jcwalton

My Feedback: (3)

Vin,

Thanks for the compliments. I should have a working camera tomorrow. I will send some shots of the landing gear and rigging then.

I used Krylon and Topflite Ultra Coat for the roundels. I like to purchase blue plastic masking tape from the automotive paint stores. It is a little expensive but works great. Seals good and does not pull base paint off.

Jim

jcwalton

My Feedback: (3)

Vin,

I just remembered something very important. Do not put the bottom to top aileron connector close to the hinge line. Put it as close the trailing edge as possible. It will "kink" if close to the hinge line. I too extended my ailerons out to the end of the wings as on the real Pup. One more sort of important thing to mention, it fly's great. Mine has an OS .70 fourstroke. Much more than enough power. I knew I would have to add nose weight so it might as well be engine weight.

Jim

abufletcher

Here's where I am after about a week of work.

abufletcher

My only mod so far has been to use a separate servo for each (lower wing) aileron, thereby also eliminating the fiddlely bellcrank system. This will also allow me to use the differential setup on my new RDS8000 2.4G radio. I'll be extending the ailerons all the way through the wingtips.

The only other structural modification I plan to make is to make my own taller (and sprung) UC as JC did. I agree that the Pupeteer's stock UC is far too low (which is a good thing I suppose for ease of landing but a bad thing in terms of learning how to fly and land a scale WWI model).

abufletcher

Here's the aileron modification. Built as per plan, the ailerons would have stopped inboard of the wingtip, which looks odd to my eye on a WWI biplane. So I extended the cut on through the wingtip. On the actual Pup the ailerons were actually fairly small just the outer two bays (similar to the size on JC's model). I decided to go "long" to match the large ailerons on my scale Sopwith Snipe since I intend this model to be a sort of practice plane for the Snipe. Obviously, I won't need much throw with four such large ailerons! Since this is "fantasy scale" anyway, anything goes.

I'll be using REAL hinges (on the top edge) rather than using film covering as per the plans.

jcwalton

My Feedback: (3)

Hi ABU,

The wings look great. I like to idea of expanding an additional bay. I did not do this and was disappointed when I noticed that the real Pup had longer ailerons. I have since found out that the extra area is not at all needed. I did use two servos so as to use differential. I put only about ¼� down and found that to be more than adequate. Don’t forget to put your aileron connector at the back edge of control surface.

Keep the pictures coming. By the way, I used Robart hinges.

Jim Walton
Columbus, Ga.
USA

jcwalton

My Feedback: (3)

Hi Vicento,

Sorry to be so long on the pictures of the flying wires. Health problems intervened. Everything is ok now. Back to the pictures. I am very dissatisfied with the method I used for my flying wires. I used Kevlar (which works really well) but tried using small springs to make them "easy-on-and-off". Looks bad. I am going to try something else. I am going to use devise (I can't remember what they are called) that has threads on one end and a hole on the other. They are made of brass and are sold by Dubro. I will solder very small piano wire in the holes after having measured very closely for correct length. The flying wires on this kit are certainly not functional but I guess it won’t hurt to make them strong. I am using the smallest piano wire available at my hobby shop. Probably around 1/64". I have shown a picture of the end fitting below. Hope it helps. If you have come up with something better, please let us know. I have also included a couple of shots of the existing installation, soon to be removed.

I have also included so shots of the "shock absorbing landing gear". The kit design is as bad as the type landing gear used in WW1 kits sold by Balsa USA. It is as if not thought has been given to a normal bumpy grass strip landing. You need some sort of "shock absorption". It is so simple. Simply use a separate axle mounted above a base piece of piano wire. This separate axle is soldered on top of the rigid piece approximately 1.5" inside of the wheels. I would use a larger diameter than I did. Make sure it will take the shock and not bend up. I plan to go back and retrofit a larger piece on mine.

Has anyone heard from Glenn lately? I sure would like to hear about his building progress.

I lost a very good building friend recently. He was one of the best scale builders I have ever known. His name was Bud Faulkner. He was a wonderful teacher, always ready to help or praise. I will miss him greatly.

Jim Walton
Columbus, Ga.
USA

abufletcher

Jim, I like the way you did your "sprung" UC, it's simple and functional, yet reflects the split axel used on the original Pup (and other Sopwith aircraft). I might make the solder point ever smaller and then add some elastic around the ends of the axel as per the original.

