abufletcher

Actually, I think this is all I'm going to do on the ailerons until I've got the wings mounted and can see how the hinging is going to have to work with the servo geometry. So I'll just do the few little clean-up things on the top wings and then move on. Maybe "back" to the fuse that I started to work on months ago!

And I still haven't got my RCV91cd back, despite mountains of promises!!!!! [:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@] I should add that this is not entirely the RCV company's problem. Apparently, I got sort trapped in a bit of botched international business. RCV had planned to return my engine months ago with another shipment of engines to the shop that I bought it from. But this shop didn't get their ducks in line to make the payment for this larger shipment. So there my engine sat, in the UK, waiting for the shop to pay up. Now, it's apparently back in Japan but seems to have fallen into a second black hole.

I have to say that at this point I would be hard pressed to recommend to anyone (other than an employee of RCV) that they should use an RCV engine in their upcoming C1 project. It really doesn't matter how good an engine might turn out to be if there are maintenance and/or supply problems. Both the Brits and the Germans discovered that way back during WWI.

GET WITH IT, RCV!!! [:@]

abufletcher

"To CDL or not to CDL, that is the question."

There really ought to be a Shakespeare sililoquy about the mental anguish involved in picking a prototype aircraft to model! It's the classic kid in a candy shop dilemma: You can only pick one. (Unless you're DJ who's got an assembly line for little DV's going! ) Well, anyway, I think I've made my choice for the CI. It the one pictured in the Datafile (#57) on page 3, photo #8.

1. The serial number (C110/15) indicates that it's one of the third production batch (so an "early" C1).

2. It has the early plain, thin, steel tube struts (vs. the later wider struts that were faired with zinc sheeting).

3. The fuselage plywood was most likely left unpainted, just varnished. My evidence for this is that the metal footstep appears unpainted in the photo whereas the airplanes that were obviously painted also have a painted step (which makes sense). Maybe this is just wishful thinking!

4. If so, this means that the wings were probably the semi-transparent CDL that Idflieg was requiring around the time of the 3rd production batch, just before switching over to a preference for grey, white, or light bluish white dopes (which happened about the same time as the move to the faired struts).

This aircraft has a number of eccentric features that make it irresistible: Big old-style Patee cross on the side, Danish Madsen "Muskete" machine gun mounted over the wing, curious drum holder for the Parabellum, unusual "firing guide" between the wings, potential to have the observer leaning over the side with a Carbonit bomb (if you look closely, you can see the observer straining with the weight), and finally that teddy tear in the engine!

Actually, I think I'm going to break the Sacred Rules of scale modeling here and appropriate a number of other fun features seen in other photos, for example, maybe the grease-stained wheels of the CI on p.14, photo #40 and the "Nicht in den Wagen spucken." sign on p.29, photo #77. That is to say, I'm going more for dramatic impression with this model that unadulterated historical fact.

BTW, it's amazing what you see when you look at these photos really REALLY closely (like with Acrobat's 400% view feature)!

abufletcher

BTW, one discovering of my "close looking" was that most CI appear to have had a footstep panel on the lower left wing root (and possibly also on the right). This was probably done with slats and perhaps a rectangle of ply. On the model it might be easy to just sheet the inner bay between the two spars.

summerwind

Don,

this is an excellent build you have going..................i'm interested in tis one for sure.

where to get it, and how much?

geezeraviation

My Feedback: (3)

Look at CD_Scaledesigns, lots of good stuff there

summerwind

is there a simple link?

summerwind

Doh......nevermind...found it

abufletcher

Thomas' work on his fuselage motivate me to get going on mine. Again! First, I spent forever wondering whether I could make some cutouts in the lite-ply floor panels that are underneath the thin birch ply cockpit floors. I figured I could save about 30g this way. But in the end, it just didn't seem worth the effort. Then I spent a second forever fretting over what order and with what glue(s) I would assemble the formers onto the two support rails. I thought about epoxy and Titebond, but ended up using (medium) CA so that I could just assemble it all, check that it was all straight, and then zap on the glue from the bottom. This worked fine. The engine compartment parts will, of course, get epoxied on.

The main concern here was not to get any glue anywhere on the top side floors or formers since this will all be stained and lacquered to get that "fine furniture" look common to many WWI cockpits.

abufletcher

Email from my RC club:

明日（３日）ã�¾ã‚“ã�®ã�†ç”ºã�®é£›è¡Œç¥žç¤¾ã� ®å¼�å…¸ã�«å®Ÿæ©Ÿã�Œé£›æ�¥ã�™ã‚‹ã�¨ã�®ã�“ã�¨ã�§ã�™ã €‚明日フライトã�•ã‚Œã‚‹æ–¹ã�¯ã€€9:00〜13:00 ã�®é–“ã€�上空ã�«æ³¨æ„�ã‚’ã�—ã�¦ãƒ•ãƒ©ã‚¤ãƒˆã�—ã� ¦ã��ã� ã�•ã�„。特ã�«ä¸�用æ„�ã�ªé«˜ç©ºé£›è¡Œã�¯æ Ž§ã�ˆã�¦ã��ã� ã�•ã�„。
よ����願����。

