Big day tomorrow I am ready to start gluing everything together.

Jig is complete I reckon it will take a few hours work to get everything in place. I will use Aeropoxy to fix everything including stringers

What's the "periscope" like bit near the tip rib for?

It holds the rear former of the V stab vertical, the piece to its left holds the H Stab former horizontal, If you look toward the front you can see extensions that hold the wing in place also, once its all glued I will apply some of the sheeting before removing from the jig this way I can be sure that everything lines up

You've got me there mate! I guess I'll have to watch you do it, and then knowingly say "ah, that's obvious!"

There you go mate, see in the picture how it holds F12 upright and F13 the rear of the horizontal stabilizer level, so long as I cut the jig accurately I cant go wrong

I think the Wizard was thinking this was a wing jig since they were referring to ribs and not formers.

I am jealous.

Yes, you are completely right, I thought it was a wing jig. But now that you've posted that pic, I can knowingly say "ah, that's obvious!"

Thanks mate, and well planned too.....

With most of the stringers in place I can complete some sheeting the idea being to strengthen the fuselage to allow removal from the jig, coming along nicely you can see the shape of the plane standing out.

Its coming along nicely HMK!
sparks

Superb! It looks menacing....

Making steady progress and finished sheeting most part of the top of the fuselage. I thought I would have a go at the nose as its probably the trickiest part of the whole plane to complete.

I had trouble drawing the area as its quite complicated, havent quite got it right but only people on this forum will no the difference anyway I am pleased with the effect.

I soaked a piece of the more pliable balsa sheet I have and wrapped it round a piece of tube of the right diameter (I cheated and made the gun recesses the size of the tube in the first place!), left to dry this formed the curved inner portion of the recess, I think it has worked out well.

Next up is to complete the mould then start looking at the underside

Sweet! I'm keen to see how you are going to sheet the lower radius of the aft fuselage formers.

Gun channels look great! You are wasting no time, next week for paint?

Certainly looks to be coming along quickly Ken - and to a level of accuracy I never achieve! Only 2.5 Months gone...

Hi All,

Before I start this post I need to point out that what I have built DOES NOT FIRE ANY PROJECTILES!! it is designed to make noise and smoke only and I have given all due attention to safety.

Basicall, in my opinion, you cant build a large scale model of the HS129 B3 without at least trying to make a cannon that works

This is the result of 5 weeks obsession, I still have a way to go yet to perfect it but I am pretty pleased with how its come along. Basically I wanted the cannon to fire 5 shots so the first problem was how to achieve ignition. I had an idea to use the small charge found in party poppers, the type that you pull a string to explode.

I figured that I use could a strong servo for this, I went with HS5585 MH's which are rated at 17kg on 2S Lipo. I figured I could also use a servo to open and close the breach then gave some thought as to how it would all work together. I have had experience using a Picaxe 08m AXE024 Servo driver which I new would control the sequence of the two servos so went down this route.

So I set about the design which will all fit within the scale sized nacelle of the B3. I have designed it to be balance neutral, the magazine itself is right on the CG point, the 2S battery will be at the rear together with the electronics which counterweights the huge but lightweight alloy cannon.

The whole thing is self contained running its own RX and power supply form a seperate transmitter. Power is via 2S Lipo for the servos with a Ubec supplying 5V to the Picaxe. Safety is given by a RX controlled switch that only supplies power to the servos once the system is armed via the transmitter which will only be done during flight.

Couple of videos showing a few shots been fired in 'party popper' mode -

RC Henschel HS129 B3 - Cannon (0 min 15 sec)

And the action -

RC Henschel HS129 B3 - Cannon Test (0 min 21 sec)

The idea is to make noise and shoot black powder paint from the front of the cannon to give the impression of smoke, I have a couple of issues to fix but will post another video once I have sorted showing the full action

Take it easy on me I know some will give me a hard time over this but I just had to make it!