Embarking on this project I thought I might as well share it with the world, hoping to get some comments, hint and tips and (hopefully) praise

I'm building a Tiger Moth from plans found on the web. They're free, at least they're available to download, I really tried to track down whoever made them in the first place but I haven't been able to.

First off, the plans were printed, and I went out and bought a scroll saw. I'm building this thing in my shed on the lawn. I have no clue how to actually do some of the final fittings seeing as the space isn't quite enough to fit the entire wing span on the workbench. Also, being a geek I've installed a computer here for documentation and music purposes.

I've cut the ribs and half-ribs and I'm just about to start on the top wing, as that's the easiest one without any control surfaces. Wood was ordered form Heerdegen Balsaholz in Germany, and I've been very pleased with the quality so far. The plans doesn't always say what wood is being used so I'm making up as I go.

Attached are some photos of current progress. I'll do my best to update this regularly - and yelling at me to do it will improve on update speed. I'll really try to make this a thread that I myself would have loved to read.

Halfway through the first left upper wing panel. Things of note here is that I have honestly no clue what the designer thought was the wing tip. The plans shows some solid thing there, if that is a solid piece of balsa or a flat piece perpendicular to the wing, I don't know. I figured I best cut a flat piece of 6mm balsa and try that, i can always add on later. And it's not glued in yet either

Here's a question for you guys, do you really think that the wing isn't supposed to have shear webbing between every rib? The plans are quite clear that the pattern you can see in my image is the one to use, but for me it seems sort of silly to not put shear webbing between every rib, the added weight must be minimal and the strength added tremendous. Any way, I made it according to plan and if you guys have any input on this, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I thought I'd add a few more things. My intent is to power this bird with a suitable four stroke nitro engine. I'm not sure if a .90 will be too big or not. Colour scheme will most likely be that of the Swedish airforce from when the moth was used as a trainer. I hope there's a museum airplane around here somewhere for me to take photos of.

Yeah. I'm swedish. I blame any and all mistakes on terms and spelling on that simple fact

Also, if anyone has built a moth before this size, I'm wondering if it's a good idea to implement the same control system for the ailerons as on a full scale. As far as I can tell the full scale plane has a system with cables running inside the wing to actuate the ailerons with the wing having a short pushrod out to the control surface. I'm thinking about simply dropping a servo in each wings and if there are any visible wires that would have been used for this purpose to just model them as dummies to complete the look.

I was going to add the plans, but it seems I can't attach a zip file to a message. Oh well, if you want them I'll be happy to send them over to you. There's some pictures of the finished aircraft along with the plans, I'll post them here so you know what I'm going for.

I've noticed that the plans aren't perfect scale - particularly in regards to the thickness of the wing next to the fuselage and the tank. I think I'll go for building them as shown in the plans, mostly due to the fact that I'm not too comfortable making structural modifications that could compromise the integrity of the final aircraft. And now that I look closely on the pictures, I see that the wingtips are indeed a flat piece with some reinforcement on top. Good, must get to building those.

Here's the paint I'm considering. Apparently the Swedish airforce held visibility in high regard!

Yes, the training aircraft of most countries are painted in very visible colors. I am watching your build with interest. I just finished an ARF 76" Tiger Moth and finished it in RCAF Initial Flying School colors from WWII. It is (over) powered with a Saito 150 and always attracts admiring people and positive compliments at the flying field!

Nice plane, and thanks for your reply. I slacked on yesterdays update, it will come once I get into my workshop again later today.

For a biplane with only a 59" wingspan (1.5m), I'd say a 90 FS is way too big. Something like the Saito 56 (or the 62) would fly it beautifully.

With that nice thick airfoil, I'd definitely put the aileron servos in the wing...unless you just want the challenge of figuring out a closed-loop cable system.

Oh, and I'd go ahead and put the sheer webs in each wing bay (though they shouldn't be needed in the outermost parts of the wings.

I'll see if I can find some proper engine then. Does the hobbycity nitros work good? I see they have a nicely priced .60 fourstroke.

Yeah, I think I'll be mounting the servos in each wing with the arm sticking out through a slot. That's pretty close to how it looks full scale, and should be easy enough to do. There really is plenty of room there.

Yesterdays progress.

Trailing edge sheeting fitted. Looking pretty good, though I could have been a little more careful with my rib cutting, I have some smallish gaps to fill. Nothing much, but I promise the other panels will be much better.

Upper left wing half removed from building board. Decided to use 2mm sheet to construct the wingtip reinforced by some extra balsa at the tip of the tip structure and a few fillets. Should look nice. I've decided to put off sanding and shaping until the other half is done so I can get an idea of how the entire thing will look like.

Next up is the right half of the upper wing. As of right now it's dry fitted to my building board and I'm manufacturing the shear webs from some 2mm balsa sheeting that was previously cut.

