D.B. SPORT @ SCALE SE5

[Don Fry]

I’ve tidied the workshop a bit, and was making a start on a DB Sport@Scale SE5, kit recently acquired. Kit has a bit of age, and when removing the newspaper packing, came to the conclusion it’s from tail end of the 90’s. And then I saw this, numbers on the wood.

And then I realized it was a late kit from when David Boddington ran the business.

And a shiver ran down the spine. He wrote those numbers.

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

I built a Se5a, I can't remember the name of the kit but it did fly well, I still have an Artf British one, so are you going to build it, and a nice 4 stroke in it ?.

[Don Fry]

Laser 180. It will be a rough approximation of Bishop’s machine near the start of his last tour of duty. 

[Andrew Calcutt]

Should be an absolute classic.

[Don Fry]

Got a headache, spilled heating oil on the floor in the tidy up.
For Bishop read,  Ball’s near the start of his last tour of duty. 

[Ron Gray]

So all in all a bit of a Ball’s up then? (sorry mods, couldn’t resist it).

[kc]

Don,   David Boddington seems to have sold DB Sport & Scale around mid 1984 when he became editor of Radio Modeller, so it would seem that a late 1990's kit from DB Sport& Scale would have been produced by Boddos successors Derek Cox or later Bill Harding or maybe Eddie Stocker later still.  Even when Boddo himself owned the business it might have been his right hand man Dave Toyer who wrote the numbers on the parts.  

Some of DB history is here

 

[Don Fry]

Right KC, I’m quite grateful I’m living in a bit of a fantasy. An every day flying model should not have too much emotional baggage weighing it down. 
There are 2 sets of instructions, one from the people in West Wales, who I knew vaguely. The older set, not that legible have a Northhants address. Never realized the company had been in so many generations.

[kc]

The great thing about older Boddington plans is the hand drawn style with handwritten part names and instructions.   Has real character to it.   Much nicer than modern CAD stuff!

 

I think that somewhere it says that Eddie Stocker made changes to some designs, so it's possible the later instructions would not apply to an old kit.   In fact the SE5 kit details shows 2 different downloads- one for later kits and another for non lasercut kits.

 

Edited December 28, 2021 by kc

[Don Fry]

Cheers KC. I’ve built Boddo designs before, and remember the rhythm of the mindset , and after an initial good look at the plans, I think they look as expected.

 

I don’t think I can turn it round, assembled, in the workshop, however.

[Mike T]

The biggest change Eddie Stocker made was to make the parts fit!  

 

I bought a 2nd hand 80" Pup (post Bod, pre Stocker).  New cost at the time was just over £200.  I reckon mine was just about worth the 80 quid I gave for it...

[Don Fry]

I’ve not got far. I’ve cleared the workshop of heating oil fumes, so I can breath without headaches, and failed to find the parts I need. Big box, lots of bits. 
Many distractions today
The bits I’ve fitted to the plans are good so far. Wood quality and weight seems appropriate. It will get there.
Or I will recut as appropriate. Got more wood than a defunct model shop, and tools to cut, and hand cut parts sometimes need adjustment. The money I paid seems to cover the plan and wood and bits. And the parts so far are cut as well as I can cut them, so someone has done them for nothing. Just a matter of finding them.

[Adrian Smith 1]

I am interested to see this one go together ...... it's a long time since I did anything anywhere near the amount of work involved ?

[Don Fry]

It’s a time since I did an old style kit. Easier to find parts on laser cut sheets. I’ve just spent a frustrating hour looking for bits, and finding out where bits are hidden in the sub box of bits. It will get easier as they get fitted. 
But I’ve now got every thing except a spar to get the tail plane built, and I think I will just cut one off a sheet from my wood box, and get going.

[Martyn K]

Following this, its on my wish list....

[Maurice Dyer]

Good man. Albert Ball my absolute hero. As is the SE5, my all time favourite aeroplane. Built one Keil Kraft and two Flair 1/6th versions.. I bought a semi kit of the Dennis Bryant 53 inch version from Sarik. Watching with much interest.

 

Visited Alberts grave in France two years ago, left a cross and a Poppy wreath.

[Maurice Dyer]

I forgot I also have a part started Duncan Hutson 70 inch  kit I bought off a modeller a while ago. Just got to get better and start building again......

 

Maury

[David Davis]

1 hour ago, Maurice Dyer said:

Good man. Albert Ball my absolute hero. As is the SE5, my all time favourite aeroplane. Built one Keil Kraft and two Flair 1/6th versions.. I bought a semi kit of the Dennis Bryant 53 inch version from Sarik. Watching with much interest.

 

Visited Alberts grave in France two years ago, left a cross and a Poppy wreath.

 

As far as I'm aware, Albert Ball is the only British soldier to remain buried in a German cemetery.

 

I've seen some German graves in British cemeteries and the village cemetery at Fins contains both British and German soldiers graves as well as those of French civilians. This is because the village was sometimes in British hands and sometimes it was held by the Germans.

 

 

[John Rickett 102]

Good luck with the DB SE5, there's nothing really wrong with the original kits. I've just finished restoring one I built over 25 years ago. I'd used (painted) Solartex as the covering; time and glow fuel took its toll on the finish so all the covering was stripped off and recovered with Sig Koverall and painted with Klass Kote.

