Topic: Fiat CR 32 Build.

Hi all.
I promised Cliff that I would do one on the Fiat when I got started .
Finished the BPD, got some time off work , silly time to start at the begining of the flying season but here goes.
First admired the Plan Feature in RC scale Aircraft April 92.
Plan by Roy Bowron 64"

I thought it a bit small  so took the plans over to Sheffield to get them Photo enlarged by 10 % to give 70". Unfortunately the plans are on four sheets and I had to gulp a bit when the nice young assistant said that it would be £15 per sheet and did I still want to go ahead?  I guess I was committed to the build from that point onwards!
Day1,

Day 2,
More expense,  I ve never been much good at soldering and the Cabane and Undercarriage need fabricating from wire. My 20 Watt iron isn`t much use for anything so I revisited the RCMF archives for advice on irons..MPX suggested something from Brewsters at 120 Watts . So thats another £40 gone ! Arrived yesterday . Should keep me fit lifting it up though.
More woodwork.

Day 3.





Also started cutting the many ribs required.
Wednesday... went flying.
Today ...cut more ribs and stringered the Stbd side of the Fus and fitted the tail wheel and closed loop control.


Might have to Mow the Lawn ( Sit in the sun ! ) or go flying tomorrow.
All for now.
Regards. Dennis

nice, very nice

Day 3??? Pah - do you fancy going to work for me so I can build a fuselage in 3 days??? 


Looking really good though - as usual 

 Yeehaaa!.
  ..here we go with the CR32...looking forward to this Dennis 

  Your lucky, I haven"t got near my workshop for  4 days, as I"m clearing the way for a newer, bigger one at the rear of the house...but will be worth it 

   Have you decided on  any schemes yet?...tons of cracker looking ones for this aircraft

   Cliff 
   

 

Nice work Dennis,

Must get me a plan to do some real model work. But what to do??

Any suggestions??

Are you flying tomorrow then??  Give me a ring if you are.

Phil

You don't hang about do ya !...................lovely looking bit of timber bashin Dennis........

Phil

Your taste in aeroplanes is excellent Sir

What fantastic aircraft you choose to model,  wish I could be as original! Looking really good!

Alex

Got to echo Phil and say "You don't hang about"......as always Den, watching with interest.

Hi,
Thanks for the comments.
I felt the need to make more progress even though the sun was shining and the wind light.  ( I knew I shouldnt have started , but should be able to fly over the weekend )
More fiddley bits like the Cockpit back and floor, the mounting plates for the oleos and the upper and lower sheeting aft of the cockpit . So the progress looks much slower, and will continue to slow after the basic frame work has gone together.



Question.  Should I make the undercarriage fixed with a "Show" oleo / shock absorber , or try to go for something functioning.
The strut is 28cm / 11" long and oval / streamlined in section.! My engineering skills are not good !
Who could supply such a thing ? An ideas gratefully received.
I could photograph the strut on the plan if you need a better idea of its structure.

Regards, Dennis.

Could you dress up a round section oleo with some balsa to get the section right? 

Hi Dennis
How many hours are in your days?. That looks like a months work to me. Looks good though. Glad the Defiant flew ok, look forward to seeing it at Scampton.
Richard

I guess these are days 4 , 5 and 6.

Added the 1/16" cockpit coaming and he 3/32" cheek pieces.
Thats all I can do on the Fus till I`ve ventured into the world of Wire bending and Soldering
so started on the wings.
Ribs,
 
Candle waxed the plan and pinned the spars. All standard stuff  but enjoyable to see the progress.

This is the shorter lower wing.

Then the upper wing, stbd side.

6 Continued,
Made the Stbd Aileron, Plywood cabane attachment plates and servo mounts and added some diagonal bracing to stiffen up the wings as I`m not too worried about the overall weight.



Not sure whether they do anything or not !
Port side tomorrow.
Regards, Dennis.

Nice work Dennis.
Think i will send over my BT Corsair plans. Reckon you could knock me the wing & fuz out within week.
Richard

Nice work Dennis.
Think i will send over my BT Corsair plans. Reckon you could knock me the wing & fuz out within week.
Richard

At the speed Dennis goes you reckon it would be that long     

lozza

Was giving him a couple of days spare. Just in case
Richard

Ah but... there`s a big black cloud on the horizon for Monday... called ... Work.  That will slow things down a bit !   

