HPA

Thanks for this Jeremy.Now off and trim your new model.

John

Good news.

Colin Sharman, the editor of AeroModeller, has agreed to the JOD collection being available through the HPA Plans Gallery.

I have uploaded it and it is just waiting from George to sprinkle his oofle dust over it to make it available to all members.

Weighed it doday and it was 26 oz. Kind of a led sled I guess. But with that scale nose moment I'll take it. I left all the control surface rigging off 'till I get the CG and decalage right.

Hi Spiros,

What a great model! I wish you the very best of luck with the trimming and test flights. It would be fantastic to see it flying as well as it looks.

Looking forward to hearing about the first successful flights!

Best regards,
 Markus

Spiros, great model and engine sound. I hope your prayers are answered. The way it looks, this model is bound to fly. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you....
Peter

In parallel, I built my own small vacuum-forming box. It is not particularly pretty, but it works well enough.

My first tests were done with 0.50 mm PS sheet, but it was too thick and did not capture the contours well enough. Today I switched to 0.27 mm PP sheet, and the results are much better.

Tomorrow I will continue testing and will also try white 0.27 mm PP sheet. Based on my previous experience, the white material is usually a little heavier than the gray version, but it should be easier to paint. Since the wheel fairings need to be white anyway, that could be an advantage. The white sheet is also slightly softer, as it is made from post-consumer recycled material.

PP is not exactly a lightweight material, though. The four wheel fairing parts will probably end up at around 500 mg in total, so I will have to see if that is acceptable for the model. For now, I am very pleased with the quality of the formed parts.

Markus

The next attempt to make a mold from my resin-printed pilot was successful.

I reworked the figures once more, filling and minimizing recesses and cavities that had caused problems before. In addition, I coated the resin masters with a mixture of talcum powder and isopropyl alcohol, let it dry, blew off the excess, and then gently brushed the surface.

My first casting trial was done with 2-part PU foam. The mixing ratio still needs some adjustment, as the result is a bit too brittle. However, the level of detail is very good and all the fine features were reproduced nicely.

Tomorrow I will make another casting attempt and see if I can improve the foam mixture.

Markus

That plan was reproduced by Dave Hippwrson in Free Flight Quarterly 94 in part 2 of his "UK Coupe d'Hiver Story" and makes the comment..  Georges Matherat won the French Nats in 1968 with this significant model, that would later be refined into the
very successful series of "A to B" and "Les Trumeaux".

You are absolutely right Mike ! A mate of mine gave me the link a few weeks ago and I've looked through half a dozen of them, I'll see whether I can spot the Georges Matherat when I next look.

Peter

Steve79,
 Awesome job!

Skyraider