Telemaster #2

Finally got off my backside and got a bit more finished. The tail feathers are now done except for a few little touch ups - I've got to sand down the dorsal fin and give it all two coats of dope - and then it's ready for covering:-



Making sure the Fin is perpendicular to the tail plane


Attaching the Rudder


And the Elevators


Sand it all down and attach hinges - glued and pinned.


Add the little dorsal fin.

Now I fort I'd give you young fellas a lesson in how us old farts did it in the good ol' dais when we didnt haf no poxy or that fancy stuff, an nun off that nilon or metal engin mounts. We had ta MAKE our models from stuff.



First ya glued some 1/2 inch balsa to the sides in front of da engine bulkhead which was glued in wif Tarzans Grip.


Then ya glued in a coupla hunks of hardwood with 'orse glue and bunged another cupla 1/2 inch balsa blocks on top o' that.


An' when it was finished it looked like this. A course ya had ta sand the bugger down till it looked pritty. After that you cut a hunk of 1/4 ply an' screwed it to the hardwood hunks wif good big screws - then ya bolted ya bloody motta to that - nun o' this fancy shit back then mate - we was real modelers!

A little bit more progress:-



Only 1/4 inch wing dowels with 1/4 square balsa braces glued in. I would have used 3/8th dowel but thats what the plan said. See how it goes as I want to keep to the original plan.


Battery fuel tank bay floor


Trial fit of the Enya 60X. I still have to carve and sand the nose of the engine bay.


Almost ready to fit out. Just the servo tray and snakes to put in.

A little bit more done today. I've planed and sanded the front of the cowl to shape and given the whole fuselage it's first coat of dope. For those young innocent (?) readers of this forum DOPE is a product used to seal and prepare balsa surfaces. It has several other useful purposes as well - one swipe with a brush dissolves foam instantly and a couple of drops place carefully in an *lectric motor spells doom for the the damn thing. Even the fumes are useful - they clear sinuses, spin your head out and are also useful for such diverse purposes as convincing Mother's in Law to leave - repelling noisy sticky beaked ankle biters - discouraging the cat/dog and picking an instant fight with SHMBO!

Slowly, slowly catchy monkey. I can't even begin to keep up with Tony's build pace but I am progressing. I've installed the golden rods and and the servos for throttle, elevator and rudder. Plenty of room down there in the fuselage. Next is to make up the undercarriage as per plan from an aluminium plate and then think about colour schemes and covering. Meanwhile I am slaving away making 26 HUGE ribs and starting to build the wings. This is where I deviate from the plan and install flaps and aileron servos in each wing.





Bitter experience has taught me to install supports at every bulkhead when there is a long snake run. It's surprising how much a snake will flap around even if anchored at each end and flutter is not a good look or control feature in any model!


Plenty of room in the fuselage. Even standard size servos look like mini's in there!


Well - I'm up to 'ere.

Slowly grinding forward -



Engine instalation - yep - I know the carburetor is missing


Tricky little fuel filler - turn upwards to fill - down connects tank to carby.


All the plumbing.


Everything in place - reconditioned carb and muffler to attach

I have all the components cut out for the wing and then found my building board has developed a warp. Wing photos as soon as I sort out the warp. :S

I've finally worked it out! It's possible to relate Tony's build speed to Mach numbers! Mach 1 is the speed of sound so Tony 1 is Tony's build speed :lol: - to put things in context my build speed is about Tony 0.3

So for those who have bothered to wait around for an update this is where I'm at!


This might interest Dean - the block for rib shaping the mainplane ribs.


And the ribs finished - all 26 of them - each rib is 11.25" long and 2" deep. all ribs are 1/8th" balsa

Slow and steady it is Tony - done a little more - I've finally started to get the wing together: -


Dry fit check of the ribs


And starting to glue everything in place. I use an Aliphatic white glue in preference to super glues.


Nearly done - just a few more ribs to put in place - then the dihedral braces (3) and finally the centre ribs and sheeting.

The Beard wrote: How is the Telemaster Grumps ,like the self portrait

Well I have to admit that particular portrait was done when I was younger Stephen - I've got uglier, and older, since then.

Back on topic :lol: - I've done a bit more on the Telemaster and it's getting near finished now. Covering the fuselage today - and I'm epoxying the two wing halves together with the 3 dihedral braces. Ended up doing things a bit arse about face because I'm waiting for some balsa to arrive. Wings joined but still no leading or trailing edges fitted but it will all come out right in the end.

unusual wing design, i would have thought sheeting the front section would be lighter.

but a very nice build sir, very nice.

Possibly, Tony, but it is a proven fact that a slightly 'steppy' front upper edge on a wing turbulates it, so the airflow 'sticks' better at silly angles of attack.

And what does that mean the model does in the air Eric

And what does that mean the model does in the air Eric

Delays the stall, Steve.

Tony B. AKA Blooper wrote: unusual wing design, i would have thought sheeting the front section would be lighter.

but a very nice build sir, very nice.

Yeah, quite a bit of history there Tony. The original German designer used a D box wing but when the Yanks took the rights over Joe Bridi redesigned the wing with the three spars instead. Some say it was a commercial decision based on the cost of producing the kit. My model is from the Magazine plan and I decided I wanted to build as per the plan so it would be a true "vintage" model. It will be interesting because there have been some reports of wing failure. I've tried to overcome that possibility by adding shear webbing (the plan doesn't show any!!!) and some cross bracing between the ribs in the centre section (the wing failure problem was reportedly caused by torsional twisting). I've run out of balsa of the correct size (it's all 1/2 inch) for the front and rear spars and I'm waiting for some more to be delivered. I've even considered using laminations of thinner balsa to build up stronger front and rear spars. One alternative would be to reinforce with carbon fibre but that would defeat the vintage aspect of the model. There is a heap of references to the Senior Telemaster on the internet and it makes for very interesting reading if the design aspect is something you want to understand.

Eric wrote: Possibly, Tony, but it is a proven fact that a slightly 'steppy' front upper edge on a wing turbulates it, so the airflow 'sticks' better at silly angles of attack.

Yea you are right Eric but I don't think that was in Joe Bridi's mind when he redesigned it that way (see previous post). All the information I have found points to the wing being redesigned for commercial reasons. Apparently the decision was based on available balsa sizes at the time. To D box the wing would required sheets 4 and 5/8th inches wide and they were very expensive and almost impossible to get in commercial quantities back then.