18/6/2015
I didn't want to replace the rudder servo, so I exchanged this model with James for a rubber powered Wright Flyer.
18/5/2015
The model was first flown on 9 May 2015. It flew at brisk walking pace with a very marked nose up attitude.
The elevator trim tab was pushed forward all the way. Ailerons were ineffective, there was a lot of stability. Turns with rudder is effective.
It was practically full throttle all the way and each flight lasted only about 2.5 minutes, struggling to climb. At the last flight of that morning, the 5030 prop flew out from the shaft. Blenderm tape around shaft doesn't work too well.
The model was flown again with the EPS8 provided 6030 on 10 May 2015. The thrust was significantly weaker, managing only basically powered glide. The EPS8 geared motor shaft seems to be bent, the 6030 propellor was removed, the cover plate taken out and reamed larger. 5" propeller is fitted back. I used heat shrink over the shaft and yet another slightly larger heat shrink over the heat shrank shaft. The GWS 5030 fits great with double heatshrink.
Flying on 17 May 2015. It flies better now, the shaft is definitely bent because there is lots of vibration. Each 250mah battery only lasted about 2.5 minutes. I think that the geared motor I have has too much friction and eccentricity, the voltage drop is more significant and the esc cut the motor after 2.5 minutes. If I change the EPS8 to WLToys geared motor and prop, I think it would be good.
The flying was slow and graceful. Too bad the HobbyKing 2gm rudder servo gave up during flight, and I couldn't fly this model meaningfully with ailerons control (without rudder).
5/5/2015
Exhaust collector ring and pipe from Paulinda's Super Dough weighs 0.7gm.
Paint marker is not suitable for painting the exhaust assembly because some areas are inaccessible to the paint nib.
Spraying is the solution. I sprayed the exhaust in a big plastic bag. After spraying it flat black, it is still 0.7gm. The paint is fraction of 0.1gm.
As this photo shows, it is rigid enough to support the exhaust pipe portion. It is also flexible and easily snipped with a pair of scissors.
I can imagine using this material as spinners, engines and tyres.
With prop spinning. Tail skid is taped to the floor, otherwise it would roll along instantly at the slowest spinning speed. Battery is trapped by the exhaust pipe.
I used 5030 propeller instead of 6030 that came with the HobbyKing's 8mm geared brushed motor.
Thang told me it will have about 40gm thrust. Perfect for 68gm model.
The 250mah battery is placed at this location, and is held by the exhaust pipe.
The esc and receiver are under the front decking; the bottom trough is clear, good for re-doing the pull pull if necessary.
Front view.
Top view
Complete with battery, it weighs 68.3gm. Vertical hovering is not to be expected.
The hinge gap is the cause for reduction in rudder throw. Figure 8 thread hinges will be great but I will try to fly as is. Thang thinks it will have the same effect as 80% expo, which is nice!
4/5/2015
CA kicker dissolves the paint marker.
My ailerons became flaps.
I connected the pull pull wrongly.
The servo is mounted to the leading edge because I didn't want to make any mount and I was hoping maybe the pull pull will be the turbulence strip.
Ailerons' pull pull is corrected. Cotton bud tubing used to direct the pull pull strings.
Wheels are installed. The wheels spin on the axle which spins in the spreader tubing.
The esc and receiver is inside the front decking. The end of the receiver is exposed here, but it will be covered by the engine cowling. This will leave the bottom clear.
This is how I connected my struts.
Strips of clear pvc sheet is glued to diagonal struts.
Thin CF rods are passed through the pvc connection strips.
Strips are glued to the wing.
Diagonal struts are made longer then necessary.
Strips are inserted between fuselage sides and cabane struts, bent around the fuselage bottom and glued to the diagonal struts.
Check that wing does not become umbrella shape by sliding in or out the plastic strips between fuselage sides and cabane struts, glue when satisfied.
My exhaust collector ring is made from Paulinda's Super Dough.
It is fat, uneven and inaccurate.
The exhaust will be snipped to length and then sprayed matte black.
22/4/2015
Pulled out the bamboo sticks and made another set with another piece of corrugated plastic. Now the shaft exits at the same level with the cowling opening.
Glued 6 cylinders to the cowling.
How will I represent the exhaust collector ring and tube easily?
Heatshrink tubing and plastic cotton buds not so easy.
Hitec Minima compatible receiver and 2.0g servos.
Thinking of mounting 2 servos with 6mm spacer at the front end. Hoping that the front decking is deep enough to cover the bottom of the servos.
