[PDR]

The meal was quite good, yes. Shame you couldn't join us.

PDR

[Mrs_Jamie_Duff]

The meal was quite good, yes. Shame you couldn't join us.

PDR

Ooooooooooohhhh don't you pull on that thread...I have your address and I know the area well as I used to live close by...!! 

(  )

[PDR]

Really? Whereabouts?

(Just being nosy)

PDR

[Jamie Duff]

She says "Ashvale, then North Camp"...  All South Londonshire to me...

Anyway, I've finished the tail off...

[Winchweight]

Looks every inch a "Meatbox"! 

[Steve_r]

Fabulous, Jamie!! Keep at it! 

[Jamie Duff]

I need a canopy... 

[pbw]

Hi Jamie,
Looking very good indeed!  The canopy shouldn't be too much of a problem?  Try Sarik Vacform if you haven't got anything as yet.  This is the website:
Welcome to Sarik Vacform and Tracks and Water
But you will probably need to give them a ring with a description and some sizes..!
Paul W.

[Jamie Duff]

I could get the belly tank vacuum formed too. That would be nice and hollow for the pneumatic reservoir 

[Mrs_Jamie_Duff]

I could get the belly tank vacuum formed too. That would be nice and hollow for the pneumatic reservoir 

forgetting who has control of the purse strings...?

[PDR]

The way to a man's heart may be through his stomache, but the way to his abject subservience is always routed through his wallet.

PDR

[pbw]

Jamie:

I could get the belly tank vacuum formed too. That would be nice and hollow for the pneumatic reservoir 

Mrs Jamie:

forgetting who has control of the purse strings...?

Hi both,
Given that Jamie provides the belly tank plug (Roly has almost certainly already got a canopy plug that will do the job) that is an economical plan indeed - almost 'Yorkshire' in its economyI would say!
Paul W.(From the safety of Gloucestershire!! )

[Jamie Duff]

Not very interesting, but I took an hour out and made the first of the four control surfaces at the tail end...

[twister53]

Hello Jamie,
Nice scratch build! Just wondering how you do your planking? Is it all super glued on or do you use wood glue as well?

By the way nice picture of a Mosquito in your workshop!

[Jamie Duff]

Hello Edit: Just noticed that was your first post! Welcome to RCMF properly now!

I have a great big poster of the same aircraft on the wall opposite the window too  

I use a mixture of wood glue and super glue for the planking. I don't get on well with sanding the planking smooth when it's superglued together. I tend to just sand away the wood leaving ridges of CA - even using sanding blocks (which I use anyway, incidently). Being a jock I also don't get on well with paying for the quantity of CA needed for this  

On the nacelles I think I used wood glue for the whole lot except for where the plank lay on the extreme forward and aft formers, just to keep the plank in place really. I used pins to keep the plank in place on the rest of the formers but these were mainly just to keep the planks butted against one another, rather than hard to the formers.

For the fuselage I went for much the same policy, only I used CA glue on one or two formers mid-length just to help me along the way.  

The important thing, for me at least, is to let the planks lie naturally without any sideways bending. That way they're usually quite happy to sit in place with wood glue with only each end tacked with CA without pinging off and smashing the light bulbs / window panes / neighbouring models etc   :lol:

[Jamie Duff]

Manhours are having a diminishing effect now.

I finished that poxy assignment and spent 2 hours this evening on the other half of the rudder and fin/rudder tip blocks.



I don't feel I've achieved a lot for my time!

[twister53]

Cheers for the planking info Jamie,

Keep up the good work

[Jamie Duff]

I took the Meteor to Perth yesterday to show my ex 43Sqn grandfather. Whilst there I got one of those little stories which are seldom recorded on paper.

The Meteor used pneumatics for most of it's services and when fitted with the big slipper tank under the belly it used low pressure bleed air to pressurise the belly tank to displace the fuel into the wing tanks as they emptied. When new on the squadron, and knowing very little about Meteors at the time, my grandfather was told to go fuel one up. He went to open the fuel filler cap and when the cap started pushing into his hand he quickly shoved it back in and closed it again. "This one's already full" he announced.

The pilot got in, taxied out and took off. He immediately entered the circuit, lined up and landed again and the engines went quiet on the taxiway back.

Yes, you guessed it. It wasn't full at all, it was the compressed air in the tanks pushing the fuel cap out. 

He got to know the Meteor quite well in the rest of his time there, and left 43Sqn at roughly the same time my father was born, which was also roughly the same time they changed to Hunters. The family were then posted to Cyprus for a few years, where all the earliest photos of my dad as a little boy were taken 

[Jamie Duff]

I went out for a quick zip around with the EF16 this afternoon but the sun went down too fast and I was pretty cold!



So when I got home I sat down at the PC and began chatting to a fellow modeller via MSN, until I was kicked outside by SWMBO until I'd done something useful 

So... elevators.

Square tailed Meteors had elevators and rudders chamfered to a sharp leading edge adhead of the hinges. I haven't sharped the rudders enough yet.



