Scale Soaring UK

Last night I was contemplating how I was going to stabilise the tailplane system over a glass of Scottish amber thinking juice when I came up with an idea. I have initially stabilised the tubes running through the fuselage that carry the tailplane rotational rod and the crank. I did this by levering them into the desired position and carefully locking them in place with cyano. I then cut two small squares of sheet brass drilled with holes which would be an interference fit for the rotational rod. The rod was then given a coat of Vaseline, slid into place and the brass pivot plates slid into place and glued with epoxy.
When dry the rod was removed with a pair of pliers and cleaned up. The result is that the tailplane assembly is nice and solid with no slop or excess movement in any direction. Once again RESULT!
I have also filled in the hole in the fuselage which gave access to the crank. Finally the balsa patch and the tail skid area have been given a coat of filler ready for final sanding.
Brian.

Having tidied up all my kit after returning from the Leek and Moorland Scale Bash and since I have a few days before I disappear to polar bear land I have started work on the over-wing fairing. The existing fairing was made from ¼ ply crutch and 1/64 birch ply and it was showing signs of its age. I decided to reuse the timber crutch and form a new aluminium skin. I used the existing skin as a template and marked up a sheet of 1mm aluminium. This was cut to shape with a pair of tin-snips. I then spent a productive hour or so starting the bending process. The metal is starting to harden and be a little more uncooperative so I will anneal it by heating it up with a small blowtorch and that should make it a bit more malleable.
Brian.

I have been doing a bit of “blacksmithing” on the over-wing fairing and have now got a pretty good fit over the wings. It took a bit of bending and trimming to get the aluminium worked into the correct shape and it will still require a little fettling before it can be painted. It has been a long time since I did any metal bashing but it proved to be quite satisfying.
Brian.

I have now returned from polar bear land but have been too busy with harvest to do much on the Oly. I did however manage to fit in a couple of hours on the over-wing fairing. The bending and shaping is now complete and there is a good fit to the fuselage/wing/canopy areas. A couple of coats of filler primer and two coats of colour sees the fairing finished and good to go.
Brian.

I had an hour to spare this morning so I decided to get the “Goose” moving forward again. I cut the 49gm/m2 glass cloth to size and set it over the right side of the fuselage. Epoxy resin was applied with a mini gloss-paint roller which does a good job of getting the resin through the cloth and into the underlying structure without adding excessive weight. Hopefully tomorrow I will find a little more time to get the other side covered as well.
Brian.

I have now returned from a road trip round the southern extremities of England searching for my wife’s ancestors. None of them are still living so unfortunately tea and scones were not on the agenda.

During the time that I was away the glass and epoxy covering that I put on the fuselage had hardened up nicely. This afternoon I got cracking with the 180 grit wet and dry and a new tin of elbow grease. I was only aiming to remove the very top surface of the covering and get the surface nice and smooth. Once it is all rubbed back I will be adding a further coat of thinned epoxy followed by further rubbing back to get a finish suitable for primer.
Brian.

The rubbing back of the glass and epoxy fuselage surface is now complete and the tin of elbow grease is now pretty much empty.
I have applied the covering to the front under skid using Diacov and it looks fine. The next task is to get the fuselage into paint. I will have to wait for a dry and fairly calm day before I can hang it up outside and get a coat of primer applied.
Brian.

In this last week I have finally got the fuselage into paint, however it fought me every inch of the way.
I stared with the grey primer which went on quite easily. However when you apply a surface primer it tends to show all the bits that still need sanding and filling followed by a touch up of primer.

I found rattle-cans of gloss which looked to be very close to the colour which was on the fuselage when I got it. I hung it up outside and sprayed on a mist coat and then a flow coat of the gloss blue. When I returned an hour later I was dismayed to find that the gloss coats had reacted with the underlying paint leaving me with a crackle finish. Understandably I was not pleased.

When I got the fuselage sanded down again I sprayed some more gloss on the fin which promptly reacted once again. B****r!
24 Hours on I decided to go down the route that I used with my big Dart model – household gloss paint! When I was building the Dart I decided to use household gloss, against much advice, as I had become allergic to rattle-can spray. It turned out very well and I have received many compliments about the finish over the years.

I took a sample of the fuselage covering that I had kept for a reference to B&Q and asked them to scan it and mix me a litre of gloss. I hung up the fuselage in the garage and using a small gloss paint roller I covered the fuselage with a very thin coat of paint. I then immediately dry brushed it along its length with a very broad, fine Sable brush. 24 hours later I applied a second coat in the same manner. The result is very satisfactory.
Brian.

Looks fantastic Brian, and I’m sure more realistic than a perfectly sprayed finish. Enjoying following this thread.
Rog

I think I will follow your lead and use gloss for the Slingsby Sky refurb. The blue finish that you have on the fuselage looks very good.

Mike