Bluewavestudios

and I only wish my workbench was as immaculate as Grahame's too !!!!. Nice to see that sort of work space, clean. clear, Uncluttered and the tools all neatly put away but to hand when required.

Regards.......Mark.

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Johnny

Very interesting thread with great workmanship, that I follow with the greatest interest.

Greyhead

Barry

The undercamber is a slight cause for concern, in the past I’ve had the covering pull away in this area, in that case it wasn’t too much of a problem because it was a Solatex non-painted finish on a glider, but the SE5a is another matter.

I’m seriously considering stitching the covering as per full size, I’ll experiment on the centre section first and see how that goes, after all the stitching would have to be simulated anyway so why not go the whole hog?


Mark

It wasn’t always so!

I’m making a special effort to keep things tidy after the better half “donated” half of her half of the shed so I could build an “extension” to my workroom. But I must say that now I’ve retired the 5 minutes cleaning up after each building session doesn’t seem such a waste of valuable building time!



Grahame

Bunkerbarge

Every one is completely differrent as regards workbenches, if you remember Nigels workbench competition we saw that.

I'm with Grayhead, I can't handle not having everything neat and tidy and in its place. I am, of course, very fortunate in having a lot of wonderfull space but I still couldn't work with an untidy workbench.

Greyhead

The first rear frame is built over the plan.



Using an open framework structure has advantages; it is quick and easy to build and very light but it is inherently weak compared to sheet material, to make matters worse the longerons have to be “broken” where the fuselage starts to taper towards the tail.

The strength can be greatly increased by the use of gussets, as always it is a trade off of strength against weight, I use 1/64th ply, which I consider to be a good compromise. One of the modelling magazines had an article that measured this increase in strength and amazingly even gusset made from brown paper made a significant difference.



The second frame is built over the first, which is covered with Clingfilm to stop any unwanted adhesions.

wonwinglo

Grahame the correct aviation term is 'Biscuit' every full sized wooden aeroplane uses them in the construction,and yes they add fantastic extra strength,I think that the use of your 1=64th ply is an ideal application,where did you manage to get that spruce from ? a very scare commodity these days.

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wonwinglo

***Grahame,can I suggest a compromise situation here with the rib stitching ? to stitch the lot is a mammoth task,why not loop stitch three positions on the aerofoil and simulate the rest ? first make sure that there is plenty of balsalok onto the ends of the ribs on the underside,iron on the tex but do not tighten up the fabric yet,cover the upper surface same here do not tghten up yet,next place your preferred ribbing tapes ( perhaps cut from solartex strips ) onto the rib edges,make your three critical loops onto each rib which will hold the fabric on the under camber,next simulate the true stitching by laying pins at strategic points,wind thread around each pin,tack run thin cyno around but do not touch the pins,remove pins,apply a thin coat of pva to lock everything in place,now tighten up the covering working top and bottom of the wing by use of your heat gun.
Having seen some excellent models that have been rib taped at Old Warden scale days it can be done but is time consuming to say the least.

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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 !'
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rjwood_uk

Hi Greyhead i had not seen this thread since it started up and i have to say it has come along leaps and bounds.

It looks lovely so far and you have a great attention to detail.

am just wondering if you where planning on painting this? If so i have always loved the RAF colour scheme for this old beauty!

Greyhead

After gluing the rear framework to the front section the longerons are cut ¾ through at the “break” point and carefully cracked to allow them to be pulled onto the rear formers keeping the sides straight. On many aircraft, the Elf for example, the sides aren’t straight; they are pulled in at the rear and allowed to take up the natural bow imparted be the spring of the wood. I used a variation of the “3 pins method (Yes We Have No Bananas)” to ensure a straight fuselage i.e. in this case the front formers had marks drawn on the centre line instead of pins.

The framework is made from 1/8th square spruce; when working with this wood I’ve found that the glue takes a lot longer to set, even cyano takes its time!! So it’s essential to use lots of clamps and leave everything to set completely before removing them.





At this stage the rear fuselage is quite flexible, not to say fragile, but with a few more biscuits it’ll firm up.

Barry

Strange they’re called biscuits, in the woodwork industry a biscuit is an elliptical shaped piece of wood that is glued into slots cut in two pieces of wood to strengthen a butt joint, very similar to what we have here but significantly different.

Richard

The colour will be PC10 and “natural” linen.

Bunkerbarge

Well Grahame the more I watch this thread the more convinced I am that you are building a real aircraft in miniature. You are following so many techniques used in the real construction you could scale this up and fly it!

Absolutely fascinating to follow and so much appreciation to you for sharing it so closely with us all. You put more time and effort in to the build thread than a lot of us put into making the model!!

I can't wait to see this beauty fly for the first time.