Keil Kraft Bantam

Love your work Paul. The wood joints are superb, a true artist.

Thanks Ralph, I'm lucky in that I've been blessed with steady hands...

paul d wrote: Thanks Ralph, I'm lucky in that I've been blessed with steady hands...

And patience I should think ! Ditto what Ralph said.

Well I've found out you (or at least I) can't bend ply around the sharp radius I needed for the cowl, the glue joints in the ply let go! I did however manage to use a hot iron and mould it round a can but it proved to fiddly on the model so plan 2 was to use balsa.
it's got a couple of reinforcing doublers inside and I soaked the blank in a pva/water mix before bending, it's now surprisingly stiff! be even stiffer once covered and soaked in dope...
wheels and undercarriage next..


Oh and I'm going to have to extend the needle through the cowl.

So started on the wheels, wanted something 'in keeping' so decided to make my own, core from 3/32 lite ply ( just been given a large sheet of it....long story..) and 1/8 balsa outer skins, cut the tyres from a 5mm sheet of rubber I put in my tool box about 20 years ago safe in the knowledge it would come in handy one day! currently waiting for the glue to dry then I'll shape the wheels to a taper, fit a Bush then glue the tyres on then give them a bit of a profile.


also bent up the undercarriage wire today and covered the cowl ( looks crap tbh so I may yet start again...)

I like the idea of the clip-on adjustable spokes! [badass]

Cowls finished, wheels assembled, tyres need trimming and made a catch to hold the equipment bay hatch...tail plane next I think?

Cracking job Paul! Those wheels look great. It's very satisfying to make something out of stuff you have lying around.

Finally finished the woodwork! last thing to build was the tailplane:

Elevators are built up using a 1/8th balsa "spar" sheeted in 1/32, much lighter and stiffer than using trailing edge stock.
Talking of weight the complete airframe with the engine weighs 8 ounces, the original weighed 6.7 complete so I'm a little over but that's due to the engine, I may yet swallow a brave pill and fit the much lighter Dart.....

With the current nice weather we've had these past few days I've started on the covering, I did initially start to cover it with Mylar but it didn't give the stiffness it needed so I've gone with polyester silk and dope with tissue over the top.

silk first, attached with covergrip and shrunk with a hot iron.

next I gave it a coat of 50/50 dope allow to dry then attach the tissue, I find it easier to tack the tissue on with pritt stick dry rather than laying it on damp.
next I shrunk the tissue with water and once dry another coat of dope and the jobs a good un!
just out of interest I dropped a pound coin from 3 foot onto it and bounced off!
today I covered the fuselage with silk, bit of a faff as I wanted to do it using one piece.
fin and rudder are just tissue as is the radio hatch.

I would have thought just doped silk would have been adequate.
Is there an advantage with tissue as well or is it to get a finer surface texture?

strangely enough it takes less dope to fill the grain this way plus as you say the surface finish is much finer.
lastly polyester is almost impossible to dye and paint would pile on the weight..

Work continues on the Bantam, while I've enjoyed the construction the covering however has been a Labour of love and is not my finest effort if I'm honest.
I've run out of polyester silk, been getting it from hobby craft and while they are still trading online they don't list dress making materials on there site so it's going to get hung up until the country comes back to normal.
The "grass" belongs to the council before you comment Ralph

Looks pretty darn good to me.

I am in awe Paul, I do like the look of stitched hinges but have never done it myself.