BALSAUSA NIEUPORT 28 1/3 SCALE
 

Intro:
Winter project:

I lost my N28 a few years ago due to radio interference and want to build another one as it was an excellent flyer, easy to take off and land, could do touch-n-go's all day and flew well in the wind.
I still have the G-62, wheels, guns etc so it's also 'cost effective'.
Also, my buddy Paul plus Cincinnati is 'heavy' into WW I so I'm 'required' to have a WW I plane!
The G-62 easily pulls the plane as 1/2 throttle is used to fly it.
I plan to install a paint ball gun (without paint balls) and smoke.
Also, I plan on a Rickenbacker paint scheme so I bought BUSA's decal set, which has the 'hat in the ring' decal.
The box is chock full of balsa and ply.
I got 15 yards of solartex.
The cowl, gear wire and some ply come in another box.

Just what I need, another winter project to go along with my Ziroli 118" B-25 and 114" C-45!

ps: hit the purple button to get a larger, visable picture of the 'paint schemes'.

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OK folks, I decide to shelve the Z B-25 and P-51B that I started last summer and start on the nieuport.
Unlike my WW II stuff, I should be able to complete this kit before spring since I'll only need solartex to cover it and no glassing and priming will be needed (save the multi-color scheme that will have to be done in spring).
This is my first balsausa kit and also my first WW I build. (going to feel funny building a plane that doesn't need retracts!)
I bought my last 1/3 scale nieuport many moons ago and lost it at Joe Noll due to radio interference.
I've got a G-62 which was perfect for the old one plus I'll be adding smoke and a paint ball gun (noise only).
mmmmm: I actually found an instruction booklet: never seen one of these before! (a pretty radical concept!)
Guess I'll have to actually read it and follow what they say!
The box is very heavy and appears to be very complete with all kinds of wood and hardware.
The instructions show all the die cut (no laser cutting on these parts) sheets; thus, there is no paper plan sheet having all the parts printed on it.
I labeled all the balsa/ply sheets with the die number and part numbers and put them in their respective piles, ie, upper wing parts, fuse, etc.
I also bundled all like wood together.
Hopefully, this will speed up the build by not having to spend a lot of time looking for parts.
All the wood appears to be of high quality as well as the hardware.

Way to go Sam! You got the 28 the same weekend I bought my D-VII kit at Indiana Warbirds.
2008 or 2009.

Mike Callahan

Hey Sam,
I already started the same kit and have a small heads-up for you. Whenever it says to 'drill the ribs at the punch marks' , be sure to check the punch marks against the plans. So far the punch marks on the W-12 ribs for the N-strut bolt locations were off as well as the location for the anti-rotation dowels in the W-4 ribs.

My kit is 2 years old and they may have fixed this by now, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

The only change I've made so far is that I sheeted the horizontal stab and elevators with 1/16" balsa to stiffen it up a little.

Great Sam, I'm in on this build.
Randy

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Bruce,
thanks for the 'heads up'.
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Stab and rudder.
As on all my builds, I almost, exclusively, use carpenters glue for the majority of joints.
The instructions are like the old heathkits, a check box after each item is completed.
Looks like this kit is thoroughly thought out as, so far, the exact amount of sheeting and stringers are cut versus just having bundles of 36" and 48" pieces.

Stab:
The LE requires 3 pieces to be glued together after they are bent around pins placed in the board, every few inches.
48" long pieces are required so I used 48" long pieces to insure a continuous curve. Having all the pieces secured to the plans, I used thin CA to bind all 3 pieces together.
For the center of the stab, some 3/32" thick sheeting already cut to 8" but needed final trimming was done to fit the plans.
The TE requires two 1/4"X3/8" to be glued together so I used an aluminum L angle to secure them and keep them perfectly straight while the carpenters glue 'cooked'.
The LE was then cut to the proper length, the TE glued to the LE and then the center sheeting and ribs were glued in.
The cross bracing is only a 1/4" square verses the 3/8" stab thickness as they are just for strength and not to show on the surface. I used some 2/32" scrap balsa to center the cross bracing. For a strong bond, all joints were made with no gaps in the joints. An acid brush was used to remove excess carpenters glue so only a thin film remains, which greatly increases drying time.
All parts were pinned to insure no warpage.
Having, previously, bundled all like wood size together is definitely making the build go faster, and it will also reduce the chance that I use the wrong length/size wood by accident.