I'm sorry about the sometimes quite crappy photography. I'm in this little shed without any real outside lighting, since my window is one of those bathroom window types with a textured glass surface and its also tinted with some unremovable film material. It is also cracked and needs to be replaced, but I'm a lazy man sometimes..

Oh and if anyone's wondering that wound on my hand.. lets just say propellers hurt and don't be stupid with them even if it's a very small electric.

Todays and some of yesterdays progress: Second upper wing panel glued together. Decided on thin sheet with reinfoced edges for the wingtips, which will hopefully get built tomorrow.

The plan for the build is:

1. Upper wing panels
2. Center tank
3. Lower wing panels
4. Tailfeathers
5. Fuselage.
6.??
7. Profit

Just kidding, couldn't resist that one.

A question for anyone reading. Do my first dope covering, or go with oracover? I really kinda want to go with the dope, but I'm afraid I might screw it up. Or perhaps once I get to the covering stage, i toss together another easy parkflyer from some scrap and practise on?

And do I really need silk? Would other fabric work?

I would VERY STRONGLY recommend that you try Solartex. If you haven't used this iron-on, heat-shrink fabric-based covering before, you're in for a treat Forget the oracover (plastic film, yuck! ) and forget the hassle of dope, unless you just really really really really really want to give it a shot. If you do, against all common sense, decided to try a dope finish (and I do understand the urge), then I'd recommend that you go with koverall (a heat-shrinking polyester fabric similar to what's used on actual aircraft). Only the truly crazy among us would use silk!

I don't know why there's an urge to try dope. I know it's a hassle yet something whispers in my ear to try it. Probably because I've never done it, and with my normal reasoning that "If someone else can do it so can I" there's always a lure to try stuff.

Yep, I don't want the plastic film look of coracover, even though I like appying the stuff. What I want to get is a painted finish (and an excuse to buy an airbrush probably). I'm guessing I can paint both Solartex and the Koverall. I read up on both materials, and I was wondering, does Solartex flex a little in the sun like oracover does? Or maybe oracover isn't supposed to and I might be doing it wrong, that is a possibility. I'd have to check the availability of both the Solartex and Koverall, or be out in good time to order overseas. Good thing that I'm nowhere near finished yet!

Edit: I like what I read about Solartex. Going with the natural one should make a nice paintable surface, ordering from the UK is about 12£ on a quick check, compared to the equivalent of 20£ locally. As long as it stays a bit more solid than what my oracover jobs have been, it should be brilliant!

The reason I included that comment about the "truly crazy among us" is that I've just recently picked up the supplies (at great cost and hassle) to give silk and dope a try. I used tissue and dope as a kid but haven't tried it on an RC model. But really from my tests so far, I just can't see anything being much better than Natural color solartex. It's lighter than the colored solartexes and the weave looks perfect for our scale models. I prefer the look of it to the look of Koverall. PLUS its just as simple to apply as any material possibly could be.

One downside with solartex is that, when applied over balsa sheeted areas, it can have a tendency to "lift" or "bubble" if left out in the sun on hot days. But then we all know not to do that will our models, right! Koverall doesn't have this problem because it is doped directly through the fabric onto the balsa.

For the sorts of models I build (mostly open structure) solartex is just about the perfect covering material. But I just want to try the silk and dope just to get it out of my system. [:@] Here's a thread I started on the subject not long ago:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_9007372/tm.htm

Right, I promised updates and a good build thread, I'm going to deliver. I got a bit distracted today, there was a dead calm and I flew four flights with my tiny Zoot Scoot. I realized I need a bigger LiPO for that one too.

I begun on the wing tips today, not quite finished yet, but getting there. They are build from a 2mm balsa base with 6mm stock reinfocements that will be sanded to shape later. Sort of a fiddly job. I used the old method of "glue logs together and carve away what does not look like a wingtip" with the reinforcements. I need to make a new sanding block now and I'm out of both good #11 blades and 80 grit sandpaper.

I think the next step is going to be some of the details I left out. I need to cut some slots into the right wing panel to accomodate the dihedral braces. I did it for the left wing but forgot the right one... There are also two reinfocement beams which should hold the fasteners for the wing supports. Those should go in soon. Then I'm going for the center section, i.e. the tank on this kind of plane.

I thought I should add - I'm in no way a master builder. In fact, this is my first large scratch build and my third overall plane. So sometimes this is a learning experience for me, and I hope to inspire someone reading that building from scratch isn't so intimidating.

