nickbee

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My local hobby stores have a poor selection of hardwoods and aircraft ply. I’m going to place an order with Balsa USA for a few things I need. What would be a good size for the modified wing hold down blocks and landing gear supports? I was thinking 3/8” x ¾ or 1”. Also I take it Bass Wood would be good for these applications?

Good info on the flying stabs! I have some time before I decide if I'm just keeping it stock (for my 1st large scale build it might be best to leave the airframe as is). But I do have something in store for the servo mounting / control lines. I’m not crazy about the geometry used on the original design / plans. But more on that later…

feep

here's a pic of the stab and control horn as it is now. If I remember correctly, I used some of SR's parts for my stab and made some on my own. ON the ribs I used balsa stock and drilled the hole to accept the CF rod but I epoxyed ply plates on either side of the ribs for strength.

nickbee

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aaahhh now I get it Feep,, Thanks for the pics!

nickbee

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I started sanding the balsa wing ribs today. The manual mentions having a choice to leave the “burned edge” in tact for a more scale appearance. This is one situation where I am going for a cleaner look over scale. I started with 220 on my GP easy-touch sander removing all laser tick marks and dark edges. A piece of anti-slip shelf liner worked well to keep the pieces in place while sanding the faces of the ribs. The I used a small amount of 220 sticky back paper around a round music wire tube. I lightly sanded around the spar holes to remove the laser tick, and then checked for a snug but movable fit with the carbon rods. Then I moved to 600 paper for a final sand. It’s amazing how buttery-soft the balsa is after a few passes of 600 paper. The last shot is a before and after. Note the markings are still legible as CafeenMan mentioned…

nickbee

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And I was happy to see my on-board radio equipment came in today.

feep

The landing gear plate supplied might be sufficient if you were to brace it with some strips of basswood up the inside of the fuselage.

By wing hold down blocks if you mean the rigging attaching points I would measure the CF spar and make them large enough to drill the hole through without weakening them. They should also be hard enough to prevent the screws from getting ripped out. About 3/4 x 1/2 would do the trick. I'm hesitant to recommend basswood for these but spruce would work.

AS for the stabilizer,I can only tell you how and why I decieded to do it. The SR kit was only my second large build and I am heading towards scratch built scale. I wanted to to make mry E1 more scale looking and also see how a full flying stab would handle. If I were to do another SR Eindecker I would not hesitate to do another full flying stab. I personally, enjoyed the design and build as well as the testing and tweaking. Whatever you deciede Nickbee, make sure your having fun.

nickbee

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OK, I got an assortment of maple blocks / sticks on order. I'll play it by ear and see what works for the wing rigging attachments and landing gear. Good Stuff!

CafeenMan

Nick - Well.... I placed an order with Micro Mark on Saturday for a very cool new toy. Today a box was perched on top of my mailbox that had Micro Markings all over it. Inside were a set of wheels, a gun and a pilot. Very well packed but I haven't removed the bubbles to see how everything survived. Looking good though.

- Paul

nickbee

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CafeenMan,

I was going to warn you not to get excited when the box showed up! But I guess i'm too late ...

feep

There was a poll somewhere else about what is your least favorite aspect of kit building. I'm quessing it's not high on your favorite things Nickbee. I've seen Paul's work so you went to the right person.
What pilot did you get?

Don, you asked earlier about what makes the kit so pleasurable. I can't answer for anyone else but for me it was my first laser cut kit, I liked the unique construction of the wings, and the cavernouse fuselage was nice(but that's the plane). There were also a few comical remarks in the instructions which were very detailed with many pictures and the guys at SR will talk to you all day if you call them. We should maybe refrain from taking up their time so they will release another kit soon.

nickbee

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Ya Feep I know my limitations. There is no way I could paint a pilot close to what this plane deserves. Besides that I own nothing supply wise even if I wanted to attempt it. I’ll stick to building for this go around. Oh, I got the Aces of Iron Pilot.

That being said I picked up my 6’x2’ piece of sheet metal today for my new building board. Tomorrow I pick up the plate glass that I’m going to attach it to. I should be putting a wing together by the weekend.

BTW I did my maiden flight on my SR Bantam Bipe (park flyer) this past weekend. Here’s a quick video clip of the maiden ROG (2nd flight). I took off, bailed on a touch and go, and then swung around for a successful one:

http://www.nickbee.com/vids/Bantam2.wmv

nickbee

My Feedback: (7)

More sanding tonight. Right now it feels like I am never going to get around to building. I keep telling myself:

WINTER build.
The War Bird Fly in is not till May.
Big Wings = Lots of Parts!

I did stop and get a 7/16 dowel from the hardware store today. Made it easier to sand the spar holes…

feep

That looks like a great flyer. Did you notice after the first pass when it goes in front of the trees you can see a yellow blur. Reminds me of the comic books like The Flash.