Yo Sam seen your post tonight. Thought I'd check up on ya. Sweet we going WW1'S (Dawn Patrol)next spring. Hope to have my Albi ready also. D7 doing fine, thinking bout bigger motor though. Just thinking for now. Your build looks. Like alot of fun. I'll be watching take care man.

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Yo Doug,
yep, figure I'd better get a WW I done since I don't have one plus the big Wright Pat museum air show is next year (hopefully!).

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Elevator:
There are a lot of elevator parts; layered balsa, ply, balsa plus multiple sections on the perimeter of the elevator.
I used carpenters glue to join the layered parts of balsa, ply and balsa.
However, end joint glue ups (end grain) are not very strong for wood so I used epoxy for the parts on the perimeter plus all the ribs and cross members. My last nieuport had warped elevators so I want to eliminate the warp and the epoxy should do that.
I drilled holes in all the perimeter parts so I could pin them to the table since they have plywood in the center.
As with the stab, all the cross bracing is 1/4 square so they are recessed from the surface.

Yay, Sammy! I'm glad to see you're building another one!! I remember how much fun you had with your old one.

Jim

Allright Sam. Welcome back to Flying with the REAL men!!!!!

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Yo Jim,
Yep, I used to do tons of touch n go's.
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Stab/elevator (cont)
I cut some aircraft ply (for extra strength) for the elevator control horn hard points and epoxied them to each inside corner after using a razor saw and some sanding to cut notches in the corners for the elevators.
I also free handed a pen line along the center edge of all pieces for a sanding reference when rounded the edges.
Have to do some research for the correct radii along the edges but I only sanded a semi circle (versus a WW II elliptical type radius) on all edges save the TE of the stab where only the 90 degree corners were 'knocked off' with a very small radii.
A nice sunny 58 degrees so I did all the sanding outside.

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Vertical stab and rudder:
Probably the last item for the night.
As with the elevator, 3 pieces laminated together with carpenters glue for the rudder's perimeter and then the ends epoxied together.

Great to hear your coming back from the dark side Sam. LOL
Wild Bill

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vertical fin/rudder (cont)
Same procedure as with the stab/elevators; epoxied all the parts together to insure strength and no warpage.

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Wings:
The two wing plans just fit on my table. The left is a mirror image of the right so all the writing is backwards.
The pre-cut width TE sheeting was pinned to the plans.
The LE lower spars and the center lower spars are raised 3/32" off the plans using some scrap balsa and also pinned to the plans.
An aluminum L angle was used to insure the spars are straight (although the paper plans are also perfectly straight).
Some 3/32" thick balsa sheeting is cut grain wise to connect the first two inner wing ribs.
While removing the ribs from the sheeting, they sometimes need an extra small cut with an xacto blade to free them. Overall, the die cut ribs are very accurate and easy to remove from the sheeting.
Presently, all the parts are dry fitted.
I drew outlines of the ribs on the wing plans for future use in case I damage a wing.
Interesting: a ply rib is sistered with a balsa rib and the balsa goes on the outside of the wing. Plans and instructions say the same: seems like the outside balsa rib would get crushed and damaged!
One minor error in the instructions have ribs W-2/3 as lower wing for die 53 versus actually the two outer wing tip ribs for the upper wing.

Sam my plans are the same way. Balsa outer, lite-ply inside. U think it because when you join the wings and there is a gap between them it's easier to sand. Well any way that's what I'm going to use it for. Looks good bud.

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Doug,
My plans show the same. Not sure I'm going to follow that route.

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Upper wings (cont)
I put a straight edge along the top of the wings to insure they are all aligned.
The eight W1 ribs were then removed and carpenters glue added to each surface and glued to the two bottom spars and the TE.
Excess glue removed with an acid brush.
I'm finding the die cut ribs are properly cut for the spars. From what I remember, I had to do extra sanding on the laser cut parts of other kits to get them to fit properly.

wing tube boxes:
Some wax paper wrapped (once) around the square aluminum tube and the outer boxes CA'ed making 3 for the bottom wings and 3 for the upper wings.

