Author Topic: Flights of Fancy (Read 87440 times)

TheLurker · « **Reply #300 on:** 13 November, 2020, 04:55:35 pm »

Some good news from Vintage Model Company. My highlight.

Quote from: VMC

The short story is that the balsa wood plantations and mills in Papua New Guinea and Ecuador are currently swamped with a flood of demand from wind turbine manufacturers. This new industry demand has drastically increased the market value of balsa wood and put pressure on supplies.

We require the best quality medium grade balsa wood for our rubber-powered free-flight kits and have been stockpiling this to keep our existing kits coming.

Unfortunately, this has meant that we have had to delay the release of our first batch of updated, laser-cut West Wings kits - we didn’t want to release them and then immediately run out of stock! Rest assured, West Wings is coming in the new year along with more models in the Aerographics range and a few extra surprises…

Luckily, our new Balsa Basics range of RC models are less compromised by the more readily available dense balsa and so we have been pushing these very hard - they are also truly excellent kits!

Some of you may be aware that we acquired SAMS Models just before the lockdown, but it took until lockdown was released in June to actually pick up the stock. Since then we have been flat out producing kits and shipping orders, so listing the many products from the SAMS inventory has had to take a back seat. We hope to get as much of this stock catalogued and listed on our website as possible but it may be the new year before this is done.

TheLurker · « **Reply #301 on:** 20 November, 2020, 09:18:15 pm »

Niche based divvery.

Some weeks ago. Spend a few hours drawing up part profiles* for the Willow Wren. Print them.
This evening, having started on the build, I realise that a couple need correction. Fire up cranky old grid to correct same.... now where did I put them? Oh balls... dev/null** that's where. That's right, several hours work, printed but not saved. I cannot for the life of me work out how I managed that. The dull thudding sound you can hear is my head hitting my desk.

ETA. Good news. SLEC have announced that they've come to a deal with the timber mill in PNG that supplies most of their balsa. Prices will be going up, but not threefold. Shipment expected to arrive Feb next year from PNG. They've also got some wood on order from another mill in Ecuador by way of an experiment. It's allegedly good quality and may turn up before Xmas.

*Inkscape if yer interested.
**Or the Wondize equivalent.

TheLurker · « **Reply #302 on:** 21 November, 2020, 03:56:18 pm »

4/5th of a fuselage.

Peter Smart's Indoor Willow Wren*. At the moment missing the dorsal stringers, keel, the last bits for the wing pylon and there's a little bit of fiddle work to do on the nose. Short pause to sort out the unsaved part profile sheet divvery remarked upon earlier. Hope to have it finished some time tomorrow.

For those who desperately need to know these things. Most of the sticks are 10.4lb wood and it's currently tipping the scales at 0.41g.

Lurk.

*Pre-war (1931) glider. Peter won the Indoor Glider class at the 2014 Nats. with his original.

ElyDave · « **Reply #303 on:** 23 November, 2020, 12:08:31 pm »

rear canopy frustrations, having trouble getting it to stick to the rear deck of the cockpit.

Gave up yesterday as I was getting tired, which was not helping.

Good news, I re-covered the tailplane and it did not warp this time, that f@*$!r was pinned down tight!

TheLurker · « **Reply #304 on:** 23 November, 2020, 08:37:47 pm »

Quote from: ElyDave

Good news, I re-covered the tailplane and it did not warp this time, that f@*$!r was pinned down tight!

<cmontgomeryburns>Excellent<cmontgomeryburns>

Quote from: ElyDave

Gave up yesterday as I was getting tired...

Always the best plan. Fine, painstaking work & tiredness do *not* mix. Umm, wanna buy a t-shirt? Got lots.

Quote from: ElyDave

rear canopy frustrations, having trouble getting it to stick to the rear deck of the cockpit.

Some pics which outline how I did it. Hope they help. If any of this isn't clear, shout and I'll try for a better explanation. Basically, don't stick the lower edges of the canopies to the fuselage. Use a tissue fillet. Oh, buy a packet of Tunnocks Tea Cakes. The clear film from the packet makes a very light and easy to work rear canopy. If you don't like TTC, keep the box and film and I'll take the tea cakes off your hands. Least I can do.

