1/10th scale Blackburn Beverley.

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

You get a good idea of the shape in this picture of a rather unfortunate Bev, hope it help

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the picture, although, sad as it is to see a Beverley in such distress, it does help to show the shape of the cam shell doors. This caused me to dig out more photos which I printed off and spent much of the day gazing at them and remaking loads of patterns from cornflake boxes. I have concluded that most of the frames require either modification or remaking. The photo shows two of the frames (Fd2 & Fd3) with the patterns clamped to them to show you the extent of additions required. The No. Fd2 frames should really be remade, but I will look at glueing bits on to build them to their proper profile. I am not suggesting that today's effort will be 100% correct, but I am satisfied that the shape of the doors will be more acceptable. The rest of the frames will require some material removing to obtain the better profile, as per the ink lines drawn from my new patterns. You will also notice a little freehand on the Fd6 frames. I will re-cut one side then, when I am happy with the profile, make a pattern from it and transfer the shape across. It is clear to see that once again I got the horizontal frame slots all over the place on the existing frames. I'm blowed if I know how I make such cock ups, but most will be eradicated when I modify the frames, others will need bits gluing in when the other frames are fitted. Easy enough to do just a bit fiddly. A couple of the existing frames will need additions internally as the new shape will reduce their width.

Yawn!

I started the day by reshaping the front end of the ventral spine on these doors. The continuity of shape from the front half of the fuselage to the cam shell doors was a little awry. This took about three minutes to correct, very satisfying.

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Similar picture to yesterday's. This shows all the modifications now up to date. The shape is much better now, although probably not absolutely perfect. I doubt any one will notice once finished and painted?

This work took most of the day, it is very tedious to say the least, but I would not have been very happy to leave this part of the model as it was a couple of days ago. I know it is not the end of the world, but I have put a lot of time into this, not least the drawings which took several months to do, and even they are not quite complete.

I have made a few cock ups on the way so far, most of which have been easily rectified, I must eliminate this propensity by the time I start on the wings? Perhaps I should make all the wing components before assembly and carry out several dry runs, as I did with the main part of the fuselage?

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

My day was about five hours today, I usually do about six hours. I made all the horizontal frames for the cam shell doors and it now takes on a better overall shape. I will glue them in tomorrow, followed by much fiddling about to make good the small errors. Any strengthening stuff I will do at a later date. There is also the external shaping to do. Today's frames were made with 'natural curves' based on the grid, but parts of a couple of them will need to be convex rather than concave as they are at present. I thought it better to finish the curves in situ to match the shapes of the other frames. This is a very complicated set of curves with convex outline in one direction and concave in the other. This gave me headaches when I was doing the drawings, and clearly, they are wrong. I had a feeling that this part of the project was going to be difficult, I was right about that! I am less worried about the wings, but will need to do some job planning before I start on them. I need to design a methodology to ensure that cock ups occur less often! I have already decided that any cock up on the wings, no matter how small, will require remaking the part rather than repairing. Before the wings themselves, I will be making the tail plane and fins, so will get some practice on them!

I have a very good idea as to what I have to do, but any advice on wing building process will be welcome, just in case there is something that I have not thought about. It does not matter if you tell me something that I already am aware of.

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

I spent most of yesterday gluing up this part and repairing the cock ups. It has turned out remarkably well considering, these frames are very strong and quite ridged!! Today I found time to make the two "E" frames which are positioned ahead of the "F1" frame. You may notice a little bit of red stuff, I managed to nick my finger with a chisel, very careless!

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Today I cut all the "F" frames blanks. This is going to be fun to get right! There will be masses of jiggling and juggling to sort this out properly. The back end diminishes and changes shape and has to take the tail plane at the correct '0 degree' angle. I cannot promise that there will be no bad language and perhaps a bit of shouting at the model (It won't be my fault)! I will probably cut all the remaining frames (the "G" section) and finish the ventral spine so that I can fully dry fit this back end. I feel it a real possibility that several bits will need remaking. I suppose this is the scratch builders nightmare?

I am having to be a bit more careful now when moving this around the workshop, it is becoming very big.

[ian redshaw]

Coming on nicely Malcolm, it NEARLY looks beautiful! Very neatly done both in design and execution.

Ian.

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Hi Ian, It's nice to know that my project has one fan! Thanks for your support!

