J D 8 Posted May 24, 2023 Share Posted May 24, 2023 Late spring, plenty of sunshine but still rather cold from the north wind here on the West Wales coast. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted May 24, 2023 Author Share Posted May 24, 2023 Hi thankyou for photo ,looks an amazing day for you. Can I ask what area is this, great looking outlook Another good frost this morning . Same for tomorrow. Will have a quick fly of the Bixler in the morning I am lucky farm Paddock surround the house and farmer ok with flying, but not during lambing. My place below Cheers Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J D 8 Posted May 24, 2023 Share Posted May 24, 2023 Farm on the North Pembrokeshire coast [ nearest buildings in pic ] Fly hand launch types at home, an exposed headland overlooking the Irish sea and larger stuff with club at other end of county. You have some rocky ground there like me but I have no trees to avoid as it is to tough for them. Pic is little electric Spitfire fly past. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted May 24, 2023 Author Share Posted May 24, 2023 So lucky ,that is really nice. yes trees are abit tough on the planes Fantastic flying site and the view is the icing on the cake. Thanks for sharing. Our club shares a full size flying club about 10 kilometers away, in the middle of winter there are snow capped mountains in the distance. Cheers Steve 😃 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted May 25, 2023 Author Share Posted May 25, 2023 My poor Jemima All my fault, but I will rebuild her,she is mostly in kit set form but unfortunately the pieces are not numbered. Wing survived and tail feathers. Regards Steve 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted June 3, 2023 Author Share Posted June 3, 2023 Hi all, winter is well and truly here now with day time temperatures not getting that high, about 7 to 10 degrees Which allows me to get some gardening in and about an hour in the shed before we lose the light about quarter to 5. I have managed to make some progress on the build. I have fitted the ailerons to the wing and happy enough fit and will continue to tidy them up further. Placed the wing over the fuselage to get an initial look at what she will look like. I kept the dihedral in at the 3 degrees as it just looked right and as mentioned by John earlier in the build, that it will avoid the droopy wing look. Bob Wright in his plan used a flair cowling,I think 170mm diameter on his model which fitted bang on. I will have construct a cowl as we don't have that brand here in NZ, and if we did I would hate to think what it would cost!!. Well I hope you guys are enjoying your summer flying out on your patch Cheers Steve 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul devereux Posted June 3, 2023 Share Posted June 3, 2023 @Steve Fox Winter? Where are you based? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted June 3, 2023 Author Share Posted June 3, 2023 2 hours ago, paul devereux said: @Steve Fox Winter? Where are you based? Hi there I am in the south Island of New Zealand Cheers Steve 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul devereux Posted June 3, 2023 Share Posted June 3, 2023 15 minutes ago, Steve Fox said: Hi there I am in the south Island of New Zealand Cheers Steve 👍 I wish I lived there. I might visit NZ though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted June 4, 2023 Author Share Posted June 4, 2023 (edited) Hi folks,another cold day, I ventured out to the workshop for a few minutes to do some cap strips and look at making balsa struts for the undercarriage to go over the wires. First effort worked well so will go with creating a channel for the piano wire to sit in, then glue both halfs together. Cheers Steve Edited June 4, 2023 by Steve Fox Add photo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted June 16, 2023 Author Share Posted June 16, 2023 .Hello all, well I can confirm that it's really cold at present and time in the shed is very limited at present as it's too darn cold. Plus two grand children visiting has slowed down progress. Still some progress during the last 5 days has been made, I considered buying the flair cowl 170mm which I think Bob Wright build the scale of the plans around ? Maybe. We don't have them here in NZ, so I emailed a couple of UK firm but no response to my inquiries. Thought about it for a few days and decided to make a start on building one. Looking quickly online I got a few ideas on how to construct the cowl from ply, balsa and fiberglass. Secondly I had been working on the undercarriage struts with balsa to get rid of the skinny leg look. Also installed some magnets to the hatch where the first pilot sits with good success. Oh well, back to the grandchildren Cheers Steve NZ Oh it's there a scale weathering sort of forum,/tips place I could view 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted June 17, 2023 Author Share Posted June 17, 2023 On 19/01/2023 at 08:46, Erfolg said: Not sure how I got the above quote in. Disregard Cheers Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted June 17, 2023 Author Share Posted June 17, 2023 Hi folks, I didn't get the pictures of the effort on the undercarriage posted. Happy at this stage with them cheers Steve 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted June 27, 2023 Author Share Posted June 27, 2023 (edited) Hi there all Again winter is slowing the build down, even my flying as come to a stop a present Too wet and cold, a polar blast is on its way from down south so it will be in front of the fire for me I was privileged enough for the Morane to come into the dinningtable to do some bits and pieces on the fuselage. The cowl is nearly finished and fits nicely on to the fuselage. Plan is to have magnets hold the cowl in place and I have 4 locating dowel pins as well. I fiberglassed the