Build-Along-With Wonwing from start to finish-The Aerographics Velie Monocoupe 113

[wonwinglo]

This delightful little aeroplane is called the Velie Monocoupe 113 it was designed around 1928 in America,the kit comes from the Aerographics range and is my next build subject to share with you,firstly lets take a look at whats in the box and lift the lid.






Good quality balsa,parts are on printwood to cut out.





The nicely drawn plan.



So lets make a start by cutting out the parts,use a sharp craft knife,and paper block and small warding files to cut the slots in the balsa,internal holes can be worked with a rat tail file pushed into the wood and worked around inside the hole.

[wonwinglo]

First we commence to build one fuselage frame pinned down to a soft balsa wood building board which was made many years ago,since then many models have been successfully built on this board,pin around the wood rather than through it working slowly and cleanly,allow this initial side to dry out overnight.





For good strong joints I use Aliphatic resin adhesive applied with a small brush,this makes a good sandable bond.



The Velie Monocoupe 113 hanging in the Smithsonian museum.

[wonwinglo]

Having carefully made two sides one on top of the other separated by membranes of cellophane the sides are carefully sliced apart with a thin knife blade,two formers are made up from balsa stripwood and used for the initial join together of the box fuselage,keep everything nice and square.



Look carefully and you will see two side frames.



Smear adhesive into all of the joints,care at this stage will ensure a strong but light model.



Make up the two inside former frames from stripwood,these frames will be the initial frames for joining the fuselage sides together.




Carefully box up the fuselage laying a gentle weight on the top.



Use Mk.1 eyeball and small squares when joining up,this has to be accurate.

[wonwinglo]

The next task is to properly join the sides with cross pieces at the rear of the fuselage top and bottom,with a pair of tweezers and cutting each cross piece in turn these are glued into place,although the plan calls for cracking the joint just aft of the fuselage at the point of the wing trailing edge I did not feel this was necessary instead gently pulled in the rear allowing the aft longerons to bend naturally,the nose however is a different thing as it comes in towards the nose at an acute angle,to make the job easier I glued a temporary former laterally inside the nose then cracked the joint and pinned in the nose side pieces carefully,each joint was carefully checked and adhesive flowed into the break,small gussets were added in places to make up for a strong joint,now best toleave alone to properly set before the next stage of construction.



The cross pieces are added one by one making sure that they are a good dry fit before applying adhesive.



You can see the point where the wood is carefully sawn into and cracked to allow the nose to pull in,the horizontal balsa former is temporary and will be removed once everything is set properly.



F1 nose former is fixed to the fuselage sides,the jig is working well and doing its job.



This is the stage we are at now with everything squared up nicely.

[wonwinglo]

Today we will start to build the nose block and dummy engine assembly,after studying the way the cylinders go I split the nose block into two with a practical hole size for access to the rubber motor,the photographs explain the build better.
Also I made up the undercarriage legs and soldered up the lower arms binding with brass jewellery wire.



The nose block cut into two to enable the ply ring to build the dummy cylinders onto.



Plastic nose button bearing pressed into place.



The ply is glued to the rear of the front block.



View from the rear of the block showing clearance for the hook.



Some balsa dowel is split into two for making the cylinders.



The rear portion of the nose block glued to the front of the fuselage.



Some side panel strengthening has been added,everything needs blending in when dry.



22 swg undercarriage legs made up.



Front & Rear undercarriage spreader struts soldered up.

[wonwinglo]

The fabricated undercarriage has been bound and fitted to the fuselage.



Undercarriage leg fairings will cover the 22 swg wire.




The tail skid was made from three laminations of 1/64th miralyte ply laid up in a simple jig made from pins to get the required curve,the skid actually springs too.

[wonwinglo]

Today we complete the dummy engine,sand down the undercarriage fairings,work on the specially shaped vintage wheels and start the wing centre section.



Trial fit into the nose plug of the dummy engine cylinders.a balsa sheeting is added underneath the nose,we are going to need nose weight with this short nosed aeroplane so may as well use strength as opposed to adding dead weight.



The undercarriage leg fairings are made by filing a slot where they attach to the wire,cyno is then flooded into the channel as one side sets,then when dry side two is glued into place and allowed to dry,then stramlined sanding to shape can take place.



Here the fairings have been carefully tapered then sanded to section with a manicure sanding strip this enabled me to get behind the fairing at the top,two coats of sanding sealer were then applied sanding in between coats.



The dummy cylinders have been wrapped with button thread cotton to represent the fins,then doped black with a light grey crankcase.





The balsa discs to make the wheels plus thin ply centre core are glued together and an alloy bush glued into the centre to act as the wheel bearing.



The wheels are sanded to profile then sanding sealer and grey tyres appropiate to that vintage period,here the engine cylinders have been thread wrapped and flooded with cyno prior to painting engine black.



The paper wheel centre 'China mans hats' have a slit which cones them to simulate the wheel centres,I made a couple spare slightly larger,these are glued onto the wheel centres when the wheels have been fitted onto the 22 swg axles.



