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Joined: 1/30/2002 From: San Jose, CA, Status: offline
This is a review and build-log of the new BVM Super Balsa Bandit. At this point, I have not yet completed the construction, so the review is an on-going process. So far though, I am very much impressed with the kit.
Please note that the kit that I am building is one of the very first batch (I supposedly have kit # 6), and as such I fully expect it to have a number of minor teething problems. I will report on these in order to try to help anyone else who has a very early kit, but please do not consider any such minor issues as a "real problem" - the folks at BVM are very willing and quick to address any such teething problems, and from past experience I can guarantee that these minor issues will already be resolved by the time the next batch of kits ships.
I hope to serve 2 purposes with this review:
(1) For people who have never had or built a BVM kit, give them an idea of what's in the kit, how well it builds, etc;
(2) For those who are about to embark on building this kit, offer some advice about areas that need particular attention - especially for the first batch of kits. In this case, you may want to skip most of the details and go just to the following areas:
Note - items shown in [COLOR=blue]blue [/COLOR] have been addressed by an updated manual page and replacement parts being sent out by BVM in Oct 2002. IMPORTANT - you do not need these parts for the composite bandit - only the balsa one..
< Message edited by Gordon Mc -- Jan 10 2003 1:12AM >
Posts: 6853
Joined: 1/30/2002 From: San Jose, CA, Status: offline
Revisit this page periodically - I will be updating it throughout the build.
Hits [list]
Extremely high quality of parts.
Very good parts fit - especially the fibreglass parts. With some other manufacturer's kits I've had canopies whose fit to the fuselage resembles the San Fransisco bridge - touching at the ends and having a gap in the middle that I could sail a boat through. Not so with the BVM kits - their fit is so good that you'd be hard put to fit a sheet of paper between the parts.
Detailed manual, with very clear photographs.
Ease of assembly. You can tell that BVM didn't just settle for making a kit that flies well once you get it built - they've clearly invested a lot of time in coming up with a design that makes it easy to assemble.
Incredibly helpful and responsive technical staff at BVM, to help with any queries you may have.
Lots of nice little touches that show attention to detail - even to the extent of including 3-view drawings of the model that you use for planning your paint scheme. [/list]
Misses [list]
No parts list.
Some of the really neat ideas that made the Bobcat so easy to build, have not made it into the Super Bandit (e.g. wing-rib alignment tic-marks, aileron/flap horn alignment jigs, wing-tip alignment ribs) [/list]
< Message edited by Gordon Mc -- Dec 12 2002 3:43AM >
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Joined: 1/30/2002 From: San Jose, CA, Status: offline
I think the UPS guy had a bad day. The box looked as if it had been jumped on a few times, then reversed over with the delivery truck, and finally used as an attack dummy in a martial arts class. I cringed as I opened the box, and was amazed to find no damage on my initial inspection.
The condition that the kit arrived in, despite the condition of the box, is largely due to the great care that BVM has taken to protect the contents. Here's an example of what I mean - this photo shows the foam inserts which effectively suspend the major parts in the middle of the box. Other parts, and a lot of protective paper, are then used to surround and further protect the contents.
< Message edited by Gordon Mc -- Oct 9 2002 3:50PM >
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Joined: 1/30/2002 From: San Jose, CA, Status: offline
I started by reading the manual through a couple of times.
The manual is very detailed, and contains 64 pages. Each page averages about 6 photographs, which are extremely clear - these are quality prints, not the photocopies of photocopies of photocopies that you get in some kits.
Although some are missing them, most of the paragraphs have a small check-box next to them so that you may tick each step off as you complete it. This definitely helps reduce the risk that you do something like closing out a wing without first completing all of the internals.
My personal approach here is to put a diagonal line through the check-box in one direction when I do the step for e.g. the first wing, then put a diagonal line in the opposite direction for the second wing, and when I can confirm that every check-box on the page has been completed in both directions I cut the corner off of the page. That way I can very easily pick up the manual, put my thumb on the corner, and flip the manual open to the first page of a given section that still needs work.
