Slingsby Gull scale 1/4

[bocorvin]

Hello everyone,

A friend had some doubts of the reinforcements I had made me at a weak point, which I had created in by drilling in the lower mainspar. I had a bit of a blind spot . Glad he told me that, it was easy to improve now So I took out the webbing plate, cleaned up the spar and chamfered the extra layers.




made also doubler on the top spar and put a double webplate at the front of the spar.


I couldn't put extra wood at the rear of the spar, (it was not on the real thing) so instead of that I put on some glasrovings with epoxy on the webbing plate. Later I laminated some short sections of glastape on the webbing to reinforce that also.



Its looking better, so I could go on with all kind of details of the wings.

To be continued,

Vincent.

[Mad Doc]

How nice it is to watch you working!!!
I definetely have to learn to do some of that soldering!

Christian

[bocorvin]

Hello everyone,

Thanks Cristian for your nice comments! The silversoldering is not that difficult, reading a bit, the right stuff and a lot of try and error (sometimes burnt fingers )

Next was with the nose of the wing.



I was a bit worried about that, there are about 12 joints in the ply covering of each wing (there is a bend in it; 4 seams). Scarf joints is very difficult to do it properly because of all curved surfaces. I build fuselages with butt plates instead, wich worked OK. In the wing it would be easier solved with thin glass/epoxy, instead of much thicker ply.
On a flat, (non sticking) surface I soaked 25mm glasstape with epoxy and let it cure. I took that off and cut it in the middle, getting strips of 12mm wide, 0.2mm thick and very flexible. I glued that with cyano an the ribs were the joint was needed. Sanded the rib first slightly down a bit (just the 0.2mm).





The panels were prebended, using boiling water and dried for some time. I fitted both sides and left a overlap at the main spar. Glued it with thick cyano on the leading edge, put the panel on, fold it in its correct position and let that harden


The wing is held vertically just for easier gluing


Now I put the wing flat, opened up one side, put glue in it and closed it while pulling it back.





Turned the wing over and glued the other side. Cut of the surplus


After a lot of gluing..



Still a lot of fiddley things on the wings to do.

To be continued,

Vincent

[Olli]

Hi Vincent,


nice wood work

Best Regards Olli

[Eric Spore]

Nice work ! One more devotee for skin laying with thick cyanoacrylat glue.

[bocorvin]

Hi Olli and Eric

Thanks for your nice remarks Olli !

About the cyano Eric, thats because of the building story of your Nemere .
Besides, it appeared to be quite strong, see "atelier reparation, Nemere 1/6"

Vincent.

[patte de loup]

Nice work Vince
Pat'

[bocorvin]

Bonjour,

Thanks a lot for your remarks Pat' .

I went on with all the control wires, first the wing, I changed the wires for a bit thinner wire, 20 KG, about 0.53mm thick. It was 30KG and that was a bit stiffer and the pulleys are not that big, now its working better.
From 1mm steel wire I bended a loop, which locks the aileron and which I (hope) to unlock via the slot for the control wire .





Th pull-pull wires for the elevator attached at the bellcranck


and also the wires for the rudder with a kind of homemade kwiklinks




Now it was time to put the lower ply panels on the fuselage, first I glued on the strips which acts as butt-plate



sanded everything and started to glue the panels

prepared, put on the thick cyano

put it in position and pressing it with a batten of 10X10 with non adhering tape on it (the brown parcel stuff)


there are some more panels to do...
The wings are now 975gr, servo's included and some minor panels missing.

Vincent

[sebastian92]

Hello Vincent,
you should put on gloves to stick with the cyano… it's safer for your fingers !
Good luck for the future ; it looks good

[caralp_laurent]

Hi Vincent,
Congratulations, it's superb

Friencly,


Lolo

[bocorvin]

Merci Sebastian et Lolo, and I'll put my gloves on .

Vincent.

[Clifton]

Hi Vincent,

I'm coming back to the forum after a long time.

Very nice build, I love this sailplane. I hope I'll see your Gull flying one day.

Friendly,

Philippe

[bocorvin]

Hi Philippe,

Nice to hear from you again . Thanks so much for your comments.
The planning is to fly the Gull at retroplane 2020, hopefully you see it there. It can fly as a "strutted" Gull and also as a "cantilever" Gull or Gull III.


Friendly,

Vincent

[bocorvin]

Hello everyone,

Next was the fuselage, a lot of panels!
The doublers low in the fuselage are to reinforce the fuselage were you hold it to hand launch it.


and a look at the inside with the steering cables in place



I also put some weight between the side panels in the front.

and it began to look a bit like the Gull



Now the nose (pif? )

and the real thing


this was presumably the prototype, it has the short canopy. what I liked was the difference in tints. So I choosed to put different veneers in the nose. Hopefully it will tone down after the staining, I will see.


I use veneer (massive thin wood) instead of ply, its possible to sand it.



and sanded






To be continued,

Vincent

[Sed]

Superbe, comme d'habitude !

