1923 B3 'Charlotte II' in 1:3 Scale

[ARUP]

Thanks, Art! How's Larry doing? Tell him hello for me! Only four more ply panels to go. When done some pics will go on site. Covering will commence this weekend. The Bug's engine bay is cleaned up. Replaced emergency brake cables, throttle and clutch cables and all the rubber parts, seals and grommets.The rear brake plates and associated components and lines got refurbishing, too. Just waiting for a new Bosch voltage regulator so the wires can get routed for it. It is getting relocated to the under rear seat area because the twin carb engine doesn't allow room for it as it normally would sit. Yessir... we cut wood, mold fiberglass and turn wrenches on this here forum!

[ingrahal]

He doing fine. I'll tell him you said hello.

[ARUP]

Here are some pics! I had to add formers to keep ply from 'oil canning' and I used balsa sticks over the seam and edge of the ply with these iron baluster off-cuts to weigh the ply down while the wood glue sets up.

[ARUP]

Ply covering done! Need to seal wood with nitrate dope then paint lettering using stencils from Flight Line Graphics. The skid was ripped from Ash then sanded. It still needs to be shaped and cut to length. The rudder bar 'bulges' on the fuselage will be vacuum formed using a shaped balsa plug. I'm guessing they were formed from aluminum so I'll paint them to resemble it.









Time to start covering the other structures with fabric!

[blake]

Very cool Michael!
I applaud your perseverance for sticking with the plywood sheeting...LOL!

Blake

[Dion Dunn]

Michael, you should replicate that and make it into a full sized Bourbon cabinet. It looks like a fine piece of furniture now!

[ARUP]

Blake- one thing for sure about me... tenacity! Dion- that's why I like these old timers. They make up in a certain aesthetic what they lack in performance. Speaking of tenacity... I've been sick as a dog for over a week but did use the week end to completely cover the frame work and get a layer of nitrate dope on everything. I also fabricated wing-hold-together-through-fuselage-springs-and-hooks. While at the Michigan Aerotow I met Keith Shaw. We were discussing stuff and he gave me a tip about putting on dope so it fills the weave quicker. The technique he described was to lay pools of dope onto silkspan as it is dragged across the covering. The dope soaks into the silkspan and transfers to the bare covering underneath in a nice and even coating with no bubbles, brush marks or other inadvertent debris. I used this technique except with a twist. I attached (Stix-It) a scrap of Koverall to a balsa stick. I cut a convex curve at the TE of the Koverall and the stick acts as a handle. I made my 'tool' a little wider than the rib spacing. Pics to come but I was so busy and wanting to get this much done I don't have time to post them presently.

[ARUP]

Pretty pics! I love covering but... part had to be re-done. Where the 'Hershey Bar' portion of the wing transitions out to the control surfaces portion didn't play nice. I did some test shrinking to see how it would go and noticed it wouldn't shrink evenly relative to the angled TE and would pull the middle rib of that section outward. Not good. Off the fabric went. The second effort was done with the warp and weft of fibers 'on the bias' or 45 degree to the span (first pic). That did the trick! The rest of the covering was a delightful enterprise normally except I've been sick a s a dog with sinusitis and upper respiratory infection... yuck! Then I got something stuck under my left eyelid... ouch! Things are getting better! Anyway the fabric is on and the dope got 'slid' into place. Now to build the servo rails in the fuselage center section and make the connections.









The last pic looks like some kind of modern art sculpture to me!

[Swiss1]

Very nice Jelly, is it going to make it to the Horizon Aerotow next week?

Jeremy and Ben
SCCAAA TT TN

[ARUP]

Thanks, Jeremy! I'm putting servos in fuse and linkages to drive the wing mounted bell cranks presently. It will need a center section gap cover, connecting cables to control surfaces and skid needs mounting. When those things are done it is pretty much flyable. For details it still needs graphics, rudder bar end 'bumps', barometer (mounted on decking in front of cockpit opening), venturi and pilot. It is going to be a tight squeeze getting ready for Horizon!

[ARUP]

All pull-pull cables connected. They are adjustable on both ends. I may need the extra adjustment length!



Center section houses servos. Red armed one is for elevators. The two rear ones are for the ailerons. Differential will be mixed into the output.



The fuselage has these blister fairings at the level of the rudder bar ends. A balsa plug was made and finished smooth with nitrate dope. Styrene was heated and vacuum formed over this plug. Polyester resin and glass was used to make the two blisters using the styrene 'mold'. I waxed it a few times then sprayed PVA release into the mold a few times. When dry the parts were laid up. They have yet to be finished.



The skid was ripped from Ash, cut to shape, sanded, holes drilled as it was fitted to fuselage then it was stained and varnished with polyurethane. The rear mount was cut from Bass and laminated. When the glue dried it was stained and epoxied to the fuselage. The fore part of the skid is fixed but the aft part of the skid has elongated holes. When the skid takes a load it flexes and since the fore portion is fixed only the aft section can move. The elongated bolts holes allow for that movement. I seem to have forgotten to get a picture of the final result! I'll add it later.

[ARUP]

Vince Cockett has provided many details for the Charlotte. He had a .pdf for the graphics and was able to send them properly sized to Nigel Wagstaff at www.Flighlinegraphics.com. I received paint masks for almost everything. Dry Rub transfers were used for the very small lettering on the fin. The vinyl masks are super sensitive to butyrate dope. I put the masks in place and put on over ten 'mist' coats of black dope thinned 50% with thinners in a Binks touch up gun at 30lbs pressure. I shot the dope at a distance of ~18". There were so many masks I wasn't able to pull them off while the dope was still wet. I let them set up before pulling the masks. Lots of 'flash' were on the graphics. I used masking tape to 'sand' off the flash. Sure beats cutting through your paint work accidentally if using real sandpaper! A clear coat was put onto everything and lightly sanded a couple of times to make the painted graphics be at the same level (pretty close) as the background. I had to use mist coats of clear dope over the dry rub transfers. I didn't wish for them to start 'floating' out of position!

[ARUP]

In the last picture above the number '27' on the white field was done in two stages. The white field was painted first and before any graphics were sprayed. The '27' was manually sized from the three view and home made masks were made. There was a bit of bleed under the masks so they had to be 'fixed' by using a fine sable hair brush on the defects. Tedious but doable. (You can see how bad the bleed-under was in the picture below). This had to be done in multiple coats and the brush had to be cleaned after each stroke because it would pick up black dope off the surface. The black dope would tend to make the 'repaired' areas look grey!

The fin had painted graphics, too. The small graphics were dry rub transfers. The instructions called for a smooth blunt stylus be used to rub over the transfers. Well... that just doesn't work on doped fabric. I taped the transfer sheet in place at the upper edge then proceeded to rub the letters onto the fabric using a 4-40 ball end hex driver as a stylus. The plastic sheet to which the letters were affixed would stretch due to the rubbing process so I had to constantly roll the sheet away from the surface as the graphics 'transferred'. When the carrier sheet got unwieldy I would cut the excess with a scissors. It was a one or two letters at a time kind of deal but it got done!

[Dion Dunn]

WOW. Very nice indeed.

[Tom McP]

Outstanding! You've done a great job designing and building a very unusual subject from beginning to end. It looks magnificent (truth be told, probably better than the original!). Hope it flies well for you.

[gunny11]

He is a master at work.... Always fun to watch his builds