Well, I have shaped the leading edge and wingtip on one of the wings, then I got a bit sick of the sanding and began to plan ahead for the tank/wing joiner. I have noticed something odd, the plans doesn't really match up. One of the wing center beans is too wide and one is not present in the cross section.. hmm.. Also the tank bit either needs to be elevated a bit to get the proper scale look of a fuel tank sticking up or the plans depict a model of the tiger moth which had a tank that isnt sticking up. I have decided to put that on hold in order to not get stalled on the build progress. I will shape the wing tips and leading edge of the other wing and move on the the lower wing pairs probably.

Welcome to the World of Scale Scratch-building!

Just looked into this thread, nice job!

My advice would be if the 90 engine will fit in the cowl go ahead & use it.

With a smaller lighter engine you may end up stuiffing useless lead in the nose to get the balance right so if the bigger engine fits just use that. You will be able to spin a bigger propeller & the engine will be just chugging along & sounding much more scale like than a smaller engine running flat out. Plus you will have a bit of extra power when you need it.

I have a DH 60 Moth at 1.5 me span with an Enya 80 four stroke (twice the size recommended) and the combination is ideal. I use Sig Koverall on fabric covered models & I'm very happy with it. - John.

Right, yesterday was spent mostly at the airfield and at my mother-in-law. Good news though, I successfully maidened my Somethin' extra! Flew beautifully though I was so damn nervous doing it that I didn't get to trim it at all the first flight. Landed three times, working just fine.

Oh well, onto the build. Since I decided to postpone the center tank for reasons of plan confusion I went ahead with the bottom wing today, specifically the left bottom wing. I also decided to be a bit less sloppy with the prefitting which has resulted in the best looking wing panel of them all so far. The ailerons I thought would be best built attached to the wing to ensure uniformity. Remaining on bottom left wing panel: Trailing edge sheeting, wing tips, leading edge shaping.

That and finding out how I'm supposed to mount a servo in there. I was thinking along the lines of having a hatch near rib 6 and cutting that rib up to recieve a servo mounted sideways, having the arm sticking out through a slot. That's pretty much what is found on the original as well. I have put this job on hold slightly since I don't have any spare servos to test fit into any hole I create for them. I'm going to place an order pretty soon on hobbycity to get some things I know I will need later on (like an engine...). If you have any servo recommendations for me, fire away

My recommendations for radios or engines - don't buy cheap. For a park flyer the (bargain?) gear may be o.k. but with the hours I invest in scale models I would at least buy one of the better brands. John.

Hm. Yes, well maybe the radio gear. The engine however I think I will go with the ASP61FS, it seems to be getting fairly good reviews and it's that much cheaper than other brand names. From a local supplier, the cheapest four-stroke I can get (a .70 engine) is a bit over 330$. And that's a SC engine, not a OS or some other well known brand. The OS Engine FS 52S is 435$. And those prices are web based shops in Sweden, not over the counter prices.

The ASP 61 is 114$. For two hundred dollars, I will take my chances. I don't know why but Sweden is for some reason extremely pricey when it comes to well.. everything.

I know I'm whining here, but I think with those pricing differences I have the right to do so. I appreciate your concern and I agree with you, I just wish I could justify a tripling or quadrupling in cost.

Here's the engine in question: http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...e_Glow_Engine_

I think this is the same as a Magnum engine.

The reciever however will be a futaba FASST, probably the 8 channel variety as soon as I find a good source for it. I'm considering going the extra mile putting futaba servos in it, but I don't really know yet. I find picking servos to be hard, when I was going to upgrade the servos on my Raptor I spend something like two months researching before settling on align 620 servos.

Edit: I just realized that the SC engine in the local hobby shop for 330$ is actually pretty much the same engine as the one sold by hobbycity. At least it's made by the same factory, sanye.

It's been short on updates a few days. I've been busy, mostly flying and work. Anyway, the wing panels are pretty much done for the time being, I'm still working on how to fit the servos in there and how to fit them together. I've decided to go ahead with the tail sections and then on to the fuselage. In my mind, seeing all the parts together will make things easier to see how it fits together in the end.

I have some pictures, coming probably tomorrow as today is busy even after work is done.

I'm not sure, but I think the ASP engines are marketed as Magnum in the US. I've had a couple and, yeah, you can't beat the price on the Magnum. But there are quality control issues. It you get a good one, it's as good as any OS engine. On the other hand, you might also get a dud. One of mine was great. One was pretty hopeless (poor compression, difficult to start, lots of deadsticks). So you pays your money and takes your chances.

I promised an update, I shall deliver the goods.

I've been a bit busy so progress hasn't been quite as fast. Anyway, the wing panels are now nearly completed - at least as completed as I am going to make them at this point. I will move on to the tail section of the aircraft and then to the fuse as I imagine that it will be easier to get the whole picture regarding the wing mounts if I have the entire thing to compare to.

Perhaps there's a bit of a gambler in me. I took my chances I'll report once the thing has been broken in, which will probably take quite a while before I get there.