alan2525

I was looking at an old plans catalogue dated 1963, the models suitable for R/C where all great boxes of things, the remainder being control line or free flight. It was rather scary thinking of IC powered cars controlled by a tether or nothing other than a piece of stout string and a peg in the ground.

The miniaturisation of electronics in R/C has really opened up lots of new avenues, and the current trend for Robot's on TV shows has made the kinds of equipment more widely available too.

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OOLILISSIMA

As Bluewavestudios says, servos have never been so cheap. That goes for radios and anything else electronic associated with modelling and, importantly, all kinds of tools.

We never had it so good...

wonwinglo

Alan,the tethered IC Cars started during WW2,it was forbidden to fly model aircraft with petrol engines, which were beginning to come over from America,what people did to keep the engines running was build tethered cars,some of them had aluminium beaten body shells and were based on the old Brooklands type racers.
The 'Aeromodeller' magazine did a few articles on these cars,and even today they have a following and models demand high prices at auction.

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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/

Bluewavestudios

Just a small update for you David,

There was a nice little article on this very Kit in the April 1994 issue of RCM&E, The article itself is 4 pages long with some pics there too. I would imagine given the date now that a Back Issue is No Longer Available but I still have that issue right here in Mint Condition....with the plane itself on the Front Cover too.

If you want it, drop me a PM with your address and I'll stick it in the post.

Regards......Mark.

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I'm Only Here Coz I'm Not All There !!!

wonwinglo

What a co-incidence Mark,an original car turned up also on the Antiques Road show the other evening,it even had the original petrol engine intact,this is one aspect of vintage model cars that still gets the occasional airing on the compass swinging pad at Old Warden.
Flat out I bet they move.

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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/

Glider Guider

The construction of the wings is now complete and they are ready for covering. Looking at the plan I thought “A couple of days per wing” that was a couple of weeks ago and a bit more! There is a lot more building work involved than you would think plus there are numerous occasions where the part built structure has to be left for the glue to really cure before progressing.

The balsa for the ribs was quarter grain and of a perfect density except for the outer of the two root ribs which were of a relatively soft balsa and these have a good deal of stress on them as they carry the stress from the wing joining rods, however they had ply doublers so it was no real problem. For some reason the ply doublers ended just forward of rear spars, I can think of no reason why they weren’t continued for the whole length of the rib as both cost and weight savings are negligible. The other balsa components were spot on for the job it has to do.



There were a few minor problems, the ply mounting plates for the wing fixing for the struts were cut a little short and had to be replaced and the wing fixing bolt position of the rearward strut was a quarter inch or so from where the plan said it should have been, maybe it was a ‘build up of tolerances’ (I believe that is the euphemism for building errors). If you build one I would recommend not drilling the rear mounting hole until the wing and spar are fitted to the fuselage.



I am using standard ballrace servos for all surfaces and decided on having a servo for each aileron rather than the single servo and bellcrank method detailed on the plan. My only addition was to toughen up the wing root by covering it with wing skinning glass cloth bonded with epoxy resin. Unfortunately I discovered when it hadn’t full cured after 24 hours that the epoxy resin had gone off and after a week it still has a slight tackiness to it, if anyone has a fix for this I’d be pleased to hear it.

Due to restricted room in my workshop and the inclement weather I haven’t fitted both wings at the same time so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they have equal dihedral and that another ‘build up of tolerances’ hasn’t occurred.

wonwinglo

Wipe the epoxy over with a thinners cloth to remove the tackness,it is only residual uncured resin that has bled through,probably old stock.
Nice work,she is a lovely model.

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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/

Greyhead

Glad to see the thread back on course and it’s certainly starting to look like an Auster now. Did you mean “struts” rather than “spars” when you say the bolts where in the wrong position?

I’ve spoken to a couple of modellers who have built DB kits, SE5a’s in this case; both mentioned that there were some minor errors, either on the plan or in the pre-cut wood, which needed sorting out, but the finished models look great and fly beautifully.

Good tip about the resin Barry; I’ve had this problem in the past and have resorted to sanding the “soft” resin but even using wet wet & dry it’s still an awkward / messy job, I wish I’d known about using thinners before!

Glider Guider

Well spotted; luck you - there is a prize allocated for the first person to point out my deliberate mistake! I’ll PM you with the number to ring.

There was not a lot to report in building a pair of bog standard wings apart from the novel wing retaining system so it didn’t seem worth it. I’ve started on the instrument panel so I’ll take a couple of shots of it and post them shortly.

Greyhead

WOW!! A free holiday worth £3500 and all you want is a £300 managment fee; I can't believe it!