1/2 scale Sopwith Tripehound

[ProfLooney]

and the Info Board that will go with the plane though final data on weight radio and engine still will need to be edited once finished and the info is for sure

[ProfLooney]

Well Finally finished popping out all parts. the little sheet in the back didnt quite go all the way through in a couple areas so will hit that later. I will be starting cap stripping tonight

[ProfLooney]

As you can see here I got my first rib capstripped and even though it needs trimmed up in the rear and nose it gives more of a 3D appearance plus it also stiffens the rib nicely without adding any weight

[ProfLooney]

well im slowly getting the ribs capstripped. This week im only getting a couple hours a day to work on them and hope to get out to dads cabinet shop this weekend and rip my spars and hopefully next week get some framing up done



Well I decided to go back to the standard capstripping method as at this rate would have taken forever. Even though it looked more scale just wasnt efficient for being covered. if it was going to be uncovered I would have continued that way.

Luckily I only had half dozen ribs done and took 4 hrs to just do that much so obviously I changed tactics. I now had abt 40 ribs finished and starting doing some half ribs now. I used my digital postal scale and each full length capstripped rib comes to 14 grams of just shy of 1/2 oz each. so they are coming out nice and light weight.


heres almost all the full length ribs (6 missing as they get special capstrips) and the short ailerons and all the long ailerons. I have a bunch of the half ribs done and still upstairs so they arent in the shot. I basically have the special ribs for the center panel to do and the prob 150 or more riblets. going to dads tomorrow to borrow his table saw and rip my spars

[ProfLooney]

its pretty light so far. the full length ribs only came to 14 grams when capstripped and after figuring out the weight of the capstripped ribs for all 3 wings it only came to a hair over 2 lbs. I will know more when I get wings framed up and all. right now tonight been capstripping the bazillion riblets. they going fairly quickly I got little over half them done



BTW was talking to Winterhawk on the phone tonight and weighed the same sized rib using my scale method and one with reg capstrip and both weighed exactly the same 14 grams. I am been in bed with cold most the day but got up abt midnight to stretch my back and im down to abt 20 riblets left to capstrip, then tomorrow will finish those and do my special capstrips like the offste one by the ailerons and those on the special ribs and all my capstripping should be finished and I can start on my spars. By the time I finish the capstrips all the parts laid out close together will cover my 3 x6 building table but I still have a 3 x 16 and 3x8 table to build on. Once I get started I will get all my fuse parts ready to be cut and send the files off to Jaime to be working on while I do the wings since the post office takes 2 weeks to arrive and thats with priority shipping. I took the postmark to the office and complained this last time and they told me that the timeframe of 2 to 3 days was an estimate. I told them if they paying extra for priority shipping and it doesnt arrive they should reimburse and they basically laughed at me. no wonder their broke.

[ProfLooney]

well guys heres another pic of my wing parts thats abt 95% of them. I started the top wings center section today so I can work out the wing attaching which is basically an extension coming out the spar on the outer panels into the spar of the center sections and then having to have a straight hole drilled to run a rod through to attach the panels.

Also I started on the vertical fin. Due to having to bend it down to insert it into the front post, it kinked a little but not bad. when I get everything lined up nicely I will use Metyl Weld to glue it all together and will fill the little kinked area in and when it cures its sandable so will sand it smooth. I have a couple other pieces to add but it looks great right now

[ProfLooney]

[ProfLooney]

I should mention just for ref that the rear finpost is 22" long and at the bottom of it is where the steerable landing skid attaches.

the next tube in is roughly 14" tall which will tell you the height of the thing.


Here you can see how smooth the Metl Weld gets on its own. then after 48 hrs it will be max hardness and I can sand it into a nicer smoother shape. Also posted some pics with a spray adhesive can to give it some perspective as most ppl have seen or used a paint can before and this duro is same size

[ProfLooney]

[ProfLooney]

Well I got the Rudder Epoxied together and slid the box spar pieces into place on the top wing Mid section. Now wife has a baseball bat and wants my butt back in bed (got the flu bug but hate lying round in bed.) so will try to get some more stuff done later tonight