SE5a CONSTRUCTION BEGINNING TO . . .

[wonwinglo]

I know what you mean,anything is available at a price,wheels for this period can be easily made from laminated ply discs with a good bearing to spread the load,one way is to solder brass strips at 90 degrees to the brass tube,this keeps the bearing from revolving after a few landings,the wheel covers are doped over balsa riblets spread around the wheel centre together with a valve access point,the best thing for the tyres I have found are rubber pipe from caravan shops if large scale,or have a look at electrical shop cable for smaller scales,split the plastic and remove the wire inners,to split the plastic evenly make a jig,a slot in a block of wood for example,then a heavy duty razor blade set at 30 degrees,the cable is drawn through evenly.

If you are lucky enough to have a rubber emporium ( look in yellow pages ) in your area then have a look at their stock.

I totally endorse your comments about making things from scratch,if you are capable of making the bits as you obviously are then do it.

 

[Bluewavestudios]

Grahame,

I am sure you have considered this already but, never overlook the fact that the headrest may have been added at the request of one or 2 pilots...not unusual by any means in the day and certainly no more so now for personal comfort and operations of most machines...although back then I would suspect most pilots requested their own modifications as they generally always flew the same plane...ie..their own personal plane....the Red Baron Certainly Did !!!

This practice still goes on today in many industries where employees are expected to use the same machines...eg cars etc day in day out. it builds up a consistent service record which is more valuable in the long run....ok they still add their personal touches for comfort, which goes right back to what we were saying at the start.

Regards......Mark

 

[Greyhead]

Mark

I had considered it being a “personal modification” but the opposite way round; I wondered if some pilots had the headrest removed to increase visibility to the rear, something that I’m certain would have increased their longevity if not their comfort!!

But as I said earlier it appears that the early SE5as didn’t have a headrest, this of course doesn’t preclude the possibility that later models were also modified at the pilot’s request.

Grahame

 

[wonwinglo]

Perhaps I can clear this one up historically,the factory built aircraft had no headrests,if you study lots of S.E.5A pictures you will see a wide variety of differing headrests,the reason was that at the request of the pilots sometimes headrests were fabricated in the field to differing sizes,so you could see a picture of aircraft so fitted,and others without them,the choice must have been a personal one,think about moving your head sharply either way in combat ? whilst a luxury for the head,it could have obscured the vision of the pilot ? there are other World War 1 machines either with or without the addition of headrests.

MarkI had considered it being a “personal modification” but the opposite way round; I wondered if some pilots had the headrest removed to increase visibility to the rear, something that I’m certain would have increased their longevity if not their comfort!!

But as I said earlier it appears that the early SE5as didn’t have a headrest, this of course doesn’t preclude the possibility that later models were also modified at the pilot’s request.

Grahame

 

[Greyhead]

Thanks for clearing that up for us Barry, so failing any photographic evidence of C1096 having a headrest doesn’t mean that it didn’t have one at some time; I think I’ll just build her with a headrest, I’m not a competition man so documentation isn’t my God.


Now this proved to be an “interesting” exercise, which after several failures eventually proved to be surprisingly quick and simple. The cockpit has aluminium edging so litho plate is the obvious choice of material but fabricating the channel section stretched my imagination somewhat! I’ll not go into the failures just the final easy and successful method.


The litho plate is clamped against a steel rule using a piece of 1x1 as a backing.





The edge is bent over and the corner filed through using a fine file.





Carefully rolling the dressmakers copy tool along the litho plate produces a nice line of “rivets”.





The long side is trimmed to form an "L" section then using the cockpit as a template the edging is eased into shape; a lot easier than I thought it would be!





With a bead of 5-minute epoxy applied to the edge of the cockpit the aluminium edge is glued in place and the side "tucked under";I think it really finishes the cockpit off.





A point about my previously “finished” instrument panel; whilst investigating the differing layouts, as pointed out by Barry, I noticed on one photo that under the compass there is a level flight indicator. Although I have several detailed photos of the original panel taken from different viewpoints, on all of them the control column is blocking the view of the level flight indicator, which is in the shadow cast by the compass. Now I know that it’s there I can see it, although not very clearly; it has now been added to the model and as per full sized it doesn’t show up all that well, even without the control column.

 

[wonwinglo]

Now that combing does look good,I think you have simplified a very difficult task there,once mastered this litho plate really is good stuff,I hope that you have a healthy stock of it Grahame ?

The internal bracing also looks very practical as well.

That is the problem especially with old orthochromatic film,being quite grainy it tends to hide cockpit detail,also remember that colours appear reversed,ie blue outer on roundals look like red and vice versa,something to look out for in your research.

Panchromatic film came in much later.

 

[Greyhead]

Barry

I’m glad you like the edging; the secret of making it look right (and the reason I had a few failures) is to get a small and even lip on the litho plate, once I’d sorted the method for that the rest was plain sailing.

I thought the correct word for that part of the cockpit was the combing but it wasn’t in my dictionary, at least not with that meaning!

 

[wonwinglo]

Grahame,is it spelled 'Coaming' ? one of those words that can be used both ways.

 

[Bunkerbarge]

As far as ships are concerned a vertical edge around a peice of machinery or structure etc is also called "Coaming", as in "Hatch Coamings"

 

[Greyhead]

Well that explains why I couldn’t find it in the dictionary; coaming it is!!

 

[Greyhead]

One problem that has been causing my some concern is the way the top fabric is fixed to the longerons; they appear to use some sort of dome head fixing which shows through the side fabric. The only way I could think of was the “drop of glue” method after all the covering has been applied, but as I said earlier I’m not keen. Why they don’t use flat heads and make life easier for us modellers I’ve no idea!


Whilst searching the shops for something suitable as a basis for making the trim wheel, I came across some very small beads, about ½ mm diameter, which should do the trick if glued to the longerons before the covering is ironed on. These were sold in a haberdashery shop and are for decorating home made birthday cards I think. I must admit that I get some peculiar looks as I rummage through the boxes in these shops, the other customers are invariably women; the things we do in the name of aeromodelling!


Back to the trim wheel, I couldn’t find anything so had to resort to building from scratch; I printed some templates on self-adhesive labels and cut out 3 blanks from 1/32 ply.





These were assembled, the rim marked at 18º intervals and half circles routed out. It didn’t work out as accurately as I’d like but a bit of filling using epoxy and micro balloons made all the difference. After 4 coats of sanding sealer it’s ready for painting.





A coat of silver Solalac, with a few extras the end result is good enough, especially as it will be mounted low down on the fuselage side so only the top section, as shown below, will be clearly visible.

 

[Greyhead]

With the majority of the cockpit furniture ready I’ve started on the decking from the tank cover to the cockpit, which is not as straightforward as it might be!


The decking from the tank to about 1/3rd of the way back along the cockpit opening tapers up then it tapers down towards the tail; add to this the fact that there are no formers, only stiffeners, and you can appreciate the problem. I decided the only practical way was to make a jig and build it off the model, as there is a transparent inspection hatch for the Vickers I can’t cheat and add hidden formers.





The cut outs are where the stiffeners fit and you can see by the differing formers how the curvature of the decking has to change.


I clamped a layer of 1/64th ply in position on the jig, gave it a generous coating of watered down aliphatic glue, applied glue to another layer of 1/64th ply and clamped them together.





Then I left it overnight to really dry; in the morning I got a pleasant surprise when I removed the clamps, it held its shape, a bonus I wasn’t expecting.





With the success of the layering technique I decided to try making the stiffeners from 3 layers of 1/32nd ply; the first one is a complete “hoop”. The decking is covered with Clingfilm and the laminations held with small wedges.





Once again I’ll leave it overnight; I’ll post an update tomorrow.

 

[wonwinglo]

Interesting this Grahame,Aliphaetic resin will hold its shape as it cures and dries in a more brittle fashion to standard PVA,the latter tends to be a trifle rubbery,and thus not be as stable,you too have discovered this quite by the happy accident so to speak.

 

[wonwinglo]

No need to apologise over your trim wheel Grahame,it looks superb !

 

[Greyhead]

The stiffener has worked well and far more evident is the differing lengths of the laminations; with using 3 pieces of 1/32nd ply the inner lamination is about ¼ " shorter than the outer. When these are glued together it helps to explain how they hold the shape.

Before I can make the other 2 sets of stiffeners I’ve got to cut out the cockpit opening in order to alter the curvature of the decking; transferring the top and side views of the opening onto the curved decking isn’t such an easy task. I’ll tape some paper to the decking and then use a lot of trial and error until I get an acceptable outline, make a template from this and only then commit to cutting the wood after checking again that everything looks right!

 

[wonwinglo]

And the cockpit apertures are never shown very accurate on scale drawings anyway,one way is to lay a piece of Fablon onto the decking,work out the shape with a Chinagraph pencil ( obtainable from art shops ) straight onto the material,checking in particular the shape from the side view in relation to the actual depth using a photograph,then once satisfied cut straight through the fablon and laminations,this avoids the miralyte ply from having a ragged edge,then carefully peel off the adhesive film.

 

[Greyhead]

Well I should have read that last post before I started but it’s too late now! I used a paper template in much the same way . I must say that the stiffener looks and does its job a lot better that I thought it would.





But I have inadvertently caused myself a bit of a problem; with the decking being that much stiffer than I thought it would be it’s quite difficult to get the sides to conform to the correct shape.





With hind sight I should have cut the cockpit opening in both layers before I glued them together and clamped them to the rear former as they dried; I’m sure I’ll get it sorted even if I have to make the back section take up all the change in curvature, not quite scale but I’m sure no one will notice.

 

[Bunkerbarge]

If you do something and you are not happy with it the only real solution is to do it again.

You will never be really content with the job f you don't. I did an area of decking that just didn't work out well and much as I told myself that it would be OK and no-one would notice, both of which were true, I was only really happy with it when I did it again.

You owe it to the rest of the model and all the time you are putting into this project to be completely happy with every single piece.

 

[Greyhead]

Richard

How right you are, I think I was a bit hasty with the last bit of the last post; the curvature isn’t that far out so I’m sure I’ll be able to bend the sides to the correct shape. After all we really build these models for our own satisfaction don't we?

It just “took the wind out of my sails” a bit; thinking how well the decking had turned out being that rigid and then to realise that in actual fact it had caused a problem!

 

[wonwinglo]

Grahame,I have had this very same problem with laminated miralyte,it tends to have a will of its own at times,Dave Boddingtons method was to apply ammonia to the ply prior to bending,a smelly nasty process but it does work,the reason why it has done this is because to a degree the ply has taken its own course and bulged to the natural curvature of the materia itself,what the ammonia does is to relieve the stresses in the ply laminate internally,I am assured that once dry it returns to a rigid state.

How about this method-Whilst you have the internal shape of the formers,why not take it one step further by making a couple of 'outer' ply shaped clamps,these could slide over the two laminations to hold it into shape and make sure it nips the sides cosily,the old woodworkers used to use this idea by making temporary clamps then to discard them,just a thought.