I have some videos of my Eindecker but I can't figure out how to post them.

nickbee

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Here’s a question for the guys that have built this model. Did you seal the hinge gaps on the ailerons and elevator? On previous kits I’ve used the same color monokote to seal the tops of the elevator and ailerons. But the ailerons were “center hinged”. If you guys did seal the ailerons did you seal the tops or bottoms? And did you seal them before painting the white squares?

Thanks!

CafeenMan

I didn't seal the ailerons but they aren't as effective as ailerons on your typical sport ship. We have it set up for full mechanical deflection possible and the owner even added ailervators. Sealing the ailerons wouldn't be a bad idea and it wouldn't spoil the scale appearance if you used the same covering and then painted because the full scale didn't have ailerons.

abufletcher

There's even a historical precedent for doing so, as some of the early Nieuports had strips of fabric along the aileron hinge line. However, these strips had a nasty tendency to tear off in flight and foul the aileron so later Nieuports didn't use them.

nickbee

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So how would you go about doing this? Glue in the hinges, deflect the aileron to a full up position, then seal the underside? I've never dealt with ailerons that were not center hinged.

abufletcher

It would just be a flap of fabric ironed on the wing. It wouldn't be attached in any way to the aileron. Airflow would hold it down.

nickbee

My Feedback: (7)

Abu,

I'm not sure if this would "seal" the gap.

feep

I had the same situation with ailerons on a BUSA pup as on the Eindecker and will again on a BUSA Fok D7 Building now and I didn't consider sealing the gap. I may be wrong but dosen't that apply more to Hot aircraft where you get aileron flutter?

abufletcher

I'm just saying this is how it was done back in WWI. And WWI modelers have done this on their models. Seriously though you're modeling an aircraft with 16 exposed flying and landing wires, a big flat cowl with exposed radial engine, and gangly undercarriage, and a maximum speed of about 100mph. You don't really need to be concerned about drag on the ailerons.

And of course there IS no gap on the stab because it's only got one part!

camdyson

My 2c - I seal ALL the gaps on ALL my models' flying surfaces, because it's quick, easy, and increases their effectiveness.

On this model, I'm planning to seal the top of the ailerons with a strip of matching Solartex. Top because it will help hide the non-scale hinge line. Ditto elevators (yes guys, I piked out and used elevators - decided to keep it simple to start, and will do all-flying later if I feel it's warranted. Given it's my first "large" scale model, I thought I'd not fiddle TOO much initially!)

Regarding the hinge seals, just hinge the surfaces, deflect FULL down, then iron the strip (about 20mm wide) along the gap. While I'm at it I'll probably add rib tapes for "texture" using solartex strips again. Whole lot will get sealed under clear coat eventually.

On another topic, does anyone have a good pic of the ammo feed/chute arrangements on an EIII ? Some photos seem to have a nice streamlined ali' fairing on the starboard side, others not, and most pics I've got just show a rectangular "hole" on the port side. I just want to add a basic rendition of what should be there. Feep's idea of wooden fairings on the struts worked well, plus I'm doing fuel gauge fairing and filler caps etc at present.

(Gun's been filed down lower to keep Don happy too!)

Happy building,

Cam

nickbee

My Feedback: (7)

Thinking about this now is starting to make my head hurt…

Cam, Wouldn’t there be a crease when the aileron was at neutral position if you sealed the top (I’m imagining a small bump of covering running down the hinge line since there needs to be extra material for full down deflection). My though is by sealing the bottom any slack in the covering at the hinge line would be more “hidden”. I know it’s not an issue of scale because the original did not have ailerons. And now I’m going to stop thinking about this topic …

abufletcher

I'm not sure I see the utility in this. So you iron on a patch of fabric that is only smooth in the fully deflected position but that sticks up in the neutral position? That seems a bit odd to me. I see how sealing aileron gaps might be important for sailplane models and "high performance" sports models. But if the aircraft you're modeling (the vast majority) didn't do "aileron sealing" then it would seem very odd to do it on a scale model. Even a sports scale model.

Of course the whole point here is that the EIII (or in the case of the SR kit, the EI) didn't have ailerons at all so anything you can do to hide the fact is probably nice. On my BUSA Eindecker wing (and the SR Eindecker is really just a scaled up version of the same with nicer production and a bit fancier detailing). I considered using a slap of fabric (unattached to the aileron) but ended up rushing to finish so it never happened. But I think that could look really nice. A fully sealed aileron might look even better.

Don't just do it for me. Do it as a silent protest that says: I will NOT be just another modeling lemming. I wiill NOT just glue my gun to the top of my model the day before the maiden!

feep

Cam I took some pics of the ammo chute on my plane. I have referense material but it is not clear. I know the feed chute is open so that the ammo is exposed. The spent cartridge chute looks like a right angle piece of metal that protects the shells from the wind stream. I chose to show it closed