wonwinglo

***Squiffy,if you go to a motorists accessory shop ask for a 'Points file' these useful little gadgets,are used to remove the pip that builds up on the old mechanical points sets in cars and on motor cycles,they are very fine and ideal for use with resin parts,also another trick is to stick fine emery cloth onto those lolly type sticks,you can buy emery cloth on rolls from an old hardware shop if you have one nearby ? nail files are ok but they tend to clog up a bit,to renove the debris simply place sticky tape on the file,rub with your finger and pull sharply away.

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

wonwinglo

Before we even think about building that dream model you will need to start with a scale plan,there are thousands of plans available in books,magazines and best of all here on the internet,dont worry if the drawing is far too small for your needs as any drawing can be easily scaled up either by photographic means or good old fashioned dividers,a roll of lining paper and a lead pencil.
Here is a selection of scale drawings to inspire and hopefully make you reach for the building board,the subject matter is both exciting and with a few alterations as compromise to getting the model to fly should keep you busy for a while,select a subject,scale it up as a line drawing and then plot a few formers,once the initial keel is laid then your interest increases threefold and you can dream of flying your own unique scale model,so what are we waiting for take a look at this little lot-


Bristol M.1C, I can vouch that this one flies well,if you want a lovely barrel shaped design that looks unusual in flight then this one takes some beating,the wing can be made to lift away from the centre section and bolted into place,make sure that you add undercamber to the wing on this one.


Aerocar.For anyone looking for something a bit unusual and a challenge then the Aerocar is for you,how about making it roadable as a model as well ?


Armstrong Whitworth Albermarle.
This one would make an ideal electric twin.


Airspeed Ambassador.
The beautiful Ambassador or Elizabethan class when in BEA service,planked fuselage would be ideal or why not carve from a log of blue foam ?


Antonov AN-74-TK,Would make an unusual PSS design.


Hawker Siddeley Andover.
Another electric possibility ?

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

Bunkerbarge

Squiffy,

The difference between an inch and a centimeter is 1.54 centimeters.

wonwinglo

Here we continue with a diversity of designs each one a challenge in itself,the drawings are shown for inspiration and set the modeller a challenge,and as such are worthy of further research,dont forget that multi engined reliabilty is assured with electric flight,gone are the days when we entered into these subjects with trepidation due to un-relible engines that could quit causing models to spin in quickly if not checked,many of these could easily be made to manageable sizes to fit your car,small motors and prop combinations abound and are both pwerful and lightweight,couple that wth lithium power and the sky is your limit,lets take a look at what we today-


Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy.
Twin boomed and plenty of fuselage space to place the most bulky of batteries,hand launch no need for any fiddly undercarriage.


Avro Canada Arrow.
Sleek challenge for PSS,catapult launched glider.


Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck.
Another golden oldie,for a real challenge why not twin electric ducted fan units ?


C-133 Cargomaster.
The Cargomaster is under modelled,but just look at that tall fin,a very stable design.


Caribou.
Ugly to some but so full of character,imagine turning up at your local field with one of these under your arm ?


PBY-5A CATALINA
The Catalina is just asking to be built as a model subject.A blue foam log for the hull with built up wings perhaps ?
All of these subjects would make for exciting models,and above all just that little bit different.

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

wonwinglo

Mention of blue foam log construction has prompted a few enquiries from you,so before we proceed any further lets just discuss this useful process,there are times when complex shapes are time consuming to produce in traditional wooden keel,former,planked construction,with the advent of remarkable building insulation foams this has brought with it a material that needs to be explored and experimented with by the model builder,its good points are that it offers light weight throughout, coupled with the ability to be under shaped in tricky areas,ie engine intakes and area ruling on modern jet types,the modeller instantly becomes a sculptor overnight in his own right and the shape process spurs you on to get the model completed.Basically we use builders blue insulation foam,check in your yellow pages and sort out your local dealer,go along and take a ripsaw with you,you will need to rip through the panels before they go into your car ! do not put them onto your roof rack otherwise you will loose them,the panels are huge so need cutting down into manageable panels,best place to store them out of the way is in the roof of your garage.
The very first job is to make a side view template of the fuselage, in the case of the model aircraft here,boats and cars receive similar treatment,make this from coloured sugar paper or similar coloured card,the reason for this is that it forms the constant centre datum of your 'log' whatever carving you do the centreline will always be present,glue the pieces together with Aliphaetic resin glue,you can also use PVA but this will take longer to set as air drying is difficult and slow between the tight laminations,you can use balsa dowels if you wish,but this is not necessary,a black marker pen is used to mark any important areas,add plenty of datums,even pieces of wood can be tacked into place to guide your eventual carving.Do all cutting outside as this stuff gets everywhere clinging to everything in your workshop,wear old clothes and nothing that attracts too much static,a boiler suit is fine,prepare yourself for a big sweepup later and a blue lawn ! having said this the work and mess is worth the effort,a quick water spray settles the debris we just have to live with the inconvenience,wear goggles to protect your eyes from flying debris.