Thinking of pull pull for rudder and elevator.
Thinking of functioning ailerons with pull pull also.
Thinking pull pull to use polyester thread for pull strings, plastic tubing (cotton buds again) for guides and control horns. The strings to be threaded through the control surfaces so that the tubular horns are secured. And thinking of not tying knots, to make the lengths adjustable by friction only and when flight trimmed, to lock in with CA.
- Take 2 servos and make a stepped block with 2 pieces of 3mm foam pieces. I'm using the servos spanwise.
- Glue mounting lugs of 3mm foam pieces on the stepped block.
- Cut hole in fuselage and insert stepped block. Thread the servo leads through another hole in the fuselage.
- The rear servo is the rudder servo, the front servo (taller) is the elevator servo.
- Hinge the rudder to the rudder post, glue the plastic tubing horns to the control surfaces of rudder and elevators, hinge the rudder, tack glue together and glue it to the fuselage.
- Thread the rudder servo first, winding around the servo horn so it won't slip. Then thread through the fuselage, to the control tube, down the control tube, into and through the control surface (rearwards), back to the tube, down the control tube again but in the other direction, CA end. The length is not adjustable but is the neatest/easiest I can think of.
21/4/2015
Two bamboo sticks, the longer stick is inserted through a piece of corrugated plastic sheet and the shorter stick glued atop the corrugated plastic stick. Motor will be spot glued later.
If this geared motor does not have enough thrust, I may convert it to 2s brushless motor.
For now this means using my Minima compatible micro receiver and 1.7gm servos.
I have not figured out how to provide battery access.
20/4/2015
Lowered the front decking by cutting out a 'V' piece and gluing the edges together.
Sprayed with the $3 aerosol can.
Removed the paper stencil '4', pen and marker for 'Farman', 'F', 'F-AIDJ'.
Rolled the wing for undercambered airfoil.
15/4/2015
Depron cut out, lines drawn, folded and rolled.
The pilots couldn't see past the front decking.
Update 1/3/2015
For the cylinders: the straws are taped to satay sticks for handling and sprayed flat black ($3 a can). Then since I had the bright silver spray at hand, the cylinders were mist over with this contrasting spray.
For the wheels: the EVA foam discs were cut with circle cutter, using the reinforced disc otherwise the centre hole get elongated and the discs ended up inaccurate. 2 discs of 2mm were stuck together with CA. I used old name cards to make the cones. Discs were cut with circle cutter. I tried two method to simulate the spokes. The first was by scribing before folding, the second was folding each disc over itself. For ease of work, I scribed/folded 8 times, giving 16 spokes, then cut and form a 15 spoked cone. The scribing method is neater. The folding method gave more texture. I prefer the scribing. The cones were taped to a board and sprayed bright silver ($3 a can).
For the cowling: I used circle template to mark the enlarged hole. Cut roughly and reamed it to size. I used circle template to mark out the 8 rivet points and the shaft opening on the disc. I reamed the rivet points (not dimples) and shaft opening through. The cowling was taped to a board and sprayed bright silver. The disc positioned over the cowling looks great, the rivet/bolt points look good.
Thoughts and ideas: Why so troublesome (25/2/2015)
Forget about Jedelsky type wing, forget about making another cowling, forget about over complications, avoid using dremel or other tools.
Making the Wing
- Cut 3mm depron foam sheet to size.
- (Optional) glue 1mm C/F rod as leading edge (I'm bound to crash and manhandle the model a bit)
- (Optional) Slice, sand underside at the trailing edge to form a bevel edge, maybe 1" or 2cm is good enough, or to use iron at less than wool setting.
- Flip over and draw in the rib lines and aileron lines.
- (Optional) Make a template and cut scallops at the trailing edge (forget about dremel discs)
- (Optional) 1) glue strips of paper at the rib lines (top only), 2) apply 3M blenderm tape for ailerons hinges (either top or bottom), 3) cold roll top of wing to simulate fabric sag between ribs.
- Spray the wing aluminium/silver, at the same time, spray the tail feathers and a paper sheet.
- Mark out the letterings with marker pen.
- Gently roll the wing over a long cylindrical object for camber.
- The wing is done.
Mounting the GPS-8mm geared motor
- Insert 2 toothpicks into the nylon mounting holes of the motor.
- Cut a piece of corrugated plastic.
- Hot glue in the free end of one toothpick, the one opposite side of the motor into corrugated plastic.
- Hot glue in the free end of the other toothpick on top/below the corrugated plastic so that the motor is angled and therefore does not hinder the fuselage.
