RUSH

Picked up a Manzano Laser Works short kit of Peter Rake's 47" Bristol M1c at the LHS for the contest. I really like the nice lines of this monoplane, and the fact that it is a WWI monoplane makes it even better! The picture shows the Shuttleworth Collection replica - there is only 1 original left (in Australia), but it has been modified and then restored over the years.

The M1c served in Macedonia and the Middle East during WWI for the Royal Flying Corps. Britain also gave some to Chile as payment for a couple battleships they took over for the Royal Navy. The M1c was the first airplane to fly over the Andes as well.

The wood and the laser cutting are excellent, and the kit even includes a mondo ABS spinner! Unfortunately, there are no instructions, but I found the build thread for the prototype on RCG...

RUSH

So far, I've framed up the horizontal stab/elevators. All the shaped parts are laser cut. Nothing out of the ordinary here, just your average stick build-up.

Also got the left wing panel framed up. The plans don't specify the material for the spars, so I used some nice light spruce that I found at the LHS. The leading edge/wing tip is made from 3 laminated 1/16" pieces soaked in windex and shaped into that beautiful M1c shape The trailing edge is interesting in that it is made from 3/32" basswood - should be plenty strong.

I will try to document the right wing panel build in more detail...

texasclouds

cool plane!

RUSH

Hey texasclouds, your Hellcat looks killer! I'm sorry, but I'm not very good at commenting on other people's threads, so I didn't comment on your thread, but I've been following it Are you on RCU as the same name? I'm AviationNut on that site, so I think I've corresponded with you there

RUSH

BTW, if anyone wants higher resolution pics, let me know and I can e-mail them to you.

Stevephoon

RUSH,

Welcome to the fun. I have been looking the Manzanolaser kits too. I almost pulled the trigger on the F7F Tigercat kit they have for this contest. But actually meeting Brian of MM made me switch directions.

I agree with you, the WWI mono-planes are too cool. I have never had much luck on getting WWI Biplane models to fly well. (This is from way back with C/L Freeflight Rubberband stuff)

Good luck on the build. I'll be watching!

Steve

Sky Sharkster

Hi Rush,
Nice choice of the Bristol, Welcome to the contest!
I agree with Steve, the WWI monoplanes are good-looking airplanes.
The M1c is a plane that looks ahead of it's time. Like the Fokker E-III it had advanced features that led almost directly to the WWII fighters.
Good luck in the contest!
Ron

texasclouds

Thanks, and yes I joined RCU too. Nice ta meet ya again.

Hellcat is fun to fly. I'm considering building another wing for it and getting the parkscale retracts.


I'll be watching your build here and may do one too soon.

RUSH

Thanks for the encouragement guys! I'll be watching your builds too

Rabbitcreekok

Welcome to the contest, Rush. I have never seen that Bristol before and am looking forward to seeing it in the air.

Good Luck.

offtom

I have to agree with the others. Those WW1 monoplanes are classics. I like them too.

Bill G

Great subject! I built a second spinner when I built mine, donated it to a guy who has the kit, and he never built it. Should have saved it for you. They are a job to balance.

The plane is a beautiful flyer, and it should be encouraging for you that I hand launched this plane at 36oz auw, with a 12" prop on an anemic Electrifly 28-30-950 outrunner on 3s.

There's a detailed build thread of Pat Lynch's and mine on RCG, if you haven't seen it. It's a good bit of work, but it's such a beautiful plane that I'm surprised it hasn't been built more. As far as I know, your build is the 3rd to appear on the forums.

RUSH

Beautiful M1c there Bill G! I really like the dummy cylinders, may I ask if they are scratch built or vacuum formed? Yes, I found the build thread on RCG - had to look up the CG on the thread since it's not on the plans

Bill G

Thanks
They are 2 Williams Brothers dummy cylinders. Since that's all you can see, it gives the appearance that the entire radial engine is behind the cowl. They can still be found, but I got lucky and the LHS had two of them, or I would have probably never got around to ordering them. It's a nice detail and worth doing, if you can get around to ordering them. The plane can also use all the weight it can get up front. My batt is installed from the center hatch, and pretty much stops against the cylinders. I still needed a good bit of lead.

USMC_VTOL_Mech

Rush
looks good bro....
Now where does the fan unit go again???
lol
Later

RUSH

..... Thanks man. Maybe you can video the maiden for me eh? Though at the rate I'm going, it's gonna be a while lol.

