Barnstormer 72

DB Sport & Scale

29. She flys
Some flying shots taken at our patch.
28. Completed model.
Fully assembled and programmed. Motor is my old OS 60 FS - one of the originals.
27. Servo tray
Lightply with supports for the servo mounts and switch.
26. Undercarriage
Using my trusty old wire bender. The way I bend is to start with a length of wire longer than I need, and work out from the middle. Its more important to get each bend the same than 100 accurate. This method does mean I have to cut a short length off the ends of the final shape.
25. Covering - colour scheme revealed
Colour scheme revealed. Split down the middle, half coloured and the other clear profilm.
24. Fuselage lighting
For fun I have added a flashing LED strip light.
23. Wings
Completed wings ready for covering. I have a unique scheme up my sleeve. Details to follow.
22. Fuselage
Typical connection to get the servo signal to the cabaines. The ends will be terminated in a servo plug.
21. Fuselage
Split cabane strut split as these will carry the servo supply and signals. that 2 for the power and 2 for the servo signals Start of the removalbe cockpit area to give me access to the innards.
20. Fuselage
Nearly forgot the cabane strut pins. 1/8 dowel epoxied in place. Front top decking, built up and razor planed to shape.
19. Wing
Servo built into the wing, worked well on my Super 60. Ailerons faced with 1/4 balsa will be capped and horn supports to be fitted.
18. Wing
Completed wiring prior to top sheeting, the wire is supported close to the soldered joint. The other pics show the sheeting and capping strips in place. All glues with Aliphatic resin - easy to sand.
17. Assembly
Here is where I’m having some difficulty. I like to know what my incidence angles are, and with no info on the plan decided arbitrarily that 0.3 degrees +ve would be OK.

I have the fuselage set to 0, and you can see that currently the wing is at +2.3. This does seem a lot.

The third image shows my attempt to lower the front of the wing, but this has only lowered it to 2 degrees, it just seems wrong to have to cut so much away.

Going back to the plan and doing some measurements and trigonometry, the incidence is about +3.

Following advice from the Modelflying forum I have gone with the plan, and just measured as best I can.
16. Wing build
Somewhat controversially I don’t intent to use wires to get the power and signals up to the aileron servos. The rear cabane will carry the power.

I have soldered the wires to the captive nut. Here you can see the additional support and some Gorilla glue to strengthen this area.

The power leads are joined up in the font and you can see the signal wires waiting for the front fixings to be installed.

To make this work I'll have to split the aluminium cabanes - this will be one of the last jobs to be done.
15. Wing build
As it has proved successful on my Astro Hog and Super 60 builds I have gone with the servos permenantly fixed into the wings. Half rib lite-ply doublers support the servo with off cuts of spruce to take the screws. Using an offcut of sharpened brass tube I made holes to take the servo wires.
14. Wing build
With the holes marked I was able to fit the rear cabane mounts. These were epoxied in place, drilled through and supports added. See above.
13. Wing build
With the bottom sheeting done, my attention turned to the positioning of the cabanes, I marked centre lines by meaurement of the wing, and the positions of the cabanes. You will notice that the centre of the wing isn't quite in the sheeting join. That why I measured.
12. Wing build
Aileron cut out and 1/4 facing added.
11. Fuselage front end
Some more work done on the front end, the nose piece added and the side cheeks. ALl the internals were painted in wing skinning epoxy to fuel proof. It was then roughed out with a (blunt) razor plane.
10. Wing build
Main joiner is a full depth 1/8 ply, with the rear as per plan.
9. Wing build
3mm joiner slot cut, then the wings were set up with 3" dihedral and the joiner angle transfered. Lots of clamps and weights used to hold things ture while the glues dries. I used white glue throughout.
8. Wing build
Basic panel with LE, TE & webs fitted. The second image shows the aileron end ribs, this is where the cut for the aileron will be.
7. Wing build
Start of the wing build. I'll be fitting ailerons, but not sure how or where yet. I'll build the wings and then decide. It will be a matter of cutting the ribs out and facing off the area. More on that when I get to it. 1/16 shear webbing added.
6. Fin & rudder
Fin built over the plan, only took 5 mins and its another job done.
6. Fuselage buisness end
The business end: An original OS 60 FS, I have decided to use a nylon mount and not the engine bearers shown on the plan.
5. Fuselage joining
Rear section pulled together, dont try and get the fuselage sides joined in one step, rather do a bit, get it right and move on.

I have fitted the rear cabane mount, but I won't fix the front one until the wings are ready, I can then adjust it's position to get the wing incidence right.
4. Fuselage build
Building the fuselage sides, is a case of pinning over the plan, there are a few ways to make the 2 sides the same, my prefered way that works well is to build the second side over the first one (with a plastic separattor so you don't glue them together).

The strnigers were cut slightly over length and sanded back to siut with my sanding jig.

As the front part is all right angles there was no need to get he jig out, just pay attention to making sure all is square when gluing.
3. Fuselage build
As I did with my Super 60, I'm going th have a servo under the tailplane to drive the elevator, so planning ahead now I made the rear solid, with the side with the servo having a ply doubler.
2. Fuselage build
Making a start on the ply formers. These were all made from 1/4 as it was all I had.

I only have 2 size of hole saw, and the biggest was still too small to suit the plan, but building from scratch mean you have to made changes along the way, I cut 2 holes of the diameter I had and joined them to form an elongated hole. There is a better picture above.

The picture on the right is my sanding jig, used to get a 90 degree egde as well as getting the former square.
1. Kitting up
This is my build of the popular Barnstormer 72, as part of the Modelflying.co.uk mass build. I bought the plan, rib pack, pre formed cabanes and the sticky back templates.