Topic: Gloster Meteor F8

Jamie don't berate your 'untidyness', if my board was as tidy as that, I'd be delighted. ..The build is looking very smart though. 

What a sad lot we are. We have a "reader's wife" picture where she's kneeling on the bed, and all we look at is the wing she's holding...

PDR

YOu could always blow the plan up by 125% and fit your MW54 

Trust me I have thought of that. Perhaps an EDF build first then maybe the Wren?

What a sad lot we are. We have a "reader's wife" picture where she's kneeling on the bed, and all we look at is the wing she's holding...

PDR

May be all you been looking at mate 
I've been trying to get her to put the wing down 

What a sad lot we are. We have a "reader's wife" picture where she's kneeling on the bed, and all we look at is the wing she's holding...

PDR

What wing?
Mike

Just noticed he's actually building a toy plane, how sweet

And its looking great too Jamie

Ian.

I normally use either thin card for ducting, or styrene sheet. Both are cheap.

Have you stopped the Meteor build JD? or have I missed something again?

Jeff

Yes, come on Jamie....looking forward to seeing this bird flying!!! Great job so far!

Right, where were we?

Last week SWMBO held the wing again to please Flightpack 



Lookin Good! Oh and the planes allright as well

Last week SWMBO held the wing again to please Flightpack 

...and this week she's expecting. Is there a connection?

PDR

Ah yes,

Sorry everyone - didn't think I'd be missed 

Yes, since the last installment I have indeed discovered that Gill is pregnant (baby due in January  ) and I've also been trying to get the white Rover ready to flog on. As a matter of fact, I haven't spent much time on the computer at all. I only switched my home PC on this afternoon to write a sarcastic snot-o-gram to Aberdeen City Council over a parking ticket I got today. I was parked in a Pay & Display carpark in a space designated for large vehicles, defined by exceeding 16ft in length. I've just enclosed photocopies of the Jag S-Type owner's handbook along with my letter demonstrating that my car is in fact 4905mm/193.1 inches/16.09ft long so, Aberdeen City Council, shove that in your pipe and smoke it 

I'm trying to remember why I stopped in the first place - I needed some more 1/64" plywood or Proskin for the ducts before going any further. I still haven't bought any... that new car got in the way - but it's almost ready. The paint for the bumper is in the post. 

Not sure if you'd already announced this news elsewhere, so sorry if I missed it first time round.

In any case, congratulations on the news! Wish you both well!!

re. the Jag - thats a classic! Hope they let you off!

I've been a victim of work recently but I did have a good weekend flying and a prompt from a friend on here to crack on with this, so whilst SWMBO plodded on with her Cub trainer I discovered some 1/64" ply hiding in the shed, and turned it into thrust tubes.

I've only glued one in so far, and haven't taken a photo yet but SWMBO may do that for me later so I can post it  It's great to do some modelling again 

It's great to do some modelling again 

Please warn me before you get to the swimwear section - this keyboard doesn't react well to vomit...

PDR

Did you break your wipe-clean keyboard then? 

Here's what it looks like just now anyway. Nothing much but that's the 1/64" ply finished 

I wanted to duct the intake end of the nacelles too.

Where was I? I had this lying on the bench. Without ducting or planking, those formers are very vulnerable to being knocked off. To avert the risk of adding a pound of superglue re-attaching them a solution had to be found without involving the purchase of anything new. 1/16th balsa it is then:



I trimmed a piece to fit reasonably well, to line the intakes in 4 quadrants. As I'm trying to draw a plan rather than just feel my way through a one off I thought I'd better draw the shape as a starting point for a repeat build... I'll transfer this to my work-in-progress plan later:



First 2 quarters in:



Pile of bits - the inboards and outboards are slightly different, and of course, 4 of each are needed for the model and these are the 6 I hadn't fitted after the last piccie:



And when all four sections are in a duct it looks duct-like:





And to prove to myself that I'm not getting bored after one nacelle and stopping:



To be honest the fit wasn't all that hot, but it wasn't a million miles away. I needed to insert slivers in between the sections mid-length. The template that goes on the plan will take cognisance of that and so (touch wood - guffaw guffaw) a repeat build should be easier.

Now I can plank the nacelles. Yee hah.

Looking good Jamie, good to see you back on the build

Steve

Good to be back Steve 

This morning I planked almost one half of one nacelle. I've now ran out of pins so I need to wait for the glue to dry before carrying on.

Planking is good. Done properly, it almost guarantees the correct overall shape to the piece being modelled. It's quite time consuming though, but results in a strong and light item when complete 

Each plank runs from front to back and I like to start with the middle one, untapered. I used medium grade 3/32" balsa cut into 1/2" wide strips as a starting point.
All the other planks are laid on against the previous plank and the required taper marked on. It takes no time at all to whittle the taper onto the plank, which is then glued and pinned in place. The trick is not to force a bend in the plank across it's width i.e. all planks should lie naturally against their formers and the taper is as required to touch the first. The result is a classic barrel type construction without any planks being 'dropped' part way along their length.

Tapered plank ready to fit laid on top of untapered plank to illustrate the shape:



Half way:



And here are a few showing how the planks naturally give a smooth and natural shape to the nacelle - if allowed to lie flat against the nacelles without being bent sideways!











