Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Enclosed is a picture of a Gee Bee Z I'm building.
Just the looks of this airplane makes it one of my favorites.

I always admired the resources of scale model builders and was wondering what type of ideas are here for fabricating a set of wing and tail braces for this airplane.
The designer recommends small eye hooks and elastic cord.
I like that idea for simplicity but am not having any luck finding suitably sized hardware.
Fuctionality is not necessary. Very light weight is. This is a 40 sized airplane.
All ideas would be appreciated.

I want to thank WalterD for his excellent idea!
I found that the rustoleum primer did the trick. The fillets are looking good!

Thanks,
Pat

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Is it Adrian Pages drawing you are building after?

If so nice looking plane I have only the 75% of the fuselage ready (been flying electric now)

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Yes, This is an Adrian Page kit.

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Hi again

Do you have any better high res picture available?

According to the plans the planing between F1-F2 shall be covered with a solid sheet but I took ribs from F1-F5 (I don't think this should matter). Still need to order all plastic parts from him (The cost is no problem but shipping is $18 from Canada to Sweden)

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Tell me what you want to see and I'll post more pictures.

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Just the solution from F5 and back, the big plankning with two 3x12mm long twisting from F5B (I think, cancopy) to the end.

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Enclosed are pictures of F5 aft.
The filler wood is 1/16 x 1" balsa.

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Hi again

Thanks for the photos.

Regarding your question have you emailed Adrian and asked him?

Aren't there any small replacement hooks to buy that you can take off the hook and use the eye. I still also need to figure that one out myself.

I think this is an amazing plane to build and I can't wait until it's in the air, problem is that we are near winter now. Have to decide if I shall order the plastic from Adrian or if I shall try to make them myself (problem is the wheel pants).

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

I think for the eyes, it was recommended that fish hook eyes be cut off, imbedded in the wood and epoxied in place.

I left my Z bare of its flying wires, but if I were to equip them, I'd have used a piece of aluminum from a pop can to make the flashing at the top of the fuse.

Nice looking Z! Here's a shot of mine - yours will look better. I used an older set of plans. The newer ones look more scale.

Dan.

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Nice plane, The one that I'm building is from RCM plane #1255

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

BykrDan,
That is one fine lookin' mosheen!

I can only hope mine would turn out half as good.

Thank you for the ideas!

I think I'll go to the tackle shop for the finishing touches and guzzle down a can of soda.

My objective is "stock". I am using the supplied plywood control horns and leaving a landing skid. Do you think this would cause problems?

I'm planing on flying it "stock" and holding the speed down. I have a Webra 50 for it.

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Hey Pat dont forget that you could have paid 25.00 dollars to have it covered and it would have looked excellant.

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

How's that?
Did you make arrangement with termagator to cover it?
HA HA!

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Thank you much! I'm quite happy with it.

I would have every confidence in the plywood horns (I built mine scratch, and used Du-Bro nylon horns), but I opted for a fixed tailwheel on mine instead of the skid - my takeoffs and landings are atrocious! I need all the help I can get.

Dan.

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Jacs, thanks for the plan number. I just ordered a set.

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

I need some guidance in covering this fuselage.
I usually don't have any problems with covering but this fuselage has me perplexed.

Can someone give me an idea as to covering the fuselage?

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Covering was a bit of a challenge for me (this is my first plane).

I tried to cover with as few pieces as possible, starting from the bottom up, from the back forward, as I thought the seams between pieces would be more apparent - they're really nearly invisible (I used MonoKote).

It worked out quite well for the most part. I only have a small pair of wrinkles on either side of the hood.

Here are my sketches. After I made the sketches, I added dimensions by measuring the plane with a sewing tape measure, then made templates out of newspaper to try it on for size. Since you want overlap in most cases, there are few critical dimensions.

You can mess with the brightness and such to get them to show up better...

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

BykrDan
Thanks for the images.
I'll give it another try and maybe it will turn out like this one.

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Hi Everyone,
I'm building the Adrian Page Gee Bee Z kit and I'm getting close to working on the wheel pants. I should add that I bought the fiberglass pants kit from Adrian. Has anyone built the fiberglass pants kit and are there any tips that you could give me before I start? Thanks for any help.
Mike

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

I used the ABS in the kit and it worked out well.
If I had any questions, Adrian Page responded to my e-mails in a very timely manner.
Here's a picture to help with the details.

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Hi all,

Does anyone have a shot of the interior of the cockpit? I'm building the same plane and I'd like to do it a bit more scale.

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Anybody know where to get the logo from "City of Springfield" that are on that image. Should be nice to print with yellow paint on transparant film.

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

I found these sheets indispensible for building the "Z" - many thanks to Williams Bro's. I can't remember where I found these on the internet, but I'll post them here. I think they're decals from the 1/32 or 1/48 static model, and they show both the "City of Springfield", and the cockpit (not sure how scale the cockpit is - I don't know if any pictures or documents exist).

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

Zpat,
Regarding your question about finding the rigging hardware, I went to the local Hobby Lobby and found eye hooks in the "make your own jewelry" section of the store. They are small eye hooks with a straight pin about an inch long. The eye hooks are about the same size as what is shown on the plans. I found the elastic cord in the fabric section. It is silver in color and should work.

Mike

RE: Scale Gee Bee Z question.
 

I also read somewhere that there are very small ceramic magnets you can get, and embed them into the wing, and then just attach something like a small piece of metal to each end of the wires. The magnets are strong enough to hold in flight, but come apart easily, and are invisible when the wires are removed. The wires can be made with the metal looking elastic string found in arts and crafts stores.