Scratch Built Hannibal

Bit more progress on the Hannibal. Front fuselage sheeted, Rebate cut to fit cowl. Tail assembly sanded and hinged. Tailplane has fin inserted rather than perched on top as original design. The fuselage needed a couple of tweaks, a slight warp had crept in during the winter lay-up.. The cowl has been marked out ready to cut and the covering has arrived, another eBay bargain buy. The label says"Made in China", it doesn't handle quite like Solarfilm, but I covered the fin of the Hannibal to see how the new stuff performed. Seems OK, however the backing film can't be used as a glue shield when building. I don't know what it is, but glue sticks to it quite firmly.

Looking good Brian - can we see a pic of the covered fin, is their a brand name on the covering material?
Thanks
Colin.

Hi Colin, a few shots of the progress with the covering. I started with the fin, and got carried away. The covering is very easy to use, the only drawback I've found so far, it tends to curl up after a piece has been cut from the roll. The adhesive seems to be transparent, not a trace of "blue glue" on the iron as normally happens with S*******M.
Cowling finally cut and drilled out, needs to be roughed up a bit to hide the gouges I made when cutting the holes. I looked through my purchase records, the covering must've come from HobbyKing, the invoice says "HexTronic Hong Kong". Took just over three weeks to arrive.

In case anyone wonders what the reflection in the cowl is..............It is not a garden gnome propping open the shed door.

Brian wrote: In case anyone wonders what the reflection in the cowl is..............It is not a garden gnome propping open the shed door.

Brian - Did you intend ordering from Hong Kong or was that a surprise, if not a Gnome what is the diminutive figure holding open
the shed door. Covering looking good.
Thanks
Colin

It was a surprise Colin. I should've paid more attention to the details in the various"boxes". As it worked out, the extra postage from the EU warehouse was offset by the low price of the covering, so it ended up OK. The main attraction of the covering, apart from the price, was that it came in 5m. lengths.

I don't worry too much if it is coming from the EU Warehouse (Netherlands). I have ordered loads of Lipo packs and motors they arrive just as quick as the UK usually. Until "Brexit" happens prices are not that way off from the home price. If it is a small item and worth less than £38 and is airmailable, Hong Kong/Singapore airlines will fly it for a small price. Avoid expensive and large box stuff though from Global/Hong Kong. Will make your eyes water!

I want to use pull/pull controls on the Hannibal's rudder and elevators. I've only used the system on rudder, so I trawled the Internet to see if there was an easy way to fit and set-up the wires. I came across this method, looks promising and easy to set-up and adjust. Has anyone used it?

Hi Brian - I have pull - pull on my Extreme Flite "Vanquish" rudder , this is the standard 2 wire system & works well.
If you stand the model on its wing tip & pretend the rudder is the elevator it works just fine, the servo would need
mounting on its side to avoid an awkward twist in the cables.
If you want a vintage look you could have the servo horns mounted externally with servos inside the model.
Hope this helps.
Colin

Hi Brian
The common closed loop method by attaching each wire directly to a 180deg servo horn works well. The minute you add extra mechanical parts, the more chance of failure. In particular with the method demonstrated (which is only a mock up) would be susceptible to the wire slipping off the turnaround pulley and jamming. If the method was good, it would be adopted by expensive production models. Some designs introduce a lay pivot for the closed loop elevators which is then operated by a short servo link. I had a DB models biplane with that method which was awful. Unless you engineer ball raced auxiliary mechanisms there is no way they will be as smooth as attaching the control wires directly to a ball raced servo.
There is no reason why you cannot mount rudder and elevator servos normally (horizontal ) and run the elev closed loop thru 90deg. However, i do recommend you trial such an installation before covering to optimise the control runs and start with a large servo disc. Then experiment with the attachment points + / - 90 deg to minimise any slack at full surface deflection.