Sorry that the last three pictures are ultra fuzzy - taken on the phone and then compressed for Bluetooth transfer.

Looking good.
Have you decided on the covering?

M,

I have bought 2m rolls of OraLight: translucent violet, translucent red, translucent white, translucent blue and black....

For the fuselage I think I will use heavy weight tissue applied with Deluxe products EzeDope and then sprayed with black car paint from Halfords. Don't know how good this combination will be, so I will do a few tests first. At this time of year I don not want to set up a paint shop in the shed, hence my avoidance of epoxy and glass.

Could use glass applied with dope but tissue is good., I love tissue n dope finishes.
I should think the paint will be fine, just make sure the dope is thoroughly dry.

just trial fitted the closed loop rudder system and the Bowden Cable operated AFT system and have got nice reliable clearances.
By the way, I have decided to use a Kavan 0624A semi rigid M2 Bowden cable on the AFT (deviated from the balsa pushrod offered in the kit) - very impressed with these extremely light, but rigid where you need them to be and as friction/sticktion free as any system I have used ; plus the steel wire running up the inside of the inner should hold at bay any trim changes due to temperature.

I will probably need to cut out the servo tray again in order to drop it by 4-5mm to give servo arms canopy clearance. Anyway I will post pictures so that if anyone decides that they want to build one of these with my mods they can save a lot of time not having to trial fit stuff...

To assure clearances, I will probable wait until I receive the motor and gearbox before I do anymore - hopefully by the end of the week.

I now this glider is old school but when you put it together you know you have got a purposeful "device".

I have just reviewed Gary Binnie's build log of the Cambrian Models Elan 100, saw one of these at the Nats this year on the Cambrian Stand - was almost tempted. Would be interesting to see how a Gold Cloud holds up against on of these.
I am quite impressed with the wood quality in my kit, If I had just kept it as a 2 channel glider it would come out a lot lighter than I had though possible, also it would be built by now; and I would be a fair bit richer.

Finally glued in the AFT pivot tube - one note: it is well worth taking time to get the fuselage sides perpendicular to the (hopefully flat) building board before trying to ensure that the both sides of the stabilator are level relative to the building board.
I am pleased with the quality of linkages at the rudder and the stabilator - looks like there will no slop, very free movement and no fouling.

Hope to pick up the power-train soon and then finalise on the position of the servo tray.

One question: I would like to seal (and possibly stiffen the wood a little in the case of the stabilator sides) prior to covering with Oracover Light; any suggestions on a good sanding sealer compound?

Sealing the wood won't really offer any benefits. It certainly won't stiffen the wood. It will add weight.
If you are after a smoother finish prior to covering then ordinary shellac sealer or dope/talcum powder will work well.

All,

I have just trialled the Hacker A20-6XL 10 pole Evo + 4.4:1 gearbox, the setup was:

Propeller: Aeronaut 40mm Precision Spinner with Aeronaut 42mm yoke and Aeronaut 16" x 8" folding blades.
ESC: Overlander 40A XP2
Battery: Gliders Distribution: 1300mAh 35C 3S LiPo

Performance seems to agree well with the Hacker online eCalculator, peak current is 29 to 31A on a fresh battery, not much difference going from "Low" to "Middle" setting on the ESC - I will leave it on "Low" for a possibly smoother operation; also this is as hard as I want to push batteries of this capacity.

I think the 1.4:1 thrust to weight ratio is most likely being delivered, so it should climb well from launch.

In summary - this powertrain leaves healthy clearances, but beware of the clearance required by the stiff motor wires exiting the motor. So IMO a bit pricey but very good; however a bit miffed that the M2.5 mounting screws are not supplied, also the small 14mm PCD of the mounting screw pattern on the gearbox relative to the 10mm dia front end bearing can make drilling the M2.5 clearance holes in the firewall awkward (need to use countersunk screws to clear the spinner back plate.

Now to re-drill the hole to rotate the motor by 180 degrees about its shaft axis, and fit some internal infills to allow the nose to be properly blended with the spinner...

All,

Have now fitted and glued in the Fin, sorted out the servos and servo tray position, glued in the nose fairing infills and built the hatch.

This means that before I can check and align the brass wing tubes prior to gluing into the fuselage I need to finish off the wing panels and glue the tip to the centre panels which means....

I have to do the job I have been putting off a long time - sanding the wing panels. (A lot of dust). Since it was difficult deduce the exact geometry of the leading edge I have downloaded the Eppler 193 template from the Airfoil Tools website - seems to give a fair match allowing for the (slightly) flattened underside modification built into the kit design.

All,

I have finally finished sanding the wings and have epoxied the tips to the centre panels. I have to say that I am very pleased with the very old NHP 30 minute epoxy that I have been using - always goes off as expected at 18-20 degrees C; just the right viscosity for penetration without going everywhere; and most importantly to me - the excess can be sanded off nicely without eating away all the balsa underneath.

Don't know how I am going to check wing fore/aft and vertical symmetry before I glue the brass wing tubes into the fuselage - my building board (18mm chipboard) is only about 5' x 3'....?

More photos to follow soon.

One boring part of the build left - setting up the brass wing tubes in the fuselage to ensure wing symmetry; I find doing this over the full span of the model difficult to do by eye and triangulation by wire. Anyone got any clever techniques for doing this?

Love that tailplane!

I did some wing tube jigging in my Hi-Phase thread, might give you some ideas.

Gary,

Thanks for this link, it has given me an idea. Just curious - how do you find your Cambrian Elan handles?

(I think that this one is going to come out in the region of 1500g to 1550g , also I am pleased that all wing and tail panels and mounts are nicely torsionally stiff and rigid).

I haven't flown the Elan in a very long time but I do remember that it was a very nice flyer and for some reason launched higher than the others. The Flair Sunrise (still got it) was possessed, the Albatross I think was too heavy.

My favourite 100" wooden glider is the Centiphase with balsa wings. I'm so busy practising F5J that I don't get time to dig out and play with the oldies, great shame.