Puffin

[g_kandylakis]

recent addition

[g_kandylakis]

This blue-yellow Puffin was built by my friend Nikos ("Nickhawk") and completed a few weeks ago.

The other Puffin in the pictures is mine and was built in 2020. I did a short build thread in the old HPA, which I will repeat here, for future reference.

I found the plan here:

outerzone Puffin plan

[g_kandylakis]

Fuselage construction, nothing unusual or difficult. One small exception being the longerons which are actually split lengthwise and glued on forms to make the curvature in advance of building the fuselage sides.

This ensures almost zero strain to the parts and no risk of deformation after the sides are built.

[g_kandylakis]

finished woodwork

[g_kandylakis]

CO2 engine installation.

The Puffin plan calls for a Telco, so Telco it had to be.

Some extra effort and thought was made to make the complete motor-tank assembly easily removable.

I cannot stress enough the importance of being able to remove the CO2 system for maintenance or repair purposes. Nothing worse than a leak inside the model, which you cannot fix without doing some damage...

[g_kandylakis]

All up weight prior to covering, almost 30 grams.

Model pre-assembled in bare bones condition.

Very easy to build, straightforward and certainly with character, lookes to me like an ugly bulldog. But cute in a sense too.

[g_kandylakis]

The only exception from my usual building practices was the covering. Instead of dope and thinner I tried UHU glue stick.

It worked well enough, the good structure helped too.

Shrinking and doping was no issue either. I was surprised at the building speed of a non-scale model, which I had forgotten after all those years.

[g_kandylakis]

Some basic tissue decorations after three coats of thinned nitrate dope, some extra work on a dethermaliser which will be shoen at a later time, and the Puffin was ready.

It took 6 months to go fly it, first flights were in July 2021. A calm Sunday afternoon, no wind and not too hot.

And of course, looking at the bright green grass, not Greece but Germany where I was living at the time.

Since it has also been flown indoors a bit, but it is too big for proper flying.

As I said, quite a short build thread, but a most enjoyable one, of a fine model.