Topic: Handley Page HP42E 'HELENA'

Been plodding away on this when time allows, it certainly isn't forgotten Finished all the tailplane linkages etc and started to cover it all up, which is taking ages as there is 25 faces to cover on the tail surfaces alone. I 'm not a fan of silver tex as it marks too easily but the fuselage has already been covered in it so the rest will have to match. Very pleased with decision to include the scale balance panels as they add an extra bit of interest and talking points. They seem to work very smoothly too, I might be tempted to get Speilberg out of the cupboard for video 2, but perhaps not.

Ian.

 Blimey....thats good....think I can see how it works............but another silent motion picture of ghostly movements would be much appreciated by all ! A piano accompaniment even better..
Regards, Buster K.     

That's looking really good Ian 

Ian that covering looks pretty good and pretty much as I would imagine the real deal would look. If it marks easily would something like a suede shoe protector spray help prevent that?

Cheers for that, I might try some sort of protector spray once all the markings etc are on, I'd imagine it'd be hard to get anything to stick afterwards!!

Took advantage of the nice day today to drag it outside to sort the springs on the suspension. The original springs are way too soft for what is required, bottoming out straight away. The new ones were determined in a non too technical way, fit and bounce..... fit and bounce ....etc....

I settled on a double spring set up. I halved the originals, and fitted a shorter, much harder spring as well as the halved original. I love to see an aeroplane with oleos that work. Lots of models have far too hard a spring in their oleos so they don't 'look' right as the weight comes on and off the legs. I've also fitted a rubber damper up the inside of both springs which helps to 'slow' the spring down as it compresses. The wheels now droop about 40mm when the model lifts off, but still has about the same amount of suspension under compression.

Ian.

That's going to look wonderful in the air and on the ground.