Aichi Hansa

[Out2gtcha]

Very nice work Hubert!

 

Brian

[dodgem37]

This is just a masterful build.

Beautifully executed.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Hubert Boillot]

Thanks a lot guys !

 

Here is another quick update, but it is important for me a the route I have chosen does work !

 

The idea with the PE set for the hex bolts was as follows :

 

1. Layer the four half sheets on top of each other to get enough thickness (here 0,6 mm) , fix to a balsa base, drill 1mm dia holes in each position, and insert 1mm brass rods a few mms long in each hole:

 

 

 

2. drop a small piece of solder on each hex bolt, after cutting them to be flush with the PE sheet, and pass quickly a small torch on the assembly. Here is how it looks after some filing of the extra solder :

 

 

and from the other side :

 

 

 

3. Cut and file each small bolt. The head is 1,6 mm wide, and the axle is 1 mm dia. The length will be adjusted later...

 

 

 

And finally this is how the struts will be assembled to the floats...it works :frantic: !

 

 

 

Now, on to the next 28 bolts and 17 struts !

 

Hubert.

[Allok]

Wow, so much beautiful work.

But I would be kicking myself about now considering Wingnuts latest release.

Keep it up though, scratch building is so much more satisfying.

[Hubert Boillot]

Thanks Keith,

 

I expected to have finished this one before WNW released theirs, but I am the only one to blame (the project has been going on - or should I say off ? - for the last 21 months now ... )

 

Anyway, I have ordered WNW's HB W29 just to check against my own work...and the sprue shots seem to show I had done as good a research as WNW ...

 

On to the finish race now ....

 

Hubert

[JRutman]

Hubert!! Buddy!!

I don't know how I missed this build up to now. Very impressive work on an unusual subject. Glad to see you back to it.

J

[Hubert Boillot]

Thanks Jerry !

When I think I wrote two weeks ago "on to the finish race" My race is more of the tortoise type than of the hare one...

 

 

Anyway, I did progress some nevertheless. I have completed and glued the horizontal struts linking the two floats. This was a bit of a pain, as the two struts have in the middle a part that supports two oblique struts going to the fittings on the bottom of the fuselage. Forming those fittings out of brass sheet was relatively easy ... but I could not get the soldering of the upper brackets to work, tried as I might . I resorted to use epoxy glue, but the glue was too old to work...It seems I got it finally with CA (I HATE CA glue !) but that took the most of a week-end's time in front of the bench.

 

The horizontal struts are glued to the floats using the previously described bolts. I cheated somewhat in that the bolts are driven in holes drilled through the top of the floats. It's not visible, and apparently solid as a rock...Next is to add the cables running from the four float attachments to the center rod. I have used a metal wire rich in lead I found in a fly-tying corner of a fishing shop. I am not sure I can get the needed tension out of this wire. The turnbuckles look-alikes are plastic tube i got by heat-stretching a tube, using a 1 mm brass wire as a core to keep the shape of the tube. Nore of the wires are tensioned and glued yet in the following photos.

 

Anyway, some pics to illustrate the words.

 

 

 

 

More later...

 

Hubert.

Edited January 16, 2011 by MostlyRacers

[fozzy]

Brilliant Hubert.......

 

Fozzy