TOPIC: New Models for 2020

Hi guys,
we all seem to have a lot of spare time on our hands, so what better place to 'self isolate' than in our workshops at the building board?
Howard is keeping us up to date about his OD F-86 Sabre, and Terry is being very innovative with 3-D printing. So, what are you other guys building? If you yourself don't want to post on the forum, you can always send me an email with photos, etc, and I'll do the honours.
Which is what Simon Milan has done. Simon has built a rather nicely finished (and I think, unique, B-58 Hustler:



Simon writes:
"Herewith a picture of my 11” span B-58 Hustler. I haven’t test flown it yet as I’m waiting for a reasonably warm calm evening. I’m lucky to have farmer’s field about 15 mins walk from where I live, large enough to test-fly L2 powered models - particularly if they fly in circles. A very suitable way of spending my daily exercise allowance! The farmer has just moved his sheep, so it’s very pitted and close-cropped, with none of the obligatory “long grass” for test gliding etc. I’d hate to wreck it on its first outing".

I commented: "I commented, "The B-58 is an interesting subject, though the pods look distinctly vulnerable. Are the elevons movable for trimming? My F-106 (a similar planform) flew splendidly, needing only a little 'up'. where's the motor, or will there be four L-1's?"
To which Simon replied:
"The elevons and rudder are moveable The more I think about it, the more I think I should have made the pods slide on/knock off rather than gluing them in place. I expect to use a fair amount of cyano once flight testing starts! There is a single Rapier housing under the leading edge of the wing. Lighting four Rapiers simultaneously would be an interesting exercise!"


Quite so!
Daniel Rackstraw has also been extra busy. First up is his Richard Crossley Natter, designed for L-1:





This is an interesting and tricky model, and I'll be very interested to see how it copes with the new TSP L-1 motors.

That's all for now ... more later

Daniel has also completed this very nice Miles M 52:

and started something truly 'vintage:







The colour is authentic, and using coloured tissue keeps the weight down, so it should fly very well.
If this is 'Working from home' I'm all for it!
Daniel then moved on to something a bit more modern, the Aerographics English Electric Lightning:





I observed to Daniel, based on examples of this model I've seen on the flying field: "The EE Lightning needs an L-2HP, 275-300 mN or so. Our current small stock of Rapier L-2 are about 150 mN. Piotr's proposed L-3 is, he says, 275 mN, but his measurement technique, OK for his high power ballistic type models, is inaccurate at this power. I do hope to test them in due course".

Daniel replied: "Yes the Lightning is a bit of a bus, we shall see how she performs, may need a Klima rocket!

Daniel then started on an even trickier subject, the Ohka Kamikaze rocket plane from WW II! Daniel commented that the build had gone okay, and he had made his first moulded canopy, which was a steep learning curve!



Daniel obviously likes difficult subjects. Steve Bage, designer of the Ohka, launched the prototype by catapult, and even he, I think, didn't get a decent flight out of it. Or if he did I never saw it in our sessions together. I did see it plough into the ground on more than one occasion, though , which Steve thought was entirely, "true to scale".

More later ....

I asked Piotr, our Polish colleague who manufactures the TSP motors, if there was any Polish jet he fancied a model of. This is the one he fancied:



The TSK-11 Iskra ('Spark') is a lovely indigenous trainer. There are a number of colourful versions - variety of colour schemes,- out there, so, using my rudimentary skills in 'Paint Sop Pro', I put together this template:



I have a lot of nice balsa wood (thank you 'Balsa Cabin' and Hermes) so I have no excuse not to make a prototype soon, sized for L-2 (if I can get my A3 printer to do what I want it to do, and not what it thinks I should be doing!). If anyone else would like a template (or a set of parts for 'beta testing)' please let me know.

Another very nice, and shapely, trainer used by the Polish Airforce is the Aermacchi M-346:



This modern jet trainer impressed me immensely at Fairford in 2018.

I've not yet had much luck finding an usable image on the Internet to work from. This is the best so far:



Which is very 'low-res'.
Help, please!

However, there is a much more colourful Russian version (the 'Yak 130') out there, and this is as far as I've got before ennui overcame me (think exhaustion from sorting out, over two-three weeks, a series of tricky computer-printer problems )



I shall post more later ....

Thanks Roger, this is fun seeing all these lovely models on the boil, it is quite inspiring, let's see more guys. I mean what else have we got to do, as we can't go flying perhaps we should start stripping wallpaper????? No thanks, stay safe all of you.

The promise of a steady and secure supply of motors has inspired folk to retrieve their jet models from storage. Bob Pickenell, long time 'Jetexinista' sent me the following:







Bob writes:
"The all-sheet model is called the Duo monoplane, a kit by Dare design, USA. I won the kit in a raffle, would you believe. It flies quite well but needs a little more urge than you would expect looking at it.
The other two are both vintage Skyleada kits. The Comet 1 obviously needs a goodly amount of propulsive encouragement and I have added a non standard hook to use a bungee to set things in motion. When it's in the mood and the motor is up to it the whole staggers round in a quite realistic manner at about head height.
The JetProvost was a bit of a disappointment and I got through a number of motors trying to sort it out. It's still on the back burner awaiting inspiration, subsequent to these pictures I modified the tail assembly to something a little more correct, scale wise, and took the opportunity to tweak the tail incidence. Hopefully this may help"

The Comet, quite a large model originally for Jetex 100, will be perfect one of Piotr's new TSP L-3 motors. The Jet Provost, a late Skyleada kits is not one of their better designs, and Bob is not the only person I've heard of who has problems with it. The plan doesn't look quite "right" to me, but I can't put my finger on it. Any ideas?



What else have jet modellers got out there they are preparing for happier times when we can meet together?

I do like that Comet.
Before I left the UK in 2005 I worked on the flight simulator for the Comet's distant grandchild the Nimrod MRA4. I did have a go at making, out of yellow insulating foam, a flying model of a Nimrod, for Rapier power. But it was about as successful as the fullsize MRA4. I ended up contributing it as a leaving gift to someone escaping from the project. The model was 'wallpapered' with photo copies of a particularly persistent problem report, to serve as a humorous reminder, and that made it even less aerodynamic.