Depron Heinkel HE162

Pantograph is useful but it is a bit last millennium.
I am using the electronics to scale the original drawing by 9.1 times and it does the entire drawing in one go!
The problem is of course that the lines width grows by the same amount so they have to be adjusted. Very time consuming .
The final nacelle drawing with its formers.

2mm Depron is so translucent that when held up to a window over the plan it is easy to see the outline to trace round. 2mm Depron is also pretty easy to cut.
The duct with its formers.

The formers are roughly in the correct positions but not yet glued in place.
When they are then the planking starts.

Made a start on the planking.

After all my printed fuselage formers it is nice to get back to using Depron as it is easy to sand or even add bits to make sure they line up to a 'constant' surface all round. I have added 5 little slivers so far!
Planking where the formers have a significant change is size over the length is (expletive deleted) slow & tedious.

Looking great! please say your going to finish it in a authentic colour scheme....

A colour scheme is interesting.
Probably the simplest is the all brown of some of the prototypes.

Note the wing tips are not turned down.
A typical squadron scheme.

Captured were repainted
French blue all over.
UK kept the original scheme and just added national markings.
Russia white all over.

But I don't have to decide for quite while.

Planking progress still very slow.

When I look at those pictures I can't help thinking of the phrase ; ' If it looks right, it will probably fly right. To me this is completely the opposite, it just looks so wrong ! Obviously it isn't, because it worked. At certain angles it does have some similarity to this though.

Simon, the turned down wing tips where hastly designed and fitted when it was found the prototype had a tendency to Dutch roll.

Although it is considered a wooden plane but only the wings, tail and the nose were. The rest of the fuselage was dural. There was even a steel plate over the fuselage just behind the exhaust to protect it.
I found this picture of the first prototype during a 'demonstration' flight on 10 December 1944 which killed the test pilot.

There were many 'prototypes', about 20, used for testing, which was still going on at the wars end apparently to cure problems resulting from the rushed design. A significant number when you consider that only about 100 planes were ever delivered to squadrons and many fewer considered operational. Some 13 of those were lost to operational accidents with one actually shot down. Only one kill was claimed but never verified.

Given that two of the production facilities used concentration camp slave labour with some 800 part built airframes discovered it makes a very sad story of wasted effort.

21planks later the engine nacelle is at last complete.
The underside is left open where it will join onto the fuselage.
It needs quite a bit of finishing once the glue hardens a bit. It is 630 mm (24.75") long and weighs 136 g all up.
The disheartening bit is all that Depron apart from giving an external 'shape' serves no functional purpose what so ever in making the thing fly and to make matters worse it will all have to be done all over again, only more so, to create the fuselage!
At least that will serve a functional purpose!

What a lovely shape! Bit late but would of it been possible to have planked it with stiff card to save depron?

paul
It would be possible to use card but doing so on such a complex double curve shape would not be easy, not that it is a doddle in Depron, but the biggest issue would be weight.

And I'm worried even the 2mm Depron may be too heavy for the meagre thrust available.
This is what it sounds like on the intended 4s.

It is drawing a modest 5.7 A (90W) and generate closes to 400 g thrust.
At least with such modest power I could if necessary use a very small (500mAh?) battery.

Drawing of the fuselage is going very slowly for as Rich found out all the lines need redrawing.
A 'screen print' of progress so far.

About half way through.
It looks like there are a lot of formers but they will be 3" (76 mm) apart.
The fuselage is going to be quite big.

Its going to be a lovely model! worst comes to worst itll make a great sloper.

Drawing the He 162 is proving to be like one of the Labours of Hercules.
Completed the outline but now all those 'missing' formers have to be 'interpolated' from the few.

My brain hurts.
About the only advantage of working in thin Depron it is once all the formers are all place on the board as a 'half shell' it is relatively easy using the Mk1 eyeball to sand, or to add, to achieve a smooth surface profile. You just have to make sure what ever you do to one former you have to do the same to its other half.

Just in case weight is a problem with the paltry 90W available I have ordered a tiny 450 mAh 4s 50C but even that will still fly it for at least 3 minutes.

Although In stock in the UK warehouse the battery was ordered from the EU as it was the same price and the shipping was less than half. Bizarre really as the journey distance within the UK will be the same. Somebody is subsidising someone!