Anyway, the elevators needed hinges. These are inset hinges which I made exactly the same way as the rudder. To prevent binding, I used a steel hinge pin spanning both bits of brass tube. The tube is about 1/8" OD so the core is 1/8" hard balsa with spanwise grain and this is sandwiched in thicker medium balsa with longitudinal grain, sanded flush with the tailplane surfaces. All fairly standard stuff... I'm no innovator.





The elevators are built like the rudders. I'm getting lazy now, and the moving surfaces use a sheet core with cutouts for the steel rod with 3/8" soft balsa glued on either side. This is planed and sanded to section. Brian Taylor designed some of his models using this method. If it's good enough for him, it's definately good enough for me.





I've only finished one. The other side needs all the planing and sanding bit done, but I'm hungry and thirsty now and the radio isn't great tonight. I'm also supposed to be having a Skype conference call to discuss the lasted post grad. assignment at some point tonight

[Dizz]

Nice work Jamie, razor planes rule

[Jamie Duff]

The Uni assignment was submitted today so this evening I've made the other elevator, put the tip blocks on, and made a start on the part I was dreading the most: the bullet fairing on the tail.

Truth be told I'm still not entirely sure exactly what sequence of events that shall be, but it's going to be made in a left & right half according to the current method. If it doesn't work out I'll try something else. I haven't got any pics of that yet as there's nothing much to look at and I was called in to cut up the chicken for dinner (SWMBO isn't keen on handling raw meat).

Here's the elevators though. Looks ok I think? I chipped the lens on my last camera phone so I finally gave in and got a new one. This one has a 12.1 Megapixel camera 

[Ingieuk]

Looking really good 

Those hinges add so much to the look of the tail, I think they look great!

[Jamie Duff]

Thanks Rich, it's very kind of you to say so. I'll admit I had wondered why I didn't just add the chamfers and use CA hinges like any normal human being, but I'm pleased with the way it's turned out now it's behind me

[Ingieuk]

It seems like a simple solution (though maybe not simple enough when your making them!) but definitely worth the effort. Think I'll give them a go at some point.

Keep it up 

[pbw]

SWMBO isn't keen on handling raw meat

Hi Jamie,
I should think not with the imminent arrival in mind   Hope you are not snowed in there - it is even doing a passable impression of winter here in Gloucestershire - I am in danger of having to dig my way out to the workshop!  Happy New Year and I'm away to a very good read I got from Swmbo this year: 'The Science of Barnes Wallis', by Dr Iain Murray, which fills in some of the gaps around his work.
I like the hinge work on your Meteor too. At this rate, you'll be ready before the weather is!  Happy New Year to you both,
Paul W.

[Jamie Duff]

To be fair the hinges are dead easy and are fairly rewarding to do. The elevators have mostly been a pain because I couldn't be bothered to design them and used very soft balsa instead. A combination of very soft balsa and an aged and slightly blunted razor plane means lots of sanding instead. That got pretty boring tbh...

I think it's time I bought new blades for the razor plane... need an online supplier methinks (or a trip to Edinburgh).

[Jamie Duff]

Hi Jamie,
I should think not with the imminent arrival in mind  Hope you are not snowed in there - it is even doing a passable impression of winter here in Gloucestershire - I am in danger of having to dig my way out to the workshop!  Happy New Year and I'm away to a very good read I got from Swmbo this year: 'The Science of Barnes Wallis', by Dr Iain Murray, which fills in some of the gaps around his work.
I like the hinge work on your Meteor too. At this rate, you'll be ready before the weather is!  Happy New Year to you both,
Paul W.

You're right, but she's never been keen on it. Oddly enough, I'm the same with most other foodstuffs! I enjoy cooking but I don't like getting food on my hands. It's bizarre because I think I actually do grin a bit when I first smear oil and grease all over my hands and face when tinkering with cars, but I don't like touching food. Weird!

It's not too bad here weather wise. The temperature hasn't risen warm enough to melt anything and we still have the same snow from before Christmas (although it gets added to every day). I'm taking a couple of girls into work with me because they don't like driving in snow. We normally share anyway week about but it's still my turn for the time being  

The Met Office website reckons it's going to remain too cold to significantly melt what we've got here until at least the 18th, which is as far as they forecast temperature. The annoying thing is just how long it takes to get to work. I left the house at 6am this morning to miss the worst of the public on the roads, but still managed to join the back of a queue of 5, lead by an Audi A4 estate doing a whopping 16mph. The queue was somewhat longer by the time there was a big long straight. I along with several others following were all over the place going up steep hills in 1st or 2nd gear spinning wheels all over the place. Ideally we'd do 2~3 times that speed running at the hills and avoid using that much torque on the way up but there's always a natural born leader determined to get people stuck behind him...

Let me know if that book is any good will you?  

Happy New Year to you and your other half too!  

[pbw]

Let me know if that book is any good will you?

It certainly is, although I haven't finished it as yet - still leaves me with a few questions though - one section of particular interest is already very well thumbed indeed..!
Paul W.

[Jamie Duff]

Something single engined and sharing the Wellie's geodetic structure by any chance? Or 4 engined? 

