1/6 Slingsby T21 - Jilles Smits

[Brian Taylor]

Thanks for the information Ted, I will certainly opt for using 0.6mm ply.
Looking forward to seeing your finished T21.
Brian

[Wayne]

Well its 2024, happy new year to everyone, I've had a very busy 2023 with no notable building achieved on the T21 however now I have finished decorating for "her indoors who must be obeyed" and will be heading for my building bunker to continue working on the T21 for a few weeks.
I am still enjoying the build even with the niggles and all so having set it out on the workbench and reviewing my last notes it looks like I'll be shaping the main leading edge and then the outer wings, I will post some photos when I start working again hopefully later this week.
One thing noted though, it is a 1/16th scale which I think is the same scale size as an action man however the action man I had sat on the shelf intended to be utilised as a pilot appears to be a little on the large size, not wanting to spend a fortune on a pilot I was wondering if anyone has an alternative suggestion for a pilot, doesn't have to be too realistic as long as it looks OK, your thoughts ?

[Wayne]

Oh dear, looks like I've misplaced my shaping planer so have ordered a new one which should arrive soon.
In the meantime I've made up the 2 windscreens from a well known plastic fizzy drink bottle.
I traced out the flat shape of the screen from the plan, marked around it on the plastic bottle and cut it out, I then took my soldering iron and caerfully run it across the edges to create a knurled edge, I then used some electrical cable, think it was 3mm and pinned one end to a block of wood, pulled it tight and used a modeling knife to carefully cut a slit along its length then pulled out the conducting cable leaving just the plastic sleeving which I then used to clip over the edges of the windscreen.

I was quite pleased with the first attempt however I knew I could do a better job so set about the same process and made 2 more (see photos).
Once completed I ran some cyno along the edges for a permanent fix.
I'll afix them both to.the fusealarge with some 5 min epoxy when installing them.

[Wayne]

Still waiting for the new planer to arrive so I decided to spend some time making up the wing tip blocks, again i traced out the wing tip shape from the plan and used as a reference, I used 2 pieces of squire balsa and glued n clamped overnight.
I find that doing these little jobs utilises my time when waiting for other things I.e. waiting for some section that needs time to dry/bond or parts etc to arrive in the post.
I find that this also speeds up the finishing process as everything seems to come together quite quickly, that said I am conscious that this build is taking quite some time, it will get the, eventually

[Wayne]

Ok so my new hand planer arrived and I've profiled the main wing leading edge and given the rest of the wing a light sanding so almost ready for sealer and covering.
The main wing outer sections have still to be finished with the top and bottom sheeting which I'll focus on later this is because while waiting fir delivery of my new hand planer I made good use of the time and started to ply sheet the fusealarge cockpit outter skin and is still in progress and it's looking good, I first marked cut out some paper templates from A4 sheet of paper to test fit, not exact but more for the correct angles, I then transferred the template to 0.4mm plywood sheet and cut out, test fit, trimmed where needed,pinned in place then glued with tightbond PVA and left overnight to dry, still a few sections to cover but it's looking good.

[Wayne]

UPDATE:
Today I've just finished all of the 0.4mm plywood covering, profiled to the nose cone and lightly sanded ready for covering.

I chose to use 3mm plywood stiffener to the inside of the cockpit sides and make then fully to the shape of the sides as this gives it a real stiffness and will look grest when finally painted matt green same as the rest of the cockpit.

[Wayne]

One more photo:
Takes time to ensure the underwing profile is correct for the centre tower but looks great when done.

[mchandrayan]

Good progress and looking good

[Wayne]

More progress:
Rear fusealarge covered, next stage is to finish sanding a few filler spots on the underside of the cockpit and finish covering.

[Wayne]

Fusealarge covering completed and ready for painting.
Note:
I also covered the nosecone as this is made from a printed plastic so the Oracover bonds to it well with the heat from the covering iron and should provide a continuous contour between the front cockpit plywood and nose cone as the colour scheme will be yellow for all the plywood area.