96" Grumman Albatross flying boat kit/scratch built model

[piker]

Right side 

And yes... a fine looking stab...

[Michael]

Fin constructed and temporarily mounted on the stabilizer. Nice fit.

[Michael]

Fin and rudder construction finished. (there is still a fin-base to be constructed.)
The X-Acto knife at left gives an idea of the size.

Next, I have to sand everything I've done so far.

[piker]

Cool!


I wonder what the diagonal brace is for.  i assume to stabilize the rib supporting the joiner tube, but I wonder how or why.

[Michael]

There are no plans and nothing (other than sheeting and fill) is cut to shape.

The diagonal brace holds the angle for the first installed rib and the spine. Everything else then falls into place.

[Michael]

OK, a few more hours work and well into the tip-floats construction.
Despite the interlocking parts construction, this is slow and delicate.

Lots of filling and sanding later.

[Michael]

This kit has laser cut planking. which I have never seen nor used before.

(Of course, this was an extra cost from the manufacturer.)

I've done one side of one tip float, and it worked out very well. Only the last plank needed minor trimming.

[Michael]

Tip float and struts construction completed.
Filled and sanded.

I'll do a bit more sanding, and maybe a light coat of water-based polyurethane to help keep them waterproof.

Will monokote stick to polyurethane covered wood?

These were a lot of work, despite the laser cut parts and planking.

[Michael]

Ailerons construction completed.

These are now moved onto the pile of things to be sanded.

[Michael]

Starting on the flaps.

This is an ingenious way to produce thin, light and very strong flaps; laser cut long oval holes filled with exact-fitting laser-cut long oval pieces of cross-grained balsa.

There's a lot of parts to this model, and a lot more work than I thought, but I'm really enjoying this.

[Michael]

Wing construction, without plans.

Close-up of leading edge shows how it fits onto the ribs.

[piker]

Nice!  I'm officially back onto the Stranraer as of about 1/2 an hour ago.  Just trying to figure out where I left off last March and where to go from here.


Those spars don't look very substantial.  I was asking if you were going to "beaf" the plane up a little so it's not such a "park flyer", but maybe you don't want to go too heavy with those spars....   

[Michael]

I plan on building without undue added weight.


I may 'waterproof' some areas (fiberglass?) such as the tip floats, flap interiors, hull, etc.


The entire fuselage is sheeted, so I may actually fiberglass the whole thing and paint it.

[sihinch]

It looks great, wow!  But did you weigh your Skywriter for me? 

[Michael]

Oops! 


I'll send myself an email to remind myself tonight!