When I posted the previous picture, it came at the end of a day when I had cut the rear frame blanks, and I did a dry run, as I do, to get an idea of how it will fit together. It always looks like a lot has been done when we do this, but as ever, all the squaring up and preparations for other bits to fit takes more time with less to see for your efforts. Having decided how much to remove from the centre of the first few frames, and cut them out, it then took about 1.1/2 hours to place a few pencil marks on the edges where some longerons will go. I must say that I restrained myself from using well worn expletives to assist me. I feel that I will be able to cut the slots for these with confidence? This part of the rear end which is above the cam shell doors is the essential squaring element of the rear end. Much of my time has been absorbed into assessing what needs to be done to assure squareness. I have made some decisions and will set about this tomorrow. Once this section is glued up and square, the rest of the setting up will be much easier, although I have already spotted some potential errors, but as I said the other day, I am expecting the need to re-make a few bits at this end.

[DAVE JOHNSON]

Hi Malcolm--another fan here-- I always look forward to your daily updates---its coming along nicely---keep up the good work----DAVE

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

I think you have lots of fans, truly an outstanding scratch build,

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

Check the amount of viewers you have had, awsome!

[Alan Bithrey]

Looks very good to me too and a nice unusual subject. Keep up the good work!

Alan

[paul needham]

Check the amount of viewers you have had, awsome!

over 9000 views in just three months, that shows a lot of interest. Keep up the good work and the forum posts.

[Dave Collis 2296]

I, for one, am enjoying watching this project come together.

Well done, Malcolm.

Cheers,
Dave.

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

I am gob smacked that so many of you are interested in this project. It makes it all worthwhile, but I just hope I don't let you all down. Got the boss man watching as well, better behave myself!

I had some chores to do today, so had less time in the workshop, but as you can see from today's picture, I have been cutting the slots for the longerons to locate into. These are not 100% perfect, but are close enough to make little difference, and will need some slight jiggling in the pre-assembly dry run? The longerons will also need to be jointed, they are 3/8 x 1/4 spruce, the joints being 1/8 notches. This should provide some rigidity, but there will also be some diagonal braces throughout the full length of the rear end, which should eliminate any stresses from the large tailplane on the fuselage? I will make sure to photograph these when installing.

[David Brown]

I am really enjoying following your build Malcolm, my projects have come to a halt for now due to other workload, Keep up the good work.

Dave

[John Greenfield]

Malcolm

I would suggest that if you need to put diagonals in the tail boom for now to hold it straight, they along with an much other material as possible is removed as you put the sheeting on the boom as the sheeting itself will provide more than enough torsional strength and adding any additional material in that area (behind the CG) could make the model difficult to balance.
This would be a good point to discuss with your LMA inspector.

Enjoying the build log, keep up the good work.

John

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Thank you Dave and John for your comments.

With respect to fitting diagonal support to the boom, it seems to me that I may not need to do this. Even dry fitting the longerons does provide some rigidity. I am certain this will be good enough to set up the boom properly? You can see from the picture that the fairings will need a lot of fettling to get them to the correct shape. I may even need to glue on extensions to do this, we shall see as this can only really be determined by the "shutting one eye and tilting the head" method?

With regard to the balancing, no matter what I do, there will be extra weight needed at the front end. I am considering the possibility of building in some ballast compartments in the engine nacelles behind the bulkheads. Any thoughts on this idea? I imagine this will need to be done with care so that the nacelle/engine mounts are not compromised by too much weight, so the design will need to be robust.

The second picture shows the remainder of the frames for the boom. Some of them need some more joints cutting, I have yet to determine their correct positions. I think the G6 frame (the smallest) will need re-making, not bad considering I thought that several will need re-making, there were some alterations done to some frames though.

[John Rickett]

Malcolm,

If you need to add weight to balance, put it in the nose - as far forward as you can get it. Achieving the right CG is all about moments so if you put the weight in the engine compartments you will need much more weight than what you'd put in the nose.
Also if the weight is in the engine compartments this will add to the inertia of the wings, so far better to have it on the centreline.

[Phil Clark]

.....let alone the extra loads it will add to the wings structure. An extra couple of lb's per nacelle will add considerably to the twisting loads especially in the inevitable 'less then smooth' arrivals.

Phil