Do be careful to ensure that you have fully completed each paragraph before checking it off though.... in most cases the check-box applies to a single step, and you get kind of used to that... then all of a sudden you will find a single paragraph and check-box that contains a whole load of separate steps. (e.g. Stab instructions on the right-hand side of page 27). I would have prefered to see these separated to help ensure that you don't miss anything. A trivial issue - but do take the time to ensure that you don't get caught out by it.
The rolled plans that come with the kit are also very good quality - clear printing and decent quality of paper that can be repeatedly rolled & unrolled without tearing. There are "detail" sheets that show a lot of detail of the construction (to augment the manual), and there is also a sheet that is used for you to build on top of. The latter contains portions for each wing, stab and the rudder, so that as you are ready to build a given part you simply cut out the appropriate section from the plan, attach it to your building board, and off you go.
Speaking of building boards - you actually "use up" your building board with this kit, as you glue the parts to the building board. (Just like the BVM Bobcat,BTW). I was unable to find a source of the Armstrong ceiling tiles that BV typically recommends - and instead I use a couple of 2' x 4' sections of drywall. If you choose to do the same, be careful not to use the outer 3" or so of the drywall slab - a 3" or so strip down the edge of the drywall is lower than the centre-section (for taping), and if you try to build on that you will not like the results !
< Message edited by Gordon Mc -- Oct 10 2002 2:17PM >
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Joined: 1/30/2002 From: San Jose, CA, Status: offline
Wing construction is typically done first.
Due to a camera malfuntion, I am missing a series of photographs from the early stages of the wing construction. These are virtually identical to the stab construction though, so I will start by showing the stab construction here, then go back to wing construction a bit later.
The "construction" plan sheet is cut up into its constituent parts, and the wing or stab part is taped to the building board. I chose to lay wax-paper over the top of the plan, but that is really not needed. Note that there are a number of diamond shapes shown on the plan. Cut these diamonds out with a sharp X-acto blade, but control the depth of the cut - you don't want the building board surface cut too deeply otherwise the ribs can move later.
< Message edited by Gordon Mc -- Oct 15 2002 3:58PM >
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Next - prepare the ribs and other parts for assembly. The parts are separated into multiple bags, and most (though not all) of the parts for each separate assembly can be found in one or more bags that are labelled for that part - e.g. a bag of stab parts.
All ribs include "location" tabs which stay attached to the ribs for the first part of the assembly process. The ribs are all laser-cut, and simply need to be freed from their sheet by cutting the small portions that hold them into the sheet. Note that since the areas by which the ribs are held into their sheet includes the bottom of the location tabs, you should very carefully sand the bottom of these tabs to ensure that you don't have small amounts of extra material attached (which would change the relative height or incidence of the rib during assembly). Don't overdo it tho - otherwise you will affect the rib's alignment. It might be a slightly better idea if BVM used other less critical areas of the rib to hold the part into its sheet, but as long as you take just a little care here, it's really not an issue.
The laser cutting also leaves a soot residue on the parts - especially the ply parts. Clean this off of the sides of the ribs, but do not clean it off the perimeter of the ribs at this time - the soot marks will later be used to help gauge how much sanding to do on the completed framework prior to sheeting.
< Message edited by Gordon Mc -- Oct 10 2002 2:25PM >
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Joined: 1/30/2002 From: San Jose, CA, Status: offline
Okay - now we get to see why we cut diamonds out of the plan earlier.
Place the rib on the plan, ensure that it is aligned properly, and is vertical (1-2-3 blocks are great for this), then apply glue to the rib location tab in order to glue it to the board.
[COLOR=firebrick]I have received so many enquiries about where to buy the 1-2-3 blocks, that I figured I may as well add that info here. I got mine from http://www.penntoolco.com/catalog/products/2245.cfm[/COLOR]
With the BVM Bobcat, the wing construction plans included small marks that indicated exactly where to position the rib (in the fore & aft sense) in order to ensure that all ribs would be properly lined up. Unfortunately, for some reason the Super Bandit is missing this really handy refinement, so a little more care and time is needed in getting the alignement correct. In fact, in this case I got it wrong at first, and had to remove the rib from the board and try again.
The photo shows the attachment of the rib to the building board.
< Message edited by Gordon Mc -- Dec 8 2002 2:52PM >
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Joined: 1/30/2002 From: San Jose, CA, Status: offline
As mentioned in the last post, I found that the initial placement of the root rib was not perfect, so I removed it form the board and used the following approach to get better alignment.
