Slingsby King Kite 1/4

[bocorvin]

Merci Lolo und Danke Manfred,
Das Idee um dass so zu verleimen ist aus Not geboren
Veileicht hatte es auch met Weissleim geklappt, aber das sinds zoviel oberflache und so hats einfach geklappt.
Es fehlt noch etwas nacharbeit...
(hoffentlich nicht alzu viel Fehler in mein Deutch )





Vincent (DB)

[bocorvin]

Bonjour a tous,
After I built the second aileron, I went on with the flaps. These are much shorter (56cm) than the ailerons and completely sheeted. They are even thinner than the ailerons, less than 6mm thick. So I liked to sheet them in one go. I took a strip of 9cm wide, 0.6mm plywood, and bended it around a 6mm round rod, whilst pouring over with boiling water, see also this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoZUbuMlBck (sorry, Dutch subtitled). Then I clamped and let it dry

Also on the photo is the backbone consisting from the ribs, main spar, back frame with balsa filler strips. It is a very weak skeleton. By fitting this skeleton into the folded plywood, I could mark, cut and sand the plywood.

Covered the structure with PVA

and clamp it with a 10X10mm batten en strps of 4mm ply.

After the glue had dried I could fold the plywood “open”, and I drilled 1mm from the inside pilot holes so that I could make the openings at the hinges and rudderhorn later.

I smeared the top of the ribs with glue and clamp the whole thing together, just like before.

With a Dremel I made the openings for the hinges and after some adjustments it fitted neatly into the wing.


Vincent(DB)

[Olli]

Hi Vincent,

ich habe es nicht hin bekommen das Sperrholz so zu biegen
Sieht sehr gut aus

Gruß Olli

[bocorvin]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to keep the operation of the ailerons and flaps simple, this time not with pull / pull wires, as with the Gull. The pull / pull cables in the wings are nice, but weigh a bit more and there is a bit more friction which is not good for the precision, unfortunately. I thought to make a pull / push rod on the bottom and a dummy control on the top. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how the flaps were operated, so I also chose a pull-push rod on the bottom of the wing. On the basis of a photo I tried to estimate the size of the rudderhorns.


I came up with very small horns, I drew them twice too big (by hand ..)

My friend Adri was so kind to CNC quite a few. Afterwards the size seemed quite correct

First I made the dummy control at the top of the wing from 0.8mm steel wire, with a non-functional clip



This rod can move freely in a plastic tube glued to a rib. I made the functioning pull / push rod from an M2 threaded rod with quick links



To remove the aileron (to put the Diacov on) I disconnect the quicklinks, unlock the hinge pins and then I can detach the aileron with dummy rods and all. The flaps only have a pull-push rod at the bottom



I make these from 1mm steel wire with a guide tube against bending. After some soldering I could check the working of the flaps and ailerons, they worked nicely.

Vincent (DB)

[texier]

Hello Vincent,
Interesting and realistic tip this dummy push rod

[bocorvin]

Bomnjour a tous,

The fairing (Farman?) from the wing to the fuselage had to be made. In the original there was a gap between the wing and the fuselage of about 10 centimeters, just big enough to mount the wings. After assembly a strip of plywood went over it

I also wanted to make it like that, seemed nice to me.
In the fairing, the grain of the plywood must run the length of the wing and thus be bent transversely to the grain. I made a small video how I managed to do that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W6lXoVasmw
After bending I let the plywood dry, cut 1 side (which was needed for the bending)


and then saw off pieces. I started with the TE, narrow pieces

, beveled with a Proxxon power file

with which you can subtly shape those tiny pieces. They are glued to the end rib and fuselage with thick cyano

Where the curvature in the end rib decreases, I also take longer pieces



With something long round I keep the pieces in place.

Sometimes it goes wrong and then I have to cut out a piece. Finally it looks like this



Here the roughly finished fairing with the gap to the wing, which will be covered by a detachable plywood thing. I have to do the sheeting of the wing first.

Vincent(DB)

[Johannes]

Hi Vincent,
sieht spitzenmäßig aus

[Sed]

Bonjour Vincent,

Magnifique coffrage , le résultat est nickel !

[bocorvin]

Danke Johannes et merci Greg

Vincent(DB)

[ThomasF]

Das ist wirklich klasse Vincend, wenn Du da fertig bist schicke ich Dir meinen Rumpf der AFH-4, da habe ich diese Arbeit auf nch dem einfliegen verschoben!





Gruß
Thomas

[bocorvin]

Hallo Thomas,

Muss ich die Rumpf doch mal mitnehmen nach Retroplane.....
Hoffentlich gibt noch genugend raum in mein Auto

LG

Vincent(DB)

[bocorvin]

Bonjour a tous,
I always find it difficult to sheet the wing nose with ply . I enjoyed gluing by securing semi-dried PVA with a foil iron. I was unable to bend the plywood sharply enough with water and a foil iron. This is also due to the profile, which has a sharp nose. An additional problem is that the panels have to be skewed to keep the seam parallel to the longitudinal axis. That is why I then tried to pre-bend the panels, as with the aileron, with boiling water and then let them dry.



