Started an experiment tonite....

[Sabre F-86]

Finally bought some batteries for the camera, but its raining like crazy out side so these are by indoor lighting. Kinda orangy but still not bad. (one came with flash so its pretty stark)

 

Anyway, here we go. I finally reached a successful conclusion on the beaching gear puzzle, deciding on 1 3/8 diameter, as judged by the various photos of the gear and how the aircraft sat while on the gear. I should have clearance for the main wing struts, and the hull sits pretty much the right high above the ground on the wheels. I now have to finish the wheel hub shafting, and then add the back face and planking around the wheel perimeter.

 

 

There are big round plates and bolts in those 4 holes, they keep the wheel sides together. Detail to be added later.

 

Heres a shot of the wing in position and the hull sitting on its wheels. Next clear day I'll get some more shots of it sitting on cement, by then I should have the tail trestle built as well.

 

 

As mentioned earlier I've been working on a cockpit module to drop in place. A bit of progress there too. The seats are in, still need the leather edging. The center pedestal is installed as is the throttle and mixture quadrant. The main panel is ready for the two pilots panels to be installed. These are very simple, I figured only 4 gauges, to give the impression of early aviation panels. Huge guages, with the rims done from copper wire, positioned with future and then painted black. I'll put some gauge decals in later. The controls for the throttle are just big levers with knobs onthem. I have a couple of strip gauges and switches to install in the center panel, under the hood.

 

All of this is bodge work, I only have one photo of an early Wal panel and I'm sorta maybe following the general pattern. I'm discounting the panel shot of the Brazilian museum bird as I believe it to be a replica not an original. The panel especially is suspect and until I find more early photos I'm going with the one shot I have.

 

 

Heres a shot of the module dropped in place, with the milliput seat cushions. I've since added a torque tube going across the cockpit floor just forward of the seats. The control arm and wheel will be mounted on that once I get them built and the rudder pedals will be somewhere forward of that.

 

 

 

Heres the old rudder, a rework attempt on the original. It warped badly and was scrapped.

 

 

Heres the new rudder in position on the fin, and the stabilizers with gobs of filler. Next time I build one like this I'll be sure to put ribs inside, the surfaces sank as the glue dried on the spar and trailing edge spar. So filler it is.

 

 

I sawed off the old wing tips, too modern in appearance with the flat upper surface and the wash out on the underside. They reminded me of the Cessna 150 I used to fly. The new tips will be sloped top and bottom to the centerline plate which is mounted equidistant from top and bottom surfaces. The leading edge will be sculpted from bondo, and the remainder sheeted over. You can see the preliminary aileron at the back edge.

 

 

As I said I sawed the engine pod in half lengthwise to thin it down. I removed just about a 1/4 inch, and heres the new pod. Very much thinner, but the V-12 cylindars will project a bit out from the sides, (boxed in with a covering) and the exhaust piping will come down and back from those projections. Again this is imagineering at its finest. There are so many different engine configurations visible that I just decided to make due with a general look. Not accurate at all if compared to photos but quite convincing in the end.

 

 

 

The beast continues to grow in its lair, more details to come

 

 

Sabre

[Sabre F-86]

I havent been able to work on this puppy for a fair long time. Its boating season, so my last few weeks have been devoted to getting Espie ready for water. I've also sold my townhouse and will be moving back into an apartment shortly so for the next couple of months I won't be doing anything on the Wal. But I will be setting up shop as soon as possible to get back to it.

 

 

Sabre

[Sabre F-86]

Hi, its me back from the wilderness.

 

The move was a trip to hell, unpacking was somewhere the other side of hell and packing 2bdrms and a garage full of junk into a 1 bdrm apartment was one of the stupidest things I've ever done. Anyway, there is a glimmer of order in the chaos. My work desk is now set up in the dining room, the lighting is set up again, and the Wal box is sitting next to it.

 

Espina is coming out of the water tomorrow and it looks like she may be sold. Once shes covered over for winter I only need to rewire the electrical system for the new owner and I'm done with her. Time then to start working on Sabre Dance, the 38 footer I intend to retire on.

 

keep the faith, I'll be back at it shortly. I doubt I'll get her done for the Trip to Russville but I work at my own pace anyway these days n Russ'll understand.

 

 

Sabre

[Sabre F-86]

Well, there is finally some room in this place. The box full of Wal parts has been sitting by my desk since last October, but I forgot where I packed the fuselage. Anyway all the parts are now in one place, and I'm about to start working on her again. Been thinking on it over the winter, and while the wing is a nice bit of work, I'm still not happy with it because of the aspect ratio being so off. That wing should have a much deeper chord, so I'm looking into how I can change that without building a new wing. Of course that may end up changing the engine pod too, but it's a thought. Time to dig out Luigi and Saburo and get the cockpit going again.

