96" Grumman Albatross flying boat kit/scratch built model

[Michael]

Total weight for my Skywriter is a touch over 5 pounds, with Battery.

****************

I spent a couple more hours working on the wing.

It's very light and delicate, but I still need to glue on spar-doublers and the sheeting.

Right now I'm peeling CA glue off my fingers. 

[sihinch]

Wow! You're moving! Looks great.

[sihinch]

Inspired by Michael's "interlocking parts" style build, and having now got the build bug, I snagged myself one of these in the Black Friday sales!


http://www.mountainmodels.com/product_info.php?products_id=201

[Papa]

You should do an RAF Version. I'm so tired of "blue nose' mustangs.


Jack.

[sihinch]

I may just do that, Jack!  Or a Canadian version (to keep Bill happy!  )

[Michael]

OK, back to our regular programming now, .... 

Wing sheeting is done, and nacelle construction is finished. Next is nacelle sheeting, and that's a more intense job. That may have to wait a week as work is getting busy.

[Michael]

Here's a shot of one wing with the flap and aileron.

I still have the wing tips to do as well.

[piker]

Very nice!  You're so far along!  You'll be done before January.

You'll have to build something else to keep entertained for the rest of the winter.

[Michael]

I hope to have major construction completed in January, but I anticipate finishing the model in Feb or March.


I still have a few ARFs to assemble, a used ARF to modify, and a fuselage to build for my Piker-class racer.

[Michael]

I've started planking one of the nacelles, bottom first.

It's slow but steady work, and the parts fit very well.

It's a superbly engineered kit.

[Michael]

Cowl structures completed, like a 3D puzzle.
They still need balsa filling, planking and sanding.

[Michael]

Filling and planking the cowls ...

The balsa-fill parts are perfectly laser cut and fit without any trimming. This will be sanded round later.

The planking is easy but very slow. Essentially, this will be a big model airplane built out of many hundreds of small and very-small parts.

[Michael]

I finished planking the cowls; these cowls have more laser-cut parts than most models I've built!

The design of the model, using this construction technique, will ensure that this 96" scale model will end weighing perhaps less than 9 pounds. With this weight and corresponding light wing-loading, the plane likely be about half the weight of some other big planes being built, and will really fly much more like a scale airplane.

Right, Robert ?! 

And just in case anyone was thinking that this kit is easy to build, which it sort of is, it still requires a lot of time and effort. Now that I've prepared some wiring for the wing, I'm getting ready to plank the top of the nacelles. Even though the planking is precise, it took nearly 45 minutes to take the pieces off the balsa sheets and sand off the little balsa parts that were holding them to the laser-cut balsa sheet.

[Michael]

Nacelle-planking is completed.

I'm leaving a lot of sanding and finishing work for a later time.

The work is slower than what I am accustomed to, but it is very precise and I'm still enjoying it.

[Michael]

Fuselage begins with construction of some formers.

To get an idea of the size of some of these, see the X-acto knife in the second former from the left, in the top row.

It took about an hour to take these out of the sheets, sand the balsa tabs, and assemble and glue them.

No plans were used; the parts fit was perfect.