Thanks everyone for you kind comments. I have progressed today to the wings, tail feathers and finished and detailed the tail cone and nose cone. I'm starting work on the canopy form.

Never did get to the molds today but maybe tomorrow. Pictures soon here.

Thanks again guys,

Steve

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OK. Here we go again. Since this might become a kit I've made up the templates to cut the wings and tails out of balsa. Worked just fine. Not too much to that.



Here they are ready to cut out and place over your balsa sheet complete with grain direction. Sometimes we forget eh?



Here's a set of cut out wings ready to glue together. I used thin CA and immediately sanded them. Makes a nice blend and then followed that up with balsa fill. Sanded them down and two coats of floor sealer. Standard stuff.



The tail were cut out in one piece and given the same routine. Tomorrow I'll final sand and primer them. Wings too.



Then I did a bit of sketching on the old balsa block and cut out a basic form and sanded it to shape. Once I had the shape I placed some 80 grit over the nose cone where it would eventually sit and sanded against it to get a contoured fit.



Next I coated it with floor sealer, sanded that and then used red putty to smooth things out. Next I used cart tape to give it some relief. Cart tape is amazing stuff to use for this sort of thing. I put some detail in the tail cone and nose cone as well this way.



Then I primered the snot out of it. Tomorrow this will get lightly sanded again nice and smooth. I'll mount it to a block and make a mold out of silicone. The final product for the vacuum forming will be a dental stone.



Here's a shot of the basic balsa shape before finishing.

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And a little look of things to come. Tomorrow I'll get her all stuck together and primered for a better look. After that I'll make the molds for the canopy, tail cone and nose cone.

Steve

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Your work is amazing. It seems as though you chose to make a much wider canopy than the original picture had. Was this deliberate? A side by side 2 seat trainer version, perhaps?

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This is looking really cool.

Are you going to need nose weight? I saw someone fly something very similar, and it proved to be unstable -- I don't think he calculated the nose weight properly.

-Kevin

Thanks a lot. I was thinking it would be nice to put a 1/72 pilot in there since this is a sorta scale. Many of us have those from model kits of fighter planes we have laying about.

Of course this bird will be balanced before flight and all necessary precautions and adjustments taken. She may well need nose weight. I'll know once I get one built.

Thanks guys I'm glad you like it so far. One thing is for sure. Once balanced properly it should be on rails in flight with all the surface area from the 4 tail planes and the two wings. A bit more drag maybe but I put a good LE and TE shape on the foils.

OK. I'm off to make some silicone molds.

Steve

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Ok Steve I'll ask:

Would you please show how you do your silicone molds?

This is a fascination project and I'm learning stuff.

Greg

Greg you bet. I'm in that process no and documenting it. I have made thousands of molds for my Hollywood work, kits and other projects but each type is a bit different. Although it's old hat to me I love it when the darn pictures i post get someone else making there own parts from scratch. It's like setting a person free . My pleasure to do.

Steve

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I can only speak for myself Steve, but based on this thread alone I see more scratch building in my future.

Your work is outstanding!

Well that's what I like to hear. Good. The more the better.

Thanks cas2047,

Steve

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