- Shim up and hot glue the corrugated plastic to the fuselage, downthrust and sidethrust but with the shaft exit hole along the centreline of the model. Check with cowling.
- The motor is mounted.
Modify the Cowling (that which was made on 23/2/2015)
- Use a template to mark a big circle, at the exact centre.
- Cut the hole roughly.
- Use the remant of the pingpong ball to make a nose disc that covers this big hole.
- Make a centre hole in the disc and make dimples to simulate the 8 bolts/rivets.
- When motor is adjusted to the correct position and thrust line, the disc will cover the large hole.
- Spray aluminium/silver the cowling and disc.
- Spray black to the 6 cylinders made from plastic corrugated drinking straws and paper reinforcement rings.
- Cut the 6 cylinders to length and hot glue them to the cowling. UHU Por should be neater.
- The cowling complete with 6 cylinders is complete and awaits gluing and touching up.
Making the Wheels
- 2 discs from 2mm EVA foam (black of course), 4 scored card cones (from old name cards), 2 plastic tube from cotton earbud, 4 plastic washers which fits the plastic tube hubs.
- (Optional) Slit silicone tubing and seat it on the EVA discs to simulate fat tyres.
- Mark a hub where one washer will fit, glue one washer, slide the EVA disc, glue the other washer, cover one side with paper cone. Washer's outer diameter may be almost as large as the cone areas to provide support to the flexible EVA discs.
- Repeat and we have two half-covered wheels.
- The blank sides of the wheels are covered with paper cones after the wheels are slipped on to the wheels' wire axle and axle ends secured.
Making the Landing Gear (undercarriage)
- 2 overlong front legs and 2 overlong rear legs are cut from CF rods.
- 2 soft wire pieces are looped at their middle.
- Heat shrink a front leg to a free end of the soft wire loop and heat shrink the rear leg onto the other end.
- Repeat and we have 2 V-shaped pair of legs.
- Bend an angle to one end of a thin music wire, slip on a wheel, insert the other end through the wire loops, slip the other wheel and bend an angle to the other end of the thin music wire. Snip off.
- Centre spreader cut to length and glued to the thin music wire axle.
- The undercarriage is complete, requiring only rolled paper fairings to the naked legs and stringing up (rigging) with thin nylon thread which should only be done at the final stage of model completion.
Making and mounting of Cabane and Lift Struts, Undercarriage to fuselage
- Snip the cabane struts from CF rods. They should be slightly too long.
- Make 4 plastic discs, pierce their centre and force fit them onto the 4 cabane struts. Apply superglue (or dab of hot glue).
- Make front and rear jig to support the wing from the topside of the fuselage. They are also used to align the 4 cabane struts with the disc ends. Apply superglue at the struts where the topside of the fuselage were pierced.
- Snip flush or dremel off the struts from the bottom of the fuselage. Spot superglue the middle of the struts and fuselage.
- Invert the model, i.e. belly up.
- The 4 Lifting Struts are similarly prepared with the wing on. This will require the plastic discs to be at approximately 45 degrees. Dab of hot glue or UHU Por for more working time.
- The other ends of lifting struts crosses the cabane struts and the excess length trimmed off.
- The undercarriage has to be completed before it can be mounted.
- Invert the model, use a jig to position the undercarriage. The over length CF rods cross the cabane struts but are not trimmed.
- When it looks fine, superglue (or dab a bit of hot glue) the combined ends of cabane struts and crossing lifting struts and undercarriage. For the rear legs of the undercarriage, glue on a small 6mm x 1.5mm piece of balsa at the location where it enters the fuselage, UHU Por would provide adequate time for adjustment.
Making the Cowling (Take 1, 23/2/2015)
Method
- Use a dremel rotary tool to cut a 38mm diameter Ping Pong ball to height.
- PVC cover sheet drawn over the plan, marking out the holes and arcs with marker pen.
- Cut 6 rough holes with Exacto.
- Gouge the 6 holes with SKU043957 0-14mm Steel Hole Expanding Saw Opener Reamer Installation Kit The reamer arrived today from Banggood, very sharp.
- Cut the arc strip with scissors, leaving one end with tab of about 5mm.
- Hot glue arc strip to form a frustum.
- Hot glue the cut-to-height ping pong ball and frustum together.
- Ream a hole for the propeller shaft, off set for some down thrust and right thrust.
Mistakes:
- Step 6 should not be done because then the frustum is fixed and cannot accept adjustment without suffering distortion in step 7.