On the rigging, I think the item your a referring to are called 2-56 threaded rigging couplers:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXE073&P=ML

abufletcher

According to the plans, the stock ailerons would be four bays wide and the bellcrank assembly sits in the fourth bay (from the wingtip). So, I haven't so much extended the ailerons one bay as much as just cut through the wingtip. It looks like I've extended the aileron one bay because I decided to put the servos in the third bay so that the horn would be more in the middle of the control surface.

For hinges I'll use pin-style flat hinges with each side embedded into the TE and LE balsa. As a historical note, the hinges on the Pup were actually hinged on the bottom of the surface, but with the design of the model that would be impossible.

jcwalton

My Feedback: (3)

Hi again. I think the elastic is a good idea except for the incompatibility of elastic and glow fuel. I have used an elastic cord on my Balsa USA Eindecker and have had very good luck with it because of the proximity of the muffler. With the Pup, the muffler would be throwing burned fuel on the gear near the elastic. If you can work this out, I would like to hear about it and try it. I do recommend that larger gauge piano wire be use for the axel. Mine binds too easily.

I looked it up on the internet. The part I am going to use is by Dubro and is called �rc threaded coupler�. These have a hole in one end and that will allow you to solder the piano wire in.

The only thing I did right with my ailerons was to extend them out to the end of the wing. I sometimes make stupid mistakes. I normally find my errors when it is too late to correct them.

If you hear of a “Legionnaire kit� for sale, please let me know.
Thanks,

Jim Walton

abufletcher

The solution is just to change the elastic when it wears out!


I know what you mean, I'm also one of those builders who tends to read the instructions AFTER making the mistakes. For example, I didn't pay attention to note that the front and rear upper wing bolt blocks are not identical. So my struts are just a little bit out of line.

You might check here:

http://www.radicalrc.com/shop/?shop=1&cat=150

abufletcher

On to the undercarriage. As Jim says the stock gear is very low. I'm sure this is makes handling much easier but it looks odd and since the whole reason I'm building this model is to practice my WWI piloting skills, I'd rather have something a bit taller and with a slightly narrower stance (red lines).

abufletcher

Here's a mock-up of the new UC geometry. This looks much more typical of WWI undercarriages (which were long because the early engines spun large diameter props).

jcwalton

My Feedback: (3)

Really looking good. Are you planning to use the wooden motor supplied in the kit? I did not. As I was planning to use a four stroke engine, I found it advantageous to use a Hayes mount. I stopped using beam mounts when I stopped flying control line forty years ago.

Keep the pictures coming. You are really making progress.

I checked on the Legionaire. Wow! Prices have gone up since I purchased the Puppeteer! I thinik I will let that one go. I do have a 1/4 scale Pup kit by Balsa USA. I find it hare to get excited about it. It will require a lot of modifications and re-enginnering. I think I will get started on it later this year. I'll let it be a "winter project".

Jim

jcwalton

My Feedback: (3)

ABU,

Earlier I meant to say, you at a point that I like best. Most of the "hard" work is done and what remains is the "fun" part. I really like covering and working on detailing. The only limit is the imagination.

Have fun,

Jim

abufletcher

All I can say about silver soldering is this: @@#%%@@@^&@$%#@!!!! [:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@] Sometimes it goes perfectly...and other days, like today, it's a total #$$$%%##@-up!

Time to start all over on the gear.

I used to always use commercial mounts, but the right one is hard to get here in Japan and, besides, I figure if wooden engine bearers were good enough for the original aircraft, they're good enough for my model.

Most of the BUSA WWI kits seem like too much effort to be worth trying to make them scale. I ordered the Eindecker 40 when I was just starting in scale RC five years ago and it was so awful I just trashed it and scratch-built 90% of my EIII. Better to just start off with something more scale to begin with (unless you just particularly love the challenge of kit-bashing). For a good Pup at 1/4 scale there's the Mick Reeves Pup and at 1/6 scale the best Pup on the market, bar none, is from CD ScaleDesigns:

http://www.cdscaledesigns.com/Englis...p%20Titel.html

BTW, here's my recently, finished CD ScaleDesigns Sopwith Snipe. It's the prototype of this kit and I had a great time building it. The Puppeteer is intended as a practice plane (aka "flying fodder") for the Snipe.

http://www.cdscaledesigns.com/Englis...e%20Titel.html

abufletcher

I tell myself this....but I know the reality is that THIS was the easy part and all the hard nuts and bolt functionality still lie ahead.

jcwalton

My Feedback: (3)

Double wow! The Snipe is beautiful. I would really like to be there when you fly it. Sort of a long way to drive. I appreciate the link to CD ScaleDesigns. These look very good. The price it not out of line. My BSA Pup is going on ebay. I want their Pup. Best I can tell, it should not be much over $300.00 US including shipping. I will get one.

