I guess most of us European free flight scale modelers have been impressed by the Czechs and their style of building. This model was started to test out some of their techniques. I choose the Rieseler as it's a good looking aircraft with simple lines that one should be able to build quite fast. Two years later I have to concede that "quite fast" is not the best description of this build...
The plane I am building is the one preserved in Sweden. It was built in 1922 with parts imported from Germany. After having flown it for some time, the owner emigrated to the USA. The Rieseler was put in storage and eventually ended up in the Arlanda aircraft museum.
There is a good scale plan made by Björn Karlström and I'm using it as a build plan, mostly keeping with the scale structure.
Here is a photo of the wing being built. The ribs were made by cutting them from a pre-formed structure built from two balsa sheets with "spars" inserted that becomes vertical internal rib stays when the ribs are cut out.
Next photos show the wing tips being laminated and the basic wing structure completed. The weight is 0,77g, but note that this is not a full size peanut.
The last steps in building the wing - ailerons and central part. The final weight of the wing structure is 0.93 grams
Very interesting airplane and beautifully made!
Are the ailerons adjustable? Or this was just the scale approach?
Beautiful build and very light!!
Cheers, Ramses
1922 Riesler plane Thur July 23 2026
Hi Anyun. your ribs sliced off of that pre-made balsa structure, look really good. 8) That is a new trick for me ...
Lastwoodsman
Richard
The rib assembly technique is new to me too. Is it any quicker than the usual split rib method and, how do you cut the ribs cleanly out of the "block"? Is there much wastage/breakage?
The results are very impressive.
Wow, those ribs. Impressed.
Stephen.
Thanks for your kind comments! I did a quick sketch explaining how the ribs were made. First, the balsa sheets were wetted and formed using the "little hut with a hot roof" shown in the first sketch. When they are hot formed like that they take a permanent curve.
Then the whole assembly was put together as in the second sketch.
The cutting out of the individual ribs was done using something flexible with a hard edge as a ruler and cutting with a razor. After each rib had been cut, the edge of the rib assembly was sanded to ensure a nice surface for the next rib.
First I tried fixing a piece of razor blade on supports above a base plate - the plan was to slice off the ribs sliding the "package" through this device, thus ensuring equal width of all the ribs. This unfortunately didn't work, an ordinary razor blade was just too flexible, and when I tried a thicker type of blade, the balsa sort of got crushed.
This method of making ribs is most suitable for constant chord wings. A small variation in chord can be handled just by cutting some ribs a bit shorter, but for a true tapering wing you would have to make a tapering rib package. Probably not impossible, but definitely a complication.
Re. the ailerons, they are adjustable. They are mounted on thin (about 0.3 mm I think) copper wire unwound from some kind of electric coil. The copper wire was glued to the wing but not (yet) to the ailerons, as covering would be hard if they were not removable.
Making the separate ailerons was the most fiddly step in building the wing.
Really impressive. Many thanks for sharing this method. First time for me and definitely would like to give it a try at some point.
The adjustable ailerons are for mainting a certain roll on the airlplane or is it going to be R/C?
excellent work!
I see you also got a camera. ;)
QuoteI see you also got a camera.
Not as good as yours though. And for some reason it does not seem to work with colour film ;)
QuoteThe adjustable ailerons are for mainting a certain roll on the airlplane or is it going to be R/C?
It's going to be a rubber powered freeflight model, so the adjustable ailerons are just for trimming and scale fidelity. When using adjustable rudders/ailerons, it's important that they are hinged with a material of suitable flexibility. Too flexible, and the rudders will change position at every landing. Too rigid, and it's the structure that will bend (or break) rather than the hinge when you make an adjustment.
When the model has been trimmed, it's a good idea to lock the rudders with a drop of glue to prevent accidental repositioning.
For the covering, I'm again following Alfery et al. in using Tengujo Kashmir paper (9g/m2). This is a lightweight Japanese tissue that is easy to work with and has a low shrinking force, i.e it will not as easily cause unwanted warping as a tissue with stronger shrinking.
The main disadvantage with this paper is that it is very porous. Dope alone will not fill the pores. The method I'm using (again stolen from the Czechs) is to first dope the tissue with thin dope, and after that 5-6 coats of wallpaper glue (I'm using Metylan).
The wallpaper glue fills the pores and weighs next to nothing. The purpose of the first coat of dope is to make the tissue somewhat less vulnerable when wet. When using this method on thin double covered surfaces, great care has to be taken to prevent the tissue from sticking to the tissue on the other side.