- The ping pong ball should not extend all the way to the base of the frustum because the frustum does not meet the ball at the top. It also left a gap all round. might leave the frustum un-distorted and have a neater join gap.
- The off-set hole for the propeller shaft looks out of place. I could have off set the motor instead.
Planning:
- If the ball to just the top of the frustum or perhaps leaving a 1 to 2mm beading line and the frustum is not done yet (as identified in Mistake 1), how to assemble them? It seems better to do the frustum first, then glue the ball over the frustum.
- To mount the motor in the cowling, I think I will bind/glue an ice cream stick (with a central hole to clear the shaft circlip) to the nylon motor mount. Then the extended mount is cut to shape and hot glue to the completed cowling. The ping pong ball is ideal mounting material, but now that the ball is shortened, it leaves only the soft pvc cover frustum with cut out holes and this will not do.
Ideas and thoughts (Feb 2015)
- Pingpong ball for cowling, one piece from offcut to detail the rivets/bolts and hide the enlarge hole of cowling after thrustline offset adjusted. Use dremel, cutoff abrasive discs.
- PVC strip (transparent book cover) for cowling, make holes first, enlarge with tapered cutting awl, then cut to shape as shown on plan or using frustum calculator for the inner and outer radius.
- Cylinder from 6mm bendy straw with hole reinforcement rings for 5 fins
- Plastic tube from cotton buds for pipes. Make former, tape/band, soldering iron to coax. Use tapered awl and soldering iron to coax flared ends.
- Blue foam for motor mounting block, bamboo stick for GPS-8mm geared motor
- Wheels from 5mm depron, see youtube genekoro's method using dremel, sanding discs, scalpel blade, sanding sticks, marker pen.
- Plastic tube from cotton buds for hub.
- CF rods for landing gear, struts.
- Soft steel wire made into loop and secured with heatshrink to CF rods to form axle bearing.
- Assemble landing gear using temporary depron jig
- Thin wire for axle, bend one end to L shape before insert washer, wheel, washer, washer, wheel, washer, bend other end to L shape, hot glue L ends to washer
- 6mm clear pvc disc for anchor points and washers, hot-glued/UHU.
- Blue foam as anchor points for slanted CF rods
- Landing gear fixed to hinged bottom piece, secure with magnets
- Folded 3mm depron sheet for fuselage, bottom open. Technique as per Dewoitine D.332 Emeraude
- Mount servos before gluing fuselage to trough shape with former at the first strut and at the rear strut positions, centre of tube rearwards at hinge line (bottom will show less tube when top hinged)
- Folded 3mm depron sheet for wing, jedelski-type, taper the bottom edges of blank, V-cut and roller point technique as per fuselage, fold and tape front edge to 40% chord point. Maybe a paper scalloped edge for further sanding of the trailing edge. Aileron servo bottom mounted on surface, wires hide in one of the front strut.
- Draw lines in black pen and paint with ordinary spray can, misty coat allow to dry before next coat, not to allow any pooling. Finish with marker pen lettering.
- 3mm depron sheet for rudder and elevator.
- Elevator halves glued with CF rods, top hinged with tape
- Nylon transparent thread as pull-pull lines for ailerons, rudder, elevator
- Plastic tube from cotton buds for control horns and control line exits and guides
- Lines goes into tube at one end, exit at the other, pass through the control surface, back to the tube at the first end, exit at the other, and linked to the servo horn.
- Thin balsa stick as a wedge to secure the lines at the control surfaces and to stiffen the tubes.
- Heat shrink and superglue to secure the lines at the servo horns.
- Painted paper for fairings
June 2014
What an interesting low-aspect parasol winged plane.
Enlarge the peanut plan slightly and I should be able to use the current gear I have.
Elevator and Rudder
The rudder shall be constructed before the fuselage. The rudder post will be glued between the two fuselage sides.
Construct the rudder from 1mm balsa sheet. Add tissue strips to simulate rib tapes and spar lines. Entire covered in Esaki Heavy Duty tissue, sprayed silver and the word "Farmen" penned in, both sides.
As for the horizontal stabilser and elevator, they are simple 1mm balsa sheet, similary decorated before it is glued onto the fuselage and rudder. Elevator joiner is 1mm carbon fibre rod.
Fuselage
Cut the planform and sides from 1mm balsa sheet (bought a couple of sheets from Jethobby).
