The only draw back is that the finish is very rough and ready and its not ‘plane-shaped’. I had heard that in the USA they do something very different with EPP. So this year Father Christmas, in the shape of my son Bindu, brought me, from the USA, one of the most talked about 21st century EPP kits. A Leading Edge Gliders (LEG) 48” P51 Mustang.
It actually looks like a P51D!
|
|
 Again
a light coat of the 3M spray adhesive was applied and the whole airframe
was covered in silver Solartex. |
 At
this point I gave a little extra attention to the pilot and cockpit
area as I feel it is this, if done well, that gives scale atmosphere
to the static model. There is no room here to describe the techniques
used to finish the job. Perhaps I’ll do that next time if anyone’s
interested. It took lots of thinking time and patience. However, it
was not difficult and I think the results were worth it. |
……WADAYA THINK!
|
| State of the Art EPP from the USA………… |
Last
year Father Christmas brought me my first EPP plane, an SAS Venom. I’ve
taken that with me every flying session since and would say that it
has improved my flying skills and confidence hugely. 
This
is a kit unlike any other I have seen in that it contains a CD a bundle
of sticks and a couple of chunks of shaped EPP. The build process is
entirely different in that the fuselage is carved rather than built
up. The instruction manual, which had to be printed from the CD, was
not great and there were many confusions caused by American English.
However, there were some excellent 3 views with profiles. I think if
I had only had the manual to work from I would have had a very hard
time sorting out some unusual materials and building methods but I was
saved by RCGroups.com, a website that is frequented by the designer,
kit manufacturer and many builders of LEG models. In fact Jack Cooper,
the proprietor of LEG, made a transatlantic phone call to me to sort
out some problems. Such is the dedication to customer satisfaction of
this small firm. 
Construction
of the wing is fairly straight forward. First the dihedral is established
and then the chunky basswood spar is glued into a ready cut channel.
Here was the first use of a new material. The spar is glued in with
a flexible silicone-like glue known as Goop in the US. There are several
equivalents in this country but thanks to Steve Clarke I was able to
use some Shoe Goo that he had left over from building his M60. The next
step was conventional in that it involved adding a false trailing edge
and the ailerons with torque rods. After sanding everything level a
layer of lightweight filler was applied and when dry almost completely
sanded off leaving a smooth surface to the EPP. Next the wing was sprayed
with 3M Display Mount adhesive and taped with Cross Weave tape in a
similar way to a Venom but without overlapping the tape which gives
a smoother surface. As you see in the picture a standard servo was glued
in using a low temperature hot glue gun (another new material) and the
torque rods and linkages connected up.
Next
step was to shape the EPP fuselage. Using the supplied 3 view I was
able to enlarge the cross sections to the correct size using a computer
drawing program ( Adobe Illustrator) and make some templates. The scale
shape was achieved by slowly sanding the EPP starting at the spinner
and gradually working towards the tail checking with the templates as
I progressed. This process was greatly facilitated by constantly redrawing
the datum lines, with a fine permanent marker, as they were rubbed away.
You
can see the result with fin ,stabiliser , wing and fuselage placed in
position. 
Next
came one of the trickiest parts - installing the radio gear in the fuselage.
The fuselage blank is in two parts. These are supplied fixed together
to facilitate shaping. After this is done the halves are separated and
the gear and carbon fibre stiffening rods are buried in the centre (For
ever!!) I still have some reservations about this because of the surgery
required if something breaks! When everything was in place the halves
were glued together and the fuselage was filled in a similar way to
the wing. 
The
fuselage was glued to the wing with Shoe Goo and the fin and stabiliser
were glued on taking care the incidence was zero/zero. Before applying
cross weave tape to the fuselage, everything at the rear end was blended
in with light weight filler. 
