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K21 R21, I fly this one sometimes


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I joined my university gliding club last year, starting gliding in October. We fly at Cranwell Gliding Club (an RAFGSA club) on RAF Cranwell's North airfield. The university owns a Grob 103A Twin II Acro (identical to the Viking T1 used by the Air Cadets) and a Grob 102 Astir CS77. Cranwell's fleet consists of two K21s, a Duo Discus, a regular Discus, an LS8-18, an Astir CS modded with winglets and the Falke 25 motor glider/tug. 

 

I recently went solo in the university Acro, NU2, and then on my second solo flight on an incredible day the next week got to 7700ft (silver height claim!) in one of Cranwell's K21s, R18. With my favourite of the twin seaters, NU2, taken to pieces for its annual at the moment I'm stuck with K21s for a while. They're nice, but nowhere near as comfy as the Acro even if they do handle much better. I'm hoping to add R21, the other K21, to the list of gliders I've gone solo in before I convert onto our Astir.

That brings me to a recent model purchase and the subject of this thread, a 1/32 Revell K21.

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One of the schemes is our very own R21! Just before it was at Cranwell.... the depicted scheme shows it at it was at Halton and before it gained a G reg (G-CJKJ for R21). I think by printing some more decals, adding to the ones already in the kit, I can represent R21 as she is today at Cranwell. 

This is her bank in the hangar after I flew her at the end of today's flying. No solo flights today, developed some bad habits that need to be sorted before I go back up on my own again. Couple more flights and all should hopefully be well and good.

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And without the canopy cover on a few weeks ago. The main decal issues with doing this scheme will be the marking below the canopy, which is in the kit in three other colours but not the one I need. My plan is scan the relevant decals, edit the colour, print new ones. The G reg shouldn't be an issue if I can find the right font. For the roundels, I just need to measure them next time I'm at Cranwell to check the sizes. 

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One reasonably substantial mod will be required though. Neither of the Cranwell K21s have a fairing around the main wheel. Our Acro is the same, no main wheel fairing. It's the one that burned at Laarbruch after dried grass caught in the fairing caught fire due to a binding wheel break (not the one that burned more recently at Nene Valley for similar reasons that there are photos of), so given the history I think we are better without these fairings! Back to the K21, the kit doesn't have an option for this so I'll have to cut it off and fabricate some new details. Thankfully I have practically unlimited access to the real thing and have already extensively photographed both R21 and NU2.

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Build should start at soon at the kit arrives. Hopefully I can get hold of a heritage aviation Acro or KP Astir CS77 as well...

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The kit has arrived! Let the building begin. 

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Now having a closer look at the decals, it appears that there would be considerably more work involved than I thought to accurately represent R21/G-CJKJ in her current scheme. I therefore am thinking I might just do the Team Condor scheme as per the kit.

If I want to do the current scheme, I'd need to get a chance to take a lot of measurements of R21's markings and a lot more pictures. I might as well do a bit more work and do Cranwell's other K21, R18, shown here:

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This one also has no wheel fairing so either way I need to get to work on removing that. 

 

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OK so work is beginning on this now. 

The first thing I want to deal with are the small stowage compartments in the wings. Usually R21 has a canopy cover stowed in one and the opposite one houses the batteries. There is a blue canopy cover and an off white one for R21, I'm modelling her with an off white one stowed.

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There are gaps in the fuselage side but the wings root is just flat. I cut rough holes to represent these. With that done, the wings were assembled.

 

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The first conversion work to build R21 specifically begins. I've tried to scratch build something resembling the parts around the wheel by eye. It's not perfect but it will do. Now to figure out how to mount it...

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On 28/08/2022 at 23:54, Adam Poultney said:

 

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My idea is basically to sand off the bottom of the current fairing up to the bolts, which are moulded on the kit. I'll then cut some bits of plastic card to shape and find a way to mount the wheel assembly securely to that, i will then attach these to the remaining part of the wheel fairing. It will be wider than its supposed to be, but the shape of this kit looks not 100% accurate in other places anyway. 

 

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Wow, very cool!  I'll be following this build.  As an Air Cadet in the 1990's I missed out on flying the Vikings, although a lad from our squadron did his BGT in them and reckoned they were the best flying he ever had.  I did get to fly the Grob Vigilant a lot though (hmmm, there's a thoughT; I must check and see if there are models of those available).

 

It's great that you have such easy access to the aircraft in order to increase the accuracy of your build.  I can't wait to see how this beauty turns out.

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Starting work on the cockpit. Step one is to install the instructor's pedals and pedal adjustor (parts 2, 3 and 4). The ring you hold to adjust the pedals would be installed sideways if you follow the instructions....

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Adam,

Firstly Congratulations  on joining the Gliding club from your university!

:yahoo:

You are in a good  position to get the detailing just right with flying one of these and able to get close to it for measurements  etc...

:thumbsup:

Pretty Awesome  start and look forward to seeing more.Good work so far Adam.

:clap2:

 

Keep it going.

HOUSTON

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6 hours ago, HOUSTON said:

Adam,

Firstly Congratulations  on joining the Gliding club from your university!

:yahoo:

You are in a good  position to get the detailing just right with flying one of these and able to get close to it for measurements  etc...

