Joystick 1/72 Albatros C.1

[Danh4]

I took a shot at making up the cabane struts this afternoon.  I kinda knew I'd be making them from brass wire at some point so I'd already glued plastic blocks inside the fuselage to give some support at their mounting locations.  I used the "pattern" on the vac sheet to bend two lengths of wire simultaneously in an attempt to get two exactly the same.  That was like herding cats but eventually I got two I was happy with.  My bright idea was to solder them together at the top seam with a couple lengths of brass wire wrapped around and left long to act as pins when it comes time to attach the top wing.



You can see that I transferred the pattern of the mounting holes from the fuselage to a block of wood with a pair of dividers and that worked pretty well to hold things while I soldered it all together.



It even fits to the plane but I haven't checked yet to see if it's the right height above the fuselage or if it will position the wings  correctly but at least I know the concept works!

-Dan

[NinetythirdLiberator]

Novel idea, Dan...at least I've never seen it before.  I wonder if the soft pins will be enough "oomph" but time will tell.

As far as adding the cabanes, I've found that I can just simply stick brass wire into some pre-drilled holes with some CA and that has been more than sufficient so maybe interior blocks won't be necessary.  Of course, they certainly can't hurt!   

This is a fun build to watch.  Keep going!

Dan^2

[Ernie]

Amazing work on something so small, Dan. 
Fantastic soldering job!  You are really making
wonderful progress.   And Des, thanks for the
tip about the use of worn drill bits!

Cheers,
Ernie

[Danh4]

Novel idea, Dan...at least I've never seen it before.  I wonder if the soft pins will be enough "oomph" but time will tell.

As far as adding the cabanes, I've found that I can just simply stick brass wire into some pre-drilled holes with some CA and that has been more than sufficient so maybe interior blocks won't be necessary.  Of course, they certainly can't hurt!   

This is a fun build to watch.  Keep going!

Dan^2

Those perpendicular wires are fairly stiff so I think they'll help to hold the inboard ends of the wings to the cabane.  I plan to get a close enough fit that some CA can be flowed into the joints as well. 

The plastic blocks in the fuselage are probably overkill but the vac fuselage plastic is so thin that I was worried about having enough gluing surface.  When I glue those strut ends in place now, I know they won't be coming loose! 

-Dan

[uncletony]

Nice work, and there's no such thing as overkill when it comes to these things imo

[radio]

Very good work.
Martin

[IanB]

Nice work, I may well have to steal that strut idea!

Ian

[WarrenD]

Dan,
        You guys just kill me!    I'm still trying to deal with injected styrene, and here you (and others in this section of the forum) go making these wonderful works of art.

Well done so far sir!

Warren

[Danh4]

Thank guys, so far its been a lot of fun.

I got the fuselage halves together yesterday, here's one last look at the interior...



Today I added the horizontal stabs and began work on joining the lower wing halves to the fuselage.  I made a jig to hold things in alignment and set the correct dihedral of the wing panels.





Then I carefully drilled two holes into the root ends of the wings with a #80 drill, inserted pieces of brass wire that protruded just a bit, lined the wing up against the fuselage in the jig and gave it a firm enough push that the wire left impressions in the fuselage sides- now I knew where to drill holes in the fuselage.

I was able to drill out the forward holes in the wings with a #74 bit which is big enough to get a good size brass rod in there.  I was able to work a single length of that rod through the fuselage so I've got a short "spar" to give the wings some strength.  The wings aren't thick enough at the rear to get much more than a thin wire in them so that will have to do back there.



I'm not going to glue anything in place until after I make and fit the landing gear, because I know I'll break something!

Thanks for looking.

Dan

[WarrenD]

I like your jig, brilliant build Dan!

Warren

PS: You should really post this over on the 72nd scale Aircraft Forum too.

[NinetythirdLiberator]

Nice work, Dan.  I love the shot before you closed her up.  Looks pretty stunning from here.  Good idea about your tubing and how you lined it up.  I'll use that in the future!

Cheers,

Dan

[IanB]

Nicely done. That one piece of brass rod should be enough, it just gives it that bit more strength and resistance to being knocked......

Ian

[Danh4]

I wanted to get the landing gear built before gluing any wings on so I spent last night cutting the two main parts from excess plastic from the vac sheet.  That plastic is much stiffer than any of the Evergreen stuff I have so I hoard it all for things like struts and LGs.

Tonight I added a brass axle and made an attempt to replicate the bungee cords with copper wire, not sure how successful that was.  Its not going to come apart on me, that's for sure.





The gear is held to the fuselage with brass pins at this point, I need it to come off so the model can be put back in it's jig for the wings to be joined.



I was really happy when it started to look like my cabane strut arrangement was going to work.  My simple jig will hold the upper wing panels in alignment while I glue all the struts in place.  That's the plan anyway!

-Dan

[uncletony]

Me likey

[WarrenD]

This is really excellent Dan, thanks so much for the update.

Warren