MESSERCHMITT PRINTWOOD

[mikethe hamster]

.DOAS ANYONE HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS ON LITENING THE PRINT WOOD ON KIT 505 .I KNOW IM GONNA CATCH SOME FLAK FOR NOT RESEARCHING PREVIOUS BUIDS TO FIND AN ALL UP WEIGHT .THE WOOD JUST FEELS HEAVY TO ME AND ITS ALL C GRAIN STOCK .(AND IF ITS ALL 1/16 MY PECKER IS A MILE LONG)OTHER THAN SANDING THE H#LL OUT OF THE BACK AND SHAVING THE INSIDE OF THE RUDDER WHERE ELSE CAN I LIPOSUCK THIS BRICK

[SteveM]

ISUGGESTTHATUUSETHEKITWOODASATEMPLATETOCUTNEWPARTSFROMGOODQUALITYWOOD.

[mikethe hamster]

WHYWOULDIBUYAKITANDTHENCUTALLNEWPARTSAKITISAKITASCRATCHBUILDISASCRATCHBUILDREALLYHELPFUL

[supercruiser]

Mike,
Don't sweat it so much, unless you going to enter your model in a flying competition. Give the sheetwood a good sanding, shave a little out of the rudder like you mentioned. You can also reduce the width of the trailing edge.
I think it's about 5/16 inch wide, reduce to 3/16. This will cause a small gap between the bottom notch of the rib and the trailing edge. Fill it in with a scrap piece or leave it be. You may be able to leave out part of the fuselage stringers. For instance; if a stringer goes from former A all the way to G, you might stop it at E, if the fuselage is flat sided in that area. I did that on the bottom of my T-28 fuselage. It's flat on the bottom so when it was covered it still looked o.k. Still plenty strong for flying. I've not built the 109 so I don't have the plans to look at. Kittyfritters can tell you a lot more about this subject. He go the 500 series Stuka to fly well and it's very difficult to get decent flights from, so I hear. It's on my TO BUILD LIST. Making these little changes and "tweaking" the model for flight is a challenge and can be enjoyable. Mind these were designed for
static display and .010 Cox gas engines, in addition to rubber power.

And one more thing, the rubber motor you put in it will make a BIG difference in how well it flies.

[supercruiser]

Have you built the wings, yet? I think you might want to join the left and right wing spars together. Go to www.virtualaerodrome.com and look in my hangar for the 900 series P-51 Mustang. There is a photo of the fuselage/wing spar joint. This makes a big difference in survivablilty during bad landings. But, you must cut the new spar length first, at the beginingn of the wing construction.

[kittyfritters]

Mike,

The wood in your kit must have come from the same tree and the wood in mine. The print wood weighed 44 grams, that works out to 27 lb / cubic foot, or about the low end for red oak.

If you are building static it's easier with the "oak". If you want to fly it you have some choices.

One way is to trace the parts onto some reasonably light balsa, 10 lb /cubic foot or less, and build the model, more or less stock. (Bearing in mind that it needs an an adjustable nose block and must not be tail heavy.) This way, assembled and covered it weighs about 20 grams and flies quite well.

Another way is to run the kit wood through a thickness sander, like the one Orv Olm worked up (See photo below.) and sand it down to about half thickness. It gets light and the parts fall out of the sheets. Then you cut the inside of the outlines of the keels, formers and tail surfaces as much as possible and cut holes or webs in the ribs. (See Stuka below. The wing outlines were left full width in the center section to take landing gear loads. Sorry for small image.) This way, assembled and covered it weighs about 20 grams and flies quite well, but was a lot more work.





Does this help?

Howard

[mikethe hamster]

SORRY FOR THE IRATE POST BUT I WAITED A LONG TIME FOR MY NEW KITS. THE HOBBY SHOP I VISITED ALMOST EVERYDAY FOR SUPPLIES JUST CLOSED .AND MY LEFT HAND IS IN A SPLINT SO IM TYPING WITH ONE HAND THATSWHYALLCAPITALSSTEVEM . I WILL SAND ALL PRINTWOOD BACKS AS A MATTER OF COURSE SWISS CHEESE MY RIBS AND LITEN THE RUDDER I THINK I CAN LOSE SOME WEIGHT ON THE STAB TO AS FOR CONNECTING THE WINGS CAN I USE SUITABLE SIZED BASS WITHOUT TO MUCH WEIGHT PENALTY AND SIMPLY CRACK AT THE DIHEDRAL.GREAT IDEA FOR THE TRAILING WING EDGE WILL THAT EFFECT WASOUT THO.

[mikethe hamster]

THANKS KITTY BUT IM BUILDING THIS BAD BOY ONE HANDED SO CUTTING ALL NEW PRINTWOOD IS A LITTLE DAUNTING IF ALL ELSE FAILS
I MAY HAVE TO MOTHBALL IT FOR AWHILE AND WORK ON ANOTHER SHIP.

[mikethe hamster]

BY THE WAY WHY IS THERE NO EXAMPLE OF A GUILLOW CHMITT IN THE WHOLE AERODROME OTHER THAN KITTY HAS ANYONE BUILT THIS KIT

[kittyfritters]

Have you built the wings, yet? I think you might want to join the left and right wing spars together. Go to www.virtualaerodrome.com and look in my hangar for the 900 series P-51 Mustang. There is a photo of the fuselage/wing spar joint. This makes a big difference in survivablilty during bad landings. But, you must cut the new spar length first, at the beginingn of the wing construction.

The 900 Series models have plug in wings like the old Comet kits. The 500 Series models have one piece wings and are a lot stronger. I sometimes simply scallop the leading and trailing edges, leaving them full width where the ribs join and thinned down between the ribs. That way you don't have to put a filler piece in the notches where the ribs join the leading and trailing edges. Looks like there are gussets at the rib joints. (See trailing edge of 300 Series Aeronca below.)

[SteveM]

http://www.virtualaerodrome.com/image_browser.html?l=1&p_aircraft_id=58&p_user_id=352&offset=12

[supercruiser]

AS FOR CONNECTING THE WINGS CAN I USE SUITABLE SIZED BASS WITHOUT TO MUCH WEIGHT PENALTY AND SIMPLY CRACK AT THE DIHEDRAL.GREAT IDEA FOR THE TRAILING WING EDGE WILL THAT EFFECT WASOUT THO.

[supercruiser]

(hit the wrong button, I'm answering the quote above). You could use basswood but, just use a piece of balsa. Just make sure the grain runs side to side, that is parallel with the spars. Howard is saying that joining the spars is not necessary for the 500 series because it's already one piece. I just realized I've built almost all the 900 series and only one 500 series. I need to go study my Spitfire plans.

HOWARD: Do you pre-shrink tissue to reduce warpage or is it not really a problem.

[kittyfritters]

(hit the wrong button, I'm answering the quote above). You could use basswood but, just use a piece of balsa. Just make sure the grain runs side to side, that is parallel with the spars. Howard is saying that joining the spars is not necessary for the 500 series because it's already one piece. I just realized I've built almost all the 900 series and only one 500 series. I need to go study my Spitfire plans.

HOWARD: Do you pre-shrink tissue to reduce warpage or is it not really a problem.

No, I pin the wings and tail surfaces down when shrinking. I even use wedges under the wing tips to shrink in the wash out. See my post in the Topic "Warped Wings" started by Strongeagle for details and pics. It should still be on the second page of the General Building Questions.

[mikethe hamster]

thanks everyone for the help i knew there was a great group under all the cliqueishness steve absolutely invaluable help thank you yes its a cheep kit but i exspect at least an attempt at the given dimensions on my printwood