Make yourself a kit.

[wonwinglo]

When embarking on either a plan or scratchbuild design have you ever thought of building your own kit ? by preparing all of the parts beforehand continuity and the planning of your model is much easier.

You can firstly trace all of the parts onto the required pieces of timber,by doing this all in one go alone will save you keep flitting to check things on the plan,any activity which involves going from cutting wood parts to tracing,or making up metal fittings etc is much easier to do with everything to hand,if you study the drawing above for a small electric biplane you will see that I have prepared all of the parts ready for assembly,it just takes a bit of planning to make sure things go smoothly.

Your wing ribs can be made as a batch by screwing blanks together with a piece of threaded rod,trap the ply templates at each end and carve the whole lot together,cut the respective slots and cross check with the necessary strip wood,here again it is much easier to do this as a block and make the necessary adjustments.

Fuselage doublers can be prepared and fitted,the formers cut to size and dry fitted to make any adjustments,building in this way can prove to be a real pleasure and sometimes iron out any problems before the adhesive is applied.Also if the model has sheeted tail surfaces these can be made up and cross braces added to avoid warps etc,all hinges worked out flat on the bench and the necessary sub assemblies added.

On this particular model the electric motor needed to be worked out as regards the space available for the batteries and radio,it is quite easy to phyically lay things in place and work out any modifications needed before the critical formers etc are added.

If you have not used this system before then give it a try next time that you build a new model,it has a lot to commend it,one of the best things for myself where this system scores is that I can do all of the messy sanding etc in the workshop shed and once everything has been lovingly prepared brought inside to be built up on the building board.

Model building brings with it simple disciplines and we all have our individual ways of doing things,I also like the idea of making up sets of parts like this for future building,parts can be placed into plastic bages (the sort with self locking tops are good) or card boxes,together with any plans,scale details etc ready for the day that you feel like some building.

[Guest]

Good Idea Wonwing,

In your picture there is an item which I assume is a wing tip. What is the apparent outline to this, balsa, cane?

I try to make "kits" when plan building, but not necessarily the whole model in one go.

As for ribs, being a "tight Tyke" I use a template to cut the ribs from a sheet and put them together for finish sanding. Spar slots are cut/filed out while the ribs are held as a block and. like yours, checked for size with the appropriate strip.

Malcolm

[wonwinglo]

Good Idea Wonwing,In your picture there is an item which I assume is a wing tip. What is the apparent outline to this, balsa, cane?

I try to make "kits" when plan building, but not necessarily the whole model in one go.

As for ribs, being a "tight Tyke" I use a template to cut the ribs from a sheet and put them together for finish sanding. Spar slots are cut/filed out while the ribs are held as a block and. like yours, checked for size with the appropriate strip.

Malcolm

*** Well spotted Malcolm,the outlines are made from either thick card or in this case balsa,three to four strips of 1=32nd by three sixteenth balsa strips are wound wet and left pinned overnight,the next day they are unpinned and then glued together,left to dry again and sanded,result one very strong and light wingtip,having used this on models from a few feet to several feet I can testify the bouncability !

Sometimes with larger models sets of parts made up like this are compromised and just say the essential formers,spine etc are kitted,the rest of the 'cut & try' bits are added as required,but still the semi kitting comes in useful.

I used to use reed cane steamed around a candle,you can still use this idea,go to a pound shop and buy a cheap Chinese mini blind,take it home and cut the braids which join the blind together,you will have enough material to last for years of model building.

I also like your idea of over-sizing the ribs and then finishing off after bolting together,I use threaded rod from a Meccano set for this.

Pre kitting is a good way also of maintaining interest in your subject,the sight of those nicely sanded bits makes you want to get on with the build.

[Guest]

Good post Barry,

My normal preferred way of working too, it's nice to get all the parts cut and done first so to speak and then just assemble afterwards.

Yes it does help maintain interest especially when you have all the parts to hand.

Regards.............Mark

[wonwinglo]

Good post Barry,My normal preferred way of working too, it's nice to get all the parts cut and done first so to speak and then just assemble afterwards.

Yes it does help maintain interest especially when you have all the parts to hand.

Regards.............Mark

*** Thanks Mark,this is one of those cases where something we take for granted ourselves is useful to others,it is all about the planning side,I think there is no doubt that some modellers work best in a chaos ! there cannot be one of us who at some time or another has not managed to quite complete a particular project through loosing interest or some obstacle that got in the way,another tip to maintain interest is to do a little on the model every day,even if it is just glueing a few bits or sanding a part down,it is all about continuity.

The one aspect that goes in scratch buildings favour is the ability to select just the timber quality required,something that kits can fall down badly on,how many times have we had the need to replace expensive wood to get the job done ? as you go along you learn the hard way and start to develop simple ideas that work with time.

[Guest]

*** Well spotted Malcolm,the outlines are made from either thick card or in this case balsa,three to four strips of 1=32nd by three sixteenth balsa strips are wound wet and left pinned overnight,the next day they are unpinned and then glued together,left to dry again and sanded,result one very strong and light wingtip,having used this on models from a few feet to several feet I can testify the bouncability !

I modified the rudder construction of the Tiger Moth I am building in this sort of way.

The plan shows a sheet rudder. I made a template from ply and formed four laminations of 3/16 x 1/16 balsa glued with PVA and taped to the ply using masking tape to make the rudder outline - it was a bit tricky to get the curve round the top.

When this was dry I built up the rudder with scale position "ribs" and the reinforcing members and covered the final assembly with Solartex.

The leading edge of the tailplane was made in the same manner - this was detailed on the plan and prompted me to try the technique - often used for lightweight wing tips on free flight models years ago - for the rudder.

For my money this produced a lighter, stronger unit with a more scale like appearance. I was very pleased with the result, which so far has stayed warp free.

Malcolm

[wonwinglo]

Thats the spirit Malcolm,it just takes the courage to experiment and try some of these ideas,just because a plan shows one way to do a job, it is not always the best approach,the Tiger Moth lends itself well to this type of construction on the tail surfaces. :welldone: