Bluewavestudios

Looking good so far Grahame and some excellent building tips in there too.

Will keep watching this one !!

Regards.......Mark.

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

Greyhead

With all the silver soldering complete (the large brackets are for fixing the undercarriage to the formers and will be bent to accurately fit when the formers have been made) it’s time to add the wood cladding.

The legs on some SE5a’s were wrapped with linen so hard balsa could be used for the cladding but the particular aircraft I’m modelling didn’t have wrapped legs, they were left as natural wood, so spruce is the material of choice.

As is sadly often the case these days my local model shop could supply me with an ARTF cloned SE5a but a sheet of 1/8 " spruce is another matter! The next best option was a length of “strip wood pine” from B&Q.

All the blanks are fret sawed out, the fronts routed to take the piano wire then clamped and glued using slow epoxy before the rears are routed so ensuring a good join.



I've got a couple of Black & Decker routers but the best way I’ve found to rout the blanks is to use an appropriate sized “ball ended“ router bit fitted to an electric drill in a vertical drill stand, adjust the height to cut half depth of the piano wire. Hold the blank in place and draw round the piano wire then rout down the middle of the lines. The bit doesn’t have to be exact size, once the router has done it’s job a piece of the correct gauge piano wire dragged down the groove will soon make for a good fit.

wonwinglo

Sorry that we lost this tail ender during the move to a new server yesterday,here it is repeated for the benefit of those that missed it the first time around-

Grahame,dont know if you saw this picture from an early aeroplane manual ?,it shows some strut detail how they laminated the woodwork,it could prove useful to you.
Regarding the spruce,in this case it is not the model shops fault,all spruce supplies have dried up after a world wide shortage,the only limited material coming through is supplied to the full sized homebuilders and vintage aircraft restorers,Stika spruce in quantity only is obtainable from Aircraft Spruce and Speciality at a price.
Your undercarriage looks good,the choice of pine was a good substitute if a bit more open grain but it should varnish up well,if this post is in the way of the SE5A build then just say so and I will delete it.

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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

Some very interesting information there, thanks Barry. I especially like the idea of the “H” section used for the composite strut construction; using aluminium and hard balsa might well end up lighter and stronger than spruce, if we could get any!! Please don’t hesitate to post anything else that you think may be of use, all suggestions gratefully received!

What better on a rainy Sunday afternoon than spending a couple of hours in the modelling room happily “Dremelling” away at the SE5a’s undercarriage?



The first coat of stain has shown up a few areas that require extra work so it’ll be out with the sand paper before the next coat. Then light sanding between coats to build up the “depth” of colour to represent the original hardwood.

wonwinglo

What a piece of art in itself Grahame,tackling things one stage at a time like this is the way to go,the S.E.5A had a very robust undercarriage as can be seen in your own rendering in miniature.
The stain really brings out the grain ready for the final varnish.
With the bungee dampening in place it should be quite functional.

__________________
'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

As Barry pointed out the stain has really brought out the grain; unfortunately, hoping not to sound too much like British Rail, it’s the wrong type of grain!

For such a high stress part of the aircraft the wood had to be close, straight grained. The way to simulate this is first to give the whole unit a dusting of matt white.



Then "stroke" the painted wood with 120 wet & dry in the direction of the "grain" that you want. Although not very clear from the photo, if you do ever try this technique you’ll find that it’s fairly obvious when you’ve done the right amount of "stroking" to produce the desired effect.



Then apply the stain, again in the direction of the "grain". This is only the first coat but I think it shows that the "grain" is now close and straight.

wonwinglo

Grahame,this technique reminds me of the old graining tools used by decorators etc,they consisted of a type of rubber comb,you applied the two tones of paint and dragged and moved the comb from side to side,your undercarriage looks most convincing,thats a neat trick.

__________________
'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

Time to add a bit of metal work.

First the outline and fixing points are drawn onto thin card that is then covered with sellotape, which both strengthens and protects, before cutting out. The shape is then transferred onto litho plate as many times as required; this is where I hit a problem, I am certain I had another sheet waiting to be annealed but can I find it! I need 4 but 1 will have to do until after Easter when I’ll visit my local friendly printer for a bit of grovelling.

The shape can be cut out quite easily with kitchen scissors, not the wife’s best, it’s a good idea to buy a pair especially for this job. Once the shape is cut out turn it over for final sanding of the edge, this shows up any slight imperfections that would be “masked” by the drawn outline.



The fixings are embossed from the reverse side; “rivets” using an old ballpoint pen, the bolt heads using a nut soldered onto a bolt.



The undercarriage legs are looking a lot better now with a few coats of stain.

wonwinglo

Grahame,that undercarriage is a model in itself ! the representation of rivets is excellent,they look so realistic,those legs have come alive since the treatment mentioned in the prior posting,I enjoy your constructive postings immensely.

__________________
'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

The axle fairing is quite a complicated affair consisting of hardwood leading and trailing edges fixed to the undercarriage legs with metal covers top and bottom. The lower cover is fixed but the top cover is hinged for access to the axle and to allow for excess movement of the axle in the case of a heavy landing.

The lower cover is simple to make from litho plate; the strengthening ribs are pressed into a “mould” made from a piece of scrap spruce using soft balsa as a tool and the rivets embossed using a dress makers copy wheel



The LE and TE are joined with cross grain 1/16 balsa to strengthen the litho plate as this area will be subject to quite a battering during take off and landing.



To complete the unit I’ve got to make a “piano hinge” to attach the top cover, then the legs will have the inner litho plate added, the fairing glued and pinned in place and finally the outer litho plate added to the legs.