cowl, sanded, primed and painted with reasonable results. I felt it eas not a bad effort considering it was my first attempt at this. Regards Steve NZ South Island Edited June 27, 2023 by Steve Fox Add photo 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted June 27, 2023 Author Share Posted June 27, 2023 Having a go at a laminate effect propeller today. Hopefully it will turn out OK. First sanded the wood propeller down slightly added a couple of colours desert yellow and raw umber. Then doing coat of a wash I randomly made up with what I had about ..I will keep going with the washes and see what happens Cheers Steve 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted June 27, 2023 Author Share Posted June 27, 2023 6th coat of wash, stopping now, I think it's there as colour goes .cheers Steve 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted June 28, 2023 Author Share Posted June 28, 2023 I can't leave it alone, tried some different ideas to try to get and dirty oily effects in the centre of the prop it's for static only. Any thoughts or ideas welcome cheers Steve 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted July 1, 2023 Author Share Posted July 1, 2023 Hi all Managed to get the wing covered over the last few days. I didn't have enough drab green film to cover all the wing top and bottom. Close but just not enough. So I had silver film on hand and made use of that. It looks rather good and went on well. Once I weather it up a bit it should tie in nicely with the fuselage. I also installed stabilizer wires to the tail plane and fin this week, it wasn't called for in the plan but I felt it definitely needed it and works as a scale feature. I am using this build to work out scale weathering techniques, what works and what does work so well. You soon know when you have over done it though. I am using fine steel wool to rub it back until it looks about right.So will keep reducing the weathering more yet as more needs to come away. Have a great day Cheers Steve NZ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted July 1, 2023 Share Posted July 1, 2023 It would be a shame to have all that work on the cowl lost if the magnets allow it to come loose. Such a large cowl may be affected easily. I suggest looking at the 'keyhole' type cowl fixing used on many Peter Miller recent designs. More positive yet quite simple. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted July 1, 2023 Author Share Posted July 1, 2023 Hi Kevin, thanks for the tip. Is there a example to link to as an example 1 hour ago, kc said: It would be a shame to have all that work on the cowl lost if the magnets allow it to come loose. Such a large cowl may be affected easily. I suggest looking at the 'keyhole' type cowl fixing used on many Peter Miller recent designs. More positive yet quite simple. Cheers Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan W Posted July 1, 2023 Share Posted July 1, 2023 (edited) X Edited July 1, 2023 by Jonathan W duplicate post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan W Posted July 1, 2023 Share Posted July 1, 2023 I really like the battered and weather-beaten look you have created. Perhaps you can share some of your techniques. For example, how are you going to treat the shiny film covering on the wings to match the rest of the model? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted July 1, 2023 Share Posted July 1, 2023 Many recent Peter Miller pull out plans show 'Keyhole fixing' in detail, but the photos from Miss Sizzle show the idea. It seems to have been pioneered by Peter for models although basically the same as used to mount household items such as picture hangers, wall clocks and the extension socket & leads commonly sold in UK. ( Steve I have sent you a PM explaining I am not Kevin! ) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted July 1, 2023 Author Share Posted July 1, 2023 4 hours ago, Jonathan W said: I really like the battered and weather-beaten look you have created. Perhaps you can share some of your techniques. For example, how are you going to treat the shiny film covering on the wings to match the rest of the model? Hi , I will most likely use Testors "dull cote" spray over the wing, it dulls it down really well and allows other applications to adhere to the wing. I think a spray matt varnish would do the same. Cheers Steve 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Fox Posted July 16, 2023 Author Share Posted July 16, 2023 (edited) Hi folks I have been off the build for a few weeks due to unexpected renovations in the spare room. My dear wife decided to start pulling off the admittedly horrid wallpaper from the 70's. Well that started a so far 8 day makeover as you can imagine with a 100 year old farmhouse,there were some issues Anyway, all I have managed to do is paint the Polish insignia on the wings and repaint the cowl insignia red instead of silver which I was originally going for. I found two versions of the Polish paint jobs I could choose from. One pretty much silver all over apart from some drab green along the mid to rear of the fuselage. The other red cowl, half silver and half drab green. The wing is drab green so that is what I decided on. Pictures below, quality not great as inside pictures at night. Oh yes ,one other thing I managed to do was get my Bixler stuck up 80 ft in a belt of trees. The farmer and I tried to get it down with no avail. I nee a big southerly wind was due to roll though in a couple of days. I suspected that would get it out and sure enough it did. Some damage but all repairs made and back up in the air. I could see the Bixler in the trees from my front door, so just had to walk over and collect it when dropped out. Cheers Steve NZ Edited July 16, 2023 by Steve Fox Add text 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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