1/10th scale Blackburn Beverley.

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

The worst of the boom is now done, just need to finish off the fairings at the back end and then work towards glassing. I need to work out the best method for this. It will need to be done in two sections for sure.

[paul needham]

Looking good Malcolm.

[David Brown]

You are doing a great job Malcolm, I look forward to your progress every day.

Dave

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Many thanks for your continued interest chaps.

As you can see, I finished off the fairings and given them a basic shaping. This was done with a central spine of balsa, suitably bent and scribed to the fuselage shape. This was followed by several strips also bent and fettled to fit. There will be lots of fine shaping to do, but the shapes are are reasonable and provide a good staring point to produce a good finish.

Next job is the block of balsa at the rear end, something for tomorrow!

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Surprising how long it takes to do so little! However, the tail end block is made, fixed, filled and shaped. I also messed about scoring in the paratroop doors in the boom, a little bit more tidying up needed on this. I have the two escape hatches to score in, these are the two top porthole windows on the boom. I have yet to work out how big they should be. There are also the two personnel doors to mark out in the clam shell doors and a couple of vent windows as well. These positions have also to be worked out!

It is hoped that the boom will be ready for glassing early next week?

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

It's a case of do some filling, wait for it to dry, rub down, more filler, wait for it to dry ........ blah blah. It'll be Tuesday or Wednesday before it will be ready for glassing! Worth the wait.

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

G Day! "G" for glass and "G" for gunge.

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

As you can see, the second phase of glassing is underway. More time to spend staring into space today whilst the G4 dries. I used several bits of glass cloth on this underside, suitably overlapped. I couldn't justify cutting a lump out of a 1 metre wide roll for this.

I cut the glass cloth from the window openings, and used up the G4 to coat the inside of the openings to stabilise the balsa. I envisage reapplying this when I have fettled the holes at a later stage. I may need to line the holes later on, this depends on the actual scale size needed, but they are pretty close as things are.

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

These pictures are very "samey", but show another step in the process. The primary coat of (glassing) G4 is now rubbed down and the second (filler) coat applied. There are a few runs to rub out yet, so it is likely that at least one more coat will be applied. Some of these runs will be eliminated with the primer coats at a later stage.

More staring into space today waiting for this to dry. I think I'll go and watch the grass grow instead?

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Now that the boom is mostly done, I am not sure what to do next. I cannot process the main part of the fuselage because there are several other factors that need to be resolved first, not least the undercarriage and the main wings. The tail plane that I made a few weeks ago is to be scrapped. I made a rod for my own back when I designed this, so need to get the drawing board out again, probably best suited to next winter?

So I am thinking of cutting the main wing components and producing a “kit”. The main wings will each be made in two parts, the outer part having dihedral and the washout. I have not yet designed any control functions; perhaps this can wait till I have the wings dry assembled to make some decisions about this, and add this to the drawings if required. I will concentrate on making the two inner wings first, and then make the outer parts together later on.

I will need to “invent” a building jig for the wings, perhaps make it reversible. I am reasonably au fait with the basics of model making, but any hints on wing construction on this scale would be welcome?

Just added some pictures of today's work, wings on the way!

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Continuing with the main spars. I glued on the edge stiffeners till I ran out of materials. I will have to make do with cutting some other bits and pieces tomorrow and Monday, there are still a few to go! Inwoods were not answering their phones today, so couldn't order any stuff.

Something on the telly in a minute, better get a beer going!

[Phil Clark]

Why staggered joints in the spars rather than 1 continuous spar top & bottom? You have added weight & introduced weakness & possible points of failure.

Phil

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

I attempted to post these pictures yesterday afternoon, but was unable to due to the Forum crashing.

As you can see, I have fitted some carbon fibre to the spars. For this I am using the West System resin and hardener. I discovered that we need to take extreme care when cutting the carbon tape because it can unravel very easily. The weights are on there to help keep the spars flat whilst this gunge cures.

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Been messing about cutting loads of bits and pieces for the Spars. There is almost 100 items here. Two sets of everything, lots of different sized fillets, or spacers, or infills? Call them what you like, they fit between the aerofoils and form the box spar. All components work together for the greater good!

My new stock of spruce should arrive tomorrow, so I will be able to finish off the major spar components, then I have the unenviable task of cutting the aerofoils. Lucky me!

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Haven't done a lot this last couple of days. I have been waiting for a new stock of spruce to arrive, and when it did, they were too short, had to re-order, so a bit more of a delay!.

Yesterday I was feeling a bit grotty and tired, so couldn't concentrate on anything. However, started marking out the Aerofoils today, got some changes to make to the design that I will need to do on the hoof. I have made some serious changes to the undercarriage design that effects the wings too. I hope to have finished these two aerifoils tomorrow. I also need to re-design some of these aerofoils in the engine nacelle area. It's about making things as simple as possible?

[Stuart Solomon]

Spruce is a swear word ;-) should be using Cyparis, available in 6ft lengths and stronger.

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Spent today building up the spars. I did check the parts for size before gluing them together, and was very happy with them, but once glued up there was a very tight fit in the mounting box. It took about an hour to get it to fit nicely. The problem I had was the difficulty to establish exactly where the tight spots were. There are a couple of small areas where I will probably need to apply a few coats of G4 and rub this down. When the fit is acceptable, I will then apply some silicone or similar to the mating faces.

Now that the pair of spars are assembled, a slight alignment problem has shown itself. I will spend some time tomorrow sorting this out before I can progress. Then I will turn my attention to the aerofoils.

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

As you can see, I have busied myself with the first two aeriofoils. Lots of stuff to get my head around with this, could be a bit of bad lingo?

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Started the wing assembly phase today. Squared the first aerofoils and glued them in place. The next job will be to fill the inner part of the box spar to this point with expanding foam. I expect to have to trim the foam before the next aerofoil can be added. I will set up some clamps and pieces of wood to prevent expanding the box spar.

Setting up the retaining tubes was a nightmare, could do with smaller hands sometimes!

When I start making the remaining aerofoils I would hope to make a pair a day, I need to get to a "one ahead" situation, or make them all first, another 18 each side. These are the inner sections of wing, the outer sections, almost another four feet each side, is for a later date.

I have found it necessary to disassemble the model for this wing phase, the workshop has shrunk!

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

TEMPUS FUGIT and all that. Started the day by cutting one of the No. 2 aerofoils and decided it would be a good idea to slide it onto the spar to check it out. Good thing I did, it was all over the place. There was a "mathematical error". When measuring the drawing, I need to double the measurement to mark the part. You can tell how complicated this is? I cocked it up! I decided to walk away from that for a while and did the squirting instead. Learned a valuable lesson on when to stop squirting. The foam expanded immediately and filled the void. It continued to expand and pour out all over the place. Good thing I put down the paper first. The excess is now all cleaned up and the spars are now ready to take the next few aerofoils. I will squirt when three or four aerofoils are fitted.

I re-visited the aerofoil marking and the next pair are now correctly marked and ready to cut tomorrow. I have yet to work out the exact position of the flaps which you will notice are not yet marked out.