Over the holidays I got back to my scratch build scale RC Sopwith Camel and finished off some of the details. Here’s some new pix of the landing gear fairings as well as work on the tail surfaces. This build-along is now just about at the point where we will start covering the model and spraying on a paint scheme and finish.
Just as we did with the cabane struts, the wire landing gear struts are also covered with the slotted bass wood strips. These from Balsa USA and are epoxied onto the wire.
The aft struts go down to the axles while the front struts end at the horizontal cross piece.
The cross pieces on either side of the axles are also covered with wood which will be shaped and sanded to an airfoil shape before finishing.
The leading and trailing edges being glued into place.
The center section of the axle assembly is covered with plywood that’s epoxied into place.
Here’s the axle bearing detail. simple and easy to maintain. Williams Brothers’ wheels are used.
Tail Feathers
To finish the radio gear and linkage installations, the tail feathers have to be hinged into place. I am using Standard size DuBro flat pinned hinges.
Here the rudder and fin are hinged together.
Since the tail surfaces are removable. the bottom rudder hinge will have a removable pivot pin. It will allow the bottom of the rudder to separate from the fuselage tail post. All the other hinges in the tail group are permanent.
I like using Robart pivoting ball link control horns.
The pivot ball has to be in line with the hinge line between the two surfaces.
Also, all the rigging wire hard points are reinforced with short lengths of brass tubing. 2-56 bolts will secure the rigging wires.
Nothing fly like a good balsa model Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing, great job…………I will stay tuned for the next episode!
Gerry, I was especially impressed with your neat solder joints.After wrapping with copper wire,what type of heat source do you use to get the nice clean joints?Thanks again for sharing your techniques with us.
Great fob on the landing gear.
Did you machine the articulated axle hardware? Really nice.
Walt Kostuk
ps I can’t believe you did all that work over a couple of days?
Hi Walt. thanks for the comments. I worked the articulated axle with my dremel and a large cutoff disk and a few files. Heat treated the metal first and then drilled the holes and quenched in oil. Worked out pretty good. Check out the past post on the Camel, http://www.modelairplanenews.com/blog/2014/08/12/workshop-build-along-sopwith-camel-articulated-axle-assembly/
Gerry
Does anybody make a lighter version of the WW1 wheels? William Bros are unusually heavy-