Its flying again now with its original Laser 200v which, to my mind is the perfect fit for the model.

 

   

 

 

[Danny Fenton]

I look forward to following along, should be very interesting. I have a "Just under 1/4 scale" Hutson one lurking somewhere.

 

And am finishing up an older DB Auster. They are a little beefy by modern standards, but all seem to fly well.

 

Cheers

Danny

[John Rickett 102]

Just to reiterate what's been said about the old DB kits, I've built several and to my mind are value for money and have few drawbacks. Obviously the parts have been cut with bandsaws, but that doesn't mean care wasn't taken, whatever errors there may be in the general fit of parts shouldn't cause anyone, except a raw beginner perhaps, to have anxious moments.

The kits are remarkably complete and the design well thought out, which you'd expect of DB. It may be advisable to substitute some of the nuts and bolts for metric, stainless ones, the imperial hardware supplied were (zinc?) plated and succumbed to damp fairly quickly. Innovative thinking like the use of split pins as anchors for the struts works well, they're light, strong, unobtrusive and will pass the test of time.

I'd advise making the rigging functional rather than just decorative if you want the model to be aerobatic. Loops and stall turns are easy, rolls will need a lot of speed.

With its cavernous fuselage and long nose, there shouldn't be a problem in fitting the radio gear and getting the balance point correct.

The disadvantage of the one piece wing design is that it takes so long to rig, I'm fortunate in having a van so it will go in ready assembled but does preclude taking anything else to the field on a chosen day, and of course the model will take up valuable storage space unless derigged.

Don't let that put you off though, you'll be rewarded with an easy to fly model, not ridiculously non-scale and less likely to tip over on landings than some of its contemporaries, keep it into wind though......what's not to like about a DB SE5?                    

[Maurice Dyer]

On 28/12/2021 at 14:40, Don Fry said:

Got a headache, spilled heating oil on the floor in the tidy up.
For Bishop read,  Ball’s near the start of his last tour of duty. 

Hey Don. Just 're read your post. Albert Ball flew an early SE5 not the 5a . Radiator front different and wing tips squarer. Sorry to be fussy.......

[Don Fry]

5 hours ago, Maurice Dyer said:

Hey Don. Just 're read your post. Albert Ball flew an early SE5 not the 5a . Radiator front different and wing tips squarer. Sorry to be fussy.......

Noted. In the pipe. It will eventually be a representation, rough, as it was for a few days after it arrived in France, with the wing tips of the first batch of SE 5 deliveries, and a curved fuselage front end, after it reverted to normal armament, but repainted, after he found he was a flight leader of novice pilots, before reverting to normal colours. A short window in time. 
 

Curently a stalled build. I broke my big hack, cataract in right eye, and stale skills. And I need a big hack to be happy to fly this, so I will finish a hack airframe first. 
 

But it’s coming.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Don Fry

[Don Fry]

Back in the saddle, eye fixed, but lacked mojo, loads of work sorting my boat, impossible weather. This week I have quietly finished the tailplane, that is still all I’ve done. Rusty skills for this type of kit, and I have found what Mike T was talking about re fit of some parts, and other frustrations.
The workshop is still a mess, and I need the workbench to finish a big hack, and the entire fleet seems to need either routine checks, maintenance, or minor repairs. So I am now in a position to put it away, a finished tail plane that won’t get damaged, while I sort the workshop out. But it’s done, straight, strong, and will look good covered. 
Other frustrations, mentioned above. I cook, and use the workshop bandsaw to cut frozen meat. A neighbour gave me a frozen 2 kilo lump of vache. Vache is a French term for a dairy cow, and vache meat comes off cows that have been culled for one reason or another, but pass a vets inspection for human consumption, ie, it’s old. Part of cow not mentioned. A lump of meat. So I cut it up, and it spent 4 days sous vide, and a curry emerged. During cutting I found it had bones in it, ribs, and feeding it too quickly damaged the blade. I forgot this, being thick.

So today the last part, 331, goes onto the tailplane. It’s 4 hardwood blocks, with a hole in, to carry bolts for the rigging wires. The hole is near the corner of the block, but I reckon I can do that with care on my pillar drill. That’s the task and that’s all it is. 

Find the part, a piece if 1/4 square bass wood. (20 minutes), measure a pair, as I can drill for a pair in one go, and being thick, forgot the measurement was for a pair, not one, and the bit of wood is insufficient to make 4 pairs. Plenty for two pairs but there we go. I’m cursing, look again for more wood (20 minutes). And then caste about in the workshop. And find a stub of obeche in the firewood bucket. Start cutting it to size, and the blade is running off line. See meat above. Change blade. Cut a length to 1/4 square.  Cut 4 pieces, and at that time realized thicko here has materials for 4 pairs, and the kit provided it in the first place. More cursing. 
5 minutes later, 4 blocks, holes in are made and fitted. That’s an entire morning wasted. 
Anyway, as Arnold said, “I will be back” with this one. The parts above are the small bits with a hole in. 
 

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

2 questions what sort of boat have you got, and I see you have marinated your cucumber in Whisky, 'Why' ,.

 

 Ps good luck with your Eye, I have just finished my antibiotiques in my left eye with emergency treatment, nasty.

Edited August 22, 2022 by Paul De Tourtoulon
eye