that is some great looking panelling Pat, i made up a small vacforming unit for myself the other day, works very well and am looking forward to getting more adventurous with it to produce some great scale effects as you have.

Cheers
Craig

Bloomin heck! You are soon going to be giving Hammerd a run for his money!

Very nice Pat.

Some light-weight framing was added to the top deck to glue it to the fuselage and provide support for the two Vickers MGs. Then the side panels were trimmed and glued under the edge of the top making one large very wobbly panel.

Next task was to locate and cut out all the strut openings. Because this is essentially an up-scaled sports design, there are compromises with where the struts actually fit - only minor but when upsized, these little deviations mean a decision has to be made - make major alterations to the airframe or ignore the trifling difference - I chose to ignore it The various struts on the AI attach to the longeron tops, sides or underneath but I have simplified the attachment (for now )

A major task which I didn't photograph, was to determine the aileron pushrod exit holes. The wing and struts were fixed to the fuselage plus the aileron servos under the floor. Temporary wire pushrods were fitted and holes created in the fuselage sides to allow free movement. A template was made of the minimum hole (slot) size, shape and position and this was cut from the plastic side panels. Curiously, it is a curved slot exactly like the real aircraft I guess that means I got something right! The aileron torque tubes are at angle due to the swept wings so the movement is not straight.....

After a rub down with fine wet-n-dry paper and a tiny spot of plastic filler, the cowl was given some grey primer/undercoat. Other detail will be added later - rivets screws, catches etc.

Pat

Hey Pat, when are you going to build one for me?

nice one Pat.

I still cannot get over how top notch that cowel looks.

Cheers,

Hugh

Charlie - you can have this one - after I've crashed it
Hugh - I was a bit hesitant about using so much plastic but like any material, if it looks right in the end, it is probably OK.

Charlie or maybe Pete, would you consider that the only underwing struts on this model that serve any real function are the main long ones from the lower fuselage to the outer wings? If so, I may make the others less functional and exit the fuselage at the scale locations.

Pat (pondering......)

Hugh - I was a bit hesitant about using so much plastic but like any material, if it looks right in the end, it is probably OK.

With a coat of paint, who's to know what's underneath?

And if the plastic favourable weight wize over litho plate, then why not?

Hugh

Pat,
As designed, the only struts fully earning their keep are the c/s struts. The long struts you mention do sort of work, but only in compression, so if one wing can't go down, the other one shouldn't be able to go up - and it still be in one piece.

Pete

sounds a tad dicey leaving them out of they manage the compression side of things.
ya don't want to turn it into Pete's for foray into scale ornithopters Pat

Craig

Pat,

I second Pete's comment. The small one will probably fly without the outer struts.

I flew mine for several flights with only the longer struts. The others are not structural, just kinda glued in place. So, you can take liberties with how you mount them.

And if you do crash it, box it up and send it my way.

charlie

Pete, Charlie - thanks for the comments. The main outer struts in my version are anchored to the UC struts where they meet the fuselage so if made strong enough (I'm thinking of spruce) they'll work in tension as well. The remaining 'fussy' struts are less important so I'll anchor them in some manner that-looks-about-right - and make them of lighter material.

Charlie - your offer is accepted but be warned, to save shipping costs, I may make a better-than-usual job of the prang

Pat

Charlie - your offer is accepted but be warned, to save shipping costs, I may make a better-than-usual job of the prang

Yeah, you don't want to be paying for any more than about 3 Kg volumetric so you'll need to fit it in quite a small box.

Much easier for me to drive up to NSW and pick it up.

Cheers,

Hugh

I figured someone down there would offer to pick it up off the field instead of you having to ship it

Hope you never give it up Pat. May it fly on forever, even in the rutted place you call a flying field

Originally Posted by portablevcb

Hope you never give it up Pat. May it fly on forever, even in the rutted place you call a flying field

There go those people from the colonies denigrating our wonderful flying facilities again Pat. Perhaps we should arrange for a few hungry ozy cattle to pay them a visit

Looks to me like Vac Formed plastic is a great way to replicate complex shapes.

Only 20 days to the Scale Rally. If ya gets a wriggle on you'll be finished in time

Now that's a good one. Ozzies referring to the colonies

And a tanker to boot. From your sig it looks like you used to be UK army. When and where? Rake was a tanker and we think we were in Germany at about the same time (70's).

What is it with tankers? Do we enjoy these little planes cause we spent so much time in 60 ton monsters?

charlie