L39 progress - completion is nigh!

I worked on the Albatrosses last night too, and they are pretty much done now.  All I have left to do is the magnets in the wing tip tanks. Happy days!

Hopefully Phil and Warren will be able to maiden theirs at the weekend's PSSA meet.  We are expecting some very good weather for Sunday in the MONSTER south bowl, which is always a pleasure to fly horizon-to-horizon.  Saturday looks a little lighter, but certainly good enough for the Vulcan and perhaps an XA4D maiden.

Monday is more of the same, so I'm looking forward to getting more airtime hours on the Hog :)

Workshop slavery, and PSSA @ the Great Orme September 2016

It's nice to come to work for a break!

Since Friday afternoon, I have put in about 25 hours in the workshop, readying aircraft.  Mostly it has been Albatross number 2 and 3, but also thrown into that a little fleet maintenance, workshop tidying, and work on my "project X" that is soon to be revealed.

The L59's are quite far along, with just some cockpit fitment to go.  After that the white one is to have a camo job in "similar to my Hog", and the silver one will receive a bit of red vinyl to look like a Czech machine.  Lots done and lots to go - I just hope there's enough hours in the day!

Speaking of Hogs, mine has had a little fettling, mostly with decals and paintwork.  It's my intention to get the rear fuselage white patches resprayed before the weekend, as they have gone a little yellow over time.  Only on that section though, which is strange.

And so, onto the weekend's PSSA flying.  So far (touch wood) the wind looks great, and we should see something in the region of 50-60mph on the edge.  That'll frighten all those new A4's, I'm sure!  There looks to be some rain blowing through on both days, but with some luck, we'll fly in between them.  I am again extending my stay to Monday too, which yet again looks like the best day.  Weird that?!

L39 Progress - stick a fork in it, it's done

All finished, other than the tip tanks which are currently in the shed drying!

L39 Albatross progress - final paint done

I haven't posted about this wee bugger for a time now, mainly because I've just been getting on and finishing it off.  So here are some updates!  I've gone for a vaguely Russian "aggressor" type scheme, which I think always look nicer without hard edges.  I rattle-can finished the base colour of "appliance white" over my typical silver HK film / Prymol / plastic primer base.

Ready for some colour

First blue on

Second blue on. Done!

Cockpit masking seems to have worked OK, which is nice.  I've spent this morning sorting out aileron crank clearances (which is always a pain in these), and getting the servo installs done.

I've got a couple of touch-ups to do on the paint front, add the decals, maybe some panel lines, a quick C of G tweak and it's done.

Albatross builds - cockpit update

I took this photo last week, but forgot to post it.  It's the first L59 just before it goes into final paint, showing off her cockpit details.

Obviously the tape will come off first, but I'm pretty happy with the way the cockpit moulding went.  

L59 build progress - cockpit and paint

The first L59 (or L39..whatever) is approaching its paint stage - I just need to get the cockpit detail done first.

Without cockpit

With cockpit, a quick bit of bench flying

Pilots with primer

Pilots now being hand-painted, in between waiting for the glue to dry on Seahawk planking!

L59 builds continue

It's been a while since the Albatrosses appeared here, mainly as it's a build I've done the before so not a lot of it is interesting.  Here are a few pics though of recent developments that I've not done before - cockpit moulding.

I made a form from medium balsa, and sanded it fairly smooth.  I didn't go balls-out and fill / sand / prime / sand, as I just wanted to see what it would do with a Cooke bottle.  It went really well!  The flat front windscreen part came through very nicely, and no "graining" or whatever came through in the plastic.

As a first try, I am very happy.  The bottle was old and manky; I didnt remove the glue first, and I scorched the plastic near the front as the blocks moved from the bottom that hold the tension on the bottle.  I followed a how-to that was in RCM&E recently, and that I had also seen on RCG I believe, so it's great to try out and means I'm not afraid of cockpit creation any more!

Surprise! Albratross update

Shona and I cut 8 wing panels last night for the Albatrosses.  The fuselages just need the jet intake detail adding, then they will be ready for cockpit moulding, which I am dreading!

Anyway, here are the wing cores.

Albatross #1 progresses

I forgot to post this yesterday, so here it is.  This is the first of the new run of L39's, which now includes several more plan mods.  Might be able to call this one my own design yet!

L39 Albatross for PSS

Steve asked for details about the Albatross, so here are some bits and piece.  I'd realised this morning that I had only really mentioned about kitting them in an obscure thread n the ModelFlying forums.

One of my first PSS builds was this little Albatross from the Cyril Carr plan :

I sold her shortly after making the Jet Provost, as I thought they'd be performing a pretty similar role.  Wrong!  The L39 penetrates better (MUCH smaller in cross section), is more manoeuvrable (shorter tail moment), is easier to build (certainly less wasteful of balsa), and stays up in lighter lift (more wing area for a similar weight.

As I still have the plan, I thought I'd make two more - one for me, one to sell.  After mentioning that, I had a bit of interest, so now I am making 5, keeping one still.

Specs? OK :

• 40" wingspan.  Veneered foam wing (slightly thinned from plan).
• Magnetized knock-off wing tanks.
• All balsa fuselage.
• Removable, adjustable, battery tray.
• All linkages supplied (snake to elevator, single servo cutout and links for ailerons.
• AUW ready to fly should be a smidge over 1.5lbs.  This may be different for different canopy versions, see below.

As standard, a solid, sprayed foam canopy, finished in silver solarfilm, the aircraft is £55 plus delivery.  This will need your servos (x2 mini size -  I can recommend these or similar from Hobbyking), a switch, a battery (4 cell NiMh or 2 cell LiFe is my preference), and your receiver.

A clear canopy with 2 painted pilots, ejector seat and interior details, again in silver solarfilm, is £70.

I can do various camo schemes, but cost depends on complexity.  I like these from a recent trawl for colour schemes :

If anyone is interest, please let me know.  As you can tell, from the blog, I have a fairly full workshop at the moment, so these build should all be ready by the first PSSA meet (16th April).