90 inch Lancaster

Yep - I had to state the wingspan because us poor colonials are being up staged by dear old Mother England's upper crust landed gentry - who - they emphasise have 134 inches - hmmm - I hope it strangles them in all the electrical cabling that will be required to run their el@#$%&*tric motors. I might add that my Lancaster model has PROPER internal combustion motors - just like the real one.

Sh*t stirring aside, to start this thread I think it proper to at least give readers a glance at the plans - the other reason is they are the only photos I have yet - unless you want to see a pile of balsa sheets, ply, foam and 4 luvly Saito 30 4 strokes still in their boxes. Stay tuned.

It'll need all those engines to drag that fat wing section through the air .... it looks like a Clark Y ... ON STEROIDS!!!

yes, lets see the engines.

looks a nice size though.
cant wait to see the first bits of balsa come together.

Well Ladies, Gentlemen and fellow crazy scratch builders - herewith commences the build! Please remember that I really am building from scratch - no CNC - no kit - just me, a scroll saw, a craft knife and a heap of balsa and ply. The other factor is that is a fairly old plan and the designer uses a lot of foam and brown paper covering - SO - this idiot has to modify the plan, make a further rod for my back and build the whole damn thing from timber - redesigning the wing entirely, that means cutting ribs, designing a building spares - yep - carbon fibre - and generally sending myself round the bend - Yeah Poly, Tony and Eric - I know I'm probably already well round it.

So - the photos : -

The very first pieces of balsa


Starting the first fuselage side


Plans came with an instruction manual and photo of illustrious designer - very Helpful


More pics to follow:-

More photos: -

The first former in place


Fuselage with the two centre parallel formers fitted


Looking from what will be the front of fuselage



Next jobs are to fit the other main formers, the doublers and 1/8th balsa fuselage sides. Then build up the shape from contour formers, sheet and block. I'm also going to make the turrets and cockpit glass from patterns I'm making up. I use a vacuum gadget I built to make the see through bits.

It looks a lightweight structure, good luck with the build, i think you need a bigger hammer ???

impressive sir, impressive.

its started off well and looks a nice build.

yeah i know i will be cheating with a cnc pack, but i will have to cut all the bits for the mk11 by hand.

now where are the pictures of these engines.

Well your way ahead of Tony already and it being underway already youve produced a well on the way fuselage,I have massive admiration for someone who scratch builds.I know how difficult a job it is.I realise that every time I put together an ARTF and think"who would bother with a scratch build"We have a Ripmax Lancaster in th club,taken the guy over 2 years so far and 18 months before that to arrive with loads od parts missing.Its cost over £2300 so far and still hasnt flown.

Klipkopwildlife wrote: Somehow the pics don't give a sense of scale, do they?

Good point Klippy - The fuselage is 59 inches long from front Bomb Aimers glass to rear turret. not as impressive as Tony's 8 footer I admit but still a fair size. Then again W/S is only a mere 90 inches - not 134.

Yes Tony - be patient - the motors all in good time. They are still in their boxes right now.

THE BLACKBIRD wrote: It looks a lightweight structure, good luck with the build, i think you need a bigger hammer ???

Well I do have a bigger hammer Tony but I hide it under the bench. The fuselage is quite a bit more substantial than those photos show. I haven't started putting all the bits on yet and what you see is only the box frame that everything else hangs off.

Itll be interesting to see how the fuselage progresses

Well Beard - the fuselage is progressing - not at the rate of BB's - but it is progressing. Should have the next set of build photos by tomorrow

Well here we go - the next set of photos - now if I can just load them properly?

Adding the fuselage main formers


Basic structure complete


Starting to add the doublers (full length each side!)