Topic: 1/3 Scale Bristol F2b Fighter

I was asked how I was going to cover the fuse with all the rigging in the way. well the fact is that the Bristol has a double longeron as can be seen in this pic. This holds the covering away from the fittings and rigging so of course it doesn't wear on it.

I was just asked on another forum How I install my bracing wires so that they are taught and not floppy so here is how I do it.

 

ok I come up with a cool trick to make them tight and they literally SNAP into place. lol my wife was asking me for a while whats that sound as she was hearing them snap in the other room.

First thing I do is bend one end making sure I have a long enough tail to install the ferrule and bend it back on itself.

after that I slide the second ferrule onto the wire.

Next I hold the wire into the position of the second fitting. 

My fittings have about a 1/16th inch between the edge of the hole and the edge of the ring for the outside of the fitting.

I place my pliers there and then bend over the wire which is around 1/16th of an inch or so short of the hole that I want to place the wire in.

I then feed the tail through the hole in the fitting and work it with my pliers etc through and it will eventually snap into place and be nice and tight without placing a lot of excess stress on the fitting. I then slide up my ferrule and finish off the bending back on itself.


It will take 1 or 2 to get the feel of how much is too much and how much is just right, but it is not all difficult.

Well I learned how to take good pictures finally. I was told I should use the macro feature so I did. I also hung a white sheet up for a background. as you are about to see it made a whole lot of difference in the quality of the pics. as you can see I used #2 screws but think I should have used #1 screws which would look a little more scale

Appendum to Framing Jig


theres something else I forgot to mention abt my bracket technique for framing the fuse. Since the shelf brackets are 90 degrees to the shelf rails you can insert the brackets into the rails and then tack glue a crossmember between the brackets.  Then as you can see if you have a former or anything that has to be vertical you can add some square stock to the bottom of the part and tack it to the crossmember to hold it in place.

Love the wires but would would it be worth considering some form is isolation where the wires cross over to stop any chance of metal to metal radio interference    Perhaps a small piece of nylon tube slid on or perhaps solder the 2 wires together, I don't know how much of an issue the rubbing wires would create 

Love the wires but would would it be worth considering some form is isolation where the wires cross over to stop any chance of metal to metal radio interference    Perhaps a small piece of nylon tube slid on or perhaps solder the 2 wires together, I don't know how much of an issue the rubbing wires would create 

Or just use plastic coated wire 

Or just use plastic coated wire 

bit late now, they are already on 

I thought I mentioned it, but maybe not. The center of the crossovers were wrapped with cotton cord and then shellaced. I have a few closeups showing this somewhere lol. so I will take some of that old cotton kite string we used to use before the nylon stuff came along, and wrap the centers and urethane them. that will keep them from rubbing together and wearing on each other as well as reduce the chance for interference.

  job done

Ok heres a couple more pics. The First one shows a secon ferrule type commonly used which was basically a crimped copper tube.
The next couple pics in response to a question about wire rubbing, Is shots of some cotton twine which was wrapped around the bracing wires and then shellaced.

All the ferrule stuff is very interesting, but I can't help noticing that the pictures of fuselage cross-bracing you show on the RAF Museum's E2466 all appear to be rods with threaded ends onto which shaped end fittings are screwed which are pinned to the brackets, a bit like kwiklinks on bicycle wheel spokes...

yea martin they are. but as the only ones I could find were cheap plastic looking ones they would look real cheesy on this plane. Thus I opted to go for the standard which are used on the rest of the bristol like like the boxkite and the scout for this plane instead of what actually are.

Another reason is that throughout this build I am showing people on a limited income or people that are "in the boonies" if you like, a way to get around various stuff with just local craft store hardware store objects and still create a great looking plane. Kind of like what I have done on my jigs.

If I had my own milling machine and knew how to work it I would probably have sat around for a few days and made those ends. We all have to decide how exact we want our models and at what cost. Mine was the fact I could not find any ends other than cheesy looking plastic ones So I went with actual alternative used by the bristol company on their other aircraft. The Brisfit is the only one that I have seen uses those ends the others use the ferrules.


Joe

Looks like a reasonable compromise. On mine I made a lookalike representation of the wire end from pieces of brass tube with a bit of the end split open, flattened then rounded with a file. Slide it onto the wire before bending the end at 90 degrees and soldering through the hole in the bracket.

ok guys I will be posting more soon. we have had a ton of rain lately and  I needed to paint some more fittings etc and wife wont let me do it in the house as she gets really sick from the fumes. I have a window of opportunity to paint them today so I will get them painted and back on track.

I am also waiting on my wheels to finish being machined and so it can ship with my guns etc as I forgot to plan ahead in my plans for the MG in the nose. so will have to do a little cutting before I begin sheeting. I wont attach the engine bay section until much later so that it is easier toto move the planbe around  as I am detailing it in the office here and it barely sits on my 6 ft desk

Update:

 

After cleaning out  small flood in basement workshopp and getting plumber in to get asll trash out of lines that backed up due to all our rain, I am back on the Bristol.

I didn't like the screws I used for the fittings as they were much too big. also I decided to go ahead and stain the wood, but because I was changing hardware I decided just to reframe the fuse. my reason for this is by the time I filled the old screw holes and added new I thought that it would make the frame too weak so to play safe I just rebuilt.

 

I have both sides glued up and am about ready to mate the 2 halves and will be back where I was previously. I am sanding the sides now to clean them up from the glue that wicked underneath and then will do some touchup staining and remate the sides. I figure I will be back to where I was by the end of this week, but we have stormes coming again for the next 2 days so am hoping I dont get flooded again.

 

on another note my wheels and vickers and couple other small items should be shipping tomorrow.

 

joe

hey guys update for you. My wheels and vickers finally arrived today So Monday I will be back on the Bristol and post a step by step as I try spoking my wheels. This will be first time I ever spoked wheels.

It has been slow going but as with any Prototype Build there will be redos and slowdowns. The first thing I did was rebuilt the fuse as when I had the big screws and replaced them I was worried about the frame being weak from all the holes. also with this new fuse I have stained it prior to framing which helps too.

Joe,

I'm looking forward to seeing the wheel kits come together, as I'm still thinking about some for my E.V


Mark.

Ill shoot a couple pics of the wheels as all the little parts in a bag just wasnt going to open myVickers bag

you do great work! just wanted to thank you personally. saw you were useing gorilla glue on some of your builds and decided to give it a try and think it's the best thing since sliced bread. ive always used titebond or wood glue for my laminates and when you wet or steam the wood to make it more plyable it always seemed to weaken the strentgh of the glue and it was a pain to sand. now the gorilla glue you have to dampen the wood anyway and it also expands leaving no gaps and as far as sanding it sands like balsa and the stength is unbelievable, in short the glue produces a much finer finish and will never go back to white glues. thanks again.

your using the wrong gorilla glue dc )) the one you are using is very good too and especially good for sheeting foam cores. there is a non expanding gorilla glue that is like titebond only better and doesnt expand. thats what I am using. I will be posting a couple pics of the new tires I been struggling to spoke up. then hopefully this week get back on my framework.

I have been slowed down by trying to get some of my designs done for the UK Dawn Patrol so they can get building. They have the Pfalz DXII the Bristol Fighter, abt to get the Roland DVI andas soon as I finish drawing the fittings my Sopwith Tripehound.

I hope to have the bristol fuse and Possibly tripehound fuse at Dayton