Westland48 Posted December 15, 2019 Share Posted December 15, 2019 Hi all, I'm new here and this is my first RFI (please be gentle!). There’s a bit of a story behind this one… I started learning to fly when I was 13 years old, first fying Grob Tutors with the Air Training Corps, before taking up gliding and, eventually moving on to powered flying – gaining my PPL in 2017. Unfortunately, I haven’t flown much since then (powered flying is WAY too expensive) so I’ve decided I’m going to try gliding again – I’ve never flown a glider solo! I bought a 1/32 Revell Ls8, however, the all-white colour scheme and lack of interesting decals haven’t enthused me to build it – glass fibre/composite gliders also aren’t so interesting to model (though way better performance!). This led me to turn my hand to scratch building a glider out of balsa. The glider in question, the Schleicher K8b, in the colours of my local gliding club – and quite possibly the aircraft I’ll end up soloing in once I get back to gliding. I found plans online for a 2m wingspan K8b which someone had already turned into a .dxf file, I used CATIA to scale these plans to 1/32. I constructed the airframe by creating a spine from the side elevation then added ribs and stringers, before covering with balsa. The wing was created by making the upper and lower skins, gluing the wing ribs to the lower skin before attaching the upper. The cockpit was a challenge, particularly the copy which I plunge molded some clear plastic packaging (from some new baubles) over a balsa mould. The pilot is a slot car figure from immense miniatures, with some major surgery to cram him into the cockpit – the internal fuselage structure visible in the cockpit sidewalls is made from 0.5mm pencil lead. Painted with a mixture of halfords rattle can white and humbrol acrylic red, the decals were home printed and are a little thick, but overall, they look the part. I’m really happy with how this has turned out given that I’ve never made a balsa model before and never made a model from scratch. There are a few inaccuracies, I’m aware of, such as the fuselage lacking a protruding “spine” over the centre of the wings, but I think it looks the part, let me know what you think! Schleicher K8b, G-CFTN, Mendip Gliding Club Hopefully I'll get some pictures of it "flying" when it's less windy outside so I can suspend it. Thanks for looking! LSP_Kevin, wunwinglow, Whitey and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted December 15, 2019 Share Posted December 15, 2019 Welcome aboard, sir! Brilliant model. Kev Out2gtcha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted December 15, 2019 Share Posted December 15, 2019 Nice work! Balsa is not always an easy medium to work in either. Welcome to the forums BTW! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kensar Posted December 16, 2019 Share Posted December 16, 2019 Very nice scratchbuild, West. I, too, am interested in sailplane models and built the Revell ASK and LS-8, but I have found many more subjects in 1/48 scale. I also agree with you - the modern 'glass slippers' are not as interesting as the vintage and classic designs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLWP Posted December 16, 2019 Share Posted December 16, 2019 That's a lovely piece of modelling Welcome to the forum Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted December 17, 2019 Share Posted December 17, 2019 Welcome to the forums! Excellent build! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozart Posted December 17, 2019 Share Posted December 17, 2019 (edited) Good to see you here Westland along with your fine glider model. She looks absolutely splendid! Edited December 17, 2019 by mozart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westland48 Posted December 18, 2019 Author Share Posted December 18, 2019 Thanks all :) I'm wondering what to make next now... I think I'm going to stick with scratchbuilding balsa 1/32, and I'm considering making either a Pa28 (that I learnt to fly in), a Skylark 4 glider or a Rotax Falke motor glider - both from the local gliding club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozart Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 5 minutes ago, Westland48 said: Thanks all I'm wondering what to make next now... I think I'm going to stick with scratchbuilding balsa 1/32, and I'm considering making either a Pa28 (that I learnt to fly in), a Skylark 4 glider or a Rotax Falke motor glider - both from the local gliding club. Whatever it is, please consider doing a WiP so that we can watch (and admire) your progress! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westland48 Posted December 20, 2019 Author Share Posted December 20, 2019 On 12/18/2019 at 8:26 AM, mozart said: Whatever it is, please consider doing a WiP so that we can watch (and admire) your progress! WiP started! mozart and Out2gtcha 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wouter Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 Great subject, I have some fond memories flying this little glider. RLWP 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Iscold Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 Wow Westland 48 great job very very nice model!!!! !!! I love gliders. Do you have the pictures of building process? Do you mind to share the drawings to build one???? Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westland48 Posted January 13, 2020 Author Share Posted January 13, 2020 On 1/7/2020 at 5:12 PM, Daniel Iscold said: Wow Westland 48 great job very very nice model!!!! !!! I love gliders. Do you have the pictures of building process? Do you mind to share the drawings to build one???? Thanks in advance Thanks Daniel! I got the plans here http://lesgpr.free.fr/construire/k8b/k8b.htm There's a link halfway down the page for a .dxf plan for a 1.5m wingspan model. I scaled this plan to 1/32 using CATIA - I think there are some free CAD programmes that can do this too. I didn't take any photos of this one, however, I have a current work in progress for a 1/32 Pa28 using the same construction methods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Iscold Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 Thank you very much this is will be quite helpful to build one!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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