RE: Anderson Kingfisher
Hi everyone,
As Kevin mentioned in his previous post, there are a few Kingfishers under construction around the world at the moment. I'm in Tauranga, New Zealand, and I've just started on my Kingfisher, from the Dennis Tapsfield plans.
I've been modelling for 15 years or so, and reallly enjoy scale modelling. I've built quite a few kitsets, but the Kingfisher is going to be my very first build from plans. I'm a real Piper Cub fan, and when I saw a picture of a Kingfisher in an RCM mag[img][/img], those wings just did it for me, and I had to build one!
I'm planning on keeping things pretty much to the plan, and will be going with a woven-type covering (as opposed to plastic) and paint on top of that.
For power I was thinking of using one of the new YS 1.10 engines. It's lighter and more powerful than the OS 120, so I thought it would be a good start. I'm waiting to hear how Kevin gets on with the flying of his model using the OS 120.
Anyway so far I've cut the 18 wing ribs, using the sandwich method. I made the two rib templates from 1/4 inch ply and bolted all 18 rib sheets together at once. I rough sanded the whole block down on my disc sander, and then finished it by hand using a GP Bar Sander. While everything was still bolted together I used a Permagrit spar slotter to cut the spar slots - and what an awsome tool the spar slotter is! I ended up with perfect 1/4 inch spar slots in no time! I then split them into three packs of six ribs and filed out the inner 1/4 inch spar holes with a square needle file. I've attached a pic for those who have never used this method before (it was my first time too!).
In the process of getting my construction underway, Kevin very kindly sent me a scan of the original construction article in the magazine. I've converted the pages into a black & white PDF file, which is about 2 meg. If anyone would like to see the article just drop a post here with your email address and I'll email it through. As they say, a picture is worth 1000 words.
Well that's my lot for tonight. Hopefully I'll make some more progress over the next few days.
Pete.