to weight down the rear of the wing and pack the sheet up to meet the ribs. I usually use shaped trailing edge stock for this but I've use cereal packet card today. Straightness of the leading edge can be checked (and corrected) before applying glue.

 

[Gary Binnie]

Have added the false leading edge and some cross braces.

 

Aileron structure to add then I will probably start on the right wing.

 

 

 

[Gary Binnie]

Made the second lower wing skin and joined the panels today.

 

The dihedral distance under the high tip was spot on.

 

 

[dan h]

Hi gary.

I have been quietly following so would just like to say what a

Great build log its looking really good so far. 

Cheers

Dan

[Gary Binnie]

Plodding along.

 

The wing needs excess sheet to be trimmed off at the leading edge and all cross members need to be sanded down. The spar is also a little high across most of the span.

 

Will need to arrange aileron servos soon (the original design used one central servo and snakes).

 

[Outrunner]

My BC Spitfire uses a single servo and Bowden cables, works well, but 20 years ago a single servo was the norm. If I was to build another it would be a pair of servos.

 

Your build is coming along nicely.

[Erfolg]

Gary, I always go the two servo route, for some time, Both my 190s have been built that way.

 

Just to many advantages, to do anything else now.

 

My one recent change is now to use Metal Geared 9g types. I have built a stand of scale 152H, where ultra thin servos, as the wing tip is so thin.

[Gary Binnie]

Productive day.

 

Trimmed and sanded the wing almost to the stage where upper skins could be fitted.

 

Laminated the wingtips.

 

'Fettled' the wing dowel arrangement.

 

Put it all together to work out what to do next, what I should do is buy four servos, finish the aileron arrangement and skin the wing. The fuselage wing root fairing can't be built without the wing being mostly complete.

 

1 and 2. The wing tips are made out of thin ply and 3 mm balsa laminations, I was thrown slightly here because two of the balsa parts are number 17 and the rest are number 18, they are identical! It would be easy to make two tips the same instead of handed items (I almost did!). Quite chunky but the majority of the wood will be lost during shaping.

 

 

 

3 and 4. The central wing dowel is interesting, a slot for it is provided in the root ribs where often this would be drilled on assembly. 

 

 

 

5, 6 and 7. Four riblets are provided to support the dowel and it does say in the instructions to drill for the dowel later but I thought it would be less brutal/more accurate to groove the inner riblets to fit, without grooves they stand off.

 

 

 

 

8.  It has to be done! Assembling with tape like this usually shows the way for the next part of the build, logically (Mr Spock!) I should fit all the servos next so that I can finish the wing. I could glue the rudder laminations together and do some tailplane sanding.

 

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Looking very good Garry, my favourite WW2 fighter.

[Gary Binnie]

Cheers John, its lines are growing on me!

[Erfolg]

Perhaps you may consider an arming plug like this, now you are close to completion, makes it easier and safer to fully arm.

 

 

[alan p]

Erfolg that is very neat?

[Gary Binnie]

Wow, four months since I put this on top of a cupboard! I needed servos and a motor to progress which I meant to order but didn't.

 

Ordered the electronics yesterday so thought I would plod on today. One job that could be done was the engine cowling.

 

It's a quite flimsy 0.5 mm thick plastic vacform moulding, the kit part was cracked and slightly crumpled, possibly from transit damage. Most of the cracked section was cut off during the trimming and the remaining crack was reinforced with strips of plastic on the inside, the damage is barely noticeable now. 

 

1. Cowl as it comes and the Liteply parts that make a support ring.

 

 

2. The ring is assembled over a drawing on the plan, I couldn't work out what the strange cutout drawing was in the centre, eventually realised that it is a side or plan view of the cowl!

 

 

3. The next challenge was to trim the cowl to the right depth, I wondered how to do this and worked out that if I rotated it against a pencil at a set height it should mark a level line.

 

 

4. After part cutting the cowl with a brand new scalpel blade held the same way as the pencil I finished the cut off using an old tea caddy as a dolly. It's usually a pen/pencil/file holder.

 

 

5. Sanded the wooden ring slightly for a nice fit then slipped the cowl over, making sure the ring stayed flat. Added CA on the inside and allowed it to run round the joint before using activator.

 

I had run out of sand paper/wet and dry so I bought a pack in Halfords yesterday as well as some plastic primer paint for the F-15 that I'm building. Oddly I can't find it on their website now but it's a multi sheet pack by Indasa which is a brand used in the trade, 60 to 1200 grit with 600 and above being waterproof. I've bought cheap packs from eBay but the grit fell off in use causing more lines than I was trying to remove!

 

Taped a new sheet of 320 to the nice flat worktop and levelled the rear of the cowling with a couple of strokes.

 

 

6. The motor hole was cut out with a circle cutter, any excuse to use it!! There was a convenient dimple in the centre of the cowl for the needle point.

 

 

7. Done, it is correctly oversize in diameter to allow for the missing fuselage sheeting. I might make it removable to access the motor and trim weights. The original brushed motor sat in a mount that is screwed in to the front fuselage former, screws accessible through the central cowling hole.

 

[GrumpyGnome]

Looking good! Lovely model..... Why it's my avatar!

Edited March 31, 2022 by GrumpyGnome

[Gary Binnie]

The motor and servos arrived today. I spent over two days searching for a 3656 brushless inrunner (and similar sizes), there are some expensive ones that would work but the majority of the cheaper ones are designed for cars with high Kv. 3660 is advertised on one site as a drop in replacement but 60 mm is too long for this model.

 

I gave up and went for a Leopard Hobby outrunner, I've used these motors with Reisenauer gearboxes for F5J gliders.

 

Using the outrunner will allow a more scale propeller position but it is very light with a shorter moment arm compared to the original brushed Speed 600, I have a cunning plan to use the motor mount bolts to secure lead trim weights.  Even with lead in the nose it should finish much lighter overall using a modern motor and battery, my Aero-naut A-10 was 15 to 20% lighter than the brushed/NiMh version against their lightest theoretical finished weight (usually wildly optimistic!).

 

1. 20 years of progress.

 

 

2. Checking my maths.

 

 

3. The centre of the front former needed a 4 mm packer to fill the hole, I found the centre and drilled M4 initially which is the motor prop shaft rear overhang.

 

 

4. A countersunk wood screw held the mount centrally in position while I drilled for M3 bolts, the upper bolts will have nuts but the lower two might be self-tapping screws into a ply backing plate as there's not a lot of clearance.

 

 

5. Made a 3 mm ply backing plate and tacked the packer to it, glued together I can't remove the assembly but there's no need to (luckily!).