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Another 1:72 Sopwith double build: Revell Triplane and HR Models Pup - Pup also finished


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Sadly I've only just discovered this thread Ian.

 

I will be going back to catch up on all of it. Like others here, I have the Revell Triplane and have not wanted to sell it; it just looked too difficult to correct and rig.

 

This thread will really help; thanks for sharing.

 

I can vouch for a non WW1 subject by HR Models; his Avia B534's. They're great. I was always puzzled by why another two manufacturers released them. It seems HR just doesn't get the publicity and/or distribution.

 

Looking forward to catching up :)

 

All best regards 

TonyT

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Thanks Tony, welcome aboard!

 

I'm hoping that I can get a good bit done this week due to time off.  To that end, today I started preparing the Triplane for getting its wings. I spent an hour or so measuring and setting up the Aeroclub jig to get the upper wing in the correct place. Somewhere along the line the nose is a little short, so I decreased the stagger a tiny bit to bring the upper wing back to where it should be relative to the nose and get the "look" right. 

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 That was the easy bit. I then had to think of someway to mount the centre wing accurately, as I have removed the lumps on the struts which Revell provide. I eventually came up with a plan involving a piece of thick plastic card, cut out to fit around the jig sides and fuselage. It was bent to match the dihedral of the wings, and two slots were cut in the rear edge. To support the wings I squared off the ends of a couple of pieces of thick plastic rod and attached some more thick card to the ends, making sure that the rods were perpendicular. These rods will then fit in the slots I cut in the base piece, and because they are a fairly tight fit, will be adjustable for height. The plan being to line everything up, then glue the rods into the slots to fix their position. The centre wings will then rest on the top pieces of card which will support them while the glue dries.

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 That's the plan, anyway.....
 After I'd done that I decided to dry fit the centre struts. It's lucky I did, as they're too short! I have added some plastic rod and will tidy it all up tomorrow when it's dry, and repaint them.

Thanks for looking in!

Ian

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Crikey Ian, that's some serious modelling just to make the jig! Now I know why I like Spitfires... :) 

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Thanks all! Unfortunately, the effort put into the jig was for nowt....at least so far. It may come in useful for the final step of aligning the centre wing but was no use for taking the weight and helping with the strut mounting.....read on.

 

Unfortunately the jig didn't work out too well. This is proving to be by far the trickiest wing-mounting operation I've done to date. The single struts make fitting them easier, but then it lacks fore-aft structural strength. I've made a couple of failed attempts (I did take pics but my camera has eaten them!) but I think I'm on the home straight now. The biggest problem has been keeping the centre struts in place - of course this would have been resolved if I'd simply followed my usual procedure of pinning them, but for some reason I didn't!
 I tried fitting all the struts first, with the intention of sliding the centre wing over them when dry. Then I realised that it wouldn't be possible to add the centre wing with the jig in the way. (doh!)
 Then I tried with the jig in place but it wasn't working out and I would have had to tape the wings to the jig, defeating the object of having it adjustable.
 I tried adjusting the Aeroclub jig to use it for the centre wing, but that wouldn't work as the bottom of the wing rail hit the little clamps that hold the wings in place before I could get the gap narrow enough.
 Finally I added the centre wing with the struts through it loosely. That was very awkward as the struts kept slipping out as I was trying to fit them, but I eventually got them all on and left it overnight to dry. 
 This morning I added the upper wing and clamped it in place. that is now sitting to dry. The centre wing is still not fixed in place. I'll adjust it and fix it permanently once the top wing has set. Hopefully the struts will stay in place during that operation!

So here's where it is at the moment...

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 This one is proving more of a challenge than I'd expected, I should have put a little more thought into pinning the struts and maybe even worked out a way of attaching the struts to the centre wing before fitting it all as a unit, but that would have been very tricky to get the strut angles, and therefore the wing stagger, correct. Of course, I could have just left the mounting lugs on the struts, or reduced them so they were less noticeable. Maybe even marked the struts with the position and angle of the mounting lugs before removing them....

 Anyway, hopefully it's on the home stretch now!

Thanks for looking in!

Ian

Edited by limeypilot
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Not sure what happened this morning. It took for ever to load and then appeared 4 times! Hopefully sorted now...

 

I think I've cracked it!
 The struts stayed put and I got the centre wing adjusted and glued in position using PlasticWeld and a small brush. After leaving it for an hour or so I used the same small brush to add some thin CA to the joints. Another hour or so and I have now added some PPP to the wings to fill the rest of the gaps. That will be carefully cleaned up when it's dried and then touched up as needed.

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  :yahoo:

Before I remove it from the jig I'll add the centre wing drag wires and the landing wires, just to give it a little more rigidity.

Ian

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Well done Ian :thumbsup2: 

 

That's a very tricky procedure, it's easy to forget how tiny this model is and the very limited space you have to adjust everything.

 

Fingers can feel huge when dealing with tiny struts and wing alignment!

 

Great problem solving and the model looks superb  :)

Best regards

TonyT

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Thanks Martian, and even more so after today, even though I do say so myself!

 

 I've had another good day on the Triplane today, touching up where needed, and then working on the rigging.

I left it in the jig for most of it as there is virtually no strength to the top wing attachment and it would be very easy to pull it out of alignment with the rigging. The first job was to attach the centre wing drag wires and cabane rigging wires to the fuselage.

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 These were attached as usual by dipping the ends of the lines into thick CA and then slipping them into the predrilled holes. Once dry, they could be tensioned, the ends being held in place by small clothes pegs, and thin CA was carefully applied to the underside of the holes with a sharpened toothpick. My camera seems to have eaten that pic, too....

Once those had set, I repeated the process for the landing wires...

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and from underneath

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 To do the flying wires I had to remove it from the jig. The same procedure though....

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and it looks as though my measuring for the holes in the centre wing was pretty much spot on!

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 I was careful not to drill the wing straight through, perpendicular, but estimated the slope of the wires from the plans and drilled at the appropriate angle so the wires continued without a bend. It seems to have worked as both sets of landing and flying wires form a straight line with no kink through the centre wing.

Thanks for looking in!

Ian

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Quite seriously lovely in a fabulous kind of way Ian.

 

Even in this raw-rigged state you already get a sense of how appealing the finished result is going to be.

 

Splendid stuff!

Tony

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The rigging not only looks great but the method you are using will add no end of strength to the model.

 

Martian

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Haven't been paying much attention of late but , on catching up, am gob-smacked at the wonderful job you have done on this one. That jig looks both very fiddly and very useful at the same time. I had not realised what a nightmare those middle wings are.  Very impressive work.

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2 hours ago, limeypilot said:

 I was careful not to drill the wing straight through, perpendicular, but estimated the slope of the wires from the plans and drilled at the appropriate angle so the wires continued without a bend. It seems to have worked as both sets of landing and flying wires form a straight line with no kink through the centre wing.

 

excellent geometry skills at work there Ian.  Very impressive

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