Having been told by the Pope in post 3582 to clear up my modelling room, I just had to obey. I mean, you don't say no to the Pope do you even if you were educated in a Church of England school? It wouldn't be polite. So this is what I started with on Sunday morning 22nd January 2017.
You catch me just about to load the models into the van. The Telemaster 66's is on the floor, its yellow wing behind it, the Stick 1500 is having its receiver batteries charged and the SLEC Fun Fly, having already been charged up is just waiting for me to put it into the van. The WOT 4 Foam-E which I also took with me is somewhere else. In the end, the engine in the Telemaster refused to start and I lost the binding on the WOT 4, so only the Stick flew that afternoon. This is what we have at 11.05 on Wednesday 25th January.
This is the north wall of the spare bedroom which I use as a modelling workshop. In the corner, wrapped in bubble-wrap, is "my" BE2e fuselage and a piece of oak with the template of the curved wing spars for a model of Henri Mignot's Flying Flea. My best friend was building this before he died in 2002. Maybe one day I'll get round to finishing it. He'd cut out a lot of the parts and I still have the plan. Next to that is a small book shelf containing books of an aeronautical nature then eight plastic drawers dedicated to electric flight. A number of miniature pilots await their allocation to aeroplanes on the top of the bookshelf. To the left of the plastic drawers is my building board on top of a pair of old office filing cabinets containing tools, servos, receivers and other stuff. On top of the building board is my Baron 1914 awaiting further work and a spare Baron plan which I had copied for some bloke who never then contacted me to give me his address. Two potential pilots assess the model. The window sill beyond is filled with bottles of adhesive and other essential items, and to the left of the drawers there are two plastic boxes containing my cheap Dremel copy and various bits for the tool. Balsa block is in the white plastic bag and the kit boxes contain, from the bottom, balsa in four-foot lengths, sheet balsa in 3 ft and 1 metre lengths, strip balsa in 3ft lengths and the Baron 1914 kit box. It would make sense to move the strip balsa to the Baron box once I've finished the model now that I live in a country where the metric system is the norm but that would mean throwing away the Junior 60 box and the Junior 60 was my first successful radio-controlled model. You know what I mean!
This picture shows my little Veron Cardinal powered by a Mills 75 diesel. It's unflown. I'm waiting for the weather to warm up a bit. The large green and white model is a WOT 4 XL. It needs some cosmetic repairs. It has an Enya 120 FS in it at the moment but I'm thinking of fitting a Laser 150 V Twin to it for a laugh, a a glider tow mechanism to boot! Next to that are a Flair AT6 in American naval colours and, in the bubble wrap, a Brian Taylor AT6. The Flair version is waiting for me to install an OS 61 FS. The BT should be in the loft. It is fitted with retracts while the Flair version has fixed oleos. I've just weighed the two of them. The Flair version fitted with three servos weighs 1.150kg. ( Go on you're all engineers, you can convert the weight to lbs and ozs!
)The BT version is nearly twice the weight with no servos but including the weight of the bubble wrap. Hmmm I'm going to have to improve my landings before I fly that one! The XL's wing is to the side of the BT AT6.
This picture shows the west wall. Next to the WOT 4 XL's wing and the broom, dustpan and brush I used to tidy the place up are the wrecked wing of a club trainer and three small plastic bags, blue, white and pink. These little bags contain balsa and ply off-cuts too small to be of any practical use. It is my intention to "reduce to product" as they used to say in the RAF, the trainer's wing and when I have finished the Baron, to take these bags, and any others which may become available, to my ex-lover and make a gift of kindling to her, to see whether I can get back into her...affections! I am all electric where I live. The black plastic bag contains general workshop rubbish and will be thrown out when full. The child's wardrobe was left behind by a previous tenant, I have pressed it into service to store yet more modelling stuff. The large cardboard box contains a Supra Fly 45 kit and the yellow white and red model is an Acrowot ARTF awaiting my further attention.
The Acrowot may be seen more clearly here. The small cardboard box contain parts which should be stowed in the loft, which takes us back to the beginning. Boxes on the right contain plans, assorted chargers and a Bristol Blenheim kit I said I'd build for a friend. The bucket contains covering film off-cuts. Where's the BE2? Doing duty as a lampshade in the living room!
I'm waiting for the weather to improve before flying it!