SF33 1/6 scale

[Tonyw51]

G'day Peter and Hi to Stephen & Cliff,

Great to see your post on control throws as I had been mulling over that recently. It is all somewhat academic at this stage as we are still in lock-down and the field has been closed since June. I have not had the opportunity to take the model to my local model shop to discuss fit up of a couple of final items and frustration is starting to set in. Anyway, I have attached a couple of photos of my example. This is my first attempt at a scratch build and I am quite pleased with the result. (My second scratch build is a "Wood Pecker" out of RCM&E November 2017, photo attached of the maiden flight. The field was closed again in the following week).

Cheers,
Tony W

[Peter Balcombe]

Looks very nice Tony.
I hope all goes ok when you get the chance for the maiden.
Peter

[Cliff Evans]

Looks good Tony.

[StephenB]

Nice job on the SF33 Tony, very striking colour scheme. Let us know how the maiden goes.

[Tonyw51]

Thanks. Yes I shall report the event just as soon as it can happen.

Cheers

[styx2020]

G'day Peter & Chris,
Much excitement in the workshop today with the arrival of my short kit from SC Models. So now have the plans printed, mirrored and printed again (and they are a perfect match), the short kit and the canopy "in the mail" from Sarick. I am in the process of completing a Brolga (2.0 mtr. Australian model) and as soon as it has had its maiden flight I shall start on the SF-33.

I am very happy with the quality of laser cutting and I shall start to rifle though the stores of strip and sheet to put together a complete kit, so all is looking good

Hi Tony,
Just received my set of laser cut parts for the SF33. You mentioned in your comments about printing and mirroring the plans and I was wondering how you went about this. I have trouble with large sheets of paper in my small workshop and I am reluctant to cut the plan up until I have a copy of it.

[Tonyw51]

Hi styx2020,
I went to OfficeWorks here in Melbourne and they were able to do the job for me. I had them do 2 copies of both original and mirror so I could cut and hack.

I have had a couple of sessions at the paddock to get my fingers and brain acting together again and am now waiting on the weather to improve for the SF33 maiden post our pandemic lockdown.
Cheers,
Tonyw51

[StephenB]

I've made some progress on mine, albeit slow progress.

I'm finding that smaller models don't necessarily equate to less building time, smaller parts need careful handling and the construction is a lot more "fiddly", this model being a case in point and where anomalies and missing information also lead to confusion. At least on my part!

The build log courtesy of Peter has been a godsend and I've used it as my reference, his idea of reinforcing the trailing edge is a clever and very useful modification. The strange triangular sub spar arrangement around the wing root is hard work and seems overly complicated when a single longer tapered sub spar may have done the job, I'm sticking to the plan but it's heavy going.

Some of the specified material sizes ar also a bit odd, for instance the spar webbing is specified as 1mm ply front and back full length of the wing - overkill? I have either 0.8mm or 1.5mm available to me so will use 0.8mm.

Here's where I'm at now:

Fuselage and tail feathers more or less completed:

First wing under construction:

[Peter Balcombe]

Well done Stephen, its looking good
Don’t worry about being too precious about wood sizes. I use the nearest equivalent of a similar wood type.
So for 1mm, use 0.8mm etc.
I’m sure that back in Cliff Charlesworth’s day, he would have used imperial sizes anyway!
Peter