Super Detailing S.E.5 Guillow's model

[special ed]

An excellent build.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Mr. Special Ed,
Thank you! More to come. Just had many personal obligations to be honored.

 

[SANCER]

Hola mi estimado Skye, it has been a little over a week and what you have managed to keep moving forward until now, is an amazing job.
As you mentioned in your post # 185, sometimes "Less is More" and good attention to those details, make a beautiful work as a whole. And what you are getting goes directly in that direction.

This is a workbench in this thread, that worth reviewing more than once!

Saludos y muchas felicidades por tu ave.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Muchas gracias Senior Sancer. I hope to resume the build thread soon on the S.E.5 dealing with the wings and the rest of the airframe. I've been busy cleaning out my work area. The groundskeeper of our apartment complex has been very generous in allowing me to build models in his garden shed as our apartment is too small for modeling.

The gardner has asked me to clean out my work area due to impending inspection of the complex. Because us modelers tend to "spread out" as our build progresses, I'm sure my scraps of balsa, tools, bits of paper, model plans, left over frames and more have been slowly taking over his tool shed. So, in honor of his request, and in order to continue modeling, I must clean the areas.

I will resume shortly. Thank you very much for your marvelous compliment and attention to detail. It's greatly appreciated.

Gary

 

[SANCER]

It's a pleasure to see your work, Gary, and I hope that that work area will be left clean (it's very difficult to reduce the living space to work... and also keep it clean) and ready to continue doing your magic.

We all thank the groundskeeper for allowing us to enjoy your work in his shed.

Saludos

 

[Skyediamonds]

Thank you very much Sancer. With your permission, I shall let him know you & many other members are happy with his generosity. He's really a nice man & enjoys helping people.

Thank you !

Gary

 

[Crimea_River]

... Because us modelers tend to "spread out" as our build progresses, I'm sure my scraps of balsa, tools, bits of paper, model plans, left over frames and more have been slowly taking over his tool shed.......

Not sure what you mean there Gary. My work area is always neat and tidy.......

NOT!

 

[Skyediamonds]

Crimea,
Good evening. Glad you said that. Only way to keep the modeling area clean & tidy is to stare at an unopened kit. Whoa! I just looked at my response to Crimea and forgot to hit the "Post reply" button... Whew!

 

[Skyediamonds]

Good evening gentlemen and fellow members:

I'll jump right into the topic which I believe will be the wings and tail feathers. We've covered so much the past months with the super detailing of both Vickers and Lewis machine guns, the fuselage and all of its paneling, and of course, the cockpit interior with the customized instruments. Whoa.... Lots of coverage for this model.

With all that (now) behind us for the time being, we'll focus on the wings and tail surfaces. To start, Guillow's plans call for the top wing to be in one piece and of course the lower wings in two separate pieces.

As in previous posts, it all starts (again) with research and documentation. Without risking copyright infringements, everyone knows that there are several sites which will show the wings in detail and along with the wings, the unique triangular inspection windows that allows the pilot and mechanics to view the pulley system to the ailerons (same with the horizontal stab and the elevators). Finally, the documentation also shows the equally unique static rigging to the biplane with extra lines drawn up from the fuselage/lower wing to about midway to the undersides of the top wings. I'll start by posting some of the drawings of the static rigging along with some photos of the details pertaining to the rigging.

 

[Skyediamonds]

I realize this might be repetitious in posting some of the research prior to showing my approach to the builds, but it really emphasizes how this method works -at least for me-. I also will reveal some of the trials and mistakes made during the process -all on my practice proof-of-concepts before committing to the model. As one of our esteemed members to succinctly put it: " .... It separates 'modeling' from simply assembling pieces together." Not exactly those words but close enough to deliver the message. I truly believe that. Sooo, without further ado, I'll post " ...jes' another few of those picture thangys" and we'll go from there. These drawings and plans show the wing structures and how they differentiate from other biplanes.

Disclosure: I'm probably going to occasionally refer to some of these drawings to help highlight my goals to achieve a particular detailing or to help achieve the replication of the full sized article in modeling form.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Let's start with the wings. Guillow's plans call for the top wing to be in one piece and the lower wings to be in two separate pieces to fit into the lower portion of the fuselage. The plans also call for minimal amount of wood to help keep the model as light as possible for rubber band powered flight.

