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Sailplanes builds
I have recently received most of the GPM line of Polish sailplanes. I didn't see any build reports on the site, so I thought I should build some and report on how they worked out for me. First up is GMP kit 194, IS-8 Komar. Wikipedia says this was a prewar training glider, updated after WWII.
I started the build with the fuselage. I reinforced the fuselage backbone and formers with cereal box cardboard. I built up the cockpit, which seemed a little too much monocolor. Everything is the same color gray. The control stick was made from a paperclip, with a little dab of glue on the end for the hand grip. The seat back as built in the kit doesn't make much sense, it curves forward just before the headrest. Also, no seatbelts. The pedals that form the nose fuselage curves were glued together before inserting the frame into the fuselage. I just used butt joints with no reinforcements. I thought the fuselage joint on the top of the structure was strange, but it worked out. The wings were next, with the internal box structure built up. It took a little figuring out of how it all goes together. Hopefully the photos will help any future builders. Both wings ended up with a crease line just outboard of the spoilers. This was mostly caused by trying to match up the cutouts in the inner structure with the spoilers on the wing outer panels. |
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Nice to see this! Look forward to more posts!
Greg
__________________
In dry dock: ? In factory: CWS T-1. In hanger: Fokker triplanes? under construction: ? |
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The wings mate together well, with a tab on the underside to attach to the fuselage. It would be easy to display this model as on a travel trailer with the wings removed. The only real complaint is the joint in the center sections' leading edge. It is reinforced with a joining strip (which is not colored) making a double thickness right at the spot where the wing curves the most. The tail parts are typical of any aircraft, I chose not to use the built in jointing tabs so the trailing edges would be a little thinner. All the control surfaces butt join with the aircraft. I wish they had a taper designed in so there wouldn't be a gap if posed outside of neutral position. I used some aircraft safety wire for the control cables. Both sides of the elevator have control horns. Based on what pictures I can find from the Krakow Aviation Museum, looks like the real aircraft has the elevator control horns hidden inside the fuselage tail. Also, the model has an external pitot tube/airspeed tunnel which is not shown in the actual aircraft. This was just a quick build, so she's not all that pretty.
Next build will be GPM kit 195, SZD-22 Mucha Standard. |
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Looking good knife! Sail planes are indeed rare on the forum but a few years ago a Polish guy named Ostoja posted several glider building reports. He was working on a model when all of a sudden his reporting stopped and I don't think he ever posted again. His builds were very skilled and precise and I hope he's alright. If you search for his name and "threads started by user" you will find them all. He had a rather unorthodox way of preparing canopies but it worked for him.
Regards, Erik Last edited by Erik Zwaan; 01-07-2022 at 04:30 AM. Reason: Typo corrected |
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Have you tried to fly the gliders?
You'll just need to add weight to the nose until the gravity center is at 30% of the wing chord. And you can find the GC placing the glider over a rule or pencil.
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https://ecardmodels.com/vendors/draco |
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Oldgliders.com have a large collection of these (Polish) gliders for R/C flying, in 1/4 scale and larger. The scale and paper weight makes this size gliders fly like bricks. I think you would have to enlarge them to about 1/12 scale to get enough wing area to make them glide well. But airline models fly pretty well. Most of them have better weight to size ratios. Just remember to reinforce the nose section (I soak the nose with super glue.)
Thanks Erik for pointing out Ostoja's posts. Great workmanship, hope he's doing well, too. While I think about it, hope DeckApe is well, too. He hasn't posted in awhile. I should highlight the Sailplanes Available? thread started by Jan Kytop. Lots of links to sailplane models. |
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The next build is the SZD-22 Mucha Standard. It was designed in 1958 as a competition sailplane. The kit, like most of the GPM glider models, has 2 pages of colored sheets, one page of black and white parts, and one page of instruction diagrams. This model has no internal skeleton, just internal bulkheads. I started on the big pieces first, saving the many fiddly bits for last. The wing has an internal box structure, with slots for the wing spars. The wings went together better than the Komar, mostly because it has a fullspan straight leading edge. I'm going to have the speedbrakes deployed, so cut them out before assembling the wing. The fuselage goes together easily. The bulkheads ended up being a little too small, cut them out just outside the printed line, then trim to size. The cockpit has much more detail than the Komar, including seatbelts and secondary controls. The canopy doesn't fit too well, but I'm going to use it to make a vacuum formed canopy later.
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Part 31, which attaches the horizontal stabs to the fuselage, took a little bit of thinking to get it folded up correctly. This is how it turned out for me. Seems like designing it to be two parts, left and right, would have made it more realistic. The part curving up and over the vertical stab just looks odd. The model cover shows a completely different design. The speedbrakes were over-designed, with 12 parts to each side. But they went together without too much trouble. Remember, as they are deployed, they move outward towards the wing tips on top of the wing, and towards the fuselage on the bottom of the wings. The model is pretty much finished, except for the canopy. That will have to wait until I get some plastic for the vacuum former machine.
Next up, the younger sister the the SZD-22, the SZD-12 Mucha. |
#10
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This is the SZD-12 Mucha, in 1/50 scale. The kit is from Kartonowa Encyklopedia Lotnictwa, kit #28. It has 2 sheets, one for parts and one for the instructions. Being smaller and with no cockpit, it goes together quicker than the GPM models. The only problem with the assembly is that the built up canopy is a little bigger than the guide lines on the fuselage. I just used the canopy as a guide to cut out a larger section of the fuselage.
Next build is back to the GPM glider series, the SZD-10 Czapla (kit #196). |
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