Bucker Student

[Bob Thompson1894]

Scary thing Robert, is I genuinely have no recollection of ordering the plans whilst in hospital . Likewise family and friends visiting. I had to apologise for anything I may have said while off my head on "class A".

Apparently I was quite entertaining.

Thats a great plan/excuse for buying stuff online. "Sorry dear, I simply cant remember ordering that...- its the meds"

[Dougie Sheppard]

Almost as good as "look what I won in the raffle, dear" for swap meets and auctions, Bob.

[Dougie Sheppard]

Next up is the fuselage. This is the first model I've worked on where the centre section (cockpit) is built first and everything hangs off of that.
Again, it went together very easily with the formers and wing mounting points being glued up with 30 min epoxy and left overnight to cure

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The plans called for "hardwood U/C mounting blocks, however Jerry boy had not specified what type of hardwood to use. A trip to a local timber merchant had sourced an off cut of seasoned mature English oak which they sized for me.
I cut the first section to the correct length which cost me a blade on my jigsaw. Bloody tough stuff! I had to break subsequent cuts into increments to allow the saw blade to cool between cuts!
I almost killed my router cutting the slots for the U/C wires and if my milling machine had been working I'd have milled the slots!
Finally it was into the pillar drill to drill the pilot holes for the mounting screws as there was no way the screws would have had any chance of cutting their own holes.
They were then fitted to the wing mounting points with 30 min epoxy and left overnight to cure.

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An aside, wood should be a soft enough material to be worked with wood working tools and not require metal working tools. The English among us should remember that when growing your oak! End of rant.

The remaining formers in the cockpit area were fitted and everything was given a couple of coats of grungrau using Humbrol authenticolour whilst I had easy access. The front of the fuz was then constructed directly onto the center section.

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As the fuel gauge is a brass pipe sticking out of the top of the fuz directly in front of the forward cockpit and from what I've seen from the limited photos available, no two BU180's were exactly the same, depending on what the client wanted. Some had a recessed fuel cap covered with a flap and some had a brass filler cap sitting proud of the fuz skin.

I've not decided what I'm going to finish this one as, I only know it will NOT be D-ELIO as that is the one every other model I've seen has been finished as. (That's the reg' markings shown on the plan.)

With that in mind and not wanting to drill through an un-supported longeron, I beefed this area up with some scrap balsa.
The tray to support the fuel tank has also been fitted and covered with high density foam.

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Next was the frame for the cowl and the aligning dowels. I skinned the top and bottom of the cowl at this stage to provide some rigidity as I'd be taking this on and off to allow for fettling the mounting points.

The plans don't show a method of fixing and all of the pictures of other models show their cowls screwed on from the side, which I did not find aesthetically pleasing to my eye. I decided to go with concealed fixing points on the rear cowl former.

I drilled four fixing points into the former and transferred the position onto the firewall before drilling out and fitting captive nuts doubly secured with epoxy. As I intend fitting working hinged panels to the cowl, this should allow easy access and keep everything hidden neatly away.

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The firewall was then given a fine skim of epoxy to fuel proof it.

The plan for this afternoon is to fit and align the engine bearers and this should be the front ready to be skinned once the rear of the fuz has been constructed.

[Dougie Sheppard]

Just a quick update on the progress on painting the pilot figures. The skin tones have now been finished with the exception of the BU 180 rear seater which still has the red to be added to the cheeks, (Blusher. ) and lower lip.

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When doing Asiatic figures, just the merest touch more yellow is used than for a caucasian figure otherwise they will look jaundiced.

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Skin tones are created using oil paints blended to give the illusion of light and shadow on the face. As well as being great to work with, any mistakes can just be wiped off with kitchen roll without damaging the base layer as it is a different medium. (Enamel or acrylic.)
It took me three attempts until I was happy with the rear seater!

The pictures don't give an accurate depiction of the skin tones as the camera flash makes them appear lighter than they actually are. The closest to what they really look like is the group of three.

The other thing to bear in mind is that the spray matt varnish used to seal the work so that it won't be accidentally rubbed off, will darken it by one shade.

[Dougie Sheppard]

Its been a few weeks since the last update and it has been a busy few weeks. Attended the funeral of Peter McKenna, a very close friend and fellow LMA member and it was nice to see Dave and some other LMA members in attendance. Sorry I didn't catch who you were but thank you for being there.

I also took delivery of a new lathe and milling/drilling machine to replace my knackered unit and after setting these up I thought I would try them out knocking up the venturi for the BU 180.

Measurements were lifted directly from the plan and it was turned from 8mm ali' rod.

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Not 100% perfect but looks OK and will fit nicely under Dave's 100 foot rule

I also trial fitted the engine to get an idea of what fettling would be required.

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The first thing I noticed was that the nose block would require hollowing out to make room for the carb' and throttle arm.

My first thought was Dremmel and sanding disc but that would take time and fill my workshop with dust and I'd only just hoovered and dusted the whole place to keep the dust off of the pilot figures when painting.