Scale-wise, its "adequate" in terms of replicating the S.E.5's unique squared off wings and acute angles off of the center section. However, it doesn't come close to the number of ribs or the riblets that are used on the full sized plane. Add to that, is the unique mismatch of patterns of ribs off of the ailerons and wings and we've got well, the S.E.5 in all its glory.

 

[Skyediamonds]

I decided right off the bat to cut up almost double the number of ribs needed for both upper and lower wings as well as cutting up riblets for the leading edge. The ribs and riblets were cut as closely to each other as possible without the benefit of laser. From there, they were bunched together about five or six at a time and sanded down to match their profiles perfectly as well as sanding them smooth. It was a bit of a challenge to replicate the rib pattern for the ailerons as there was no matching corresponding rib.

*Note, looking carefully, you can easily see that many of the ribs do not match the outlines of the model plans and for good reason. I was adding almost double the number of ribs and had to "make room" for them as well as making sure that they were also lined up correctly as the real plane. I kept constantly referring back to the scale drawings as reference.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Matching the ribs of the ailerons to the drawings and not the model plans........

Just couldn't resist a bit of artistic license and photograph a partial frame against a dark background. Nice, eh?

 

[Skyediamonds]

Looking closely at the 3 laminated ribs located just to the immediate right of the aileron, you might wish to ask "Why?" It has nothing to do with the wing struts as evidenced by the doublerfd Glad you asked. This is called "planning ahead" or so the theory goes. The laminated woods will be playing an important role in rigging. From what I could see from various sources of both drawings and photos, the rigging is not exactly right at where the wing struts enter the wings (in this case, the lower wing), but rather a small distance away. The laminated ribs will give me both the needed strength to handle the poking of needles to make openings for the "turnbuckles" or clevis ends as well as the tensile strength needed when I pull the rigging tight. Not really that tight mind you, but I'll be fiddling around and possible poking more than one hole in effort to get as close to scale representation as possible.

I also added some extra block of small bits of balsa to help match the lower wing's trailing edge at the join to the fuselage. This picture was posed on purpose to show the b+w photo in the background of the full sized airplane and the model wing. Looking again, I slightly altered the outlines of this area to more closely match the ones of the S.E.5. Later on, everything will be sanded smooth.

 

[Crimea_River]

Good update Skye.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Thank you Crimea. Good to hear from you. That table was still messy at the time of those postings.

 

[Skyediamonds]

The center section of the top wing was sheeted with 1/16th balsa and sanded smooth along with the rest of the wing. Looking at the first picture, you can see one of the two sets of doubled wing ribs where the center section and the outer panels would meet. I cut the wing panels loose between these two ribs, so that each end would have its own rib.

The end result, after covering and detailing the underside, the center section would allow me to protect the Aldis gun sight.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Now comes a bit of fun. I knew I was going to add the triangular inspection panels on the wings and stab. They will also permit the viewing of the pulley system. For this detail, I turned to another modeling source for boats, clipper ships. For boat enthusiasts, its a wonderful site and they have brochures for those interested in modeling in this field. They also have a catalog of various small bits and pieces that can be used here. The name of this modeling company is called "BlueJacket." The letters "B" and "J" are both capitalized. I encourage one and all to obtain their catalogue. They also offer completed models (for an extra substantial fee, of course). Their catalogue has a range of modeling kits of various boats ranges from small skifts to clipper ships, to paddle wheel boats, to cabin cruisers and private barrel backs and more. Something for everyone from beginners to advanced.

One of their pieces within their catalog is called "sheave" and is a small wheel with grooves along the edges. They come in a variety of sizes and they fit perfectly for my needs.

You can see they also offer turnbuckles, but they are much too large for this model. Still, something to consider in future projects.

 

[Skyediamonds]

I decided to use one of the drawings as my guide in fabricating the pulley system. The next picture shows me fabricating small brackets that will be used to hold the pulley wheel in place. You can see the pulley wheel with the needle through it as a reference in scale for this picture.

The third picture shows me using an X-Acto blade to cut out a slot for the brackets holding the pulley wheel (sheave).

 

[Skyediamonds]

The next sequence of photos my assembly of the pulley/bracket system. The third picture shows the bracket being reinforced with a small balsa gusset for added strength. This is the top wing and therefore, this reinforcement will not be seen from the underside inspection window.

The last picture shows the pulley system as it will be seen through the inspection window.