At this size I don't need to prepare too many formers for the fuselage. The formers are easy squares but get in the way of equipment installation, however, they are useful to ensure a box structure, so they will be lightly tack glued in placed. The wood grain of the square formers run across the planform. For now, only three identical square formers are required, one at the front cabane/landing gear location, one at the position where a vertical member is shown right in front of the rear passenger and the remaining at the rear cabane where the fuselage sides will be pulled in to the stern. Combine this with pre-wetting the fuselage sides on the outside about 1" rear of the last former, I hope this will reduce the curvature of the sides between the formers.
Mark the line of the rear cabane, I intend to have the planform forward of this line to be removed at a later stage.
For the fuselage sides, instead of scoring to bend the sides to match the plan of E. Fillon, I will leave it straight and add scrap balsa within to build up sufficient thickness so that the nose portion can be planed and sanded to match the round firewall.
The internal side of the fuselage sides are tapered at the end to mate with the rudder post.
Pre-wet the external sides as before described and glued them onto the planform piece. Forward of the marking line they are tack glued, and to rear of which, fully glued. The pre-tapered ends encapsulates the rudder post. Ensure that the sides and rudder post are parallel to each other.
Cut the circular firewall from 2 mm ply, mark the axes.
Make the cowling mould from blue foam, the rear of which matches the circular firewall.
Either make a corresponding cutout and use that to mould a plastic sheet or wrap it in cling film and make a paper mache cowling.
Whichever method, trim to fit the firewall.
If the motor is too short to be mounted directly on the firewall, add ply to the forward face of the firewall. Mount the motor, drill the holes for wire and shaft clearance and tack glue the firewall to the fuselage sides. Add scrap balsa within to build up sufficient thickness so that the nose portion can be planed and sanded to match the round firewall.
Remove the planform piece forward of the rear cabane. Cut out the front decking from 1mm balsa sheet, roll to shape and glue it on to the top of the fuselage sides.
Stripe the fuselage with thin tissue at the various spacers position and cover the fuselage with tissue, mask the rudder and post, spray red, add white (silver?) and black letterings. At this stage, leave the fuselage bottom un-covered. A bit of tissue can be glued to the interior of the front decking and this should stiffen the structure quite a bit.
Wing
Simple sheet wings curled to shape from 1mm balsa sheets. 1mm balsa bottom sheet at cabane location with grain running chord-wise. In total, 6 ribs of 1mm balsa should be sufficient; 2 for the tips, 2 for the centre cabane location, and 2 for the struts location. Scalloped trailing edge by sanding with a formed sanding tool. Leading edge reinforced with 5mm wide carbon fibre strip.
Add thin tissue strip to simulate ribs on top surface and the ailerons, and then cover with Esaki tissue (which I bought a whole roll of). The bottom will be untreated. The top will be sprayed silver. Then the black numbering sprayed on.
The cabane struts are from 1mm carbon fibre rods and 1mm thick balsa strips.
Cut a long piece of 1mm thick balsa strip, about 5mm wide.
This will serve the cabane struts, the lifting struts and the landing gear.
It is rounded on one edge and the other edge which is square is where the rods/wires shall be glued to.
Cut the CF rods and the prepared balsa strip to the correct lengths.
The CF rods should protrude at each end by about 1.5mm.
Cover the cabane struts with tissue and spray silver.
Make a cabane location template from thick paper/card/scrap balsa. It is basically a rectangular piece with four holes drilled through. Flip the wing upside down and use the template to mark the 4 struts location (1mm diameter) at the bottom sheeting of the wing. Drill the locations. Insert the struts. Use the same template to position the free ends of the struts.
Ensure squareness and glue in place.
Equipment
Hook up the speed controller to the motor, check motor spins in the correct direction.
Glue the horizontal stabiliser and hinged elevators, ensure squareness.
Prepare the elevator pushrod with a z-bend.
The z-bend hooks onto the elevator horn.
Insert the straight end through the starboard side of the fuselage and into an ez-connector mounted to the servo horn.
Fit the servo horn onto pre-centred elevator servo and glue the elevator servo to the interior of the fuselage side.
Prepare the rudder pushrod with a z-bend.
The z-bend hooks onto the rudder horn.
Insert the straight end through the top of the fuselage and into an ez-connector mounted to the servo horn.
Fit the servo horn onto pre-centred rudder servo and glue the rudder servo to the interior of the fuselage side.
The ez-connectors should be located somewhere accessible from the bottom of the fuselage, either in between the landing gears or just after but before the rear cabane struts.
The battery, max. size would be 2s500, shall be located either between the firewall and the servos if the servos are mounted towards the rear, or to the rear of the 2 servos if the servos are mounted up front.
