Robert Ball - Page 4
June 25, 2020
I can never build a project without causing myself some grief...after pulling the canopy from the mold and setting it in place on the fuselage I discovered I’d cut the cockpit opening too far forward...sheesh...easy to fix but self caused pain.
I turned next to completing the vertical stab fairing. I cut the airfoil shape out of three blocks then cut the blocks at an angle to match the sweep of the stab.
Then I removed as much material as I could with the band saw then rough sanded, ending up with this.
Here I’m finished with the spackle and have sanded to shape. I’m quite happy with the result.
Up next will be forming the air inlets on either side of each nacelle.
June 27, 2020
It’s time to add the nose cone. The cone is carved out of a single block of balsa. I scribed around the former f1 then cut outside the lines with a bandsaw. The block was marked for top and sides for orientation. After the first cut the block was tack glued together and the side profile was cut out.
After glueing the block on to the fuselage I wrapped painters tape around the forward end of the fuselage to protect it while sanding the block to shape.
To help with getting the cone symmetrical I made up two templates, one horizontal and one vertical, then carefully sanding I worked the cone into shape.
Realizing I was getting off center I scribed a centerline on the block then adjusted my sanding to bring the block symetrical.
Here is the final result...I’m pleased with the outcome!
This afternoon I worked on blocking in the top of the rudder and vertical stab, then added the blocking to the bottom of the rudder to fair it in.
A sandwich of 1/2” thick plank and a core of 1/16” balsa sheet was used. The center 1/16” sheet was edge marked with a black marker before glueing together, this gave me a distinct center to sand to.
The result seems to mimic the real aircraft.