Tomorrow (the 3rd), because of a ceremony at the Manno-town aviation Shinto shrine, real aircraft may be flying by. The flights tomorrow may be from 9am to 1pm. Please be careful about flights in the upper air. In particular, you should restrain yourself from careless high-altitude flying.

geezeraviation

My Feedback: (3)

I guesss you've got it glued together already so this may be a moot point but if you use a dye based stain before hand it doesnt affect the glue penetration. Glen Torrance uses Behlen stain in a pecan tone that looks terrific and doing it before you glue takes the worry out of having uneven stain due to sealed wood.
It may not be available there though, sometimes I forget you cant run up the street to the Home Depot.
Doc

abufletcher

To tell the truth, I haven't gotten any results I've liked with stains. It always just looks thin and watery and often penetrates unevenly even when pre-treated. I much prefer the look of lacquers (which are easily available) but the glues definitely don't like lacquer.

CTDavies

Hi Don,
my initial idea for the fuse construction was to have it built in two parts, front and rear, as shown in my old prototype thread and as you have already started here. The rear part is kept at an angle by a large wedge which it temporarily fixed to the lower side of the fuse. The drawings don't show this wedge (yet), so you'll have to scratch build something, which should be easy because the building board (glass plate) and the angle of the fuse lower skin are both shown on the side view. Then there's the problem of glueing both parts together. Thomas probably moved forward a little bit too quickly here and ended up with a joint that didn't quite follow the lines of the side view. The key here is to go forward step by step; glue the first former (of the gunner's cockpit) to the rear longeron first, wait to dry before you glue the next etc to maintain that curve needed below the gunner's cockpit. Thomas built his fuse 'free hand' without the wedge and by just adding pieces to the structure, which obviously works but I'm interested to see how the fuse sides will fit.

abufletcher

Very valuable advice, Chris! I'll try to document this process in photos. BTW, it really adds a lot to the thread to have you here participating! [sm=thumbs_up.gif]

abufletcher

The email "warning" I received got me thinking...Shrine...ceremony...real planes. This I had to check out and wasn't disappointed!

abufletcher

The shrine ceremony, Taiko drum performance, and dragon dances were followed by a mini airshow. I have my Legionnaire in the car so pulled that out for the crowd to oggle. The kids loved it! Even the "old" kids!

abufletcher

...

abufletcher

And to top off a fine day, I got in two wonderful flights with the Legionnaire. It was almost a too easy.

CTDavies

...and at least one person likes your Legonaire

grover1

Don
Looks like a good day .Did the kids break any thing on the planes.[:@]

Greg

abufletcher

No, but I wacked the upper wingtip on a nose-over on my first landing that will need some quickie repairs.

abufletcher

This also sums up why I take things REALLY SLOW on these prototype builds. BTW, at the moment I'm wondering whether there's room to install (or replace) the elevator and rudder servos AFTER the F4 former (which supports them) is glued in place or whether they would need to be put in place BEFORE gluing. And if they have to be put in first, is there reasonable access to them without tearing apart the bottom of the fuse? The way (I think) the design works is that the forward top section (which would support the dummy engine) will be removable.

Inquiring minds want to know! I'll check this out later and post what I find.

abufletcher

As far as I can figure out, the answer is NO. No way to remove or access the bottom tier of servos after the former is permanently attached. The servos are screwed "up" into the hardwood beams from the bottom and there's no way to slip them up and out from the top. So there needs to be access from the bottom. And even there it's like doing one of the puzzles where you have to separate two metal shapes. There is a way to slip the servo out but it takes some thinking.

So it looks like there's going to need to be a hatch on the bottom. At the very least this would be needed in order to access the servo horns. This looks doable, even if I don't yet know how to do it.

abufletcher

These photos show the very small "nubs" on the bottom edge of the fuse wall ply doubler. It would be VERY easy to accidentally sand these off, when removing the nubs left from the CNC process. But these wider nubs are needed!

The thing about precision engineered CAD-designed kits is that millimeter (and even fraction of a millimeter) precision is possible and so the old idea of building things "about right" then sand it to shape doesn't always apply. In this case, these nubs make sure that the slotted hardwood beams that hold the UC music wires 'sticks out" past the bottom longerons by about 0.4mm (?) so that the ply sheeting on the underside butts against the sides of the beams.

Another point that can be taken from the third photo is that which the part, when laid flat on the plan, might not look like it fits the outline. But that side view is actually curved and so the part is cut to fit on the curve. At least I think this is why the nub is not completely aligned. [sm=50_50.gif]

abufletcher

It's time to really study the plans. So far everything I've done on the build has been pretty obvious (and fool-proof) but there was still some question marks (at least in my mind) for how things on the fuse will get done.

The first question was how to access the servos. The second question is exactly how the servo linkages are going to work. This isn't spelled out on the drawings. I'm including the "blank" drawings, just in case anyone else wants to play along!

TFF

Well the aileron servos are in the wing so the labels are off on the drawings. Are the bellcranks for the rudder cables? For the rudder a short pushrod paralleling the rod between the bellcranks going to one bellcrank with an extended arm. For one thing the hight of the servos dont match the plane that the cables are to be in.