Winter build project: Wolfgang Matt’s ATLAS

I've had a look at the plans and made a provisional list for a wood order, and being a metric design some of the sizes have to be approximated and substituted for imperial alternatives.

The wing and tail will be sheeted in 1/16 soft balsa.
I'll make the rudder and elevators using soft aileron stock, 5/16 x 1 1/2, with 1/2 inch soft sheet making up the front part which will be sanded down to the aileron stock.
The ailerons themselves will be 1/2 x 1 1/2 aileron stock cut to size and sanded to shape.
The fuselage sides will be 3/16 c-grain
The top and bottom fuselage sheeting will be 3/8
The fuselage base will be 1/4
The wing and tail leading and trailing edges will be 1/4
The fin will be 1/2
Wing tips will be 1/2
Tail tips will be 3/8
The lower blocks either side of the nose retract will be 1" x 3"
The under wing fairing will be 1/4 with some triangular fillets
The wing dowels will all be 6mm

Excluding the plywood, this gives an order of:

Soft 3" x 36" sheets
20 of 1/16
2 of 1/2
3 of 3/8
4 of 1/4

Soft c-grain 3" x 36" sheets
3 of 3/16

Soft aileron stock
2 of 1/2 x 1 1/2
1 of 5/16 x 1 1/2

Soft block
1 of 1 x 3 x 24

Soft triangular (not sure what size needed)
1 of 1/4 x 1/4
1 of 3/8 x 3/8

Birch dowel
1 of 6mm

Hope this helps

I made a start on it last night, but half way through realised I was working out what wood was needed to build it, rather than simply using the standard sizes balsa comes in and working out how many sheets are required, which is actually quite a bit quicker! So I'm half way though my list, and you've just answered one of my questions, if the plan says 10mm is 3/8" (9.5mm) close enough? Which it appears it is.

Thanks for your list Mike, it has helped, and matches mine except that I've still to work out the wing sheeting and blocks that are needed.

Do I need any triangular stock to brace between the formers and the fuselage sides? Or would that be over building it?

Triangular stock on the formers is not necessary but you can add it if you want. It's useful for the under-wing fairing as an infill so that you can carve/sand to the correct section without reaching fresh air. Also at the nose where you need to sand down to the spinner disk.

Could anyone with a paper plan measure the length of the fuselage from tip of spinner to rear of rudder and tip of wing to center line, I need to check my plan.
Thankyou John

Hi John,

Fuselage from tip of spinner to rear of rudder on '0' line is 140cm
Tip of wing to center line is 83cm

Do I take it you are going to put an Atlas together?

I will make a few bits and see how it goes