Caproni Stipa, Orlik, 1:33

[Claus]

Thank you for the kind words. I'd say the model has a slightly above average complexity. The instruction states, mounting the engine in the fuselage will be the hardest part. Let's see.

For now, I finished the empennage and fixed it at the fuselage.

[Claus]

Now the engine. The framework of the engine is made of laser-cut parts, that will later be plated.





For the exhaust pipe, i made a template to correctly position the bent plastik rods.

[Isaac]

This is the second Stipa build in the past year or so posted here.


Very interesting design and nice work.


Isaac

[Claus]

The engine is ready. Plating it was the most difficult part up to now. Many parts are very small. I also painted and mounted the exhaust pipe.




As I was not in the mood to mount the engine in the fuselage, I started with the wheels. They are stacked and will be sanded later.

[Claus]

Today I made one wing. First the rips. There are holes for two rods that will hold the wings to the fuselage. I inserted these rods while glueing, so all holes are aligned neatly.



Next, the wings are covered. Upper and lower part are separate. So, how do I connect them at the leading edge? I tried different methods with previous models, but none of them was 100% convincing. This time, I use small scraps of paper and glue them to the edge.



Glueing them one by one gives a convex object.



Looks good, and I have to say ... that did not work as expected.
But let's see how it looks when everything is cured. I will use another method for the other wing probably.
To avoid warping, I squeeze the wing into a fixture.



In the meantime, I make the ailerons. They are also fixed for curing.

[Claus]

I grind the wheels using my old mini drill. This little machine serves me for more than 30 years now. I got it from an Uncle (this kind of uncle that is no relative, but a close friend of my parents) when I was a teenager and wanted to build electronic circuits. For grinding, I use grid 100 to give the wheel its shape and grid 1000 to smoothen the surface.



I paint them black and add the rims using grey construction paper (is this the correct translation for 'Tonpapier'?).



Now the second wing.



As the first one did not come out as hoped, I used a different technique. I shaped the leading edge with a bonefolder. Then I glue the skin to the skeleton (sound sooky). When trie, I glue the leading edge with cyanoacrylate glue to the tip of each rib.

[Claus]

The stern wheel. I did not use the parts from the kit but made it out of black and grey construction paper. It is too small to grind it with my drill. So I used little paper discs and rings of different diameters to mimic the shape of a wheel.



And also the propeller is finished.

[Claus]

Today I mounted the engine inside the fuselage. First, threads are added.



With these, the engine is suspended inside the fuselage.



Then I add the wing struts. They hold the engine firmly in place.



Finally, some struts are added at the sides, and under the engine. Placing them inside the fuselage was like keyhole surgery. Luckily, I have some long tweezers.



The wings are finished, too. The leading edges are not my best work. There must be some better way to do this, but I haven't found it yet.

[rockpaperscissor]

Despite the crinkly leading edges, this is going to be a really beautiful model when finished. Installing the engine looks like it must have been a challenge even with long tweezers.

[Claus]

The building instruction states that this is the hardest part of the whole model. In the end, it was easier than I had expected. However, I needed more than two hands. Without my wife as assistant, I think I wouldn't have managed to do it. Holding the fuselage, positioning the engine, shoving in the wing struts, holding the threads out of the way... Two hands are just not enough.