Greyhead

A good question and I wish I had an equally good answer, but I don’t! At the moment the fairings aren’t attached at all.

My idea is that the first few flights will be without them whilst I “fine tune” the bungees to get the correct amount of spring, which I’d want to do anyway, then once I’m happy with the undercarriage I’ll attach the fairings, possibly using silicon sealant if I can’t think of a way to make them easily detachable.

As I was answering Steve’s question I thought I might as well add this photo.

I’ve added a couple details to the decking, namely the transparent window and a (non-functional) inspection hatch; the side doesn’t look as empty now.

Greyhead

I’ve given up on the spruce for the interplane struts and decided to use strip pine wood from B&Q as I did for the undercarriage.

First the blanks are cut out and then bolted together for the final shaping of the profiles.



Once the profiles are correct, a couple of hours with the Dremmel and a sanding block and we have a set of reasonable struts.



The struts will not be attached rigidly to the wings but will be allowed to “swing” slightly in a spanwise direction. To enable this to happen the fixings are (at the moment) closed loop adaptors, which also allow for some adjustment in the effective length of the struts; they are screwed into hardwood blocks drilled and tapped to suit.



The struts themselves will be attached to the fixings by piano wire pins and the whole lot hidden by the interplane bracing wire attachment covers.



I’m having a few doubts about the strength of the closed loop adaptors for this critical job; they are made from brass and I’m wondering if I should really make my own fixings from 2mm threaded steel rod. I’ll certainly give it a go and if it’s not too difficult a job drilling a 1mm hole in 2mm threaded rod then steel fixings it will be!

Maharg

After some time away I just caught up with this thread.
Grahame this is beautiful.

Greyhead

I have decided to stick with the closed loop adaptors for the inter plane strut attachment points; after all I used them to connect the cabane struts and Warren girders on the Elf and they’ve stood the test of time. Some of the steel 14Ba bolts have sheared off and been replaced but the closed loop adaptors are still fine.

The aileron control horns are made from 0.5mm galvanised steel with 2 pegs soldered in place to make them more secure in the aileron leading edge.



The aileron LE has balsa blocks to support the hinges and one is routed out to also accept the horn, the plate soldered to the hinge pins will add further strength.



As there are 4 control horns, all of which will be interconnected, it is important that they are all as near as possible identical; therefore once they had been “roughed out” I joined them together with a pin through the main actuating hole for the final filing to shape and a jig ensured that they were epoxied in the same relative positions on the ailerons.

Greyhead

I’ve now covered the wings and I have to admit that the Solartex shows no inclination to “lift” from the under cambered section, the wood was pre-treated with Solarlac Clearcoat, which greatly increases the strength of the bond with the Solartex but I’m going to stick to my original idea and also stitch the fabric to the ribs just in case.



Covering is one of my favourite parts of modelling; it is at this stage that the model stops being a “construction” and starts to become a model aircraft. It always gives me a boost to see the “solid” shape of the model.

Then again the boost might just come from the use of copious amounts of Clearcoat in the confines of the shed!!!

Bluewavestudios

Looking Good there Grahame,

Just make sure you tie something to your leg before starting with the ClearCoat !!

Regards.......Mark

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

Greyhead

I’ve not managed a lot of modelling this last week; at the weekend it was the Teesside Model Flying Clubs’ annual 2 day model air show and a lot of my time’s been taken up helping to get that organised. It was a fabulous weekend and once again we were blessed with excellent weather.

I’ve got 2 of the wings stitched and taped; the stitching went just as I thought it would, no problems but mind numbingly boring! If you’ve every built a scale model and thought that adding stitching and rib tapes just isn’t worth the effort this photo with the evening sun casting shadows might change your mind.



When actually working on the wing the stitching and tapes don’t seem to stand out very much at all, but when in the air and the light catches them they are really noticeable even at a considerable distance so they definitely are worth the effort. Admittedly I’d use simulated stitches if the wing didn’t have such a pronounced under camber.

alan2525

I think every part of this build shows just how worth it it is to take the extra effort. Watching this build progress has really increased my understanding and appreciation of the aircraft.

She's going to be a real beaut in flight too!

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wonwinglo

Just catching up with your excellent progress made to the S.E.5A Grahame,it certainly has come on leaps and bounds since I have been offline,well done the model is a real credit to your model building skills.

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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

Good to have you back online Barry,

The wing covering has come to an abrupt halt as I’ve run out of natural Solartex, I didn’t think that it would take more than the 2 rolls but I’ve still got one complete wing to cover and also the top surface of another.

While I wait for the Solartex to arrive I’ve made a start on the Lewis gun. The stock will be made from layers of ply, as the shapes are quite complex I’ve used 2 laminations of 1/32nd ply for each layer to make the cutting easier but it’s still quite a delicate job. The trigger is from thin brass sheet.



With the various pieces glued together and a simple barrel from rolled paper and various bits of tubing it’s starting to take on the semblance of a Lewis.



I’m still searching for something to form the basis of the magazine