(Avro Baby... pg.3)
COVERING
THE WINGS:
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This was the first undercambered wing I'd
built. I applied glue stick to the entire
underside of the wing and laid it upside down
on the building board. After gently placing
the tissue over the structure I placed my
knife handle in the center of the wing, parallel
with the leading edge, and rolled it back
and forth like I was rolling out pizza dough.
Then I just ran my fingers around the outer
edges to smooth out any lumps.
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COVERING THE FUSELAGE:
I cut out a template from copier paper with the
words “AVRO” and “AVRO BABY”
on it. White enamel paint used to spray-paint the
lettering onto the tissue before covering. |
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stick was used to attach all tissue, and the
excess was trimmed from the edges with a small
emery board. |
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everything was trimmed and dried overnight, it was
sprayed with water and allowed to dry.
The front section was then painted silver.
The landing gear and cabane
struts were painted gunship grey, and the inter-plane
struts painted brown. Finally,
the whole model was given
a coat of clear gloss dope.This
photo shows everything laid out and ready for assembly: |
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DETAILING:
The rivets were done by sharpening the end of a
.060 aluminum tube and pressing the end into the
balsa. It produces a rounded area surrounded by
a depressed ring which simulates rivets or screw
heads.
Exhaust pies were made from a drinking straw. I
selected one from a juice box because the size is
closer to scale. One end of each exhaust pipe was
cut square, and the other at an angle. They were
painted “gunship grey” and glued in
place. |
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Panel separations were done by dragging a
pin across the wood surface.
The prop blades were salvaged from the broken
carved prop. Don’s book has a chart
showing what the tip angle should be for a
given prop diameter and P/D ratio. I used
that info to set the blades into the hub. |
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Rigging wires are monofilament fishing line. I poked
small holes at the appropriate locations using a
pin, pushed the filament into the holes, and secured
it with a tiny drop of CA glue.
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CONCLUSION:
Finished weight was a bit over 27 grams without
the motor. With a wing area of 62.5 square inches,
the wing loading is 0.43 grams per inch. That's
just a tenth of a gram more than Don recommends
for Peanut Scale planes. |
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I add 25% more for the motor the weight goes
up to 34 grams and the wing load jumps to
.54 grams per square inch. I doubt I’ll
use that much rubber. |
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If I were to build this model again I'd take the
time to make better wood selections, sand the nose
down a little more, lighten up the landing gear,
and thin out the wheels more.
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CREDITS:
Most of the techniques I used here were from Don
Ross’s book Rubber Powered Model
Airplanes. If you don’t have
one, spend the fifteen dollars and get it. I think
you’ll find it useful.
If I encountered problems, I could always count
on the guys at the SFA
Forum. They are (by callsign) : Smallfly,
Jernst, Duco Guru, Iron Mike, Andyjbj, WCarneyTX,
DLThompson, Faif2d, Bruce-Ter, Tomthbomb, Ta152h,
Applehoney, Thomuz, Planesjimmycam, Ed Toner, Hoogie007,
JoshuaF, Ron Dagenais, Tobgun, Arnold Rimmer, Ericgoedkoop,
Tim the Inspector and Ffrubguy.
Also thanks to Thayer Syme, Mike Stuart and Dave
Livesay for their fine websites. Thayer’s
got some great tips, and Mike is doing a chapter
by chapter article on how to build a stick and tissue
model (which I have studied many times). Dave’s
site has tons of free plans.
My apologies if I’ve left anybody out.
-Joe (call sign "Super64" in the SFA
Forum)
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