The next process is to shape the log using the cross sections provided on your plan,have plenty of photographs to hand also so you know exactly what needs taking off,the best tools are as follows- a bread knife,surform woodworkers tool,a clean new wire brush,sharp long knife blades such as the Stanley 2901 series,a keyhole saw and a sharp razor saw,lets explain each tool and its use;the bread kife will hack through large areas of the block,the surform is your best friend and will happily rip through the largest of chunks of foam,the wire brush is uncanny,by striking the foam or stroking it you will quickly realise its potential,the carve up process is very theraputic as the shape takes place before you,the long knife blade will enable you to get into the corners such as the intakes,the keyhole saw will deal with internal area removal,simply push the blade straight into the foam and draw back and forth,the razor saw makes nice clean cuts on the final clean up.
Use the roughest carborundum paper to achieve the shape after major cutting with wire brush/saw/knife,the trick is to go from left to right with the sanding block and cut the top off the beads of foam,a bit difficult to explain but you will soon get the idea in actual use,note from the picture below that any formers,spars or inserts are simply slid into place at this stage,do not glue anything yet ! they will just serve to get everything in line,speking of which can you still see the edge of that coloured paper ? clever eh ! you will never loose that crucial datum point.
So we now have in front of us a well shaped lump of blue foam,note how light it is ? but wait a minute we have not even started to remove the surplus weight,tomorrow I will explain how to finish the log properly and get the most from blue foam consruction,see you here.

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

wonwinglo

We can now deal with thinning out the fuselage shell, to save even more precious weight and preparing it for finishing and fitting out.The Blue foam laminations would have been lightly glued together at the centre datum point,in between this would be a coloured piece of paper that constantly confirms the centreline no matter how much sanding or cutting is done,the next job is to take a blade and split open the two halves,ease a wide pastry knife between the blocks and gently rock the two foam cores apart,the paper will have done its job and is no longer required but even now it will aid separation of the cores.Once this has been done you can clean up the flat surfaces with a large Permagrit block,next take a marker pen and draw a line right along the edge of the fuselage sides,within this area is where we will be scooping out any surplus foam,start by taking a knife blade and running this around the marker pen line,this will enable a clean line as the inner debris is parred away that butts up to this cut,the best tool to use is your trusty clean wire brush,gently pull and stroke the foam from nose to tail,soon you will get the idea as the beads come away,we are not aiming for precision because you will not get it with any foam,the aim is to remove dead weight that has no purpose,the more you remove the better the model will fly,gently finish off with coarse glasspaper glued around an half round piece of wood,once again a simple dragging action will prove the best.
Once you are satisfied that the two halves are as good as you can get them now is the time to make up some inner formers,you will almost certainly need one for the nose of the aircraft,one just aft of the wing trailing edge,and one forward of this,to arrive at the shape obtain a carpet fitters shape tool,this looks like dozens of wire pieces that when pressed into the concave produce an exact pattern of the shape.Simply draw around the patterns straight onto some wood,cut out the formers and check fit into position,once you are happy then fix them into place with a glue gun,this is adequate for everything except the front former which should be fixed with epoxy,we use the glue gun for two reasons,one it is convenient and sticks well and quickly,two it is lighter than epoxy adhesive which is heavy and should be used with care and for consideration of the weight penalty it carries.
Regarding the formers you can use either laminated balsa sheet,or liteply both are ideal.
Control runs can be positioned into the formers using snakes,these can be locked into place with the glue gun,make sure that they exit cleanly with the minimum of bends,best to install things such as this now while you have good acces,even doing the job whilst the halves are unglued together.
Other considerations are the positions of the tailplane and fin,mark and cut the slots now at this stage checking the angles very carefully,the nose bulkhead needs careful treatment,make balsa fillets at the back of this crucial former and glue well,if necessary add any blind mounting nuts for the engine bearers,PSS soarers simply need an hard balsa block cut to shape and sanded to blend into the shape of the fuselge.
If the model has a cockpit,cut away at that point and fair in the sides with medium sheet balsa,for this job use PVA or Aliphaetic adhesive holding in place and tacking with the glue gun,servo rails can also be made up from quarter square hard balsa with basswood cross pieces to take the servo mounting screws.Once everything is installed do a dry run on the two sides,then apply PVA or Aliphaetic and bind firmly together with masking tape,leave for at least 48 hours to throughly dry out.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