So! I sat the nose block on the bench, poured a large glass of 15 year old brain lubricant, emptied my mind (almost there most of the time some would say ) and eureka, ( ancient Greek too, impressive or what? ) suddenly I had it!

I set a 10mm flat, horizontal end mill in the pillar drill, set the table to take a 5mm cut on each pass and re-set the table and repeated the process. A total of four cuts and jobs a good 'un.

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Secret is shallow cuts and move the job slowly and carefully under the mill so as not to split the balsa.

A little more fettling required just to get the engine exactly where I want it and I'll be ready to move on to the rest of the fuz,

[Dougie Sheppard]

Engine fettling now completed and everything lines up perfectly .

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I will have to make a muffler to fit in cowl as the unit supplied will protrude outside the cowl .

pilot faces have now been finished, ready to start on the bodies.

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More to follow

[Dougie Sheppard]

Due to the run up to Christmas and my duties to the "Boss", running around and general preparations, my time in the workshop is severely curtailed. However, the odd half hour here and there is ideal for painting the pilot figures . Very therapeutic and keeps the men in the white coats and the jacket that straps up the back from the door .

Once the faces had been masked (I use Copydex as masking fluid) the figures were given a coat of Tamiya X1 black. This dries to a slightly gloss finish which gives a good base coat for the leather clothing.

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They were then dry brushed with Vallejo "Leather Brown" 871 (147)

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The process was then repeated with Vallejo "English Uniform" 921 (141) but concentrating more on the raised areas and seams.

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The final touch is with Vallejo "Light Brown" 929 (129) with a brush more or less cleaned so that only the merest traces of paint remains (holistic amounts ) and think of areas where the leather would be worn or scuffed, for example where the top of the sleeve meets the shoulder. If you work away at this area you will gradually see the wear start to appear. be prepared to keep loading and cleaning your brush as the minimal amount of paint on the brush will dry on the bristles after a couple of minutes.
If the bristles start to clog, clean the brush with thinners but make sure it is completely dry before resuming.

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If you leave each coat to thoroughly dry, you can remove any freshly applied paint with kitchen roll and water. Don't use acryllic thinners or you will remove all the layers of paint.

The overall effect is that of supple and worn leather rather than just a flat coat of brown.

That's all for now.

[Timothy Huff]

Those pilot figures are really coming on, and the "leatherwork" is particularly good!

A thought - you used high-density foam under the fuel tank. Is this fuel-proof? If not, how does it behave in contact with petrol? Would it be a fire-risk in your vehicle, or to the model in flight, were it to become unknowingly saturated with fuel? It might be worthwhile making the supporting foam blocks smaller, covered with an oversize fuel proof tray, and a drain hole, so that any fuel that does migrate down the side of the tank cannot directly come into contact with the foam, and can also readily drain/evaporate from the area if it does....?

[Dougie Sheppard]

Thanks for that Timothy. The foam is an offcut of padding/lagging for the fuel tank in boats, is non-absorbent and stable for petrol and diesel.

The back of the tank will protrude into the bottom of an open cockpit and some airflow will be able to penetrate the firewall and exit via both cockpits. I've been in contact with some modellers via RCSB who've done electric versions and they have made use of this to help cool flight packs, so this should help vent any vapours.

I take your point about a drain hole! Never thought of that to be honest. I intend to fuel proof as far back as the former level-ish with the rear of the fuel tank, if I put a drain hole at the front face of that former where any leakage may pool, do you think that would do?

[Timothy Huff]

Just a thought really, seeing the foam got me "what iffing" about 'fuel spillage' and that led inexorably to 'drain-holes'. Not the sort of detail people dwell on when documenting builds, but it seems a sensible precaution perhaps?

[Bob Thompson1894]

Only if a catastrophe happens! You just dont get spillage with petrol. I even leave whatever is in the tank, and block off the fuel pipes. With a pumped carb it is sealed. A burst tank or pipe could flood it, but I have never had that happen with petrol.

[Dougie Sheppard]

Like Bob, I've never had an issue with any of my petrol powered models regarding leaks or even fumes when stored in the van or workshop.

The late, great Dave Bailey advised me to always leave some petrol in the tank to prevent the carburettor diaphragm from drying out and I have done so ever since with no problems.

However, that being said, a small drain hole is not going to destroy scale integrity (I don't do competitions, I build for my own satisfaction ) and "belt and braces" can't hurt.

[Bob Thompson1894]

The only time I have seen this is when a friend put a petrol motor in a Regal Eagle- the model with formers made from foamboard- and the fumes (while flying) ate away at the foam in the formers...we had to quickly re engine it with a Moki 180 glow.

[Dougie Sheppard]

oops

[Dougie Sheppard]

With Christmas out of the way it's time to get back to some serious building, however the odd half hour here and there was perfect for painting the pilot figures (and even more perfect for stress relief. ) and they are now ready for occupancy of the yet to be completed cockpits,

The Bucker Student front and rear seater,

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1/3 scale for the Genisis,

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and the Japanese figure for the Zero,

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When there is more than one figure to paint, I find it easier to work on them all at once.

