92" Miles hawk Speed 6

[Phil Clark]

After about 3 months working my way through multiple moulding projects (mainly for Jerry Bates) and 25+ cowling orders.......I'm taking a little 'time out' and doing some finishing for a little light relief!!! I hope to have this complete & test flown in time to fly it at a few events later in the summer (Please Harry & Co, can I come & join in!!!)

This comes in the form of painting my Dad's 92" Miles Hawk Speed 6 which I promised him I'd do well over 6 months ago . This has been a long term project for him based on a 10% enlargement of the Philip Kent plan. The airframe is all traditionally built up before being covered in SIG Koverall with Skycraft fabric cement & dope. Wheel trousers, cowl & canopy have all been moulded from scratch.

Power is coming from a DA50 with a 'Toni Clark' canister muffler (built from one of his kits of parts). Oleo struts are from Unitracts & vintage wheels from Williams Brothers.

Following 6 coats of thinned non shrinking dope to fill the fabric weave, the whole airframe was primed in cellulose (grey under the black and white under the cream). Colours are all Warbirdcolors water based (RAF Black & RFC Linen). Nigel at Flightline Graphics has as ever done a lovely job on the masks . The clear coat has yet to be decided on.....I'll be using Klass Kote but as yet are undecided on satin of full gloss. The full-size is full gloss, but I sometimes feel models can look a little toy like of full gloss

A few photos of the progress so far.........

[Phil Clark]

Close up's of the wing oil tank, trouser detail & the polished lithoplate dummy wing fuel filler caps...............

[Phil Clark]

Markings going on.............

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

lovely machine Phil, one of my favs, i flew for years an enlargment of the 66"version, the designer escapes me, mine was 88", power was one of the original 120 fourstrokes, the first one, wth the separate rocker housings, it was easily enoughpower hence the next quetion, DA 50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its a Kings cup racer old boy, (period talk)not a reno racer, wont alf go though

[Phil Clark]

Dad isn't the lightest builder in the world .......this was originally ZG38 powered, but when he discovered it was going to come in at 26-27lb, we decided it may need a little more uummpphhh to be comfortable.............

A 38 only just fitted with a 90 degree bend with the engine rotated a few degrees off the inverted.....a 45 would have been ample but wonlt fit hence the DA50 which is a lot slimmer for the narrow nose.

Phil

[Andy Boylett]

Nice Phil. Do you make your own lettering masks? Or do you get these from somewhere?

[Simon Willey]

Nice Phil. Do you make your own lettering masks? Or do you get these from somewhere?

If you read the whole post Andy you would not need to ask this question

Si

[Andy Boylett]

Cheers Simon, missed that!

[Simon Willey]

Cheers Simon, missed that!

No probs mate glad to help

Si

[Phil Clark]

A little more progress on the fuselage.........just the fuz registration and canopy frame to do and I can start looking at fitting all of the st/st fixings in the fairings & various air intakes before final prep for clear coat.

Phil

[Ted Oram]

Nice work Phil......I am just about to start building the 1/4 scale version of this aircraft......I have the part laser cut kit from Sparc laser here in Australia. I have managed to find a number of photos of this aircraft but no close up detail shots.....do you know of a photo pac that is available?...or have you taken your own photos?.....I would be happy to purchase same from you if that would be possible.

Cheers
Ted Oram

[Phil Clark]

Nice work Phil......I am just about to start building the 1/4 scale version of this aircraft......I have the part laser cut kit from Sparc laser here in Australia. I have managed to find a number of photos of this aircraft but no close up detail shots.....do you know of a photo pac that is available?...or have you taken your own photos?.....I would be happy to purchase same from you if that would be possible.

Cheers
Ted Oram

Hi Ted

If you are building from cut parts from the Phil Kent plan......best of luck, the plan unfortunately contains a fair few errors both with the fuselage top deck formers as well as a number of wing ribs. The errors were magnified as this is a 10% enlargement, so yours may not be as bad.

Traplet Publications do a photo CD which is at best reasonable......................depends how far you want to take the detailing. I also have a recent copy of 'Flying Scale Models' magazine which has an excellent article on the Speed 6 with several pages of close up photos. Once this project is complete, you're more than welcome to the magazine, just e-mail me your address to phil@fighteraces.co.uk

More progress today.................

Fuselage registration lettering now complete..........as this was cream over black, I opted to give the masks a dust over in white primer 1st to give a lighter base colour to work over, hence only 2 coats of cream were required in the end. As the base colour is black, all mask edges were blown in with black 1st to seal them........then followed 2 dust coats of the white primer with a light flat back between coats, then 2 coats of the WBC cream.......job done & not a single bleed.

Phil

[Ted Oram]

Hi Phil.....your kind offer of the mag is much appreciated....I will contact you via email with an address. Traplet have an outlet here in Aus so I will contact them re the photo pac...every bit helps.
As far as the plan abnormalities go, Sparc Laser have done...according to their instructions....quite a few mods to the parts to make everything fit better and and have also changed some material sizes......time will tell of course.

Yours is looking great

Cheers
Ted Oram

[Phil Clark]

Been in metal work mode over the last few weeks with 3 st/st muffler systems on the go.........the system for the DA50 in the Miles being one of them.

Fabricated from various st/st parts available from Toni Clark.......it's been a bit of a fiddle to get it all inside the slim cowl, but baring a couple of small mounting brackets on the main can & a coat of high temp exhsut paint, we're all done.

Phil

[Phil Clark]

Mounting brackets now added.................

[Phil Clark]

In preparation for adding the water slide 'Miles Hawk' logos (supplied by Nigel @ Flightline Graphics), the necessary areas of the fuselage were given a coat of 'Gloss' Klass Kote clear. From past experience, if water slides are applied over a matt or satin surface, the clear backing looks a little 'silver' which ruins the look of the decal. Applied over a gloss (smooth) surface, the silvering is dramatically reduced giving the decal a more painted on appearance.

Left to cure overnight, the 2 decals were applied this afternoon..................

[Ted Oram]

Good to see you back on the build Phil........looking really nice

Cheers
Ted Oram

[GordonTarling]

Can't think why you didn't just paint those on by hand! It looks a lovely model, Phil. I've seen the fullsize flying several times at various 'shows' - Roger Mills does a great job of showing it.

[Phil Clark]

Job done..........

Klass Kote clear coat arrived Friday, so we'll be in spraying mode next week.

[Phil Clark]

Whilst in tin bashing mode over the last few weeks, a duplicate of the muffler system produced 18 months ago for the 3W 110cc in-line twin has been done. The original was intended for the Flying Legends 1/4 scale Spit (The one currently for sale by John Sangster here on the LMA site).......this one is destined for a CompARF P-51D.

Fabricted from Toni Clark parts (80mm dia main body, pressed end caps, 2 x internal baffles and the main 25mm diameter 90 degree pipe). The only non TC parts are the two 90 degree 'KS' bends used for the main manifold, plus 2 hand cut manifold plates.

Phil