Center wing:
I gathered all the parts for the center wing and read the instructions for the dihedral and it reads like some pieces of balsa are to be used to CA to the bottom of the wing to get the proper dihedral. If this is the case, I'll be using Nick's procedure for getting dihedral by gluing a jig (with the proper dihedral angle) to the 2nd rib and then gluing the outer rib to the jig.
Also, I didn't see any specific reason for putting the balsa rib on the outside so I'll be reversing this and putting the ply rib on the outside. This will give a harder surface for each outer rib to push against.

Sam,
The balsa rib is on the outside so you can sand it once you get the dihedral built into the wing joint. With the dihedral at the joint, the top of the ribs will meet and there will be a gap on the bottom, so this allows you to sand a taper into the outside(balsa) rib to get a better fit. The problem I found with this process is the joining ribs are drilled together for the rotation pin. Once you build in the dihedral, that pin is going to bind in the center section hole and some filing will be required without making the pin/hole sloppy.

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Bruce,
I've modified the outer rib install so I should eliminate the binding rotation pin problem and trying to sand a side of a rib plus possible crushing of the balsa rib from flying stress.

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Outer wings (cont)

Ribs W12 were epoxied together to make the required 1/4" wide rib for attaching hardware (also clamped to an L angle to insure it is straight).
I used one of the hardware to drill the holes to insure they are properly aligned (it will be hard to re-drill those holes after they are glued into the wing as the pin holes in the ribs indicating where to drill were not accurate).

Outer ribs W-5:
This rib was suppose to be glued to a balsa rib with the balsa facing outside from the wing.
I changed this to one aircraft ply rib that was epoxied at an angle to the plans. This procedure is what Ziroli uses to get dihedral.
Four new W5's were cut from aircraft ply to insure strength using a scroll saw and belt sander to match the original rib W5.
While cutting the new ribs, I cut new 1/4" aluminum anti-rotation pins for the wings. These will only be glued to the one outer rib W5 with a 1/4" thick X3/4" square piece of ply to re-enforce the wing side.
Aluminum used as it will not swell from humidity changes.

I used a 4' long straight edge and raised it a 1/2", three W1 ribs in from the tip. This gave me the angle needed to make a ziroli type dihedral jig, which is about 0.8 degrees or about 1/32" off set from the bottom of the rib to the top.
The dihedral jig relies on the next inner rib (W4) to be perfectly perpendicular so W4 was CA'ed in place while 90 degree angles were holding it. I made the jigs from 1/8" thick balsa were one corner is 90 degrees and the opposite long side has the top width 1/32" shorter than the bottom width.
The dihedral jig was then CA'ed to the W4 rib (the 90 degree side toward W4).
Finally, W5 rib was epoxied to the spars, base sheeting and two jigs.
A straight piece of spruce was clamped to the rib to insure it is perfectly flat.
As seen in the picture, there is about a 1/32" gap at the top of the spruce holding the rib.

This should get me close to the proper dihedral. When I build the center wing section, I'll clamp the center wing W5 ribs to the outer wings while the wing tips are properly raised and glue them in place.

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Outer wings (cont)
I want the outer wings strong enough to be able to fly without cross wires so I replaced the balsa webbing next to the wing tube with 1/8" thick aircraft ply. The wing tube will be epoxied to this ply.
The top main spar and the LE was glued on; the LE has a beveled top (lots of specially cut wood included in this kit)
The three front pieces of rib W4 was glued between the main spar and the LE.
Since the wing tube needs strengthened ribs, I used the original W5 ribs was W4 ribs to bracket the wing tube. I cut an additional 1/16" from the bottom of each rib for the square wing tube as I went 'down the line' to allow for the dihedral (ribs labeled A,B and C) which are dry fitted for now.

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Upper wings (cont)

I shear webbed the main spar with 3/32" thick balsa sheet.
The three W4 ribs were installed: these hold the wing tube so I replaced them with the old lite ply W-5 ribs for additional strength.
The aft top spar was glued in.
1/64" thick by 3/8" wide ply was CA'ed to the TE sheet to prevent warping and reduce 'hanger rash'.
The wing tube box was dry fitted. The square hole in each rib was cut an additional 1/16" larger at the bottom to allow for dihedral.
The outer wing tip laminations (balsa,ply, balsa) were glued together. The wing tips were epoxied to the wing for extra strength.
For extra strength, I also sheer webbed the aft spar on both wings.

