[Kedumba]

thanks for the info Mick.
I'm building a bandit from depron and I estimate that so far
it's cost me about $30. I won't have much left over so probably cost are
similar. You will end up buying covering material while I will be fibreglassing and painting mine.
Interesting comparing both methods.

What will be interesting to compare is the difference in flying characteristics of the depron to the balsa. I'm assuming the balsa will be heavier and so give a more stable flight at the expense of flight time due to higher battery drain and be less forgiving in a crash. I wonder if it would be possible to buld another plane from the same plans but do it in depron instead of balsa. Now that would be in interesting project!

[smuzz]

... I wonder if it would be possible to buld another plane from the same plans but do it in depron instead of balsa. Now that would be in interesting project!

What an excellent idea Mick - yes, it would be very interesting to see the differences. It's a very tempting project from that point alone.

[Drew]

My Great Planes PT20 was built similarly with full planking and turned out quite heavy. See Rob's and my other threads about cutting weight from the plane. We both cut out at least half the material with minimal loss in strength.

I re-covered in the HK covering film and I have heaps for patching wheras the supply from the LHS left me stretching to get all the spots I needed for a similar price.

[Kedumba]

My Great Planes PT20 was built similarly with full planking and turned out quite heavy. See Rob's and my other threads about cutting weight from the plane. We both cut out at least half the material with minimal loss in strength.

I recal looking at the pics of the plane that looked like swiss cheese! I don;t know if I want to be that drastic at this stage. I do want to try and get the model finished and flying then see what I want to do. I do have another set of free plans that I'm thinking about making as my next project.

As for the covering, I'm sure I'll get the HK stuff as it seems to be the cheapest, but they don;t have the off white/cream colour that I originally wanted so I'm thinking of doing a yellow/black scheme. That should make it pretty visible.

[Kedumba]

Hi All, Need some advice,
I think I'd like to go with this colour scheme for my plane:
   

Looking through the HK website, there are 2 silver covering films. No. 406 and No. 115. Can anyone suggest which one would be closest to the silver shown in the Pic?

Also, there is 2 different Reds as well, No. 101 - Carmine and No. 102 - Solid Bright Red. Which one would be closest to the one in the image? I think it's more of a Red Baron kinda red but I can't seem to work out which would be closest.

Also, How would I do the black lettering on the Fuse? is that some kind of sticker I can buy or can I get some kind of sticker roll thing and cut the letters out and stick them on?
Thanks
Mick

[smuzz]

Also, How would I do the black lettering on the Fuse? is that some kind of sticker I can buy or can I get some kind of sticker roll thing and cut the letters out and stick them on?

This is the only part I can comment on Mick. You could perhaps use "Letraset" lettering or similar - these are sold in newsagents/stationers and are often on a thin plastic sheet that you place over the surface and use a pen/pencil/whatever to rub across the upper side so that the lettering is detached and stuck on to whatever surface is underneath. You'd then give it a sealing spray of a matt varnish/lacquer and be done - but I wouldn't recommend that approach because you need to push quite hard onto a firm underlying surface to getting the lettering to transfer across and I think you'd damage your fuselage doing that. They also have a tendency to come off in pieces and leave little cracks through the lettering.

A better option if you've got a laser or inkjet printer is to get some water-slide decal paper and print your own designs. Once you've printed it, give it two or three coats of a spray-on matt varnish/lacquer (available at Bunnings), then cut them out and slip them into a saucer of water to release the transfer and activate the glue - just like we used to do with Airfix kits all those years ago. This gives you more flexibility because you can choose the font, size and colour. There is only one limitation - you can't create light coloured decals (white, yellow, orange, etc) and stick them on to dark undersurfaces because they can't be seen - the decals are translucent. It's fine to put a light colour on to a white wing/fuselage, or a dark colour on to say, a red fuselage - but we tried putting some orange decals onto a black fuselage during the week and they simply disappeared.

The water-slide A4 sheets can be had on eBay - I got some from a seller in Melbourne (I think) called "CrystalMoonlight". She has some available now ...
http://shop.ebay.com.au/crystalmoonlight04/m.html
... but you might find some locally instead. Notice that there's two types, one for laser printers the other for inkjets.
Have fun!
Steve

[Kedumba]

Some more build pics

Doing the rear deck stringers and then a dry fit mock up of the plane. I've also done a few close-ups of the wing attachment. It's a clever comination of wire loop and wing skids/clevis connections which will allow the wing to attach/detach quickly and easily.

Next step will be doing the Engine firewall, mounting the engine and making/fitting the cowel. Then starting to fit all the electroncs, servos etc.

[paulj]

Doing a great job with that build Mick.
Looking forward to seeing it fly.

[Kedumba]

Doing a great job with that build Mick.
Looking forward to seeing it fly.

Thanks, I can't wait to see it fly either. Just hope I don;t go in nose first on the maiden!. It's been a very educational exerience so far, and very enjoyable.

[Kedumba]

Not much has been happening on the build lately due to christmas and other silly season activities however I have fitted the servo tray and then fitted the servos, RX, ESC and other bits. Motor is in place and Cowel(spelling??) has been started. Fixed the servo's into the wing and made a start with the covering. After covering the tail, rudder, evelators, ailerons I have come to the conclusion that I suck at covering

[robair]

Gday Mick

I'd be happy to help out if you like, I love covering, it's when your collection of balsa becomes an aircraft. Very satisfying.

