Avro Spider in 1/33 from Wagner Models

[smithdr]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. So far, with a sharp blade and being careful, I've had no issues with the balsa...yet! I have built lots of small rubber powered stick and tissue planes so maybe that's helping. I'm at least familiar with how the wood behaves.

Itty-Bitty Update...that took about 2 hours to complete!

I got the rudder bar and joy stick components all rolled and added. I made two turnbuckle-like parts and put them on the rudder bar. I'll put cables on them next and fish them under the seat. Not the best picture, but I hope you get the idea.



More soon,
Dan

[7TP]

Wow!
Nice plane. And as usual, gread job!

[Royaloakmin]

I think you would find that Strathmore Bristol board would be less trouble than wood and it is relatively easy to cut. It is also easy to find.

[smithdr]

Thanks for the tips and all the ideas, folks. This one is coming along pretty well. So far, really well designed!

Tonight I put control lines on the rudder bar and put simple rigging between the fuselage bays.



Then I figured the fuselage sides may have had some stringers so I took some masking tape, doubled the thickness and painted it a wood-like color. This was then cut into strips and stuck on the the kit part. Because the kit fits so nicely, I was able to use the former location on the side pieces as a guide with no guessing...turned out rather neatly.



And here you see the forward sides on. Makes the interior look pretty finished and nice. I will add a made up throttle quadrant but this will be about it since I have no idea what it would have looked like. So far, I'm basing it on the Avro 504.



All in all a good evening. Can't wait to start putting on the top and sides!

Cheers and thanks for looking,
Dan

[mbauer]

Incredible looking build so far! Enjoying this thread.

Mike

[ct ertz]

Awesome! I like the balsa wood treatment.

[bloomohio]

So whats new! I used this back in 1972 when building my first Maly Modelarz planes as cardboard dulled my blades, the trouble is where do you find large 1/16 inch sheets of balsa now? still have a few sheets over 30 years old by now, cannot sell balsa as it is too hard to mail! Sorry?

[smithdr]

Thanks, Everybody. This is an amazingly designed model so far. I'm having a great time.

B.Ohio! I know what you mean. I only have one "old fashioned" hobby store that sells balsa (they even have SIG competition balsa for my light free flight scale models) but that's it. I too am using part of an old stash.

We'll see how this progresses.

Dan

[bloomohio]

thanks for backing my ideas and history of old balsa sheets,but what do I do when i run out of balsa,maybe laser-cut with Critcut?

[smithdr]

Evening all,

B.Ohio: So far I'm glad I used balsa. I really pulled and pushed stuff tonight to get these parts on and I think I would have crushed the whole thing otherwise.

As Fred suggested, I may try some Bristol board. That may be the ticket?

Tonight I put on the bottom and one side. Took me about 2 hours of tucking, pre-shaping, pulling and burnishing but it looks pretty nice! I'm trying to channel my inner Ricardo.

I'd love to see someone really skilled build without those tabs and just butt join...

I'd really like to see that.

The kit continues to amaze, though. Still very precise. The other side will go on much quicker. I really like the rendering on the fuselage sides. It does look rather 3-D and delicately shaded.






I am super pleased. Maybe I'll get the main part of the fuselage done tomorrow.

Thanks for the continued support.

Dan