Speaking of silver soldering. I too used to have problems. I have a method or solution that has not failed me yet. First, I spend a lot of time cleaning the steel. Then when I think it is clean enough, I clean some more (clean enough for brain surgery). I then strip my copper wire. Taking sandpaper, I pull it through 5 or 6 times. Next I apply liberal amounts of flux (water-soluble). At this point I get an extra pair of hands to help. This most often is my wife. While applying heat, I have her continually adding flux. I found my biggest problem in the past was having the flux boil off while applying heat. It is very difficult to add flux while holding the heat on the joint. Try this idea, I haven’t had a bad experience since doing it this way. Let me know if you try it.

My favorite aircraft are WW1 types. My problem is that I don’t like building wings. That is not good being most WW1 aircraft have at least two of them. The Sopwith I want to build someday has three. Darn it.

I must brag some saying I really enjoy building (and am very capable of building straight ones), fuselages. I have a friend who has offered to build my wings if I will build his fuselages. I am going to take him up on his offer. I too have built the BSA Eindecker. Mine was the 80� span kit. I really bashed mine. It is an insult to build a WW1 fuselage using a balsa sheet. I built mine with the portion the pilot "open structure". I use spruce longhorns with Kevlar cross bracing. This has been what I call my “utility ship�. It has to have more than 500 flights on it. I have been flying it on a regular basis for at least six years. I found that upon a serious wing failure, the open structure (also using Kevlar for pull-pull on the elevator and rudder controls), no damage was inflicted on the after fuselage. This was obviously because of the additional strength and lightness of the structure. I will build another from my plans while adding more detail. The rudder and elevator will be one piece as on the real aircraft. Lots of possibilities and easy to build.

If you know what Hayes mount that will work with your engine, let me know and I will be glad to send you one as my gift. Check the internet for the correct model.

Let’s see a few more shots of the Snipe. Also, how about some shots when you fly it and the Pup.

Jim Walton

abufletcher

I think the problem with the soldering was not enough cleaning and too much heat. I'll try again today but no extra pair of hands available. Here is a link to my (rather extensive!) build thread of the prototype Snipe kit on RCU. Warning: Don't try to read through it in a single sitting!

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4853598/tm.htm


And here's another of the Pup being built by Allan Flowers:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_6629161/tm.htm


My next project for CD ScaleDesigns will be the prototype of their 1/6 scale Albatros CI. That kit should be ready by the time I finish the Puppeteer.

Finally, I'm including a shot of the UC I made for the Snipe and a couple shots of my EIII. All I really kept of the BUSA kit was the wings and I cut the one piece wing in half and mounted it on wing tubes.

abufletcher

BTW, thanks for the very kind offer. But I'll just make do with the wooden beams. The Snipe has wooden beams also. In terms of program on the Puppeteer, I got the gear soldered together on the second try. It's just the basic "skeleton" which I'll flesh out later. Now that the basic geometry is locked in I can do the rest of the work with the gear removed from the model.

Now if I can just finish a couple small details on the wings, I go ahead and cover them and them maybe do some fun painting.

abufletcher

I forgot to mention that I like the way you've used kevlar for the internal cross bracing. I wish I had thought of that when I was doing my EIII. BTW, where does one order kevlar thread?

abufletcher

It's starting to look like an airplane.

jcwalton

My Feedback: (3)

Abu,

The dealer is McMaster-Carr. http://www.mcmaster.com/. They have everything. Use the serch box using "Kevlar Thread". It is really cheap. I use three different sizes.

Jim

abufletcher

This isn't much of a modification, but since the plans only illustrate using solartex for the hinges, I thought I'd show how I mounted the ailerons. It's not the most beautiful installation in the world but it works.

It's always a special moment in the construction of any RC model, when you first get to see some part of the model move under Tx control! [8D]

vincento

Hi Jim & Abu.
Jim, thanks for the shots of the rigging - I like the way the ends of the interplane struts mimic the full size, i.e the wood seems to taper and finish just short of the actual fabric surface. Unfortunately, I had to move on with mine. It's my VERY first RC build [and I have never flown either!] many 'wish I had thought of that' moments...

I used some ideas from Abu in a totally different post - automotive connectors in to which can be screwed some very small turnbuckles - or, in to which can be screwed half of a very small jewellery clasp to let the ends of the cable rotate. Problem is, I couldn't get them to appear as if they were connected to the very extremeties of the struts. Never mind