gabe6090

The plans call for 1/4" wide strap on the underside of the horizontal stabilizer going to the fuselage. All I see at the hobby stores is brass strips that are heavy. Where can you buy thin aluminum or plastic 1/4" wide straps? Is there another material that would work for this application?

BTW, the airplane is a 55" WS Fokker DVIII.

Thanks,
Gabe

BMatthews

Just carve then from spruce or basswood strip. On a 55" model they obviously are just for appearance so this solution would be fine.

Tall Paul

I'm doing a D-VIII myself, 50 inch wing. The stab supports will be 1/16"x1/4" spruce. Past experience has shown these don't last long, so they'll not be too securely installed.
Building the wing is the toughest part... to get the straight no-dihedral upper surface it's being done upside down as a one-piecer.

allanflowers

Gabe,
I have used plastic soda staws for those braces. If flattened, they take on an oval-like cross section and you can flatten the ends for screw attachment.
Allan

gabe6090

Allan,
I like the straw idea. I'm gonna try that. Thanks!


Tall Paul,
Yeah, the wing is a little interesting... I pondered build techniques for a couple weeks before starting mine. I did the upside down thing too; built a platform out of drywall and pressed board. It worked pretty well. You going with a lozenge covering for yours? I didn't want to spend the 20 bucks or so a foot cost for the lozenge print so I just went with something else that I thought was cool. Sorta scale suits me just fine. Good luck with your build.




Gabe

Tall Paul

My wing construction grew as I built it. After deciding on pushrods and bellcranks for the ailerons, with a single servo, I finally got to use my laser level to mark the locations of the holes in each rib... and later to mark the location for the lower covering support spar.
With the laser shining down obliquely on the ribs, I used a Dremel tool with the multi-cutter tip.. the tip was easily aligned with the laser line for cutting just deep enough for the spar at each rib.
.
I'm not going scale, with lozenge... too expensive. Mine will be red like my similarly sized Dr-1 and D-VII.
I recently took the OS 40FP out of the Dr-1 and installed an AXI 2820/10, with a 3C2100 lipo. It flies well, at least as good as the 40 flew it.

dicknadine

just a little suggestion for your next D8 dihederal on bottom wing. build your building board in 2 pieces with the dihederal built into the board. that way you are building a nornal wing-- right, top side up. no fuss with the trailing edge taper as you go from center to tip. its worked for me. dick