Yesterdays efforts,

And then there were four. Soon to be as two though.
Not having done my research I don`t know whether the wings should have those leading edge half ribs in between each full rib.They are not shown on the plan.
 Anyone know ?
 If so, should they be capped as the full ribs will be ? If they should be ,  will they look odd where the capped half ribs end at the main spar?
Whats the purpose of capping the ribs with 1/16" by 1/8" strips anyway. Is it a scale thing or a constructional strength thing ?
Regards, Dennis.

I don't know the particulars of this aircraft, but capping ribs in general is done for structural reasons. It turns the cross section of the rib into an I beam, and also gives you something better for attaching the fabric to 

Holy moly you work fast by the way! 

 Great stuff Dennis.
        ..your absolutly flying at this project!

    Watching away here from the sidelines, tons of character already, with the trailing edges of the wings 

    Cliff

Hi Jamie, Thanks for the info on cap strips and the earlier suggestion for the struts.The build will be very slow from now onwards.
Clifford.. glad your`e looking in. How`s that new shed coming on?  Will you  be joining the I.L.M.A when its finished ? It must be 30 foot long if it`s the full width of your garden. Bet you could do a quarter scale IL2 in there!
I think that you sent me a three view line drawing of the Fiat, that I`ve lost, can you e-mail me another please. I have a good fuselage one but nothing that shows the upper or lower views ( and therefore the rib configuration that I was asking about ).
Regards, Den.

Dennis,
Following 3-views do show sub-ribs between the mains...

http://richard.ferriere.free.fr/3vues/fiatcr32_1_3v.jpg

http://membres.lycos.fr/wings2/3vues/3vues.html

...and you cn just see 'em on this wing...



HTH,
Steve

Hi Steve,
Thats what I was looking for, many thanks. Looks like I`ve a few half ribs to cut then !
Like the museum pic, where`s that then, the wife  would enjoy a weekend away in Milan or Rome !

Dennis,
Fiat CR.32, (64k, JPG) Italian Air Force Museum- Vigna di Valle/Rome, Italy (http://aeroweb.lucia.it/en/museums/vigna.htm). Send us a postcard
Glad to be of help,
Steve

Flights are booked Steve. I`m sure that Gill will be happy to visit the Trevvi Fountain on her own. The romance of such places is much over rated I always feel.! 
 Was pondering what sort of wheels to use. They need to be narrow or the spats become much too thick and heavy looking.  By chance whilst browsing on rcscalebuilder there was an advert and link to Williams Brothers,.I had thought them defunct but now resurected it seems. They list " Golden Age Wheels" at 5" diameter , which is almost exactly what I needed. ( They might be a trifle on the thin side, but its more stand off than pure scale anyway )
I asked Richard at my LMS, AJ Models if he could get some for me. He ordered them via Flair and they came five days later @ £15.. good service.
Here they are.

Just the job.
Regards, Dennis.

Went flying yesterday ( Sat ) which was a mistake as it was very windy and quite cold.  The forcast for Sun was worse, so committed myself to the building board . However, though it was dull the wind seemed light and there was hazy sun at times.
Had a choice.  Hundreds of half ribs or the complexities of the cowl.
The Cowl won but progress slow.






The spinner backplate is a 3.5" one borrowed from another model just to give the correct datum for the front face.  I have ordered a 3" short ( OAL 2.5" ) profile spinner from Tru-turn in the States , as the original was quite tapered, wonder if it will arrive ?
I note that they do P51 profiles in every size you could want.
 Cowl is just 1/2" sheet laminations to the approximate profile as shown on the plan.
It will need some Razor planing and the rough side of my Perma-Grit block to get it looking lighter and more  elegant !.
The lower half should be a wrapped half tube, laminated from 1/16" balsa and 1/16" ply and extending back half way to the wing seat.
( I temporarily attached the 1/8" ply cowl back plate to F1 with some 1/2" + 6 Phillips screws. Unfortunately I can`t remove it now as I dont have a long reach Phillips screwdriver ! )
Thats all for now.
Regards , Dennis.

Hi Dennis,
         Another of your models well on the way before I've managed to find it ! Looking excellent as usual
I don't know if you have made up your mind on the cap strips yet, but i wouldn't cap the L/E false ribs, it well get too thick at the front if you know what i mean. Looking at Steve's three view it appears to show rib tapes on the full ribs but not on the false ribs. So you could simulate this effect by not capping the small ones in between.