In the photos below, the wing is being covered. The tips have a small amount of double curvature, hence they are covered with separate tissue pieces. To prevent the whitish balsa from shining through after painting, I pre-coloured the structure with pastel.
In the photos below, the wing has been covered and is in the process of being coated with the wallpaper glue. I let it dry weighted down on a frame to prevent warping of the thin, undercambered wing.
Weight covered and doped is 1,38g
And the tail surfaces comes next. Covered with the same technique. The Rieseler has a tiny stabilizer, on the model it has been increased slightly in size.
In the last photo, you can see the small pieces of copper wire used as hinges for the elevator.
/Andrea
I'm joining the fan club of your ribs. Beautiful and careful work.
it's easy to see that this was meant to be a quick build :)
John
Really impressive! Will my make 10,3gr Jodel Bebe (peanut) look like an overweight..... ;D
Sorry to ask again but I did not understand what you use for hinging the ailerons. Can you please upload a pic?
Hello Spyros
Copper wire (συρμα χαλκου) 0,3 mm I suppose. It can be obtained from an old electric motor's armature winding.....
Hi Andrea
A few dumb questions:
- The photos seem to show a colour change between construction and prepared for covering(or is it a photographic change only?)?
- Assuming you did this deliberately, did you colour the balsa so that it was a closer match to the intended colour scheme? If no, then why did you do that?
- If you did change change to colour of the structure, what did you use to do it?
Quote from: nickhawk on Jul 26, 2026, 10:03 AMHello Spyros
Copper wire (συρμα χαλκου) 0,3 mm I suppose. It can be obtained from an old electric motor's armature winding.....
And if you haven't got an old electric motor hanging about the wire cores from the ties for sandwich / polythene bags work quite well. Also around 0,3 - 0,5mm diameter. The paper covered ones are best, it can be a fiddle getting the cover off the plastic covered ones.
Hi Anyun,
Thanks for the interesting thread. I too am an admirer of the Czech's fantastic models but have problems in understanding the text using Google translate on the minimakety.cz forum.
So, I really appreciate your demonstration of some of their techniques. I also enjoy viewing your high standard of craftmanship.
I have tried a variation on the sliced rib method in employing a blue foam core. Spanwise slots in the foam blank allow for accurate spar placement once the ribs have been sliced. The balsa rib caps are glued with aliphatic to the foam core, placed in their hotwire shucks and weighted to dry.
I applied tape to the balsa and glued the hotwiring shucks back onto the outside of the (unsliced rib blank). This helps it being propped vertically on the pilar drill. This is critical. I used a diamond cutting disk set 1mm above the base to slice the ribs from the bottom of the blank. See attached photo.
Isopropyl alcohol is used to melt the glue of the tape onto the balsa. This removes the tape and the remains of the shuck.
It is nessesary to put the sliced rib into a sanding jig to create a uniform and neat finish. A 63mm chord and 0.50mm (0.020") thick rib for a Peanut weighs about 0.018g.
I am not convinced that the foam core is worth using, in terms of weight or added construction time. But, perhaps, its added stiffness allows a slightly thinner rib to be used.
With regard to the covering; I have some questions:
Is the "Tengujo Kashmir" paper the same as "Gampi" Japanese tissue? This is available in a veriety of weights, but is very porous, as is the tissue you described.
Can you provide a photo of the container and label of the "Metylan" wallpaper paste? I would like to try to buy some in the UK to experiment with. I have read about this, imperfectly translated, on the Czech forum and have not really understood the products used or the methods. In particular; I have been trying to understand how Tonda tissue covers and fills the pores over blue foam to achive a smooth and resiliant surface. I got the impression that he fills the pores in the tissue before applying it to the model.
Tim
Quote from: TheLurker on Jul 26, 2026, 12:54 PMQuote from: nickhawk on Jul 26, 2026, 10:03 AMHello Spyros
Copper wire (συρμα χαλκου) 0,3 mm I suppose. It can be obtained from an old electric motor's armature winding.....
And if you haven't got an old electric motor hanging about the wire cores from the ties for sandwich / polythene bags work quite well. Also around 0,3 - 0,5mm diameter. The paper covered ones are best, it can be a fiddle getting the cover off the plastic covered ones.