[Johannes]

Hi Vincent,
der Rumpf ist sehr schön und sauber gebaut - respekt
Besonders gefällt mir das Foto vom Rumpfinneren zum Heck


LG Johannes

[Franco Vallari]

Gran bel lavoro Vincent...

[bocorvin]

Merci Serge, danke Johannes et grazie Franco
The Gull is not modelled often, but its a nice glider

Vincent

[de Schaetzen Harold]

Belle forme. Très élégant.
J'aime beaucoup.
Harold

[bocorvin]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for your remarks Harold, I agree with you, the "gull wing" gives it indeed an elegant look. I found another nice picture of the real thing


I went on with the wings, the capstrips and gusset plates had to be put on, a lot again!








To keep the ailerons demountable, I had to keep the kwiklinks (or is it quicklinks ) accessible, a hatch was needed.

I used a metal piercing saw with tape against splintering




By bending the 0.6mm ply and a bevel? at one side it locks. Its possible to bend it through a hole in the root rib.











I didn't like the gusset plates at the elevator, I glued them on top of the D box as it should be, but I couldn't get the bevelling properly, it was distracting also.

So I decided to make them flush.




After this two day effort of cutting and gluing I made the hinges for the canopy, Folded a strip of nickel silver (big pliers )





and fitted the canopy (still demountable, the hinge pins are temporary)

The canopy looks to small, it gets wooden battens at the outside after fitting the glass.




To be continued,

Vincent.

[sebastian92]

hello Vincent,
all these little details are very long… but it gives the final look of our models !
it's a good sign ; you're going well towards the end
The storm is strong ; we stay warm in our house and workshops

[Clifton]

So marvellous and great job as usuall !

[bocorvin]

Thank you Sebastian and Philippe for your nice feedback

Its also dreadfull weather over here, one gale after the other .
When the weather is better I hope to make some photo's outside to give a good impression how the Gull looks at this stage.

Vincent.

[Peter64]

Congratulations
Greetings
Peter

[bocorvin]

Hello everyone,

Thanks Peter for your nice words .
I had some problems to solve int he cockpit. It was hard to get the info, here in the museum in Edenburgh, the Gull hanging at the ceiling and dufficult to get by!

There is a kind of platform under the instrument panel

I also wanted to have my receiverpack and switch in it.


It was not easy to fit all in it, I had to remake it a couple of times



The instrument panel itself will be black, the ply I used chipped quite easily, luckily it will be painted.

In the circle is a strong magnet lock (covered with ply) to hold the canopy shut..

On the Scale soaring UK site I found this picture of the Petrel intstrument panel, which looks identical to that of the Gull in my view.




I ordered the instruments at Aerocockpit, maybe I use the dials from this picture.

to be continued,

Vincent

[patte de loup]

Vince,

Maybe , you could contact Vince Cocket through SSUK to catch up some further information? This guy is very kind
A+
Pat'

[bocorvin]

Hello Pat,

That sounds good, I'll try to contact him, I guess via SSUK.
Thanks a lot for that idea

Kind regards,

Vincent

[bocorvin]

Hello everyone,
Thanks to Pat', I contacted Vince Cocket and he send me the layout of the instrument panel of the Gull T.12 and T.15



Because I modelled the T.12 (the one with struts) I choosed the lower image. Nice detail; the altimeter is turned 90 degr . There seems hardly any bezels to be, so I tried to make it more or less flush





I thought there most have been machine screws to fasten the instruments and I didn't have them that small, so I modified some pins

first sanded the head and then I made a small sawcut

Now it gives (hopefully) the impression of screw heads


After its sprayed black the dials with glazing can slide in from the bottom


Another detail is the pitot tube, on the Scale Soaring UK site I found a nice picture of a number of pitot tubes

combined with a photo of the Gull

I made this from solid metal bar, silver soldered is a square braas tube.

Because its is vulnerable in transport I made it detachable, sliding in a bigger square brass tube in the nose and secured with a small magnet





Talking about vulnerability, I discovered (you can see the repair...) that the wing root TE was also a weak spot

and I made a rather crude protecting device


All the capstrips on the ailerons were fitted and I also made a washout of 4mm at the tip of the ailerons



I replaced two panels with some chipping




and finally I sculped the pilots head, again helped enormously by the tutorial of Josh Foreman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlPYWe2bGUo
Material I use (thats Vincent Becancon idea) is Super Sculpey Living Doll, a kind of polymere clay that can be baked in a oven at 140 degr for about 30mins (instructions are on the package)
The head is basically made on a wooden stick with a clump of aluminium foil to get a reasonably thickness (les than about 10mm)of the material. After baking I pulled the stick out and milled the head further out, to reduce the weight, its now 89 grams.

My sister is making its clothes and cap, so I am curious how he will look!

To be continued, Vincent.

[bocorvin]

To be continued, Vincent.

[patte de loup]

Pretty things
Pat'