Building the Nijhuis Lysander

[Tim Mackey]

Nice going Graham

Incidentally, small point I know, but the A123 cells are 2.3A not 2.2Ahr

[Terry Whiting 1]

Graham,

 

What is the weight of the pack you have made? . I'm beginning to wish

 I had gone that route.

 

 

Jim,      Spat  fixing   Look on page 29,

 

it's the method  Mario and I used, the only difference I use blue foam.   

[Grahamd]

Terry I'll weigh the pack later when I get in the workshop

[MThemadhatter]

Ok guys I have started sheeting around the tail

 

 

There are a few small gaps for me to infill. Now onto the underside and the tail wheel. Here I am slightly confused by the plans, anyone got some photo's of how they did theirs ?

 

 

[rookie jim]

Max,

not sure whether my approach will help or not as i am not that experienced as this is my first major build.

 

what i did was to infill over the fin with balsa and ply to /support the tail wheel. i built it up till it was level with the underside of the sheeting when it was fitted. I then sheeted it and made sure there wasnt a gap between the sheeting and the tail wheel support. like you i filled in any gaps but cut the sheeting at whatever angle \ shape required to reduce the infilling needed as it went round the formers.( the sheets were irregular in shape to achieve this- same as the top) hope i am explaining it properly.

 

 

Not sure whether this is in line with plan but it seemed to work.

 

as i said  i am on my first big build so it may not be the best way or the correct way.

 

 

Jim

Edited By rookie jim on 15/08/2010 20:54:40

[Supermario]

Hi Max

At page 12 of the blog there's the way I do the tail wheel.

Take a look maybe you find some help, but I remember that first I have done the structure to hold the tail wheel in 8 mm plywood. glued directly into the formers with a hole were pass the axle and then do the sheeting with the wheel in place.

If you have difficulty maybe you could open one panel in your sheeting with 15 mm large, that I think is enough to able you to glue the structure between formers with the wheel in place and after infill with balsa and complete the sheeting.

Hope I could help.

Regards

Mário

[Max50]

Jim.

The replica radial was in 2 weeks ago.  I gave my LMS the topflite number TOPQ7901 for the 1/7th scale replica and ordered it from Ripmax , and received it OK..

Part way through the build now. Just want to source the aluminium for the u/c off e-bay as Tony suggested when met him at Cosford.

 

Mal.

[rookie jim]

Hi all,

everyone keeps on about blue foam either on here or the club modellers at the field. I have been to both my local B&Q and Homebase only to be met with blank looks. B&Q even looked on computer but couldnt find it  ( probably didnt help that they couldnt spell foam so i gave up).

 

where do you all get yours from please

 

 

Jim

[Tim Mackey]

Any use ?

[Terry Whiting 1]

Hi Jim

 

Tim has given you a guide  here.

 

The blue foam I used, was the core of one of these cheap doors.,

but Polystyrene would do equally well with 'Evostic Serious Stuff'

as the adhesive.

 

 

 

[Grahamd]

You can get Blue foam in small sheets off ebay, if you want BIG sheets for some future project then Sheffield Insulations will sell one off HUGE sheets. Unlike Polystyrene its very tough and easy to sand, an weighs next to nothing.

[Grahamd]

I put my tailwheel in like thus;

 

I cut a piece of bass strip (8x8 mm) to fit between the two last formers, around this I put some scrap ply to form a "U" shape that it sits in (extra strength) on the inside faces of the two formers, then I used 3mm sheeting from the tailplane to the middle of the bass strip (leaving a hole for the tail wheel post). To make this easy I used some 1.6mm balsa sheet, and kept cutting and shaping it till it was a good snug fit, then used it as a template to cut two the same from 3mm sheet. Then used thick CA to form the two sheets onto the formers and joined in the middle of the bass strip.

[Papa]

Hi Jim, don't be confused by the term "Blue Foam". It's really a High Density Expanded Polystyrene foam used to insulate walls and floors. The colour blue is a Dow Chemical product to distinguish it from its main competition Owens Corning who colour theirs pink. That's in North America. Both are identical for our purposes. If you ask B&Q for a high density foam they should have something similar regardless of colour. I think Dow UK call theirs "Styrofoam". The thing is it needs to be very dense and not like packing foam which has visible beads and and is soft and pliable. When you cut into it it should look as dense as a meat tray or Depron.

 

I use either pink or blue and I buy them in 2" thick sheets 8' x 2'. They cost about 13 Pound Sterling. They make great tops for work benches as well as fill for models.

 

Good luck.

 

Jack.

Toronto.

Edited By Papa on 17/08/2010 03:18:44

[Alan Dorrell]

Hi All,

 

Talking to my LMS bloke, the extremely knowledgable and helpful Steve, I was told that 'blue foam' (per se), is now considered a dangerous substance and has been superceded by the pink variety, which is acceptable .I've not tried yet but am assured this is available from B & Q., Wickes, etc.

 

Hope this is helpful. Alan.