It's also a nice idea. Since I'm now constructing my Fokκker D.VIII for CO2, I'm thinking of making the Rudder adjustable, until I find the correct angle. Not sure if such wires could hold the rudder in place due to CO2's power
QuoteSince I'm now constructing my Fokκker D.VIII for CO2, I'm thinking of making the Rudder adjustable, until I find the correct angle. Not sure if such wires could hold the rudder in place due to CO2's power
You would need something sturdier than the 0.3 mm copper wire I used. Adjustable rudders/elevators can be a bit of nuisance because they can easily readjust themselves without your knowledge, causing "interesting" trim changes.
I made a sketch of how I did the hinges. The black parts are the wire hinges. First, the holes are drilled holding tailplane and rudder parts together. Then, an L-shaped piece of wire is superglued to the tailplane. After covering the parts, the rudder can be glued to the protruding wires. As the holes have been pre-drilled, alignment is guaranteed. The method is the same for rudder, elevator and ailerons.
QuoteA few dumb questions:
The photos seem to show a colour change between construction and prepared for covering(or is it a photographic change only?)?
Assuming you did this deliberately, did you colour the balsa so that it was a closer match to the intended colour scheme? If no, then why did you do that?
If you did change change to colour of the structure, what did you use to do it?
No dumb questions! Yes, I did colour the balsa structure to match the intended colour scheme. It prevents the stark white balsa from shining through. I used the PanPastel powder pastels. Only the surfaces in direct contact with the covering need to be coloured, this can be seen in the wing where the internal spars were left uncoloured. As the intended colour is light blue, I had to mix blue and white pastel. When I did the wing I used the raw blue first and then tried to lighten the colour with white pastel. This didn't work that well, hence the somewhat blotchy appearance. When colouring the tail surfaces I pre-mixed the pastels, with much better results.
QuoteThanks for the interesting thread. I too am an admirer of the Czech's fantastic models but have problems in understanding the text using Google translate on the minimakety.cz forum.
Thanks for your comment, Tim! The foam core rib technique is interesting and seems to work well. I must leave now, will answer your questions later /Andrea
Thank you!
It's really clear now!
Quote from: Anyun on Today at 12:29 PMQuoteA few dumb questions:
The photos seem to show a colour change between construction and prepared for covering(or is it a photographic change only?)?
Assuming you did this deliberately, did you colour the balsa so that it was a closer match to the intended colour scheme? If no, then why did you do that?
If you did change change to colour of the structure, what did you use to do it?
No dumb questions! Yes, I did colour the balsa structure to match the intended colour scheme. It prevents the stark white balsa from shining through. I used the PanPastel powder pastels. Only the surfaces in direct contact with the covering need to be coloured, this can be seen in the wing where the internal spars were left uncoloured. As the intended colour is light blue, I had to mix blue and white pastel. When I did the wing I used the raw blue first and then tried to lighten the colour with white pastel. This didn't work that well, hence the somewhat blotchy appearance. When colouring the tail surfaces I pre-mixed the pastels, with much better results.
Thanks, that makes it clear even to me
Quote from: Anyun on Today at 12:12 PMQuoteSince I'm now constructing my Fokκker D.VIII for CO2, I'm thinking of making the Rudder adjustable, until I find the correct angle. Not sure if such wires could hold the rudder in place due to CO2's power
You would need something sturdier than the 0.3 mm copper wire I used. Adjustable rudders/elevators can be a bit of nuisance because they can easily readjust themselves without your knowledge, causing "interesting" trim changes.
I made a sketch of how I did the hinges. The black parts are the wire hinges. First, the holes are drilled holding tailplane and rudder parts together. Then, an L-shaped piece of wire is superglued to the tailplane. After covering the parts, the rudder can be glued to the protruding wires. As the holes have been pre-drilled, alignment is guaranteed. The method is the same for rudder, elevator and ailerons.
With things like this, I tend to put a blob of balsa cement on the hinge asap after I think that I have found the right setting. That tends to make it harder for a bump later on to lose the settings.
If you need to move the hinge later, balsa cement softens easily with a drop of acetone or general thinners. I have a small bottle of thinners in my flight box for just this purpose. My initial trimming uses double sided tape to hold the packing in place, but once I think I have the settings right I stick all hinged joints and packing pieces to the underlying structure with balsa cement because:
- it dries quickly (although not as quickly as CA); and
- it is reversible using thinner (which CA is not, at least not easily).
(Gets down off JOD or Eric Coates soapbox).