Supermarine Stranraer

sihinch · December 27, 2013, 01:57:37 PM

Looks fabulous! Really, really gorgeous.

Bigstik · December 31, 2013, 11:43:06 AM

An ambitious project Rob, and beautiful workmanship.

Bigstik

piker · January 14, 2014, 10:20:01 AM

I guess it's time for an update on the Stanraer build. First, thanks for the kind words, guys. I'm enjoying the construction as I move slowly forward.

The fuselage, that some of you saw at the TEMAC Pilots Meeting last week, was taken to a point where I need to develop the wing center sections, cabane struts, and mounting method before I can go much further on the fuselage to start closing it in. I guess I should post a picture of the fuselage here, for record keeping

That turned my attention to all the ribs I needed to cut out for the wings. Now, this is a biplane with a 102" top wing, and about a 92ish inch lower wing. That in itself means a lot of ribs. But it seems the designer of the model chose the scale rib spacing (and number) which places them closer together than what would be considered normal, or adequate for a model. Scale rib spacing is cool, but it meant I had to cut out a pile if ribs. You may think I'm crazy, but even though most of the ribs are the identical, I decided to NOT use the stack and band saw method and instead opted for a ply template and individually hand cut (with a single edge razor blade) rib. I chose this method because I like the smooth edge the razor blade leaves versus a fuzzy edge that the saw leaves, and since these edges will be directly under the silver covering, I wanted them to be nicely done.

So, at this point all the ribs are cut out and all that's needed is a hole in each rib for running the wiring and about half of the rib need to have a section cut out of them to allow for the aileron LE and wing TE separation. But at least that job is mostly done and I'm ready to start building the wing panels... not that I need them for the work I need to do on the fuselage, but I might as well as the wing plans are on the bench and the fuselage it off to the side.

So, the pictures are not very exciting, but the first one shows a stack of 94 identical ribs when I thought I was done, then realized I needed 104, so I had to start cutting again. The second picture shows the rest of the ribs of various shapes, less the 10 that I cut after I took the pictures. The grand total is 131 ribs for this plane!

Woops! I forgot to keep my post short. Sorry Simon.

wollins · January 15, 2014, 12:04:09 AM

Quote from: piker on January 14, 2014, 10:20:01 AMI decided to NOT use the stack and band saw method and instead opted for a ply template and individually hand cut (with a single edge razor blade) rib.

This does not surprise me in the least. I travelled a lot of miles to get your reference pics so you'd better do this plane justice! (Lookin' great)

Colin

sihinch · January 15, 2014, 08:19:37 AM

I think HobbyKing are bringing out an 80" ARF of the Stranraer. Due any time soon!

piker · January 15, 2014, 10:49:44 AM

Yes, Colin. It was very nice of you to travel to England JUST to get pictures of the only Stranraer still in existence for me

I have already referred to the pictures quite a bit as there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on the Internet about the plane. Certainly not many detailed pictures. I'll be using them even more as I do the detailing.

And Simon. I wouldn't be surprised.... but that doesn't matter. It's about the craftsmanship, the process, and the creation, not just about the "having". Home cooking versus fast food

wollins · January 15, 2014, 11:36:18 AM

Quote from: piker on January 15, 2014, 10:49:44 AM
Yes, Colin. It was very nice of you to travel to England JUST to get pictures of the only Stranraer still in existence for me

Well. since I was there I figured I'd get some pics of the Typhoon also.

Wingnutz · January 15, 2014, 07:44:12 PM

104 identical hand cut ribs??? Wow! Home cooked? This is gourmet! Gastronomie magnifique!

piker · February 04, 2014, 10:49:23 AM

It's been a long time since I posted anything on my Stranraer, but I have been working away, quite steadily on it, and I'm having fun with the build. Unfortunately, I've reached my deadline of the end of January, so I'm putting it aside while I get back to my other repair and detailing projects, namely the Sandringham repair, SE5a detailing, and CL-214 Water Bomber completion. But, before I do, I took a few pictures of the Stranraer for posterity

See below.

Basically, since the showing-off of the fuselage at the January TEMAC Pilot's Meeting, I've been working on the wings. This was the next logical step as I need to build the center sections of the wings and mount them to the fuselage before I can close in the fuselage with planking. While building the center sections I figured I'd get the basic structure of all the wings built. And that's where I am at this point.

I was surprised when I first put the three sections of the upper wing together, that the wingspan didn't look that large. It wasn't until I put the wing vertically that I realized I had to move to the area of our house that is open to the upstairs, as the upper wing is 8-1/2 feet tall and the lower wing is just a bit shorter. I don't have a picture of that, so you'll have to use your imagination.

Anyway, this project is on hold for a bit. I'm hoping to get back to it before the end of March.

sihinch · February 04, 2014, 10:59:45 AM

That looks wonderful. Congratulations.

What a shame that you've got other (awesome) models to repair.

wollins · February 04, 2014, 01:20:28 PM

Wow! Nice clean work. (as usual) How do you ensure there is no twist in your wings? Do you use jigs etc?

Colin

piker · February 04, 2014, 01:27:52 PM

Thanks Simon.

Yes, as much as I would like to keep building the Stranraer, I'm also excited about getting the poor Sandringham (Humpty Dumpty) back together again, and hopefully make it nicer than before. I'm also motivated to finish the detailing on the SE5a. Really, each of these four projects is quite different from the others, because of the various stages of completion they're in. The Stranraer is fun because it's at the bare construction stage, the Sandy, because it'll be nice to see it coming back in shape again, the SE5a because I can focus on the small details that bring the model to life, and the Water Bomber because it's a relatively simple film covering job that I plan to finish off a bit better than in it's previous life and it'll be a blast to fly with its new power system. It also means I'll get my seaplane fleet back up to the level I want with the Stranraer coming along to add to that.

Colin, I use a flat building board

In THIS case, the airfoil section is not flat on the bottom so I shimmed the rear spar off the table by an amount that allowed good, flat contact with the front spar... 3/16" in this case.

piker · February 04, 2014, 01:28:26 PM

Woops! Sorry for the rambling, Simon

Michael · February 04, 2014, 01:57:26 PM

That's a lot of progress !!!

Wingnutz · April 16, 2014, 10:05:22 PM

Figured Rob had to be the only modeller in Ontario brave enough to tackle a scratch-built Stranraer...he's not.
Was at The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton today and got talking to the museum's modeller, Don Wilson who just happens to be scratch building...you guessed it...a Supermarine Stranraer!
The model is 8'6" ws and will be static rather than RC but really accurately detailed...I've never seen so many ribs in one wing!
Don also sells balsa, spruce and basswood, so if you're stuck 905-945-5647.
Photos include one of Don holding the correct scale machine gun (Lewis gun?) for his Stranraer and a photo of him holding one of the turnbuckles he'll use to rig the Stranraer when it's ready
Don's fellow builder Art Gillard was there too, sanding the Stranraer fuse...Art used to fly the museum's full-size Canso! (PBY if you're American)
Don's handiwork is all over the museum, including an 8' ws Norseman in one of the "galleries"!
Please excuse the image quality...I'm still using a six year old "dumb" phone to take pictures.