USMC_VTOL_Mech

Hey man no problem....
Just let me know when you are ready to maiden and we can set up a time and date
I have no serious builds goin on right now...just making some intake ducts for an F=4 phantom
I'll keep an eye out here on your progress

Bill G

Since you asked:
......in the front!
I suppose a powerful enough fan would work in the M1c. It flys well, mounted in the front of a GWS 190.
I think it would actually look pretty cool in the front of a Bristol M1c. Anyone care to Photoshop the concept? I applied it to the Spirit of St. Louis, when someone accidentally posted a thread in Ducted Fans.

RUSH

Hey Bill G, It would be nice to have a FG spinner for my aircraft, but I reckon, I'll have to do with the ABS version. Hopefully I can get it balanced Sorry, but I suck at photoshop (Paint Shop Pro in my case), so I can't help you with the mod . Though I'm sure it would be funny looking

Sorry to all for my slow progress, but "stuff" around the house has taken most of my time lately, plus I need to get my Tower Fun51 build done (on RCU), but I will get some progress done on this as soon as I can. Holly cow, will I make it by November?

I will say one thing though: OMG - the left wing panel wieghs 1.5 oz.! This panel weighs quite a lot for its size. I hope it will weigh much less when it is sanded down...

Bill G

The spinner was a pain in the to balance. I made it from balsa, and then glassed it. Peter thought I'd never get it balanced, and was almost right. Experimenting with weights, until near the end of time, did the trick. Unlike most manufactured jobs, this one needed weight in 2 places. I also went to the trouble to make a removable base, simply to decrease the size of the prop cutouts, to look correct. With slightly larger cutouts, a prob could be slid across the spinner, to change it, but with smaller cutouts, the spinner has to come apart, for a prop change. Irregardless, I'd never want to think of taking this thing apart again, so it was mostly just an added, over engineered feature.

I wouldn't worry about weight much. Mine hand launches and lands easily, at 36oz AUW. My wing leading edge laminate ended up weighing several tons.

RUSH

Yeah, I think that's where a lot of the weight is on mine too.

That's some really nice work you did on the spinner. A commendable amount of patience to get that working properly! I hope the included ABS spinner will be consistent enough that I don't have as much trouble as you did. I should probably get started on it early in case it ends up causing me a lot of grief too. Thanks for the heads-up.

Dereck

Going to keep an eye on this one. It's a neat and unusual scale subject - I got to see Shuttleworth Collection's new restoration at Old Warden a few years back on a trip to the Olde Country, plus have the dear old 'Profile Publication' on the type.

A fair few ended up as private rides for senior instructor pilots in the RFC/RAF, with some fairly 'interesting' non-camo colour schemes.

Never mind the weight - wouldn't care to do that LE any other way than as a laminated outline!

Have to agree on the spinner - it has all the possibilities for being a right pain. Interesting how that Balsa USA have sold a kit of this type for years, and it never seemed to catch on, Manzano come out with one and it's all over the shop...

Regards

Dereck

RUSH

You are lucky to have seen the Shuttleworth replica in person! I would love to see that - as well as the Antoinette. I am thinking of going with one of the "private ride" schemes for the finish since the only other 2 versions of this kit that I've seen are in the Shuttleworth scheme (hopefully that won't violate the rules of the contest ).

RUSH

Ok, I got the right wing panel built, and this time I documented it as I went along. First up, is to get out the protractor and measure all the angles of the ribs and spars where they meet the leading edge, and mark them on the plans (pic 1). This makes it much easier to set the correct angle with the miter sander (pic 2). I forgot to mention this when I talked about the horizontal stab/elevators - the sander makes stick building a snap

Pinned the trailing edge pieces to the board (pics 3 & 4), cut the front and rear spars to the right lengths/angles and glued the rear spar to the trailing edge. Then glued the two plywood ribs to the front/rear spars and the trailing edge (pic 5).

Next, the leading edges of all the remaining major ribs were sanded to the right angle (where needed) and then glued to the spars and trailing edge (pic 6). The front spar was tapered from rib 9 to the end to accommodate rib 10 (pic 7).

RUSH

Next up was framing the aileron. I made the leading edge from 3/16" lightweight balsa and pinned it in place behind the rear spar. Then glued the sub-ribs to the LE and TE, and glued in the control horn plate. Pic 1.

Then I glued in the servo hatch rails and beefed up the ribs for the hatch per plan - pic 2. The servo hatch is not glued in here - it's just there to set the proper location for the rails. The rails were made from scrap rear spar material (1/8" x 1/4" spruce).

Next, the rigging blocks were made from hard balsa and shaped to the profile of the ribs before being glued to the ribs/spars (miter sander to the rescue again!) - pic3. You can see in the pic that I also glued all the sub ribs to the front spar.