bartley

Hi all, I’d like to say how much I’m enjoying these blogs and all the responses and what a personal touch they give to an already friendly forum.
But Barry, if I can cobble together my beautiful Bebe, (beauty being in the eye of the beholder of course!), from a couple of bits of paper and an instruction set which comprises ‘the fuselage is best built as two box units’, then you CAN play the guitar, and here’s how:

1)Select a favourite song/tune that you and those around you can stand to hear about a million times. (no Hendrix just yet!).
2)Obtain, or in your case build from scrap balsa, a suitable guitar for the tune selected.
3)Contact me and I’ll have you playing and your fingers bleeding in no time.

Steve.

wonwinglo

***Steve,thank you for your kind comments,yes Scale-models goes from strength to strength and make no mistake that is thanks to people like yourself here,it is hard to believe that my first tentative posts were made to assist a friend who introduced me to this forum a few years ago,the rest is history,Scale-models has become a family of friends over that short time,a community in its own right,we have John to thank for the foresight in establishing and providing the tools for what you see here today,it runs like silk because everyone involved enjoys the company of fellow enthusiasts,and how diverse those interests are,and thank you for your offer which is much appreciated,one day I may just take you up on it.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

wonwinglo

The design of the Spitfire is now 75 Years old.On 5th March 2006 which is the 75th Anniversary of the design of the Spitfire,there will be a display of Spitfire aircraft held at Eastleigh ( now called Southampton ) airfield,to commemorate this important event at 16.30 hours a Spitfire will take off exactly to the day and time when she made her very first flight from this historic place.


K5054 the original Spitfire 1 Prototype seen at Eastleigh in 1936,the aircraft was finished in a turquoise green shade but was soon to be finished in a shadow shade finish of dark earth and green,even then this did not disguise its beautiful lines.


Whilst the prototype has long since gone,a replica was built of this machine using wood,although this aircraft is no longer airworthy it travels around the country on show,it is hoped to have this particular aircraft on display at Eastleigh at the anniversary event in March 2006.

