Master’s Workshop

By Bob Benjamin – bob@rcmodel.com Let’s talk about that different technique of sheet balsa covering an open/stringered model airplane structure to create a better scale representation of a full scale sheet metal aircraft surface. I touched on the …

By Bob Benjamin – bob@rcmodel.com Last month we ran out of page space with all panels of the wing framed up, ready to be joined at the correct dihedral angles to prepare for a sheet balsa covering job …

In the last print issue of Fly RC (April 2017), we got to talk about the Paul K. Guillow Company, examining what they have done as part of the history of American aeromodelling and what they have to …

The Stinson SR-9 project is getting very close to the time for me to begin covering and finishing, but there are a few installation details to be completed before I will actually be ready for “closing up” the structure.

The Stinson SR-9, like most high-wing, single-engine monoplanes of the 1930?s, relies on external strut bracing to stay together in flight.

Now we can get started doing wheel pants. They are provided as half-moldings of ABS plastic.

The kit designer chose to have you build up a four-piece windshield supported by discrete structural framing and a molded front cabin top to replicate the formed sheet metal on the full-scale airplane.

The focus of my attention this time will be the engine cowl. This is going to be a big deal no matter what, since this airplane, like all Stinson SR (Reliant) models, features a big round radial cowl loaded with detail in the form of eighteen rocker box cover blisters along with exhausts, access panel and various fastenings that we may or may not want to replicate.

“You’re gonna put working cabin doors on that new scale job you’re building? And, you’re planning on taking it out and flying it, and flying regularly, not just once to prove you dared to? Yeah, right...”

Now it’s time to close up the bottom of the fuselage with sheet balsa. This part of the building sequence offers me a fine opportunity to talk about one of the choices of design and construction technique that went into developing this kit.

During the last blog post on my website, I showed you how the Stinson kit design requires you to laminate several components of the nose structure (the fuselage ahead of former F-3, which lies in line with the leading edge of the wing) from die cut 1/8 inch plywood components and then to add various basswood strip spacers.

It’s time to fire up the air compressor, set up the airbrush, and lay down some color on this airplane. Depending on the size of the model I am working on, I will use either my Paasche airbrush or DeVilbiss automotive touch-up spray gun.

Let’s get on with building the fuselage. In order to provide the most useful evaluation of this kit for those of you who are reading this, I’m following the construction steps in exactly the order they are presented in the instruction manual.