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A built Vario MD 900 kit (by Vario)
The real thing in UK Air Support Colours
October 2, 2009
Another wet day in Blackpool, nothing much unusual there
though..... 
So I decided to bite the bullet and fill the access step
apertures and re-cut/shape them with the plastic insets in my
hand. They are now drying ready for final sanding down.
I am also starting the tedious job of sanding down the
various seams on the GRP fuselage. Luckily, they are not too
bad, but nevertheless have to be sanded and maybe even finished with
filler to ensure they do not show once the paint is on. I am
using the Vario recommended two part filler, which I must say is
excellent, as it dries quickly, plus being nice and hard, but still sands
down well.
Then the next task will be to start on the cockpit woodwork,
& the mechanics mounting woodwork. I always like to do my
woodwork bits in one go, while my head is firmly in woodworking
mode 
We are going to have a single pilot installed, with bone
dome, just to capture the realism a little more.
October 3, 2009
An even worse day here in Blackpool, with the wind at storm
force or pretty close to it.....
So it seems definite I will be back in the hanger hard at
work on this project, especially as it is nice and warm in there.
I sanded down the primer on the fuselage this afternoon,
having filed, sanded and filled all the mould seams, and managed to
put a quick coat of sating black on it so that I can see any
imperfections more easily. I will post some pictures of it
once the paint has cured.
I have also added the strengthening strip of plywood that
is fitted over the bolts for the front skids support. To do this and
get it to curve around the lower shape of the fuselage I soaked the
wood for 6 hours. Dried it to approximate shape with a heat blower,
and then bolted the skids on through the bottom and the strip after
laying down a heavy strip of fibreglass resin to hold the ply
firmly.
October 4, 2009
Surprise, surprise, the day has dawned sunny, although a
little breezy, but I may just get to take the CopterX out and have a
fly around before returning to the "grind". I have
decided to have a "Play Day" as it is Sunday, and am going
to try to build a nose searchlight /camera housing assembly from
scratch from bits and pieces lying around in the hanger. The
first rule for this is to KEEP THE WEIGHT TO A
MINIMUM so my initial thinking is to
make the camera/light ball itself from 1/4 balsa sheet, stuck
together to form the basic ball shape, and then once the outside is
ground down to a decent shaped ball, hollow the inside out as well,
creating what is a hollow balsa wood ball with walls about 1/4 inch
thick. This will then be coated with fibreglass resin on the
inside first, and also on the outside so that it can be sanded
smooth.
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Here's is
the first part of the camera ball, hanging of a
workmate
dripping it's first wet coat of fibreglass resin off onto
some tissues
to try to get a reasonably smooth finish off it. |
The outer protective casing is quite
difficult due to the shape at the bottom, as it is basically just a
hollow tube that curves around the ball just below the centre to
about 2/3rds of the way toward the bottom.
| After
searching around in all my old bits and bobs boxes, the best
I could come up with was this familiar source of a bit of
strong but light tubing (Tee Hee, a Pringles chips tube).
As you can see, I have
wrapped the outside in a layer of fibreglass matting to
provide sufficient strength, and once this has cured, I will
do the same to the inside, which should be quite strong
enough for the task in hand, but the whole thing will still
be very light. |
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The fuselage in its quick coat of black
silk looks quite good, and fortunately has only shown a very few
small blemishes that will need some attention. I guess it was
a shame I had to use some red primer on the rear engine housing, or
else it would have looked much nearer to the final thing colour
wise.
So, all in all, quite a successful day in the build of the
MD900, plus which I got to go to my flying field and fly my faithful
old CopterX as well 
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