Ok, I really just wanted to take a lot of photos of it 

When I get my pins back, the offcuts from the 36" planks will fill in the gaps around the crutches and wing fillet areas 

Looking great once again Jamie. Look forward to your completed kit

Fancy doing some CAD drafting? 

Rubbish Pictures! Missus busy was she?

So this is the ARTF version Jamie?  ... Still, it could have been long and drawn out. Brilliant though. 

Missus has a client today  First one since starting up on her own  :colm:

I went to the model shop while that was drying as I needed a few more sheets of 3/32" and the 40 mile round trip would prevent me from pulling pins out too early. The upper side of the first nacelle has now been planked too. The bottom looks ok. Once the gaps are filled in and the planking sanded smooth it'll look quite good I think. The intake ring still needs to be added, and after the planking is complete and thoroughly dry I'll saw the access hatch for the fans back out. 

Evidence that I've done it:



Taking shape:

Lookin' Good really

Flightpack

Fancy doing some CAD drafting? 

2d? Sure, why not

3d? Bit more tricky. I'm now able to model in 3d, but since we only design buildings at work your model might come out somewhat slab-sided

It would be 2D Andrew   Need to back-draft the pencil drawings though. I'm fettling the fit of a lot of bits as I go so the drawings need updated as I go along.

I did the remaining nacelle half this morning then went grocery shopping while it dried.



When I got back, I made a start on filling in the gaps. I've completed one nacelle and done 1/4 of the other before cutting myself. I'm indoors now waiting for the bleeding to stop before carrying on. Here's how it looks at the moment... after trimming off the ends a good sand I reckon this will look the part  

No problem then. Give me a shout if/when you want something drawing up. It will only be a matter of dropping your sketches and ideas in the post and I'll can get something knocked together within a few days for you

Rubbish Pictures! Missus busy was she?

Priceless!!

Great build matey, taking shape nicely

Ian.

Flightpack is very demanding  

I'm going to stay with the inlaws for a week starting on Wednesday and I don't like wasting annual leave doing nothing. "Chill" does not compute, much to my mother-in-law's bafflement.

Father-in-law doesn't trust me to use one of his two scroll saws or any other wood working tools while I'm down there - infact the only thing I might be able to use is a pencil and paper so long as I can convince them I wont break the table I'm leaning on  

So, what does one do to avoid weeing one's life away in the middle of nowhere for a week with only a pencil? Draw of course...

I'll be armed with documentation, 1/96 scale plans, a pencil and a ruler. First though, I needed to do some quick scaling to see how big the model needed to be to fit the available power plants (that is, the ones the Canberra isn't using on account of it not existing). I also needed a C of G check. The nacelles will need a 10% diameter enlargement which I'm not happy about, but hopefully it wont destroy the looks of the subject. C of G check courtesy of a chuck glider built this morning, modelled by SWMBO (and baby)  



We've got my parents coming for dinner later, so that leaves me just enough time to finish planking the Meteor nacelles  

Thats a fine looking model Jamie 

Yessss  shes back and looking as good as ever 

That'll be nice for her - she's feeling a bit 'pregnant' nowadays  

Anyway - that's the Meteor nacelles planked. Next job is a trim, fit intake rings and sand nacelles smooth and add the small fillets. Undercarriage door blisters are next on the list, then cut the doors out. That's pretty much the wing finished then I suppose. I'll need to start thinking seriously about the fuselage!

Jamie, it's been a while since I looked in on the thread sooo...

Firstly, congratulations to you and Gill   :colm: :colm:

(I was going to mention the 'plonker-up' joke, but after getting to the end and seeing your nacelle planking, I'd get, (quite rightly too), slaughtered )

The planking look superb   I've seen several ways of doing it, but the tapered plank method that you've used always looks so much better

Mark

Nice one Jamie!! Keep at it!

Will do Steve   The wing now weighs 1090g so I've blown my target airframe weight already and the fuselage doesn't exist yet. I'll have to build that from helium.

The sanding down didn't take place tonight due to the last of the PVA still being a bit white. Instead I followed on with the chuck glider theme and tried to suss out how the main undercarriage works on the next project. I'm almost there, but there's a small geometry modification to do to get the last little bit of bogie rotation...

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/jamie_duff/?action=view&current=16082009009.flv

That'll be a backfire then?

That'll be a backfire then?

Close, Blinder 

Hi Jamie,
Thanks for the steer to your build thread - I've just spent lunch-time having a good read - great job. That colour-scheme illustration you posted shows a 245 Squadron Meteor from Horsham St Faith which was my father-in law's squadron.
Reference your comments on the 'other' site on all-up weight , I've been working on the assumption of 1:9 scale, 49.5" span and 4.32 sq ft wing area which, if I hit all the buttons in the right order, comes out at just over 7.5lbs at my target loading of 28oz per sq ft. I shall try to remain cheerful if (when!) this is exceeded as I build it!
Keep up the good work!
Paul W.

Hi Paul, thanks for looking in  

I'd be interesting to see what you've come up with if/when you're ready to share   How have you approached the wing?

Meanwhile back at the ranch:

I've worn out my last bit of sandpaper so have only got one nacelle roughly sanded. It's not looking too bad I don't think?