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Sikorsky S-16 & Spad S.A-4


p-26luvr

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I painted the bottom of the upper wing last night, so will be assembling the S16 nin a couple of days, & starting in on the rigging of it.

I also did some work on the conversion of a Monogram F11C-2 to a BFC-2, by adding the resin cockpit parts. They will get painted later today. Carl T :thumbsup::speak_cool:

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Tonight I have assembled the upper wing to the rest of the model, as the next pictures show. I use the Aerclub wing assembly jig often, but this is the smallest model I have used it with. You will notice my 6 inch steel ruler.

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The model is now ready to rig & decal. If you have any questions please feel free to ask them. Carl T :thumbsup::speak_cool:

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Well I finally have the rigging fully done on the Sikorski S-16. With all of the ancillary parts of rigging it took about 5 hours. I will take pictures later & post them. Right now I need a break before my eyes start to cross. Carl T :thumbsup::speak_cool:

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Thanks Carl,

I've started a thread on WW1 for the Spad and will post any further problems. To date, it's mainly part removal and quite honestly it doesn't look to be a bad little kit otherwise. The cabane strut / undercarriage arrangement remind me of your P 6E and the Goshawk.

I found a build review of the S16 and downloaded it. Lots of talk about wrong types of wings if I remember right. Think I'll stick to OOB and claim field repairs. And there's an excellent book by Vadim Mikheyev I got from Amazon which I think you have already. Good luck with the rest of the builds.

Cheers, Steve

Steve I read some of those review/build articles as well. In looking at the book which I showed the cover of there is a picture of an S-16 number 155 or 156 that looks very much like the model as coming out of the box. Please watch my next few posts as I will be decsribing how I went about rigging the model. It might save you a headache or two when the time comes for that. Carl T :thumbsup::speak_cool:

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Here are 5 pictures of the Sikorski S-16 fully rigged. I used rather long lengths of thead to accomplish several line at once.

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This is the bottom view. I started a long line of thread at, for instance, The rear landig gear strut, fed it up through the wedge /hole opposite, thereby forming the first side of the X in the rear of the L/G. I then led the thread through the hole by the rear interplane strut & up to the hole by the front interplane strut. I know that this sounds difficult, but it saved having to cut & glue several short lengths of thead.

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This picture shows the landing gear area with all of its complicated rigging. The small triangular wedges were never on the real plane. They are my solution for rigging all of these threads on a very fragile landing gear assembly.

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The next post will have the last 2 pictures. Carl T :thumbsup::speak_cool:

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This is the cabane srut area. Here I glued a thread at the bottom of one of the front struts led it up through the appropriate hole, fed it into an adjoining hole & down to the rear cabane strut on that side, thereby forming part of 2 Xs, one front & one side.

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This picture shows the interplane X wires that were formed earlier. All of this rigging stiffens up the wing structure quite a bit. The rigging itself was not too difficult, But it was very time consuming. It took about 5 hours to do. If you have any questions feel free to ask them. Carl T :thumbsup::speak_cool:

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I have finished the Sikorski S-16. I am posting 5 pictures of the finished model. 2 here & 3 in the ready for inspection section. The wing decals are Americal-Gryphon WW1 Russian markings, not the kit ones. Carl T :thumbsup::speak_cool:

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I hope you like the model & find it as interesting as I have while building it. CT

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ihave finally gotten back to working on the Spad SA-4. Yesterday Ifinished with the cockpit for the pilot, & did the scratchbuilding in the gunners compartment. I will be doing the outer painting over the next few days. Carl T :thumbsup::speak_cool:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was over to my local hobby shop a couple of days ago & I took the Sikorski over to show it off. Not once but twice it was dropped about 4 feet onto the floor. When I got home I took this picture. Quite naturally I expected more damage than there was. It has since been repaired. As you can see the rear interplane strut is missing, which I presume is still on the store floor, & the aileron strut was loose on the bottom. AND YET non of the rigging was broken or loosened up. I was quite surprised to say the least. Carl T :thumbsup::speak_cool:

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What thread are you using for rigging? In the photographs it looks like it has some kind of texture, somewhat like some decorative threads I've seen. Do you use elasticated threads?

This is a non elastized nylon core thread that I buy in a fabric store. The core has a very thin coating of silver, which comes off if you pull too tightly while keeping it taught. I have settled on using it after years of rather hard times with rigging models with a wide variety of other materials. Since starting to use it I have rigged over a dozen models in just the last year & have plans to do many more including a Roden Felixstowe F2A WW1 flying boat.

You can see a picture of the spool I have been using on my F4B-4, / P12E thread build at the top of page 3. In my opinion there must be enough thread to do dozens of models on that one spool. It cost less than $4.00 if I remember correctly. Carl T :thumbsup::speak_cool:

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This is a non elastized nylon core thread that I buy in a fabric store. The core has a very thin coating of silver, which comes off if you pull too tightly while keeping it taught. I have settled on using it after years of rather hard times with rigging models with a wide variety of other materials. Since starting to use it I have rigged over a dozen models in just the last year & have plans to do many more including a Roden Felixstowe F2A WW1 flying boat.

You can see a picture of the spool I have been using on my F4B-4, / P12E thread build at the top of page 3. In my opinion there must be enough thread to do dozens of models on that one spool. It cost less than $4.00 if I remember correctly. Carl T :thumbsup::speak_cool:

Could I ask how well this material agrees with superglue? I tend to use 'invisible' thread or lycra line for rigging which doesn't like cyanoacrylate at all!

Will

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Could I ask how well this material agrees with superglue? I tend to use 'invisible' thread or lycra line for rigging which doesn't like cyanoacrylate at all!

Will

Will, All I use with this thread is a slow drying super glue. One that has a 5 to 15 second drying time generally, but now and then I use one with a 10 to 25 second drying time. The slower drying time gives me time to pull the line taught. Particularly if I am rigging a double line together. The only trouble I have with this thread is that one line on 1 or 2 models does not dry as fast as all of the others. I have no idea why this happens, but have learned to expect & tolerate it. One of my other threads on this site shows how I use it. As far as I am concerned this is the only thread I will use for rigging my biplane models from now on. PERIOD Carl T :thumbsup::speak_cool:
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Hi Carl,

The S 16 is great and when I eventually get around to doing mine there'll be constant references to this thread. Your rigging puts mine to shame. I rarely feel the urge to add all the intricacies among the cabane struts and under carriage. But there have been a couple of tips recently that look to make the task a little easier so you never know for the future if I can overcome my natural tendency to laziness. As for rigging material I use invisible thread which came from Aeroclub. I'm told it is the same stuff that can be bought from a haberdashers. After fixing one end with CA, the other is pulled through the opposite hole and more CA is applied with the end of a cocktail stick, basically filling the hole. Twenty or thirty seconds later and the glue has set enough to let go and the wire remains tight. Occasionally, for some unknown reason, the glue doesn't bite but this is comparatively rare. Repeating the procedure has always got a result. The CA is Loctite Precision superglue although others have been used with similar results. Hope this helps.

Regards,

Steve.

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I have had to look to find the information about the thread that I use for rigging. It is by Coats & Clark. Metallic. Art D79 Ko 802. There are 600 yards on the spool. It is 60% nylon core & 40% coated polyester. It cost $9.99 U S dollars. You should be able to buy it wherever you buy needles & thread.

For an idea of how strong it is. My British SBC-4 where it was destroyed by my cat. Not one of the rigging thraeds broke or came loose from it's connection. The upper wing is still attached to the rest of the model solidly.

I hope that this helps. Carl T :thumbsup::speak_cool:

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