Show Us Your Latest Creation

[Arnold S]

That looks smashing Dorme, the fuselage looks very effective, good luck with the trimming…

Andrew

[TheLurker]

I heartily concur with the opinions expressed by the previous posters.  V. nice.  Very, very effective finish.

Cheers,
Lurk

[billdennis747]

A Les Trumeaux coupe. I really like this model but it's a struggle to keep the weight down; it's 80g. Nevertheless it's no heavier than Matherat's original which was 90g (100g rules) and had no timer or tracker. One surprise was that Esaki is no lighter than Modelspan. Doubtful if it will get trimmed for next weekend's Birmingham coupe event because the weather is unremitting.

[Pete Fardell]

That Roland looks superb! Beautifully done.

[Slowmatch]

Thats gorgeous Bill! Is the plan available anywhere? FFQ?

[Gary Dickens]

It's in the plan gallery Jonathan.

Gary

[Slowmatch]

Ah thanks Gary!

[dorme]

Thanks to all for your comments.  The fuselage presented the greatest problem as the original as strip planked.  How was I to do that without adding excessive weight?  I spent several days (or was it weeks!) pondering the problem (taking my naps in the afternoon and falling asleep with the question of how in hopes of arising with the solution. Many times it works.)  I found that Chartpak makes a 1/64" strip used by architects on drawings for one group.  Applying it was rather easy with a coat of lacquer over it.  Another hard part was getting the original German lettering correct. Once deciphered from several sites and chosing the correct fonts in DraftSight, it was printed on Esaki white tissue (the clearest of white tissues) and put on with Eze dope.  It was the only way to get it transparent.  Another touch of lacquer.  The cockpit cowling was done by using shrink tubing with touches of CA around it.

The test glides in 5 mph winds surprised me.  With only a slight turn to the right it won't be hard to trim and so far no weight added at either nose or tail. A nice kit to build.  I used either Duco cement or nitrocelllulose adhesive through out.  Very little CA was used as it is fragile in crashes or mishandling. All the covering was Esaki printed from files in Draftsight I did several years ago.  CAD has really made it easy to design, print, or replace panels.  I recommend if you can't do CAD then learn a paint program.   You can do the same thing there.

[vintagemike]

Bill, many years ago in his column in SAM35 speaks Mike Kemp compared the weights of various covering materials, ie Esaki, modelspan, silk, as applied to rubber models. If I remember correctly modelspan was the lightest! that is until you started to dope it! Whereas Jap could get away with 1 or 2 coats to give an airtight finish modelspan took multiple coats to fill the weave of the tissue so upping the overall weight. Mike also found out that modelspan didnt slacken off in damp conditions (like the typical English summer) like Jap does and so he used to cover the wings of his Vintage Wakefields  with it, fuselages were covered with silk.

[billdennis747]

Bill, many years ago in his column in SAM35 speaks Mike Kemp compared the weights of various covering materials, ie Esaki, modelspan, silk, as applied to rubber models. If I remember correctly modelspan was the lightest! that is until you started to dope it! Whereas Jap could get away with 1 or 2 coats to give an airtight finish modelspan took multiple coats to fill the weave of the tissue so upping the overall weight. Mike also found out that modelspan didnt slacken off in damp conditions (like the typical English summer) like Jap does and so he used to cover the wings of his Vintage Wakefields  with it, fuselages were covered with silk.

Mike, it's all coming back to me now. I think my conclusion was that Esaki needed less dope than Modelspan to seal but needed three or four coats to stop the slackening off. And after all these years, my Modelspan is less fierce in shrinking than Esaki, possibly through occasional damp conditions.

[Mike Thomas]

A Les Trumeaux coupe. I really like this model but it's a struggle to keep the weight down; it's 80g. Nevertheless it's no heavier than Matherat's original which was 90g (100g rules) and had no timer or tracker. One surprise was that Esaki is no lighter than Modelspan. Doubtful if it will get trimmed for next weekend's Birmingham coupe event because the weather is unremitting.

Bill, I seem to remember Dave Hipperson writing in his Free Flight column in Aeromodeller that it wasn't absolutely essential to build coupes to the specified 80g minimum weight. I believe the reasoning was that the model may not climb as high, but would have a better glide to compensate . I have tried to find the article, but no success so far. It was probably in the mid 80's.

[billdennis747]

A Les Trumeaux coupe. I really like this model but it's a struggle to keep the weight down; it's 80g. Nevertheless it's no heavier than Matherat's original which was 90g (100g rules) and had no timer or tracker. One surprise was that Esaki is no lighter than Modelspan. Doubtful if it will get trimmed for next weekend's Birmingham coupe event because the weather is unremitting.

Bill, I seem to remember Dave Hipperson writing in his Free Flight column in Aeromodeller that it wasn't absolutely essential to build coupes to the specified 80g minimum weight. I believe the reasoning was that the model may not climb as high, but would have a better glide to compensate . I have tried to find the article, but no success so far. It was probably in the mid 80's.

Thanks Mike. I was 'talking' to Dave last week and he told me to stop worrying about weight, so I have. However on my next one I shall modify the structure here and there to both reduce weight and change where it balances. For example the tailplane shouldn't weight 5.5g!