Pond Racer Build Thread

[silveroxide]

My Conestoga is on hold for now but I will get back to it. Everything is ready to go but I got side tracked with this aircraft. It is very unusual and this will be my first aircraft build in this forum. I have built other aircrafts in the past, The F-4 Phantom, ME-109, Spad, Sopwith Camel, Fokker triplane and a few others. All of my planes I gave away as presents to nephews and friends.

I will build this aircraft with the curvatures intact and try to avoid the sharp boxy corners in the fuselage and engine pylons. There will be cockpit and landing gear mechanism and the props will also be done a little different.

I tried to do two models a while back and one of them suffered dire damage. This is the reason I will hold back on the Conestoga. One model at a time. I seem to have problems multi tasking when it comes to building models.

So without further ado here is the build;

In this build I ignored a few rules. I did not score the leading edge of the wings but used the natural curve for the airflow.

I was thinking of stuffing cotton or bandage swabs in the wing cavity but decided not to. The wing was reasonably sturdy. One thing that I did do, was to make a laminated airfoil for the center of the wing.

When you use clamps, it would be better to sandwich the edge between Popsicle style sticks and then pinch it with the clamps. I clamped the edges as close to the edge as possible to avoid the tell tale mark of the pressure point.

[Wyvern]

Looking foward to seeing this take shape!

Wyvern

[silveroxide]

With this build, I am trying a few techniques, I hope that they work so that someone else can learn from them as well.

In continuum:

Trimmed out the holes for the Aileron/elevator

Took of those pesky tabs

Used a heavy piece of cardstock for the leading edge of the tail

Crossed the tail over each other and glued the center fuselage tab (This tab I did not cut off)

Folded the fuselage over and glued the top tail assembly, maintaining the curvature.

[Dav3xor]

Hehe, I'm having the typical designer's reaction, of "But, but....", I will try to refrain on most of it.

I recommend using a heavy book to set the trailing edge of the wings, gives a perfect level edge every time. Just glue the wing, lie it down on a level surface, and put the edge of the book on the trailing edge...

The engine nacelles were designed to have a rounded rectangle cross section, the score lines can be ignored (they're there to make it easier for newbies), I forgot to mention that on the pages... Everything forward of the join were the N numbers are split up is very true to the original, obviously you could improve the part aft of that by putting in some more sections to accentuate the swoopiness of the original.

The only boxy part of the fuselage is the lower wing/fuselage meeting point, which if you can figure out something better, be my guest. the bottom part of the tail on the original was pretty angular if I remember correctly.

[silveroxide]

Thanks for mentioning the engine booms having a rectangular
body past the air scoop and exhaust. Went back to my reference to make sure. I was about to work on that section when I noticed your comments.

[Dav3xor]

Most of the plane was very gently faired conic sections as far as I could tell. Makes sense if you've ever looked at how a Long-EZ is put together -- slabs of foam that are carefully sanded/fiberglassed to have rounded edges.

Be warned when looking at source material, there's 2 sets of pictures with different cowling setups, and somewhat different markings. Hehe, and whoever did that model did a wonderful job, but they got the fuel filler caps wrong.

[silveroxide]

Thanks for mentioning the engine booms having a rectangular
body past the air scoop and exhaust. Went back to my reference to make sure. I was just about to start on that section when I noticed your comments on the build.

[Dav3xor]

I'm happy as a clam that someone is building the thing, and with a full cockpit no less -- you're doing a fine job.

[silveroxide]

Originally Posted by Dav3xor

I'm happy as a clam that someone is building the thing, and with a full cockpit no less -- you're doing a fine job.

Dav3xor: Thanks for the download and the comments.

In continuation, more build pics:

The fuselage seemed more aerodynamic than the engine nacelles do I kept it more rounded and streamlined.

I took off those pesky tabs and when it came time to join the nose, i laminated it from the inside But that is for the next posting.

The only problem I had here, was in the tail section where it had that venturi. I folded the rear section too far out and it caused it to have a kink. Wood filler or epoxy can fix it but I am going to ride it out to see how it comes out in the long run.

[billy.leliveld]

Nice work Silveroxide, where did you got the model?
The layout/artwork looks like FG, but I never saw it before..