The start of the wing centre section the 1/64th ply outer ribs will be added later when everything has been sanded up

[Mickc1440]

More brilliant work, you make it look so easy.

[scottie3158]

Barry,
As Mick says you make this look easy. Very nice work indeed. How long on average would a plane build take?

[wonwinglo]

Barry,
As Mick says you make this look easy. Very nice work indeed. How long on average would a plane build take?

It depends on how much detail I put into it or its complexity,if it is a kit or scratch build,you can get an idea of the build times by looking at the first posting and the last posting dates on each model dubject,I build every day and keep the momentum going,if the weather is good then I am out flying.

[wonwinglo]

Time to build the wings,not keen on their construction which is an overkill for such a tiny model as this,the main spars and rear spar are threaded through the ribs which is fiddly to line everything up,in the end I simply fixed the trailing edges of the ribs into the TE slots juggling the wings into alignment,then I placed a weight onto the wings to hold them down and zapped each joint with cyno walking away from the fumes,after they were fixed I returned to add the leading edges and strut support pieces with normal aliphatic,sometimes cyno is good for joints like this otherwise I would have had to position each rib in turn after normal glueing which would not have been easy,always be ready to do things better than suggested that you are happy with,it is unusual to have spars mounted like this in very small models it just complicates things.
Also the wheels have been soldered into place and the Chinamans hats centre discs glued into place,they do supply some plastic vac formed wheel halves in the kit but these home made wheels look more realistic.



The centre section is partially sheeted front and aft with 1/32nd balsa sheet.



I made up some piano wire hooks to attach the wings however I am considering simply glueing the wings into place,these small models have very low inertia and will stand some bumps if landing on a wing,the idea of the banded wing is both for transport and the ability to save a wing in a heavy landing but I think it is not really needed on a model this size from past experience.



The windscreen patterns were cut first from paper checking them against the actual model,once I was happy then I scratched around them as templates onto the supplied plastic sheet ready for fixing into place.



Ribs juggled into position onto the spars then once happy spot glued with cyno weighting them down.



Leading edges and strut supports glued into place,once dry the leading edge riblets can be fitted,they will make a nice scale touch.



Before soldering the whhels into place pieces of paper are slipped over the axles,once soldered these are pulled clear they give a little free side play to the wheels.



The china mans hats wheel centres are added over the end of the axles,these you will remember were made from drawing paper slit and joined to get the vintage shape.
Tyres were grey or white rubber back in the early days of aviation.

[wonwinglo]

I have been working on the cockpit glazing and wings,as predicted the wing fixing has been modified from bands on small hooks to a fixed one piece mainplane,I did envisage all kinds of issues with wings with hooks that would probably keep moving out of line and fiddly to put together as well,now the glazing is in place it gives that area a lot of extra strength,the tailplane was started today only to find that one half of the parts have been missed out so I got to work and cut out another set.



Really pleased with the way the little Velie Monocoupe sits,the wingtips were fitted with depron tips and a bit of lighweight spackle to blend them in.
Wing riblets have been added to the leading edge.



The black dope does not photograph very well.



Wings under construction with riblets & strut attachments added.



The side glazing panels being added with R/C Modellers canopy adhesive,the white areas dry crystal clear.



Wings joined at the centre section with one inch dihedral at the wingtips.



Tailplane under construction.



Wing struts have been sanded to aerofoil section and given a coat of sanding sealer prior to joining in a 'V' shape then a bit of glue soaked thread binding to lock them into place.

[wonwinglo]

The assembly and covering stages have been reached.



The blood red tissue is ordinary commercial wrapping material,I wanted red so this was all I could get,the material is non wet strengthened so requires great care in applying it,once shrunk and doped up it will be fine.



The upper surfaces of the wings after covering.





Wingtips after sanding the depron,a bit of spackle completes the contour ensuring a nice shape for the covering.





Fin & rudder laid down on the board.



Tailplane lightly sanded ready for its covering.



Wing struts shaped and sanded then glued together all ready for cotton binding at the join.

[wonwinglo]

Time for assembly,I plan to do a short maiden test hop in 6 hours time when hopefully the wind should have dropped by then,meanwhile some careful assembly.



Tail assembly drying out over the radiator,just the wing struts to add now and it looks like a bit of nose ballast will be needed to get the centre of gravity correct,understandable with such a short nose,rubber motor 4x strands has been made up and lubricated and pre tensioned which is a way of stopping the rubber running down and altering the c of g in flight,ie the motor is always tensioned.





It feels right,she is going to fly !



Olde world aeroplane charm,this little Monocoupe is full of it.



Scene this morning with wings and tail undergoing covering.



Awaiting the tail assembly.

[wonwinglo]

The little Velie Monocoupe made a successful maiden flight today in the garden,I did not pursue it further as it wanted to escape over the hedge ! once the weather is suitable I will fly her again and make a small video of the way she flies.