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The sheepskin helmet lining was dry brushed with light grey and off white, the studs and zips with brass, the goggles over the eyes were given a base of flesh with burnt umber oil paint around the edge to give depth and cadmium red oil paint in the centre to give the tint and the two carefully blended together before the lenses were created with pre-warmed five minute epoxy to aid flow (a couple of minutes in a bowl of hot water does nicely ). Mix the epoxy slowly to avoid bubbles and do one lens at a time.Keep the lens horizontal or the epoxy will run every where. The aim is to use just enough to fill the lens. Use a cocktail stick and drip it into the centre of the lens and let it flow to fill the lens.

With goggles up, I don't tint the lenses, just paint the centres the same leather finish as the rest of the helmet.

You can use 30 minute epoxy if you wish, I'm just too impatient.

A black rim with a little aluminium to signify chips and wear on the goggle rims and that was the golden era figures finished.

A little more work was required with the Japanese figure to finish the life jacket, parachute harness and badges but all in all a very satisfying job and fairly presentable I feel.

(Sorry some of the pictures are on their side. I don't know how to correct this.)

I am currently working on the jig for the fuselage but I'll keep you posted with my progress.

[Dougie Sheppard]

Just a quick update, I joined Scribd, a digital library with a fantastic collection of aircraft research materials and printed off a copy of Flugzeug profile 36 which according to other forums is hard to source.

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I also had a bit of a browse and put in a search for the Stuka at random. I stopped looking after over 20 books and manuals came up. There were far more than 20, I just stopped looking at that point. A great resource.

I also contacted Quax Flieger in Germany with some questions about the BU 180. Only 23 were ever built and Quax have the only flying example in the world.

Michael Stark, the association secretary, replied within hours, promising to send photos when he is next in the hangar at the beginning of February, which should answer my questions.

I have just finished the jig and am starting on the fuz construction.

Pictures will follow when I get a chance.

[Dougie Sheppard]

I set up the front part of the fuselage using a laser and numerous spirit levels to make sure the whole shebang was square in all 3 dimensions, (this took a fair bit of the fourth dimension until I was happy with every thing. )

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and used a plumb line to confirm every thing was square. (sometimes you can't beat the old ways and unlike my laser, it doesn't need batteries. )

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I used the Third longeron down from the cockpit coaming as my datum point. This longeron runs from the front of the cockpit section right to the tail and is at a constant height above the base board.

A wooden batten of appropriate dimension, down each side to rest the cross members on and the cross members were tacked to the formers which were placed directly over the plan (more fun with the laser and spirit levels to ensure everything was OK. ).

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The longerons were all dry fitted and the formers moved as necessary to ensure squareness, before gluing up and taking it out of the jig.

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The servo tray was also fitted at this point. I purposely left the top two longerons off on each side to allow my fat fingers access to the fuselage for fitting the control rods/wires and made the elevator push rods.

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I also fitted the pull/pull system for the steerable tail wheel at this point.

First thing was to clamp a suitable sized piece of wood into the tail wheel bracket to act as a "tiller" to allow alignment along the centre line.

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This was then braced with weights on either side. (What's known in Scotland as a "dodaleid." )

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The pull/pull wires were fitted but kept very slightly slack to avoid putting any strain on the servo. A WEAK tension spring was fitted to each wire and set up so that they took up any slack without any sign of the spring expanding.

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The beauty of this set up is there is no slop and when taxiing on a rough surface (grass field ) it acts as a shock absorper.
I came up with this method a number of years ago when getting fed up with sloppy steering and damaging rudders through inadvertent knocks when transporting the model. Because I use nylon covered steel fishing trace as the pull/pull wire, there is no chance of metal to metal interference.
It also helps prevent slop developing with temperature changes, as long as your initial set up is in a warm environment.

More to follow.....

[Dougie Sheppard]

Took delivery of a box of goodies from Scoonies Hobbies . Scale wheels, servos,switches and hinges.

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Also got 10 yards of Diatex (Thanks for the intro John ),

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and 100 1/4 - 1/3 scale countersunk aluminium cold rivets.

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more to follow...

[Dougie Sheppard]

Control surfaces now covered with Diatex, just waiting to find out if there is rib stitching on the full size.

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[Dougie Sheppard]

Turned up a scale fuel point, I intend to make this a working point.

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I set up a laser jig to finish the fuz. I used a magnetic dial stand with a cheap pet tormenting laser taped firmly to it.

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The laser was tracked along the center line of the plan view of the drawing to ensure everything was square. The fuz was then placed over the drawing and aligned before being fixed in place with spirit levels used to ensure the longeron used as the datum point was horizontal with the base board.

The horizontal stabiliser was fitted at this point.

The laser was then run along the spine of the fuz to identify any twists.

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As can be seen, the rudder post was a couple of degrees out due to a slight twist around F12 and the rudder post. A spirit level was used to square up the stabiliser, bringing the rudder post back into line.

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A hand portable steam cleaner fitted with a fine nozzle was then used to gently steam the fuz back into line.

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Three applications, allowing the wood to dry between each steaming, brought everything nicely back into line. Skinning will firmly fix the fuz in place.


more to follow.