I placed (not glued !) the carbon fibre rod through the hole in the root rib, then used a couple of 1-2-3 blocks to effectively project the location of the rod upwards from the plan. This ensured that the root rib was correctly positioned w.r.t. the rod placement. A couple more 1-2-3 blocks ensured that the root rib was located in the correct side-to-side position as well as being vertical. I then reglued the rib to the building board.
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Joined: 1/30/2002 From: San Jose, CA, Status: offline
...then used the 1-2-3 blocks again - but this time in conjunction with the stab spar - to ensure proper location of the remaining ribs.
The assembly thusfar was certainly far from challenging (despite my initail mistake in locating the rib), but it could definitely have been easier and quicker if the plans had included the really useful location marks that BVM used on the Bobcat wing. Hopefully, future Super Bandit plans may include this refinement.
< Message edited by Gordon Mc -- Oct 10 2002 2:27PM >
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Joined: 1/30/2002 From: San Jose, CA, Status: offline
Addition of the LE and TE are trivial.
Next - there is one important step that the manual doesn't seem to tell you to do (either that, or I'm going blind ! ;-)... and if you get too far before noticing this, you can not retrofit it after the fact. The part in question is a plywood doubler for the rear portion of the root rib. It needs to be installed before the carbon fibre rod is installed (page 27 of the manual).
If you look closely in the attached photo, you will see that this part is missing from my stab, because I slavishly followed the written sequence in the manual without double-checking it against the plans or photographs If you should find yourself in the same situation, use some scrap balsa block to make fillets between the root rib and the shear webbing - this will help spread any loads over a wider area. I discussed this "fix" with BV himself, and he seems happy with it.
Next, the assembly is sanded lightly and sheeted on one side.
The black soot marks on the plywood ribs (and to a lesser extent the darkened laser-cut marks on the balsa ribs) act as an excellent way of determining whether you have sanded the assembly sufficiently. Gently sand with a bar-sander, and the color change of the parts will show you which parts have been sanded so far, and which are still low points. Sand just enough to remove the soot from all parts.
Next, I sprayed the sheeting with a fine mist of water and laid it on the assembly to let it form itself, then attached it with thick CA.
The stab assembly can then be removed from the building board.
Note that for the wing construction, you do not re-use the location tabs, so you can saw or break these off in any way you wish - but for the stab, you must cut these parts away carefully because these tabs will be used as a cradle to hold the stab when the second side is sheeted.
In case you can't make out the size of the parts from the photo, the stab ribs are very small (almost like building Guillows again!), and with small parts like this it can normally be very easy to get the parts misaligned. Fortunately for us, BVM always finds ways of making the build process easier for customers, and this use of a "cradle" is a really neat way of ensuring correct alignment.
Once the stab has been freed from its cradle, the carbon fiber rod, shear webbing, hinge blocks, etc are all glued in and then you simply sand and sheet the second side.
The photo shows the assembly which is just awaiting the hinge blocks before being sheeted.
< Message edited by Gordon Mc -- Oct 11 2002 6:09PM >
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Joined: 1/30/2002 From: San Jose, CA, Status: offline
The early stages of the wing construction are very much like the stab construction - except that the main spar is used as an alignment aid. It is pinned to the board (with a 1/16" spacer between it and the board), and the ribs are lined up on it.
The photo shows the LE and TE attached to the ribs, with judicious use of straight edges to ensure that the assembly is straight. Note that it is not uncommon for the large plywood ribs to have a very slight curve to them, so it is important that every time you glue any part to the root rib (upper or lower fore or aft spar, etc), you double-check to ensure that the rib is straight and at the proper 91.5 degree angle (a 91.5 degree gauge is provided). Doing this will ensure the best possible fit of the wing to the fuselage without the need for lots of filler.
< Message edited by Gordon Mc -- Oct 10 2002 3:16PM >
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BVM Super (Balsa) Bandit - 
If you should find yourself in the same situation, use some scrap balsa block to make fillets between the root rib and the shear webbing - this will help spread any loads over a wider area. I discussed this "fix" with BV himself, and he seems happy with it.