[Jamie Duff]

Well, it started snowing again so we were all sent home from work early.

This afternoon/early evening I have mostly been tackling that bullet fairing I was dreading.

I suspect that the majority of readers will have their own and probably better ways of doing this, but if there is anyone else who (like me) has never made one before, here is how I did it:

1) Maximum diameter of fairing is 1.25 inches, so I used 2No  5/8" x 1.25" medium balsa blocks to begin with, cut to length and marked where the tailplane leading and trailing edges will sit. The split is vertical in this case, and a horizontal line is drawn down the centre of the vertical face. A template of the tailplane section at the outer extreme of the fairing was used to mark on the outside (smaller) tailplane section. This was then bandsawn out.







2) The whole was tapered with files until the halves would slide as far as possible before touching the fin. The vertical faces were aligned with the longitudinal axis of the aeroplane, and a little spacer used to guide a pen in marking the sections of the fin above and below the tailplane onto each half. These semi-sections were cut and sanded into the inner side of each half until a decent fit was achieved, with the inner faces on the centreline of the fin/tailplane.



3) The halves were mated to check for symmetry.



4) The outer profile of the bullet fairing was templated and drawn onto each vertical face of the halves. These were then sawn and sanded to shape. The template was then used to mark the profile onto the horizontal faces. Again, these were carefully sawn and sanded to shape. The parts obviously become more fragile with every step  .



5) The halves were then lightly tack glued together and sanded to circular section (very carefully. Once approximately done, the halves were carefully separated ready for gluing onto the aeroplane.



6) I needed to add the little infills above the lower half of the rudder and below the top half first, then the two halves of the fairing were glued on/together. The fit and finish is nowhere near Phil Clark standard (which obviously would look like the whole thing look like it was CNC machined from a solid block of wood  ) but a little filler will make this look the part I think  



And lastly, another plan view shot with the elevators on. There's quite a lot of tail area actually  

[Mrs_Jamie_Duff]

You're right, but she's never been keen on it.

Talking about me again!!

Go back to your shed and do more, there's still a few hours till bedtime! 

[p51p47]

Haven't looked in for a while....lookin mighy fine Jamie 

Phil

[Jamie Duff]

I elected not to bother with work this morning, after a 6am conversation with a colleague or 3 who all live near me.

So, Meteor 

I started this morning with the tailcone. Like the bullet, it was in 2 halves. I used some of that rough cut stuff that comes in those cheap balsa bundles found in the LMS. The chunks in there are handy for this sort of thing... It was hollowed out for the rudder linkage then roughly sawn to shape, before gluing onto the fuselage for final shaping.









The nose contours didn't work out right initially, and the planking around the nose was rather fragile. To fix this, I glued some extra 3/32" planks on top of the existing and shaped. I also added strips either side of the cockpit sills because these were a little too sunken in too. The whole area needs a smear of filler to feather things in but it's much safer to handle now, it looks better and feels better to the touch now.





And a couple of GAs outside in the snow:

[Dizz]

I elected not to bother with work this morning, after a 6am conversation with a colleague or 3 who all live near me.

So, Meteor 

LOL   

I drove to Plymouth at 0540 because I was due to go to sea today only to find that the serial had been cancelled. 
So, M52 

You have done an excellent job in capturing the lines of the Meteor.  Particularly like the way you made the tailplane fairing.
Assume that you will be glassing it idc, if so that will sort out the fragile planking; I was amazed what glassing the V-1 fuz did for strength/stiffness.
Pete

[Jamie Duff]

That's one of those pieces of information that would have been more useful to you at 2200 hrs last night... 

Still, more home time is good!

Thanks for the compliment regarding the lines 

I'll either glass it or dope and tissue it. I've got loads of resin but no more glass cloth, and loads of non-shrinking dope, sanding sealer and tissue, but no cellulose thinners and no brushes so I'm going to have to buy something either way. Epoxy resin is far less inclined to dissolve any filler I've used underneath though and it certainly is tough... decisions, decisions.

[Dizz]

Yeah, would have been nice to know yesterday, but I got a lot done in the office before anyone else turned up anyway. 
If it was me I would go for glassing, so much stronger and dink-proof.  Doesn't add very much extra weight either.

[Jamie Duff]

I'm leaning that way...

I can get the glass cloth from Phil now which is a minimum hassle solution too. Thinners and brushes would mean me having to go to a shop of some sort which I'd never get round to doing...

[rcfanuk]

looking really nice Jamie, looking forward to the flying pics

Steve

[pbw]

Hi Jamie,
That's a lot of good progress and she has that 'sculptural' look of the Meteor - I particularly like the 'propped-up in the workshop' shot - she looks almost airborne!  
I meant to ask you if Sarik were able to help with the canopy?  I am also watching with interest (and keeping quiet!) to see which way you'll go with the final finish before painting.  I downed-tools at the same stage with this build, due to fan/motor problems, now hopefully resolved.  Next stage is out with the light-weight filler and on with... (tissue or glass...?!)
Paul W.

[p51p47]

Love the E.28