 

Pics as and when.

 

Sabre

[LSP_Kevin]

Ah, welcome back mate! Looking forward to your next move.

 

Kev

[Hubert Boillot]

Hey Sabre, good to see you all settled and ready to restart this project ! Look forward to next installments !

 

Hubert

[Shawn M]

nice to see some progress again!

[Sabre F-86]

Got the larger rudder made up and mounted. Needs to be filled a bit, too much tenax. I'm going to try and put aluminum tape or foil on the rudder. I still have the smaller rudder, so it will be used as a trial. At the moment I'm trying to figure out how to make up the tail dolly that is used to steer the plane on the ground when its being pushed around. I can only find two photos, both are pretty fuzzy when enlarged. It looks like I'll have to make up the wheels too, my spares bin has nothing like the wagon wheels that are used. sorry for the fuzzy shot, my camera won't focus very well, not enough contrast I think. It seems to lock up on the background or foreground. This time it looks like the focus is on the tip of the stab.

 

Edited April 3, 2011 by Sabre F-86

[Sabre F-86]

The Wal has been sitting on my television set now with little done since my last update. Too many things in life got in the way, including the death of a friend which messed my head up way more than expected. Took a while for it to hit me but it made me look at things a lot different. Anyway, every time I look at her, She glares back at me so I've pulled her out to see if I can get something done this winter.

 

One of the most annoying things about her as built is that the wings aspect ratio is way off. It really messes up the look of the aircraft, the wing should be about 5 inch in chord where the Wilhelmshaven paper model had it set for about 4. So to that end, yesterday I cut a couple of pieces of pine long enough to fit and about half an inch thick by 1 inch wide. This has been epoxied to the leading edge and will be faired in and then sanded to shape. It still won't be an authentic air foil, more like a very elongated Clark Y, but with bigger ailerons and more surface area it should look much better. Once that's done I will have to revamp the engine pod again, but that's a simple matter. Still going with the Japanese built version.

 

Photos when I get to them.

Edited October 14, 2012 by Sabre F-86

[Cees Broere]

Good to see you pulling this from under the rug again.

Cees

[csavaglio]

Looking really, really good. You've inspired me.....I may have to pick up a 1/32 SR-71 card model to convert over to plastic, especially since my workbench is conspiciously clear after finishing the Mustang...

 

Keep up the great work!

 

Chris

Edited October 16, 2012 by csavaglio

[Sabre F-86]

Ok, I've made a start on increasing the wing chord but I can't say it's going well. By the time I get it all worked out and contoured I expect it will weigh a ton, and cause the model to do a nose stand. So to that end I think I'm going to have a look at the historical evidence and see about making a brand new one. I pulled a sheet of .030 out this morning as soon as I get the Soling 1 meter off my dining room table I'll start laying out the new wing.

[LSP_Paul]

Scratch Building at its best, and great persistance will pay off in the end ! Im looking forward to seeing Version 1.2 !

 

All the best,

Paul

[Cees Broere]

That's the problem with scratchbuilding, sometime you have to redo your work two, three or even more times.

Keep it up, this is a great project.

 

Cees

[Sabre F-86]

Well it's been a dogs age but the Wal is still alive. Been working on many things over the last year and it's been glaring at me. So be it, It's too damn cold to be standing outside welding patches on to my boat so I've gotten a go on the new wing. The old wing was first modified with two pieces of pine epoxied to the leading edge. As I figured, it weighs a ton. As I was contemplating making up an entirley new one using the original method I happened to glance over and saw the sheets of 1/2 pink foam I use for templates and I thought why the hell not. Using a piece of scrap and a rasp and then some course paper, I get it a test to see if the foam was sandable. Much to my surprise it was. Moving on, I cut out a new wing, slightly undersize for the final dimensions, and started on it with a rasp outside (at -12C, shows you how much it was glaring at me ) and worked it down to a very thin wing, with a thickness to chord ratio of about 10%. I still have to round off the underside of the leading edge and see if I can't put in a bit of undercamber, but this will work nicely.

 

At the moment I'm not sure whether I will just coat it with epoxy or sheet it with plastic but this should work out well. Of course the engine pod will need to be reworked too but thats small potatoes. I may just cut the wing in two and sandwich the pod in between the two pieces. More later. Oh yeah, this is going to make redoing the ailerons a lot simpler too. Since all this started I've also found some more reference material, but this is not every going to be much more than a generic Wal.

 

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Edited February 5, 2014 by Sabre F-86