Cheers
Rob B

[Omarko]

pretty amazing ... would love to do something similar one day ... great job, keep it up !

[smuzz]

Good going Mick - don't hesitate to put some extra heat on the wrinkly patches there, you'll be surprised at what can be made to disappear with a little extra heat, just using the toe of the iron. Looking good mate!

[Kedumba]

Thanks for the replies, it is a confidence booster. I am really looking forward to finally finishing this project. When I started, I didn't realise actually how much work was really in it, not that I mind, I was just thinking maybe a week or so and it'll be ready for it's maiden, and here we are almost 3 months later and still going

The end IS in sight though. I've just gotta finish covering the other half of the wing then I can start to finish the fuse. This is gonna involve making the bottom of the fuse with 2 hatches in it, one for the lipo bay and one for the rx bay, aligning and gluing the A-Frame and upright supports in place and finally covering it.

Next I gotta finish the motor cowling, this is just essentially lots of sanding to get it into the right shape then covering.

Finally, making up the landing gear struts and attaching the wheels, then mounting the whole thing to the fuse.

Then it'll be all the last minute bits, like attaching control horns and other linkages and she'll be ready for it's maiden.

Oh, One question, Does anyone have any suggestions about what to do for a tailwheel. I've looked on the hobbyking sight and the ones they have seem mostly too large, ie for larger planes.

Thanks
Mick

[smuzz]

I've got some small tail-wheels lying about here - sizes from about 12mm dia to about 20mm dia, let me know what size you'd prefer and I'll see if I've got one in amoungst my collection.
Happy N/Y!
Steve

[Kedumba]

Just a little more update. It's slow going mostly due to a bad spot on my roster where I'm working a bunch of really wicked shifts (which is why I've not been down to the field since christmas ) but it's getting there.

Wing is finally finished and hinged, servo's connected and is all ready to go. Few what I hope to be minor problems were found, mostly with the hinging but we'll see how that goes.

After covering the main wing, and the tail, I have come to the conclusion that Covering model airplanes is an activity not designed for motral men. It is a tool of the devil designed to drive men insane . Any person who claims to be able to cover an airplane must only be able to do so by invoking the mystic dark arts and therefore must be branded a witch and burned at the the stake!!!!!

Next step is to glue and hopefully align the wing support struts. Then time to start work on the bottom of the fuse.

Basically cut the pattern out, and make a couple of hatches, one for the RX/Servo bay and one for the Battery bay.

Make the undercarridge by bending wire to shape and soldering. Seems to be ok.

Finally Glue the bottom of the fuse onto the plane and wait for it to dry. After which I'll be able to start covering the fuse, attach the tail and undercarridge it'll be mostly finished.

[Kedumba]

Another Update. After much cursing, gnashing of teeth and hair pulling, the Fuse is finally finished being covered.

Next, the various peices of the tailplane is glued into position and hinged, control horns screwed into place and control lines attached.

Cowling is also finished with a dummy motor glues into place. I found a cowling for a "Yellow Bee" in HobbyCo in the city for $4.95 which had this dummy engine on it. Pry it off and it's pretty much a perfect fit!

Undercarridge is also fitted although I didn't get any pics of that yet. The plane is amlost finished now. All that remains to do is fashion some way of holding th hatches in place underneath the plane and figure out how to stop the battery bouncing around the battery compartment. Once those two things are done, It just needs some final trimming and it'll be ready for it's maiden!

[Kedumba]

Hooray!! It's finally Finished ... I think

I'm sure I'll think of something else that needs to be done to it but I think I'm ready to tune it in, adjust the throws and give it a maiden!

I still find it hard to believe that I started with a pile of balsa from Bunnings:    

and after much glueing, cutting, slicing and a lot of lessons learned, to end up with this:    

Hopefully this will be the final set of pics to be posted, unless the maiden results in a spectacular fail!

[Drew]

Mick,

That looks like a beatiful job. If the evidence of the dodgy stuff I cut out of depron is any indication, this shoud have no problems flying beautifully.

Just make sure that you don't get impatient and wait until you can bring it to the field and check the controls thoroughly with a second pair of weye before the first chuck - ask me hoew I know .

[smuzz]

Echo Drew's comments - it does look the business. Good luck with the maiden!

[kizza42]

Wait, I have carbon rods for you in my boot, shouldn't they be in the wing!?

[Kedumba]

Wait, I have carbon rods for you in my boot, shouldn't they be in the wing!?

Those carbon rods were supposed to be the wing struts. I've used 2mm piano wire for them but I'll replace those with the carbon ones once I get them, that will save a few grams in weight.

Speaking of weight, I've no idea of the final weight as I don't have scales sensitive enough to weight it. All I can say is that it weighs more than 700 grams and less than 800.

[samste]

Looks very Nice mick, Great job.
Looking forward to seeing it Fly.

Steve

[paulj]

Nice job Mick
Looking forward to seeing it fly

[Kedumba]

Nice job Mick
Looking forward to seeing it fly

Looks very Nice mick, Great job.
Looking forward to seeing it Fly.

Steve

Thanks Guys, So am I, although I must admit I am a little bit worried about the first flight.... Something about all those hours work I put into it only to watch it plummit nose first into the swamp or worse.....

Still, I am looking forward to hopefully see it fly....
Mick