Technique

Examples

ElyDave · « **Reply #305 on:** 23 November, 2020, 10:00:39 pm »

Glue tissue to canopy, then slit, then glue to back of rear fuselage?

That's actually a variant of what I had in mind, but a bit neater. I was thinking about cutting the acetate to fit inside the curve and then overlaying tissue. I think I also need to be a bit more precise on my cutting of the acetate. The front is looking much easier on trial fit and I have an overlap of tissue on the side sections I was planning on using to hide the joint there

I assume the bit I can see at the rear running across the back is the paper part forming the rear deck?

TheLurker · « **Reply #306 on:** 24 November, 2020, 06:24:12 am »

ED> Glue tissue to canopy, then slit, then glue to back of rear fuselage?
Aye, no magic involved.

ED> I assume the bit I can see at the rear running across the back is the paper part forming the rear deck?
It is.

TheLurker · « **Reply #307 on:** 24 November, 2020, 08:22:46 pm »

Willow Wren. SitRep.
So far 6 or 7 sessions plus a very great deal of "thinking" time.
Hard part done. One fuselage, 0.94g. Going to be a bit of a stretch to hit the 6g target weight.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #308 on:** 27 November, 2020, 04:59:35 pm »

I presume you have seen this:

https://youtu.be/Ftlx3UJ3BWw

TheLurker · « **Reply #309 on:** 28 November, 2020, 08:12:34 am »

PC > I presume....
I have, many times, but thank you for the thought. It's bloody good, isn't it?

The reason I'm building it is because Peter brought his Willow Wren, yes, the one in the film, to the Trinity indoor meet and flew it there back in January and I was *very* taken with it. I asked him nicely (I grovelled, not a pretty sight) for a copy of his plan and after he'd sorted out the technology he sent me a scanned copy of his hand-drawn original, just in time for us all to be confined to barracks. The only reason I didn't get it started until a couple of weeks ago was because I wasn't able to collect the 1/20" sheet I'd ordered in Jan. until mid Sept.

TheLurker · « **Reply #310 on:** 28 November, 2020, 07:59:39 pm »

As we're sharing YT links. Got these from a friend of MrsL this morning.

RC Ornithopters. Fascinating, especially the commercial use by Aerium.

One of these, can't remember which, has some bloody irritating music. The mute button is your friend.

https://youtu.be/2IWsyEClC1E
https://youtu.be/k34rVuu8N-c
https://youtu.be/w6VLzKACnS8

ElyDave · « **Reply #311 on:** 28 November, 2020, 08:58:52 pm »

Minor faffing taking inordinate time this evening, whilst Dire Straits, Alchemy goes on in the background on Sky Arts

Tidying up some aesthetic errors that would otherwise bug me
Doping surfaces prior to assembly
Trial fitting of canopies - I think I have the rear right-sized and waiting for that tissue trim to dry. Front also fits well
air intake lamination superglued
Need to find wires for the detail inside the canopy.

TheLurker · « **Reply #312 on:** 29 November, 2020, 04:02:38 pm »

Quote from: ElyDave

Need to find wires for the detail inside the canopy.

Tell me more....

Bit more done on the Willow Wren. One wing. Weight now 2.07g

ElyDave · « **Reply #313 on:** 29 November, 2020, 08:47:25 pm »

Had enough left over from the undercarriage wire in the kit for the front, rear is 1mm copper coloured Al bonsai wire, stuck with cyano. Front coloured with a magic marker.

Rear canopy superglued in place, and frill stuck with diluted pva, and weighted down until it dries.

Wing, sneakily warped after the coat of dope, where it hadn't under shrinking, so is now pinned down on a board with a second coat.

TheLurker · « **Reply #314 on:** 30 November, 2020, 06:46:09 pm »

Quote from: ElyDave

Had enough left over from the undercarriage wire in the kit for the front, rear is 1mm copper coloured Al bonsai wire, stuck with cyano. Front coloured with a magic marker.

Ahh. I was lazy. I glued a couple of fine lines of black tissue inside the rear canopy and a single central one of grey on the outside of the front windscreen.

It's looking good.

