Nexa Twin Otter Rebuild

Have a look at the covering offered by 4Max Phil. Under £20 for 5 metres. I feel your pain with the "Blue Peter Sticky Backed Plastic". I had a Seagull low wing model covered in what seemed to be very thin lino. Wouldn't shrink, split at the drop of a (very light) hat, and weighed a ton due to the generous coating of Oriental Evo-Stik. Ghastly stuff.

I think Rapid RC sell a lot of H/King stuff including their covering film which one avid WMAC builder has used with good results

www.rapidrcmodels.com/rapid-rc-cover-film-282-c.asp

I have ordered two rolls of Macgregor covering for the price of one Oracover. A member says their stuff is good. Will soon find out.

No work today on the Twotter as Cashmoor beckoned. Waiting on covering. Firewalls were sanded last night a bit more to ensure the cowls are a sliding fit over the nacelle covers. Slightly off subject but two members have recently bought a Focke Wolf and P51B from same manufacturer of the Twotter, VQ aka Nexus and others. They look nice with all the details (printed) but God help them if they have to repair them. They are sticky back too apparently.

As usual like DIY one job overlaps another which means that while working on one task you must be aware that it might well have an unwanted effect on another further down the line. Anyway, the motors have been fitted to the firewalls with 10mm stand-offs and their position checked with the new cowls.

Two holes (I assume for the ESC leads) have been filled with skinning balsa. These holes were totally unnecessary as VQ had made provision for the leads behind the motors and would be covered by the lower nacelle half. The damaged wing tip was "repaired" with balsa but not very well finished so have sanded and filled grain/holes with light weight filler. The plastic tip will have to stay as is. At least it is on the underside. The ailerons were hinged with CA/Mylar but one aileron was not fitted very properly either so I have cut the ailerons off and re-hinging with Kavan flat pin hinges.

While waiting on the filler to dry I thought I would check again the tail assembly as I will be gluing this in shortly or so I thought! The Guy had tried to make it detachable probably for transport. The fin appears to locate okay but the stabiliser is not square. I have tried to uncure the CA and scalpel the joint but to no avail, I cannot get the stab back out. Now I am thinking on making my own tail bits. Pondered over the problem along with a cup of coffee. Just a thought - I wonder if. On to Motion RC and lo and behold they have a tail assembly complete in stock and quite cheap. So to avoid more balsa copying, cutting and shaping I will have one please. Click click - done. Although it won't be here much before 9th September. Still plenty more tasks to do in the meantime.

Yesterday, Sunday I installed the servos for rudder, elevator and steering. The steering push rod fouled and created resistance so had to hack some more material away but it works just fine now. The control rods are a little too long but won't shorten them until I get the tail assembly fitted. The control rods ends have had their original clevises changed to ball links for smoother operation. The servos area bit of an overkill at HiVolt 13kg torque but that was all I had in my stock bin.

Wheels? Yes I appreciate models like this are designed to roll across rough grass but the front wheel is too big. The Otter stand tilt up rather than level. In fact the model sits high compared to the full size. Scale wise you would need a 10 ft ladder to access the cargo doors unlike the real one which would be shoulder height. Nit picking.:lol: Anyway the nose leg now has a smaller wheel similar to some Otter versions. It also sits just level.

Speaking of level I set the aircraft level to bubble and temporarily installed the old tail assembly to check whether the stabiliser is level too. With a bit of jiggling it does.