After that I made them fit and sanded a bevel on it.

In order not to get cramps in my fingers, I came up with an attachment, a thin aluminium profile, attached to the worktop with a G-clamp and covered with sandpaper as anti-slip.



. I smeared both surfaces to be glued with PVA



The glue has to be spread out still. After drying I put such a panel in its place, it can still slide and I heated it with a foil iron to set the glue This turned out to work fine, and the wings got a quick start

The bend in the gull wing also succeeded with two narrow panels.



It begins to look like wings!

Vincent (DB)

[Johannes]

Boa
100 Rippen
Sieht beeindruckend aus Vincent

LG J

[bocorvin]

Johannes,

Die rippen sind CNC aus balsa, wie sagt man dass auf Deutsch, die darf man nicht zahlen? keine handarbeit?
Aber es bleibt leicht, ein Flugel ist jetzt 750 gr, doch er wurdt vollig mit 0.6mm sperrholz bekleidet, hoffentlich komt er weniger als 1000gr aus.

LG
Vincent (DB)

[caralp_laurent]

Congratulations Vincent, it's beautiful

Friendly,


Lolo

[bocorvin]

Merci beaucoup Lolo , in the meantime I went on,
The wings are completely sheeted. Again a lot of panels, glued with the same technique, dried PVA and fixed with a foil iron





I have some doubts how that sticks to the balsa ribs, I think I should apply 2X PVA on them, now that the wing is still “open ”, I can apply some extra glue, but when the top goes on, that will no longer be possible. As I got closer to the wingtip, I found that an extra pivot point for the aileron was needed. First drilled an oversized hole and then glued an epoxy bearing plate to the rib



With a long batten with sanding paper I sanded the edge of the sheeting straight





The sheeted wings look very strong

Vincent (DB)

[Sed]

Hi Vincent,
Very nice job . I hadn't seen in the photos that the wing was completely sheeted. It will be very solid !

Good continuation.

[bocorvin]

Hi Serge,

Yes, they were completely (except the ailerons) sheeted. It was a very modern glider for its time.
Through a mistake in the building jig (the real one ) they built 3! prototypes with wrong washout at the tips. These gliders where extremly difficult to get out of a spin and that was solved by a very large rudder. (not on my model)

Vincent (DB)

[Sed]

Thank you Vincent for these detailed explanations !

[bocorvin]

Hello everyone,

I now sheeted the topside of the wing, pre-priming the balsa ribs with PVA, that seems to work better.





Next I had to trim the back of the sheeting for the ailerons and flaps. By the way, I had already done that with the bottom sheeting before applying the top sheeting. I did this by drilling a few 1mm pilot holes with the hinge pins as guidance and cutting the plywood along these holes. Of course there was still a lot of sanding. When the top of the wings were sheeted, I just repeated the process.


The ailerons and flaps remain demountable, just like that of the horizontal stabilizer






I plugged in the leads and to my relief it all worked.
The wings are now roughly finished weigh 936 and 942 grams.






Vincent (DB)

[Olli]

Hi Vincent,

very nice job

Olli

[bocorvin]

Hi Olli,

Danke , jetzt muss Ich die Pilotenpuppe machen, dann kann mein Schwester hoffentlich die Kleider machen.

LG,

Vincent(DB)

[Johannes]

Super Idee, Vincent

Ich werden auch mal meine Schwester fragen für die
Pilotenpuppe meines nächsten Modells die Garderobe zu schneidern.
Sie ist wohl auch nicht mehr taufrisch aber kann
ja mal was für ihren Burder machen

LGJ

[caralp_laurent]

Friendly,


Lolo

[bocorvin]

Bonjour a tous,
Danke Johannes et merci Lolo for your comments, I go on.
The connection of the wing to the fuselage is a bit different than I am used to. In the real glider there is a gap between fuselage and wing to get to the connecting gear.



This gap is covered with a curved strip of plywood





I tried to replicate this. The wing of my model slides over the square glass epoxy wing connector and is secured with a nylon M3 bolt in plywood lips on the fuselage and wing.



.. I made a constructing aid consisting of 2 ribs (equivalent to the root rib). On this I clamped plywood with two rows of 3mm holes. On the inside I put first 2mm balsa and another strip of plywood




Holding the inner plywood in place with my fingers, I ran thin cyano through the holes on the balsa. I made a nose piece and also an upper and lower piece, up to the TE



Then I glued the three pieces together, and cut it lengthwise forming the two filler pieces. I glued magnets to the rear to secure it

This piece now fits exactly in the gap and I glued 5mm wider strips on top, that fit just over the wing and fairing on the fuselage. You slide it over the wing

and click the magnets

to my relief It suddenly formed a visual unit with the fuselage.
It was time for the interior, first the pilot.
The pilot is very visible, nice to make proper job of it. My sister wanted to make the clothes, but then I must have a figure first. I used my own measurements (a bit photoshopped....) and made the parts from 10mm balsa


. In the elbows and knees I fitted Hobart hinges,


the hips and shoulders I fixed with shockcord


In this way you get a figure that can be positioned naturally.



