Tail skidMy first update in the new year. With the new information, it was too tempting to turn to the tail skid immediately
On the left the tail skid from the kit, on a picture in the Datafile. The size was according to the drawings, but the plastic is very brittle. So I had to replace it anyway to be able to travel to exhibitions.
I made a laminated spring from nickel silver (brass was too soft) and prebend every single layer of different size. At the end of the block I soldered the layers together. The clamp was made from a thinner nickel silver stripe, bolted with 0.33mm nickel silver. As final step the spring was chemical browned ("brünieren" in German).
Again in a side view.
The holding clamp to the fuselage was made from two "U". After a lot of drilling and filing I soldered the second thin "U" for strengthening to one side. I filed also the end of the spring more flat and soldered it into the U. The little wedge is made from real wood.
The wedge was glued onto the spring. The whole tail skid is here plugged on to the fuselage and can be later mounted with five little "bolts" on each side, as on ermeios picture.
I used the upper sides of the second "U" as mounting points for the tailplane struts, since I was not able to cut and bend out the ear as on original mount due to the small scale.
And because it's so nice, here's how the tail skid can support the fuselage even without bolting it on
I am satisfied with the result - this is one of the nicest detail I ever made. It's really fun when you guys are egging me on too
Yes, I know: The Datafile shows 5 laminations, but ermeios picture only 4
And my sheet was a little bit to thick, but so the spring is very robust now!
Cheers,
Frank
