db sopwith pup build

DB SOPWITH PUP BUILD
What appears to be a small compact box packs a lot of accurate laser cut ply
and balsa. Easy to follow the instructions but certainly not the kit that yiou
buy on Wed afternoon and fly on Sunday. The build started with fuselage.
Prepare the plan and cover it with plastic sheet of your choice. White PVA
Glue was used on all balsa to balsa joints and epoxy used on ply to ply or ply
to balsa (just my preference).
The longerons are bent after PVA is set.
Do make sure you do not build two right hand or two left hand fuselage
sides (easy done )
Tip: before fitting a firewall make a template of it on paper so that you can
cut out the shaped lead sheet for balance and attach it to the firewall later.
Pictures shown later. (Yes you will need a fair amount of lead, since it's a
scale model and has very short nose and in the full size aircraft the engine
was very heavy RC Engines tend to lighter if you take the scale weight in
concerned.)
Sheet of lead marked out for use later
Large width adjustable clamps with various smaller clamps is very handy to
let the work cure, while you get on with other things.
Since I was using a Petrol (Gas) engine I decided to add the gussets above
for added security and since weight at the nose is needed anyway feel free to
add your modification if you wish.
TIP: When you bind the cabane strut with epoxy run a hot air gun over it
this will get the epoxy to run into joints and the bindings evenly and you will
get a smoother finish and stronger joint.
The elevator crank was fitted next.
Always dry fit tank bay and engine bearer bits first
The dry fitted tank bay bits were dry fitted to the fuselage, in this case I was
happy with the fit so I left it in there and ran epoxy along all the joints and
used the hot air gun trick to get it to penetrate to all the joints. The fit is so
good that you may even get away by not using any glue (but please do it
would be silly not to)
I used a 30 CC MVVS Engine (mainly because I wanted a beam mounted
front carb petrol engine that fitted without too much modifications.)
The tail Skid
Again once bound used the hot air gun to melt the epoxy into even spread
(access soaked up using kitchen towel)
Tailplane
Do dry fit everything first
When you get to centre section you will find the above (the joiner will refuse
to stay at correct angle (just elongate the hole)
Upper wing.
Dummy engine bought separately
I welded some aluminium brackets using using the aluminium weld (not for
faint hearted) this will hold the dummy engine in place.
Nice panel from Germany found it on Google
This was achieved by choosing a certain size of brass tube slightly flattened
in the vice to accommodate two undercarriage wires and silver soldered