To attach the balsa boots I have glued a piece of M2 threaded rod in, which fits into a plastic tube (control tube stuff) in the lower leg. A small bend in the M2 wire provides some friction, just bend it carefully a little. The hands come with 1mm copper wire in the arms and the head with 10mm beech dowel in the chest. Hands, feet and head remain removable, much easier to get him into his clothes.


In the meantime I started with the head, made of sculpey. I learned a lot from next tutorial, it gives a wonderful explanation, but it is a time consuming job
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlPYWe2bGUo

I start with beech dowel of 10mm, wrap aluminium foil around it (the head may not be solid, it might crack when baking) and then I build the head from layers sculpey






takes me a while, but it's nice work and it starts to look like something




Its not yet finished.

Vincent (DB)

[sebastian92]

Hello Vincent
sorry for my English spoken…
You are an "antic" builder, like to the original form of building of the beginning of Retroplane, initialized by the master Vincent Besançon ; so congratulation for your precise building of all your planes
Marvelous building like the pioneers of the discipline
I like to see your work, continue for the details and solutions of your realizations

[bocorvin]

Hello Sebastian,

Merci pour votre comment jolie!
Your English is very understandable, mine is also not perfect , but is the spirit of the Retrolpane forum that makes it all possible, thanks to Vincent Besancon (sorry I don't know how to put French word control )

Amicalement,
Vincent (DB)

[bocorvin]

Hello everyone,

The instrument panel is, just like the pilot, well in sight. However, I had a problem, nowhere I could find information about it. On this photo I could see a tiny piece and there the panel seems to be white.

I also found a white panel on this photo of a Petrel, so it did occur. I decided to make something nice out of it, looking at the other gliders of Slingsby.

I had already ordered a set of instruments in 1:4 scale from Aero Cockpit, but I could not use the dials. I still had pictures of the dials from the previous plane, the Slingsby Gull. On the photo of the white instrument panel of the Petrel, the instruments were countersunk? and I decided to make something like this. The instruments from Aerocockpit were delivered as a superstructure, but that can be sawn off. On the photo on the right the sawn off altimeter and on the left the clock that was not sawn off.

. Now I could make the panel proper. It is made of two layers of 0.6 plywood, because that can still be cut. After having marked everything, I drilled all the holes with a 1mm drill, including the centre of the holes in the panels that were clamped together. After this, I cut the plywood on the front and back with a cutting compass, cut segments in it and could break out the plywood.

I glued the two panels together with a few dowel pins. Then it appeared that the holes were just a bit too small for the instruments and with the tapered handle of a screwdriver and some sandpaper I could make them fit exactly.

Now back to the instruments. I sawed off all the instruments that had been built up so that only the ring(bezel?) with the glass was left. But the compass should actually be a sphere. Eric spore had already done something like that, nice detail. I rounded off a handle of a file (I use everything within reach...), clamped a piece of PET on a board with a hole, heated the plastic, pushed the file up and a tube over it and lo and behold a nice sphere.

I glued a strip of a photo of the compass in it and painted the sphere black on the inside. I also made the screws from black pins, filed the heads flat and made a sawcut.

Now I had all the parts



All was left was the fun part, gluing everything together with PVA



Vincent (DB)

[Sed]

Hello Vincent,

Very nice job !
It is always very interesting all these details well illustrated by the photos .
The end is near!

Good continuation.

[bocorvin]

Thank you for your nice words Serge

The instruments also include the pitot tube, which I like to be demountable. I made it from solid 2 mm wire, which I had lying around, I don't know exactly what kind of stuff, but it was not magnetic. I took two pieces, bent it to look like the example and soldered them together with silver.

I left one piece of wire sticking out and put a triangular brass plate on it together with a square piece of brass. Finally a piece of iron nail and soldered it all together with silver. The brass profile fits into a somewhat larger profile, into which I glued a magnet. I glued the larger brass profile into the fuselage nose

and glued it with 5 min epoxy from the inside. I had to hold the fuselage upside down and glue it in place, which keeps you flexible...



I hesitated with the skid, I decided to make the supporting structure massive. I glued 12 layers of 2mm balsa with PVA using the fuselage as mould, separating with cling foil.


After curing, I took it off and planed it in the shape

and covered it with Diacov, to imitate the sailcloth of the real glider. Then I painted it white and glued it all on the fuselage. On top of that I glued the skate itself made from 0.6mm plywood and two layers of 2mm pine. Then 2X2mm pine strips in the corners.





Back to the interior. I covered the seat with leather from an old wallet

and made a control stick from aluminium tube, which slides over a piece of installation wire

So that I can bend the stick in the desired position.

Some details still missing in the interior….

Vincent (DB)