The speed controller could either be glued/taped to 1) underside of front decking, 2) rear of firewall, or 3) in between the 2 servos.
Landing Gear
The steel wire components comprise of two 'V' and a spreader bar.
Cut and bend two 'V' from 1mm (or 1.2mm) steel wire.
Prepare two jigs from thin compressed foam.
The front jig is simply a rectangular piece with the lower edge at the valley of the two steel wires. Lines are drawn where the steel wire should lay. Tape the wires to these lines for the correct angle of spread. A horizontal line is also drawn at the location where the steel wires shall enter the fuselage. The rear jig is similarly constructed for the rear ends of the 'V' shaped wires.
A 1mm scrap balsa strip, about 10mm high, is first prepared with a single bevelled edge. Two rectangular pieces are cut from this strip. The pieces are to fit exactly to the fuselage.
Each of the two horizontal spacers is taped to the corresponding jigs, under the wires.
The excess wire may be bent aligned with the top of the horizontal spacers.
The wires are then binded to the horizontal spacers with thread and the jigs removed.
The reason for making the thin compressed foam sheet is to facilitate their removal. The thread would cut through the compressed foam easily.
Cut two pieces from the previously bevelled strip to fit between the two horizontal spacers.
Glue them with reinforcing gussets at the corners of the box, there are eight gussets in total.
The simple spreader bar may now be soldered to the valleys of the 'V' wires. The previous hassle of using jigs to bind the wires to the horizontal spacers ensure that the spreader bar will run parallel to the bottom of the horizontal spacers.
Prepare a 1mm thick balsa strip, about 5mm wide. It is rounded on one edge, cut to lengths and the square edge is glued to the steel wires. They are then covered with tissue and sprayed silver.
Cut four discs of thin craft foam sheet to the outer diameter of the wheels.
Each wheel is made from two discs of thin craft foam sandwiched between an external thin ply disc and an internal thin ply disc.
Cut two smaller discs from thin craft foam sheet. These are glued to two external thin ply discs and shaped to form a cone. It need not be done too accurately because the wheels can be embellished with rolled paper cones.
Insert aluminium tubing into the wheels.
The tubing will be too loose on the axle, so a little rolled up paper tube may be inserted to reduce the play.
Assembly
With the wings completed with central cabanes, the fuselage and tail assembly fitted out with RC gear and the landing gear completed, it is time to bring the whole plane together and add the lifting struts and cover the bottom of the plane.
The E. Fillon plan seems to indicate zero decalage and down thrust. I suppose that having the wings at zero degrees is fine since it has ample camber (and I suspect stability also) and I can always pull the elevator to slow it down. I am more wary of the lack of down thrust in a parasol winged configuration. I think maybe upto 3 degrees down thrust is required and will set the motor thrustline after test flying because if the motor is too weak, I wouldn't have much of a problem anyway.
Temporary assemble the landing gear and the cabane struts (with the wings attached) to the fuselage.
Employing the same method as the cabane struts, prepare the two pairs of lifting struts.
Prepare eight pieces of thin ply discs with central holes drilled to accept the 1mm CF rods.
Four of these goes to the wing's attachment and four to the fuselage.
Mark the points where the lifting struts are to be anchored and reinforce them with the thin ply discs.
For the lower fuselage, part of the disc may be trimmed flush with the fuselage's bottom.
Insert the lifting struts to these points.
Measure and check that nothing is askewed and glue the struts and landing gear in placed.
Glue the cowling in place. Fix the propeller.
Fabricate a removable cover for the bottom, from the firewall to the rear cabane. Slide, slot, hinged, magnetic, whatever. Have it covered in tissue and spray red together with a piece of tissue big enough to cover the model from the rear cabane to the tail.
Rear of the cabane struts, install balsa spacers at the locations where the vertical spacers indicated on the drawings should end and cover it with the pre-coloured tissue.
Fabricate the tail skid from steel wire and glue in place.
Embellishment
The model is ready to fly but it lacks the radial engine, pilot and passenger.
Rolled printed paper can simulate the 6 cylinders.
Soft wire for the rocker rods.
Printed paper for the rocker.
Air-dry foam for the collector ring and exhaust pipe.
Assemble 6 cylinders with rockers and rods.
Drill the cowling to accept the cylinders.
Glue cylinders and rods in placed.
Glue soft wire for the collector ring and exhaust to the cylinders and cowling.
Roll air-dry foam into 3mm diameter and meld the soft wire into it.
Brush paint.
Pilot and passenger from styrofoam.
Brush paint.
