MODEL AEROPLANE NOTES and General Hobbicrafts

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 3 (Supplement)

MODEL AEROPLANE NOTES and General Hobbicrafts

THE " STAR " GALLEON. PART V. We left "li" last week with our hull carved out, smoothed and painted, the bulwarks fixed and some of the decorative pieces fitted. So we are ready to go right on now with the gun-ports and further details. The guns are "dummies," and may be made in quite a number of different ways. If you are so lucky as to have a lathe, the task is easy, for they may be turned up from a little brass rod B-10in diameter. It : ,8 only necessary to make the muzzle end of each gun. I made mine about Jin long and fitted a small nail, with the business end pointing towards where the touch-hole would be if the gun had been complete, and pushed this into the hull and cemented it into place. The hull should be hollowed in about Jin, and the insides blackened. The gun will then protrude half an inch, which is ample in order to get the right effect. Guns can be carved from balsa, or made as suggested in No. 10, by using a little rubber tubing over a nail. This is a bit crude, but quite effective, looking. Finish' the gunports as shown (see No. 10), cementing thin balsa strips to the hull. The gun port cover is made from l-Bin balsa sheet. Don't forget the Golden Rule of balsa work, and that is: "Finish each part completely before cementing." The stern decorations on these oldtime ships were very elaborate, and it is usual to depict the window in highly contrasting colours. For this work I found that very highly coloured wrapping paper around good chocolates was as effective as anything you could buy. This is cemented to the flat sides

1 is not full size, so watch your measurements when working from it. The rudder is connected to the hull with tiny strips of tin, which you can cut from a tobacco tin, and then blackened. Press these strips into the hull and into the rudder, leaving a space of nearly 1-Sin between them. No 11 shows a. capstan. This drawing is well oversize, but is drawn so to show you the details more fully. Carve it from balsa and put in the four capstan bars. There will be quite a few more details given you so don't rush in and try to finish the model too soon. Correction: In No. 4 the diagram showing the sizes of the lift boards, there was a sliuht mistake made in the size of the fourth lift board aft. The size of this is 4in by 2 3-loin, tapering to l:}in, and, of course, 5-Sin thick. This may be seen by checking up with No. 2 drawing. Also, although the third lift board has a cut-away in the centre, it does go right through from stem to stern. I will let you into a little secret here. I had the finished hull in front of me when I was writing the description of this particular part, and in spite of this fact, made the mistake. I am not going to excuse myself by saying "that the man that never made a mistake, never made anything," but will just admit it and trust that you others

on the hull, and the edges neatly looked at your drawing No. 2 before covered with balsa l-Bin by 1-1 Oin, or cutting the third lift board iu half.

thereabouts, the actual size not being important.

The after-castles, those rounded parts each side of the stem, are.carved from balsa, cut to fit the stern, coloured and decorated and cemented into place. Just above these, and below the high poop deck are the shields, or coats-of^arms.

These may bo made from heavy cartridge paper, thin cardboard or balsa sheet. The decorative devices I leave

to your own fancy. The stern lantern was always an important part of these old ships, and our galleon must, therefore, have one. It is made from balsa wood, and is supported by a piece of ISswg wire. The centre part is covered with silver paper (get some out of a cigarette packet) and the other parts black to represent iron. Draw several black lines down vertically on the silver paper, thus getting the effect of panels. The wire support should bo coloured black. The very top can be given a dab of crimson just for effect. The rudder is made from 1-Sin balsa cut to the shape shown, see No. 1. I would here again remind yon that No.

I can only say that I am delighted by the response that I have received to the

publication of my Galleon. It is really encouraging , to find that craftsmen all over New Zealand, from Awanui to the Bluff have thought it sufficiently interesting to write in and thank me for the plans. There is a lot of work

in the preparation of an article like this, and I am very pleased that you all like it so much. Even some real

old "salts" have commended it, and one in particular says: ''These young fellows using these new-fangled materials don't know how lucky they are. We carved our models out of .hardwood with our knives," Well, I admit that the old style crafteiuan was a genius for overcoming difficulties, but if we have these modern materials that will make the work easier, it is not necessary that wo should make a poor job of it. On the other hand we should be able to put in details and finish that was possible only to the expert worker before. At the request of a number of readers I am preparing a kitset, which will be available next week. In this kit there will be all the lift boards cut to the rough shape, and the cement, colouring matter and all materials necessary, to linish the Galleon. If you would like this outfit send a postal note for 12/0, addressed to Propeller, c/o "The Auckland Star." There have been signs of great activity around the model aeroplane clubs recently. Wanganui were going to put on a contest locally, but have very sportingly put it off"so as not to clash with the New Zealand championships at Easter. With regard to these cliam-

pioiisliipe, the management committee have, this year, decided to try an experiment. It was noticeable in the past that the national championships, which have all so far been conducted in Auckland, were practically only competed for by the local members, although there was a provision made for proxy flying. So it seemed to the committee that they were not truly national, in actual results, for there must have been very good flyers in the southern centres who were prevented by distance from competing. Well, the idea now is that these championships shall be run off any time from Saturday, April 13, to Saturday, April 27", inclusive.' This means that the Saturday before Easter, Easter Saturday and the following one may be used, thus allowing each club to have a reasonable time to get a good day in as far as the weather is Concerned. The meeting may be run on the club's own grounds and by the' club's own officials, although it is suggested that whereover possible a number of clubs will get together and make a combined meet of it. The events arc: 1, spar hand launched outdoor; 2, fuselage R.O.G. outdoor; 3, spar hand launched indoor; 4, fuselage R.O.G. indoor. Another innovation is that dubs will pay a lump sum entry fee which will cover as many entries as they can put in. If you have not already received a circular from the association secretary, you should get one right away as the entries close April 11. Briefly results will be sent into headquarters and the national champions, and the champion club announced shortly after April 27. The idea seems a very good one to me, and I trust that the clubs throughout New Zealand will get to work and make sure of competing.

The Auckland Model Aeroplane Club held its eighth annual general meeting recently, and the following officers were elected. President, Mr. SpencerMason; club captain, Mr. Fred C. Maedonald; secretary, Mr. W. B. Mackley; treasurer, Mr. K. Hamlcock; recording officer, Mr. G. Perkins; timekeeper, Mr. I. Chinncry-Brown; committee, Messrs. L. Mayn, V. Grey and If. Reynolds. The club's finances wore shown to bo healthy, and new records had been put up for the year. Mr. W. B. Mackley again won the Kieley Cup for highest aggregate points with Mr. L. Mayn runner-up. Mr. Allan Sykes won the Woodroffo Cup for rise-off wator flights outright. Incidentally one of the features of the evening was the fact that in the first officially timed flight of the new season Mr. R. Truman put up a 3m 41s flight, which seemed a good augury for indoor flying this year, and the next thing is that he didn't win the competition with it, for Vernon Grey just went one better and flew his microfilm covered model for over four minutes.