Scale Soaring UK

H Roger, Elliot was as he admits lucky that the spinner fitted the nose of the glider so well.

Often the taper of the nose is completely different to any spinner on the market,or the taper on top of the nose is different to the taper on the bottom. Or its just not symmetrical at all. The Tangent Alpina for an instance has quite a pointed top to the nose which makes for a very oval hole when you first cut it off. The way to help this fit a round spinner is to heat the nose area at the point of connection in very hot water(not boiling but too hot to bear ones hands into it)
Keep dipping the model into the water slowly and carefully, allowing the in-water time to slowly increase until the nose material becomes pliable but not soft.
Then with a selected glass bottle such as a small coke bottle ease it into the inside of the nose so that it takes on the roundness of the bottle. Be careful not to over distort but to just alter the shape from oval to round.
If one is super clever they can have the motor mount close and before the material is completely cooled the motor mount can be fitted into position which will also help the nose to hold its new shape until cooled.
Always allow to cut back to the desired diameter of the spinner rather then working without any leeway for final fitting.

Finally do not use a heat gun as it is too hot with too wide a heat source for this exercise. Ter.

Thanks fellas, Roger, you obviously have a gift

Terry, thanks for that, next model will probably get a torcman prop driver - so no nose cutting! however the warm water technique will see the light of day here in west Wales...

Cheers, Ell.

I guess I was lucky, in that the Roedell Ventus nose was close to circular at the spinner junction and Terry's advice could come in handy if I try on another model.

The Ash was far from round, I had to convince it using the former and a draw bolt arrangement whilst the epoxy set. Next time I'll get the kettle out.