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Outer upper wings (cont)
Tools of the trade for sanding the wings: the Fein detail sander made quick work of sanding all the spars down so they were flush with the ribs. Harbor freight has a less expensive detail sander that will do the same job. At my age the dust mask comes in handy.
The 80 grit sand paper wrapped around a paint stick gets the TE and wing tips rounded over and finish any final fine sanding.
The 1/64" thick ply made the TE nice and straight.
The plans were repositioned so the LE of the wings are the same distance from the edge of the work table. I then cut out the center upper section wing from another plan sheet and also aligned it with the LE of the outer wings. When building the center wing section, the plans now will give me a guide insuring all 3 wing sections are aligned.

Top sheeting from main spar to LE.
I put carpenters glue on both the sheeting and the wing ribs, spars and LE and taped the sheeting down and also weighted the wing to insure no warping. Tape is not reusable but I find masking tape extremely good at securing the sheeting at all kinds of weird angles plus no holes to have to fill in. An acid brush is then used to wipe the excess glue off all the ribs/sheeting area from the inside as well as along the edges. I left a small recess on the sheeting at the back of the main spar so the cap strips will have a firm place to be glued to and also insure flush with the sheeting.

Sam, looks good your moving right along. I hope to get my caban set this weekend.

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Thanks, Doug.
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Center upper wing.
I inserted the outer wing ply tubes into there respective locations and cut off the excess and then put saran wrap on the inner part of each outer wing to prevent glue getting on these parts.

The ply tube was also fitted and cut for the center wing (12 3/4" long).
The square aluminum wing tube was center marked and the outer edge of the center wing was marked on the tube for centering references.
Since this center wing takes a lot of force, I cut hardwood (had some cherry wood) spars for the main and aft spars. Two aircraft ply was cut for the shear webbing on these two spars. Aircraft ply was cut also to make the H pattern that goes on the bottom of the wing between the main and aft spar (these have blind nuts inserted in them) and will be holding the wing to the fuse. Previously, I already cut two aircraft ply W5 ribs for the edges of the center wing. I'll also be cutting new ply ribs W4 that fill in the center of the center wing.
As with the outer wings, no exterior balsa ribs were sistered to the ply W5 rib for the center wing. We now have two aircraft ply edge ribs mating to each other.
I dry fitted all 3 wings, putting in the dihedral, to insure all parts fit and correct alignment.
Presently, the center wing is all dry fitted.

The center wing can now be glued up and then the outer wings will be attached and proper dihedral added and then the outer wing ply tubes will be glued to their respective ribs to maintain the proper dihedral.

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Upper wings (cont)
Center wing (cont)
I pinned surrounding parts to hold the H bracket in place while I epoxied all the parts of the H together.
I then drilled out holes for the #8 blind nuts and epoxied those in place.
Next was to epoxy the H bracket to the outside ribs W5 and bottom spars, insuring the W5 ribs are perfectly perpendicular.

The wing tube and box was inserted in the center wing and then the outer wings were clamped to the center wing with the proper dihedral (although the dihedral isn't too critical at this stage since the outer wing tube boxes will not be epoxied until the center section is done.
The outer wings and center wing was weighted, the W5 ribs on the outside wings were clamped to the center's W5's to insure all are a tight fit. The outer wings were checked to insure the LE is perfectly straight across all three wings (just measured the distance of the LE to the front of the table). The front and aft shear web (1/8" thick aircraft ply) was epoxied to the bottom spars and the top spars were then epoxied in place.
As seen in the last picture, there is plenty of 'wiggle' room for the outside wings and the wing tube boxes.
After the epoxy cooks, we'll then epoxy the outside boxes to the ribs to get our needed dihedral.

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upper wings (cont)
Always a relief to pull the outer wings away easily after slopping on tons of epoxy on the center section; the saran wrap did it's job.
Cut three new aircraft ply W4 ribs and epoxied them in the center section.
Epoxied the outer wing tube boxes to the ribs and spar. Due to minor slop in the ply box due to needing some room for the aluminum tube to slide, I needed to move the 1/2" riser for the dihedral in a couple ribs for the 'natural' droop.