:thumbsup:

Pretty Awesome  start and look forward to seeing more.Good work so far Adam.

:clap2:

 

Keep it going.

HOUSTON

I thought I had all the reference material I needed, turns out I've missed a few bits... oh well, i can just go get more photos of the very aircraft I'm modelling next weekend

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Starting on the cockpit, the sides have been painted in a dark grey and the structure around the seats a lighter, slightly blue tinted grey. The seats themselves are padded with blue fabric on R21, so these were painted blue. In the nose I applied a mix of paint roughly the colour of the bare fibreglass. 

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The small silver bit at on the framing between the front and back cockpit is a linkage which prevents the front canopy from being locked if the rear canopy is unlocked. It's a good safety feature, but importantly cannot be relied on instead of physically checking both canopies. The original linkages were nylon and there are cases of them wearing to the point where the front canopy can be locked with the rear unlocked. Many, including both K21s at Cranwell, have metal linkages instead which are less prone to wear, but still not a substitute for proper checks. 

 

And all of a sudden, finished cockpit installed

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The various controls are painted appropriately.

Dark blue = airbrakes

Yellow = cable release

Red = canopy release/jettison

Green = trim

Control column = black

 

The black bit next to the mic is the air vent. Not the best in a K21 in my experience, the Acro's is better. I usually end up opening the DV panel instead. 

 

I missed that the radio transmit button on the control column is red on R21, I painted it in silver. This was corrected as soon as I noticed. 

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A line of dark paint was added to represent the gap present on R21 for a hand rudder to be fitted for disabled student glider pilots, I've seen a few K21s with this modification. Doesn't get much use at Cranwell but there is one at Portmoak which gets a lot of use. 

https://flic.kr/p/2nJLgHR

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https://flic.kr/p/2nJLgGJ

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I changed the position of the radio mic as it was different in the kit to R21

Edited by Adam Poultney
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  • 1 month later...

Well it's been a while. And a lot has happened. 

With the fuselage put together and the bit around whew the wheel finished (sorry i forgot to get photos of the rest of this), canopies were masked and the whole thing was sprayed white. I demasked the canopies early so I could fix any issues

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And then I went back to uni. Intending to take this with me, I'd left the wings unglued so just as with the real thing it could be taken apart for transport. The difference here is I glued on the tail. 

Derigged and packed in its trailer.... errr box

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And out of the trailer...

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... oh wait that's a real one! A Grob Twin II Acro rather than a K21 though. 

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We took this to the uni freshers fair and it drew a fair bit of attention.

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The front of this makes for a comfy seat while trying to advertise gliding

 

And then back to Cranwell, where the real R21 is, but I was flying our Grob. Five flights on this trip, one was the first post annual test flight where I sat in the back to compare instruments.

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Next some check flights in which the instructor managed to actually get the Acro to spin. I couldn't manage it, it's supposed to be quite difficult with two people in, but he was satisfied with my recovery from the resulting spiral dive.

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Went for a second check flight (SLF which I was very pleased with my handling of), a solo after that and then another instructor in the back for a hangar landing (basically just landing right at the end of the airfield to avoid towing the glider so far).

 

At the end of the day I decided to remove and replace the faded weak link sticker. It's a brown link, we also add a number at Cranwell (1=black, 2=brown, 3=red,  4=blue) to avoid mistakes where the colour of a link isn't clear, so a brown number 2 link. We had a black link put on because the brown sticker was almost black, which of course I caught as the person launching the glider should show the link after putting it on, it's not the first time a similar mistake has happened so I always expect it when flying NU2 (K21s use black links which is where the confusion may come from). Anyway, a bit of 1:1 scale modelling followed once it was back in the hangar at the end of the day. 

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With the very yellow lights in the hangar it doesn't look particularly brown but it is much better in good light. 

 

 

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And I think that's done, save for a final gloss varnish to seal in the decals. Nice and clean. I'd like to add details like wing tape but even in 1/32 I don't think it's practical, and I want to be able to take this model apart for transport. 

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Yes I'm aware one roundel is too low, yes I fixed it after the photos. 

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The result on the main wheel isn't bad at all in my opinion. Not perfect by any means but still not bad. I noticed the kit is missing the belly hook for winch launching though...

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This bit was made from guitar wire. Not sure what it does, it's not the pitot which is in the nose on a K21. There seem to be two styles on K21; R18, Cranwell's other K21 has the other style which is what is included in the kit. 

 

More photos to follow on RFI. And maybe I'll take mini R21 to meet the real R21 this weekend...

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Nice one/. I see you have managed to get a kit. Well done. I am in process of completing my kit. Juts need to pass relevant marking details to my club buddy who is going to do the appropriate decals for the one I have flown, G-GHLP.

 

How did you get on with fixing the front canopy to the IP housing? I tried very hard not to get glue on and used PVA but when i went to open it, it came away! I am thinking I will just seal the cockpit canopies shut as that's how they are all the time on the ground except when about to be flown.

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20 hours ago, Winded Penguin said:

You've done a lovely job on an interesting kit, and clearly made the most of the opportunity that having unlimited access to the real thing brings 👍

 

 

 

Certainly is very useful! Especially given that the cockpit is almost always slightly different in any two gliders of the same type

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