[Terry Whiting 1]

Alan,

 

I was told by an unprofessional source that 'Blue Foam' was no

longer being used only as an insulation. This due to the fact  where

blue foam came in contact with electrical wiring, the wiring insulation

was  breaking down, it was found the two types of plastic were

incompatible with each other.

 

Terry  

[MThemadhatter]

Made some progress this week which has been halted by the weather as I can't go outside to sand stuff, and guess what I have to do

 

I put it all together and wieghed it today , 5lb with out wing servos, wheels, spats, canopy and covering so I guess I will end up around 6-7lb.

 

Some pics

 

 

Sheeting the tale was a bitch, I ended up using 2.4mm on top and 3mm below. This was to allow me to sand it liberally to get a smooth contoured finish. I used my red devil filler to get red of imperfections the stuff weighs absolutely nothing, the pot feels empty when its full ! I also made up the tale wheel. The elevator and rudder are just on for show in the pic. need to get it looking like this

 

I am going to make the cockpit floor in the rear removable to get a the linkages and areal mounts if I have to.

 

 

[Terry Whiting 1]

Great stuff Max.

A little tip, is you have to do filling as you did under the stabilizer, just use some masking tape on your covering, it makes for a good clean job and less after work.

 

 Is  the    for spats.............. 

Edited By Terry Whiting 1 on 21/08/2010 20:01:29

[rookie jim]

hi all,

 

i have just finished fixing the spats on. not too sure how good they will look as they ended up a bit shorter. i wanted then short because of our grass strip but i think i got a bit over enthusiastic with the trimming. still how do you know how much to trim?.

 

in the end i used silicone sealant to support the spats. seems to have worked but a bit messy.

 

when everthing is set i need to do a final sand and paint them after the spars are fitted. thats going to be fun!!!

 

my to do list( not in order) now is

final sand to spats

paint spats

fit spars to undercarriage.

paint cowl

fit servos  to traystrays

sand flaps ailerons and wings

fit ailron and flaps

connect up to servos

install rx

cover

 

THEN

 

a couple of bottles  of adnams broadside. from the bottle not the weak 4.5% draught stuff to celebrate completion

 

jim

Edited By rookie jim on 25/08/2010 21:48:47

[rookie jim]

Hi all,

eventually got the struts attached. my goodnes what a job. i have now painted the spats and the cowl and the struts.

 

Must admit black matt paint does hid the blemishes on the spats.

 

now for the wings. just realised this morning that i hadnt got the wing tips made or attached.

 

I am considering covering the fuselage while i am doing the wings to get a break from them. I think i have to do more work on the flaps. I have a 45 degree slant on the flaps but wondered whether i need to chamfer the wing as well to get more of a drop if thats the correct term.

 

Jim

Edited By rookie jim on 29/08/2010 17:43:41

[MThemadhatter]

45 Degrees should be plenty of travel for the flaps, much more and your creating drag rather than lift, and you will need to consider how to get that much travel out of your servo.

 

I have been busy this weekend. The wings are finished and servos installed, although one turned out to be DOA so awiting a replacement. The struts are done bar a bit of sanding, canopy fitted and trimmed, and one wing covered

 

One problem I encountered is with the holes for the servo cables, they are very small and unless you thread through the cables before covering the wing your stuffed. So I did the covering by the book, did that bottom first, then cut out the covering for the servo mounts then did the top and then shrunk the lot. At which point the covering over the rib I trimmed to get the servo in pulled away leaving a gap, which I had to patch.

 

Am I asking for trouble if I shrink this bit around the servos before cutting them out, or more importantly before I cover the top of the wing ??

[MThemadhatter]

Oh and this is the first wing I have ever covered, I am rather pleased with myself

[Terry Whiting 1]

Max,

 

For your first wing covering job, you should be proud of yourself.

Shame about the covering slip around the servo. Sorry not knowing

your method of servo mounting I  can not answer your question.

 

 

I always make a 1.5mm birch ply frame which snugly fits between the ribs, this

is glued level with the rib surface, then add servo hatch screw fixings.

This enables me to shrink my covering, seal the covering around the servo hatch

 frame, only then do I  cut  the covering for the servo aperture and finish off.    

[Klippy]

You should be justly proud of yourself MH

[MThemadhatter]

Thanks, the spats are a different matter

 

Its taken me 4 hours to cut out the spats and fix one half to the undercarriage. There where no visible cut lines on mine so it was tottal guess work. Luckily I had a iron that holds a scalpel blade that helped a little.

However if I place them on the UC as shown on the plans then my wheel stick out about 1/2 in where as the same size wheel on the plan sticks out half way ??? up shot is they won't end up perfectly vertical on the legs. I cant believe how much they want for these by them selves, would have sent them back if they were not all the same.

 

The only other option was to fit them as shown and take the belt sander the bottom and remove about an inch from the bottom. But this would have left a huge hole at the bottom. GRRR

[Terry Whiting 1]

Max,

I can't imagine what has happened there, I know the spats were

an absolute pig to  trim, but mine did fit exposing virtually half

the wheel  ( page 34 )  zoom 200 two pictures, one OW aircraft the

other mine.  

 

Terry