1/6 Slingsby T21 - Jilles Smits

[Cliff Evans]

Looking good Ted.

[Wayne]

Thanks Cliff
Today I've applied the first 2 coats of colour to the underside of the fusealarge and pin holed where the Skid will be fixed so I don't loose them when I've added the final coat of colour needed otherwise the jointing lines and other blemishes will show through the clear Oracover.
I have also sourced a pilot, needs some sunglasses and maybe a hat but should look OK.
The colour scheme is loosely based on refurbished T21 (see photo).

[Wayne]

Mist coated fusealarge side and installed the laminated plywood skid..

[Wayne]

Fusealarge colour scheme finished.

[Wayne]

Now the fusealarge is complete apart from some touching up in the cockpit and installation of the windscreens made earlier, I've turned my attention to the main wing centre section, a lot of final sanding where the ribs meet the trailing edge.
Considering the ribs have a concurve tother undersides I was intending to use Balsaloc to provide additional bonding however having done some reseach I came across another technic that other builders have been using which was Hi-tac all purpose glue available from Amzon so decided to test it out first before going ahead, to my surprise when I tested on a scrap of balsa and ironed on a piece of Oracover and left overnight when I pulled the Oracover away as I expected the bond to the balsa was OK however where the Hi-tech glue was it pulled the balsa off so I decided to use this on the undersides of the ribs and trailing edges, my technic was to apply it undiluted, a thin layer and just smeard with a finger, then apply the covering straight away firstly running the iron along the ribs before shrinking the sections between the ribs, so far I am pleased with the results.

[Wayne]

Today's activities:
Finished covering top of centre wing section and pleased with the results, started to mask up for painting however I ran out of masking tape so no more progress today.
Earlier I test fitted the pilot (I'll give him some goggles and a hat later) only to discover that the location of the elevator servo leaves the pilot sitting too high , I would say the same for the rudder servo too but I only plan to have a single pilot so I'll need to relocate the elevator servo back behind the cockpit rear wall, in hindsight I would have preferred to have the option at the outset of the build so I could have located the servos accordingly, in the interim I removed the elevator servo and test fit the pilot which now looks correct, oh dear another deviation.

[Jilles]

Hi Ted
following your thread of the T21 closely of the 1:6 scale of my design. You doing a great job.
You make changes as you go. That is fine by me , every builder will apply his own preferences as long as it does not reduces the structural integrety.
The rudder and elevator servo were located in the cockpit area for easy access and reducing the nose weight to balance the plane
With the relative short nose a lot of ballast will be required , so it helps to have as much as possible of hardware already in the front.
Judging from the picture I would say the pilot is a bit to small in size, but one uses what is avaialble. In the real thing pilots did not have that much room to move.
Cheers
Jilles Smits

[Wayne]

Hi Jilles
Yes I fully understand why the Servo hardware is laid out to reduce COG ballist, however with the design layout I don't think it possible to get a 1/6 scale pilot in 12inch in old money, so I have opted for a 10inch pilot which is slightly under scale but still tight and I think it looks near to scale.
I'm relocating the elevator servo back behind the cockpit wall to accommodate the pilot and allowed for a bit more church roof up front.
I've just completed the main wing section colouring and am pleased with the results.

[Wayne]

Time to.make up the instrument panel, it's not going to be perfection but a little detail is better than none.

[Wayne]

Just finishing profiling the outer wing sections ready to install the wingtips, covering, ailerons and paint, then we should be ready for test flight prior to maiden.