Now that we have settled into our new digs in NZ after having had to change from the place we moved into when we first arrived, I've joined a local Club, and even had a fly of Brian_Z's
Radian e-glider.
Since I didn't bring any airframes with me (I couldn't fit any in
), I needed something to fly. Enter the
Half Tone which has been on my "
gotta have one" list for a long time
.
Then, while poking around in a local arts & crafts supply store, I found 700 x 500 sheets of 5mm thick
depron-like foam board, with a thin glossy coloured paper coat on one side and white on the reverse, for the princely sum of NZ$2 a sheet - a bargain I reckoned, so I lashed out and spent NZ$20 on an assortment of yellow, green, sky blue and white sheets (pink & black were the only other colour choices
). Add in NZ$8 for a small hot melt glue gun and NZ$2 for a packet of 27 glue sticks and I was armed and dangerous
I printed off the plans from OZ -
https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=5673 - then made templates by gluing the relevant parts to thin cardboard (in my case, a cereal box).
Given the material I was going to use, I had to make a few mods to the structure.
- fuse sides and formers would be 5mm foam board
- fuselage top & bottom would be 2 mm foam board that I had brought with me
- the tailplane would be a single sheet of 5mm foam board with a bamboo skewer to reinforce the LE.
- the wing would be a single sheet of 5mm foam board on the bottom with 2 mm foam board top sheeting.
- The wing spar would be a bamboo skewer top & bottom with a shear web from 5mm foam board
At this point, I thought it prudent to test out the construction materials and techniques I had in mind on something expendable(?)
Look for a post in
Slope Soarers (
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1277&p=10833#p10833)