TheLurker · « **Reply #315 on:** 02 December, 2020, 08:16:21 pm »

Willow Wren is airframe complete. Hope to make a start on covering it the weekend. Scheme will be blue fuselage with blue LE to stab, fin and wing. Remainder will be covered in antique white to simulate doped linen. Tacked together with masking tape for the bones pics, so a little wonky. As seen 2.7g

Fuselage 0.95
Wings 1.13
Stab. 0.25
Fin 0.05
Struts < 0.16 (blanks cut, but not yet shaped to final size)
Hook ~ 0.14 (paper clip, cut & bent for rough approx).

TheLurker · « **Reply #316 on:** 09 December, 2020, 08:17:47 pm »

One 20" span Willow Wren, plan by Peter Smart.

Limited aviation has been committed, test glide on to bed, and looks very promising.
Weights
Unballasted 4.5g
Ballast 1.0g

The scheme is the Blue Wren which was Bill Manuel's second Wren. Whether it's accurate or not is another matter. No images, colour or otherwise, of the Blue Wren survive. Just as well, eh?

ElyDave · « **Reply #317 on:** 11 December, 2020, 12:48:43 pm »

Interested in your pics on the BD, you seem to have put K8 on TOP of the tailplane, I assume to act as a strengthener between it and the vertical tail?
Which makes sense with the instruction to "chamfer to the profile of F10"

TheLurker · « **Reply #318 on:** 11 December, 2020, 03:16:36 pm »

Quote from: ElyDave

... you seem to have put K8 on TOP of the tailplane, I assume to act as a strengthener between it and the vertical tail? Which makes sense with the instruction to "chamfer to the profile of F10"

This sounds very like you're in the final stages of assembly.

That's my reading of the plan. I think any strengthening of the joint is serendipitous, but welcome. I think it's likely the main reason is to mimic the shape of the prototype where the fin joins the fuselage. A quick image search turns up a few rear / side views that seem to confirm that. It's almost as if the fin has been slotted into the rounded top of the fuselage.

ElyDave · « **Reply #319 on:** 11 December, 2020, 03:35:48 pm »

Slowly, but surely...

But yes, you're right - have a look at this one, shows it fairly well.

https://cessnabirddog.org/photo-galleries/221st-rac-cockpit/#bwg18/83

TheLurker · « **Reply #320 on:** 12 December, 2020, 01:50:57 pm »

Quote from: TheLurker

The scheme is the Blue Wren which was Bill Manuel's second Wren. Whether it's accurate or not is another matter. No images, colour or otherwise, of the Blue Wren survive. Just as well, eh?

Oh dear. Just found a photograph from Xmas 1937 of the Blue Wren being rigged near Cape Town. It's B&W, but it definitely looks dark blue rather than light. Hey ho.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #321 on:** 12 December, 2020, 06:51:11 pm »

Quote from: TheLurker on 12 December, 2020, 01:50:57 pm

Quote from: TheLurker
The scheme is the Blue Wren which was Bill Manuel's second Wren. Whether it's accurate or not is another matter. No images, colour or otherwise, of the Blue Wren survive. Just as well, eh?
Oh dear. Just found a photograph from Xmas 1937 of the Blue Wren being rigged near Cape Town. It's B&W, but it definitely looks dark blue rather than light. Hey ho.

Have you seen this article on Bill Manuel's gliders?

http://www.glidingheritage.org.uk/documents/articles/Bill_Manuelv5.pdf

TheLurker · « **Reply #322 on:** 12 December, 2020, 08:08:19 pm »

I have, thanks, but keep 'em coming it's all helpful. That doc. is pretty much the definitive history. The photo I mentioned is at the top of page 13. I had read it back when Peter sent me a copy of his plan back in February, but I had completely forgotten there was a pic. of the BW in it. What's really interesting (well it interests *me*) is the variation between the various Willow Wrens. As far I can see no two are the same.

Now..., if you can turn up a colour photo of the Blue Wren showing it was *light* blue?

TheLurker · « **Reply #323 on:** 12 December, 2020, 08:27:06 pm »

I know there's a Spitfire fan club hereabouts ....

https://www.spitfireinmyworkshop.net/spitfire.php

pcolbeck · « **Reply #324 on:** 12 December, 2020, 08:43:08 pm »

Quote from: TheLurker on 12 December, 2020, 08:27:06 pm

I know there's a Spitfire fan club hereabouts ....

https://www.spitfireinmyworkshop.net/spitfire.php

Blimey!