Cheers Walts

Hi Walts,
Thanks for looking in.  We`re either great minds or fools ! I thought that I would make the leading edge / half ribs a 1/6" larger than the un capped ribs so that they ended up at the same size as the capped ribs. Exactly as you suggest ! Look better and a bit less work too. Many thanks.
Regards.  Dennis.

First poor weather, "building day" we`ve had for a while.
Fabricated the lower half of the cowl out of 1/2" sheet.  Looks a mess at first but after half an hour with the rough side of a Permagrit block it`s beginning to shape up.
Also added the quarter ribs in front of the main spar on the upper wing and added some of the cap strips.







I also found a nice short radius spinner by True-Turn in the States and ordered one on the Net.
It`s 3" Diameter but only 2 1/2" overall length. Or at least it should have been.
The item was efficiently delivered within 10 days but its Catalogue number is 3012 and the Spinner in the box was a 3102 which is a 4" long pointy profile ! I double checked the order and the confirmation and I did order the 3012 !
Unfortunately they will not respond to my e-mails and I will have to phone to try to get a replacement.
  Sadly the postage added up to $21, so I`m not inclined to post it back. we will see what their response is in due course.

All for the present,
Regards, Dennis.

Been a while since I updated the thread but I`ve been busy flying  ( destroying ) the fleet in the better Spring weather. Now that "Summers" here I can get on with the indoor work of adding to the fleet again.
I telephoned T T  about the errant Spinner and they were most apologetic. The correct one duly arrived  and I sent the first one back.

The profile is as close to the original as I think I can get.
Since then: I`ve joined the wings with their 1/8" ply joiners. Mounted the aileron servos and their extension leads in the wings.  Sheeted the centre sections. Epoxied in the Strut mounting plates with their soldered nylock nuts .





Just the ailerons to Robart hinge and then I will have to tackle the wire bending and soldering of the Cabane and U/C.. Not looking forward to this bit but I`m hoping that my new 120W iron will promote better results than the luke warm 25W one I used to struggle with or the useless 100W Gun type that was a waste of money.
Looking at the W/E forcast I should make some progress to report on Monday ! Ark plans anyone ?
Regards, Dennis.

That's lovely, only wish I had the courage to make one of these..

  ( destroying )

NOOOoooooooo ......................

Ths is looking V nice though 

Hi Phil,
Grumman Avenger died ,sadly. Also had a slightly damaging dead stick arrival with the newly reinstated BT Typhoon but happily its repaired now.
"Pylon" if your looking in ... tried to PM you about John`s SS Avenger Kit but can`t get through. PM me ?
Dennis.

A bit more progress but wire work and soldering aren`t my strongest skills. The Cabane wires bent ,bound and soldered took a whole day. Not the prettiest of work but I think it will hold together.
Then another days work fairing them in with 1/8" balsa sandwiched between 1/32" ply and sanded to section.
Tank also in and the projecting pointed centre wing fuel tank shaped.
Still pondering the best method of attaching the wing to the cabane. Best I can come up with is saddle clamps but that will mean eight bolts to screw in and twelve for the struts. I guess rigging time is always going to be an issue with bi planes though. ( Monoplane fighter next project ! )









Been thinking about the Undercarriage too.  More wire bending and soldering but this time the lower end where the axle is , will need an attachment point for the shock absorber strut and an attachment for the spats !
That will test my skills !
Regards, Dennis.

 Dennis,
 Fiat is looking good....
 What about this for attatching the cabanes..same idea as per my 1/4 scale DVII
 Two strips of 1/8 steel...available from B+Q, soldered onto your cabanes...with the top wing in position, drill trough 1/4 ply strips in wing....and have four, 4mm nuts screwing in from the bottom, you can even position the holes to be extra handy...and be able to use an allen driver....takes seconds to rig, and very strong..


 Cliff

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ]

Hi Cliff,
Thats a good plan , I like it.  Some of those screw in  with an Alen key threaded fixings in 4mm  ( Rather than captive nuts ) would do the job I`ve already put the ply plates in place.
Which section of B & Q does the mild steel strip ?
Thanks, Dennis.