Scratch Built 1:5 ASW 17

[Brian Sharp]

Rudder built, shaped and sanded today. The glass cloth was cut to rough shape and epoxied to one side of the fuselage, fin and rudder. It is currently lying setting off and will hopefully get trimmed tomorrow afternoon.
Brian S.

[Brian Sharp]

The fuselage has now been fully glassed, and I have spent the last few days with sanding block and wet/dry grit. I can only do about an hour at a time as the tendonitis in my elbow gives me hell if I try to do more. At that point I usually resort to a small glass of Scottish falling down water.
I have now added the plywood nose profile and have attached a suitable chunk of lead to each side. This will be covered up with a goodly layer of UPOL filler and then ground down to an appropriate profile. At that point I will give the whole fuselage a thin skim-coat of the same filler to get rid of all the lumps, bumps, and inconsistencies.
I assembled the whole airframe this afternoon to check for alignment before I go any further with the finishing process. I was pleasantly surprised to find that everything fits pretty well, and all the surfaces are square to each other. Happy Days!
Brian S.

[Jolly Roger]

Looks great Brian!

[Philkiteflyer]

Nice assembly of balsa wood you have there, maybe just leave it finished like that ??
But wheres the tow release going to go?

Phillip C
New Zealand

[Brian Sharp]

Thanks for the comments guys.
Phillip, no tow release on this one - it will be for the slope only. Picture if you will - sitting on a Scottish hillside on a nice summer day with a blue sky and little thermals popping through. By the way Phillip, do you know a couple of my flying mates in NZ - Stu Ward up in Pukekohe and Allan Knox down in Christchurch?
Brian S.

[Brian Sharp]

The fuselage does not look so pretty now! I have filled in the noseblock areas with UPOL filler and applied a skim coat of filler all over the fuselage forward of the rear of the wing mountings. Aft of that, the fuselage has been painted with a very thin layer of filler slurry. This slurry will fill all the minor discrepancies in the surface as well as any remaining glass cloth weave. Hopefully when cut back with wet/dry grit (used wet) I should achieve a paint ready finish.
I will cut back the forward fuselage with; first of all a razor plane to reduce the filler layer, then a palm sander to get the correct shape and then 240 grit wet/dry for the final finish. This will take a day or two but hopefully I should produce a decent finished surface.
Brian S.

[Philkiteflyer]

Thanks for the comments guys.
Phillip, no tow release on this one - it will be for the slope only. Picture if you will - sitting on a Scottish hillside on a nice summer day with a blue sky and little thermals popping through. By the way Phillip, do you know a couple of my flying mates in NZ - Stu Ward up in Pukekohe and Allan Knox down in Christchurch?
Brian S.

Hi Brian, I know of Allan Knox but have not met him- yet. I have not been to Pukekohe flying so don't now Stu though I may have read his name in various forums.
As for imagining a nice sunny Scottish summer - I would guess its a bit like here in Southland - Very scarce . . .

Phillip C
Invercargill/Coordinates
46.4179° S, 168.3615° E
New Zealand

[Brian Sharp]

In the last couple of days I have finished rubbing down the layer of filler on the fuselage, it will still get a further rub down with 400 grit before priming but it is pretty much done.
I have built the canopy frame and have spent a pleasant afternoon creating the instrument binnacle and the instrument panel. These have been temporarily tacked in place to check the general fit. I have also cut the front and rear sections off the canopy glazing and set it place on the fuselage to check the lines and it looks pretty much Ok to me.
Brian S.

[Brian Sharp]

I finally got some time today to do some more work on the 17.

The canopy frame is now completed with a simple peg at the front and a couple of 8mm disk magnets at the rear to hold it in place. The instrument panel and the binnacle that houses it are now glued in place and filler smoothed in round the edges.

I decided to kit out the cockpit with some of the basics such as the seat, panier control panels, cockpit lining and a mount for the receiver. All of these were fabricated from 1/32 ply and balsa before finishing with sanding sealer, ready for paint. At 1/5 scale there is not a lot of room in the cockpit, so the receiver is going to be mounted on a plywood plate on the roof of the fuselage, directly behind the cockpit, and held in place with Velcro and a Velcro strap.

Brian S.