Reginald J.Mitchell developed a racing seaplane, the Supermarine S6B, which won the Schneider Trophy on 13th September, 1931. During the contest the aircraft reached 340 mph (547 km/h).
In 1934 the Air Ministry announced that it was looking for a new fighter aircraft. Mitchell, whose company was now part of Vickers Aviation, decided to adapt his Supermarine seaplane, in an attempt to meet the requirements of the R.A.F.
The new all-metal single-seater fighter plane, the Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I, had several technical features of the earlier racing seaplane. It had the same structure and aerodynamic lines. However, it had a new engine, the 1,030 hp Rolls Royce Merlin II and carried 8 machine-guns.
The first Spitfire prototype appeared on 5th March, 1936 and flew at 350 mph (563 km/h) and could ascend at approximately 2,500 ft (762 m) per minute. With its slender aerodynmamic lines and elliptical-plan wings, it was claimed at the time, to be the smallest and cleanest aircraft that could be constructed around a man and an engine.
The R.A.F was impressed with its performance and in June, 1936, it ordered 310 aircraft. The Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I went into production in 1937 and was operational in June, 1938. Vickers Aviation could not keep up with demand and most of Britain's manufacturers began building Spitfires. By October, 1939, the Air Ministry had ordered over 4,000 of these aeroplanes.
The Supermarine Spitfire Mk. II went into service in late 1940. These had a 1,150 hp Rolls Royce Merlin XII engine. Other versions appeared throughout the Second World War .This included Spitfire Mk. IV that was a photographic reconnaissance aircraft. The Spitfire Mk. VC was the first model to be used as a fighter-bomber and carried 500 pounds (226 kg) of bombs.
At the beginning of the Battle of Britain the R.A.F had 32 squadrons of Hawker Hurricanes and 19 squadrons equipped with Spitfire. It was decided to use the Hurricanes against the massive bomber formations of the Luftwaffe whereas the Spitfires were employed against German fighters.
This Luftwaffe outnumbered the R.A.F by four to one. However, the British had the advantage of being closer to their airfields. German fighters could only stay over England for about half an hour before flying back to their home bases. The RAF also had the benefits of an effective early warning radar system and the intelligence information provided by Ultra.
The Focke Wulf 190, which appeared in July 1941, was superior to the Spitfire being used by the R.A.F at the time but this changed with the production of the Supermarine Spitfire Mk. XIV . Powered by a Rolls-Royce Griffon 65, 12-cylinder, 2,050 hp engine, it could reach a speed of 448 mph (721 km/h) and could reach a ceiling of 44,500 ft (13,560 m) and had a range of 460 miles (740 km). It had two 20 mm cannons; four machine-guns; 1,000 lb (454 kg) of bombs.
The Spitfire was constantly improved during the Second World War.The Supermarine Spitfire F.22 that was used in 1945 could fly at more than 450 mph (724 km/h) and could ascend at twice the speed of the Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I.
Spitfires continued to be produced after the war and by October 1947, 20,334 had been manufactured. The last operational flight of a Spitfire, the Spitfire PR-19, took place on 1st April, 1954.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

wonwinglo

One of the best appraisals of how the Spitfire flew can be attributed to Douglas Bader,this is what he wrote about this beautiful but functional aircraft-
The Spitfire looked good and was good. But my first reaction was that it was bad for handling on the ground; its long straight nose, uptilted when the tail wheel was on the ground; its long straight nose, uptilted when the tail wheel was on the ground, made taxing difficult since it was not easy to see ahead. It was necessary to to swing from side to side to look in front. The view at take-off was restricted in the same way until you were travelling fast enough to lift the tail; only then could you see over the nose.
Once accustomed to these minor inconveniences, they were no longer apparent, and once in the air, you felt in the first few minutes that here was the aeroplane par excellence. The controls were light, positive and synchronized; in fact, the aeroplane of one's dreams. It was stable; it flew hands and feet off; yet you could move it quickly and effortlessly into any attitude. You brought it in to land at 75 mph and touched down at 60-65 mph. Its maximum speed was 367 mph. You thus had a wide speed range which has not been equalled before or since.
It had eight machine guns of .303 calibre each, mounted four in each wing. The guns were spaced one close to the fuselage, two mid-wing, one further out. The eight guns were normally synchronized to 250 yards. In other words the four in each wing were sighted so that the bullets from all eight converged at that distance, in front of the Spitfire. Experienced fighter pilots used to close the pattern to 200 yards. The successful pilots succeeded because they did not open fire until they were close to the target.

By the 19th August 1939 the following units had received their Spitfire Mk I's and were also operational:-
19 Sqn Duxford
66 Sqn Duxford
41 Sqn Catterick
74 Sqn Hornchurch
54 Sqn Hornchurch
65 Sqn Hornchurch
72 Sqn Churchfenton
602 Sqn Abbotsinch
611 Sqn Speke
609 Sqn Yeadon
K5054 Prototype Spitfire 1
Merlin II (gave 990 hp at 12,000 ft)
WING SPAN
37' 8"
LENGTH
29' 11"
HEIGHT
8' 2 1/2"
WEIGHT
AUW 5,200 lb TARE 5,034 lb

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/