Sailplanes builds

[modelperry]

Enjoying your thread. Nice to see all the gliders come together in one presentation.

Greg

[Knife]

First of all, the 1/50 SZD-12 Mucha fits in well with my general aviation fleet. I may have to go back and rebuild some of the 1/33 scale models at the smaller scale.



Next in the build que is the SZD-10 Czapla. It has the backbone/bulkhead type of fuselage. The cockpit has much more detail than the earlier models. I used trimmed down Q-Tip shafts for the control sticks, and staples to attach the rudder pedals. I use a circle template to make sure I end up with round tires. The wings don't have a spar through the fuselage to align the two wings, they just are glued to their respective fuselage sides. Thus the wing lift struts will be supporting the wings and preventing them from drooping over time.



One of the simple joys in building these kits in chronological order is to see the evolution of the design process.

[Knife]

This build had two areas that kicked my butt, the mounting of the wings and the closure of the front fuselage sections. The wings just didn't bind well using PVA glue, I finally had to use superglue to get the wing to fuselage joint to hold together. The superglue tends to discolor the paper, so leaves a visible blemish. The nose section of the fuselage is composed of 4 separate pieces, the 2 side panels and a top and bottom part. The internal bulkheads were just a little too big to have the 4 parts meet. I tried to trim the bulkheads up, but still ended up with a split on the bottom seam. My advice for future builders is to trim the front bulkheads when they are first cut out. The nose section is strong enough without the underlining bulkheads.


3 GPM gliders finished, 9 left to build.

[Anyun]

Nice to see someone building all these gliders! And at a very fast tempo too! At this rate it will not take long for you to complete the entire stash of GPM gliders.



I am also putting together a GPM Czapla, and had the same problem as you with too large fuselage bulkheads. I'll start a seperate thread for my build. It's interesting to compare different methods of building this not entirely straight-forward design.



Best of luck with the next glider! /Andrea

[Knife]

Today's offering is another 1/50 scale glider from Kartonowa Encyklopedia Lotnictwa, kit #16, the SZD-6-X Nietoperz. It is a straight forward build. It uses the frame and bulkhead method for the fuselage. A bit of overkill at this scale and size. The canopy required a little trimming to fit properly. For the wings, I glued the spar to the bottom of the wing before folding the wing panels closed.

[Knife]

I was rumaging through boxes of models looking for my Oddball Productions SZD-20X Wampire II to go with the SZD-6-X when I found this "glider". Sorry if I don't have the designer or source, but thought I would share it anyway.


I never did find the Wampire, looks like I will have to make a new copy of it. But first will be SZD-9 Bocian.

[Anyun]

The Nietoperz looks very nice!! But what is the other "glider" An add-on to make a steerable bomb? I would certainly not want to be the test pilot for it in any case

[Knife]

I think it was a proposed glide bomb of the Luftwaffe. Probably radio controlled after release.


Building all these Polish sailplanes brings up the lack of the most popular sailplane in the world (and the only Polish sailplane I've flown), the LET L-13 Blanik. Anybody knows of a kit for it, or will I be forced to design my own? And where are the models for the Schweitzer 1-26 and 2-33? I would have thought someone would have made some by now.

[Knife]

Today's challenge is the SZD-9 Bocian, an acrobatic training aircraft from the mid-50's. It does not have a frame, just uses cones and bulkheads to form the fuselage shape. The fuselage aft of the wing is just one part, and only has one bulkhead. But the correct orientation of the bulkhead is critical for building the airframe true. I got it a few degrees off center of vertical, and when I went to mount the wings the fuselage had a pronounced lean to the left.



The nose section went together well. I made up joiner strips between the sections from normal copy paper. I did have to trim one part, but the trim will be covered by the landing skid once completed. The cockpit portion had a small internal frame. Other than being all gray, the cockpit looks fairly nice with seatbelts, map pockets, and even a cup holder on the seats.

[Knife]

The wings have the usual box spar, with pockets for the wing spars built into them. The outer skin is folded over the spars to complete the wings. Cut out the spoilers if you plan to show them deployed. I'm getting tired of the square aileron joints, so I sliced off a bit of the front of the bottom aileron skin so the ailerons can be mounted in other than neutral position.