Model Shipways 28 manual Stage 1 Building Engine, Building Board

H. Building Board

A soft, but stiff board such as acoustic ceiling tile or insulation wallboard to easily take straight pins for holding parts during assembly. This soft board should be nailed or glued to a hard board so it will be flat. You can use a table, but a portable board is good for turning it around to make the work easier.

Setting Up

The Plans

Build the wings, fin and rudder, stabi- lizer and elevator directly on Plan D02. Place the plan on your building board and cover the plan with waxed paper or plastic wrap. Be careful applying glue, especially super glue. Although the waxed paper or plastic wrap protects the plan somewhat, you could accidentally glue the protective sheet to the model parts, or even to the plan itself.

An alternative, if you have a dedicated modeling area, is to lay a sheet of glass over the full-size plan sheet and build directly on the glass, using tape and weights to hold the parts in position. If you use this method, watch out for sharp edges on the glass.

Getting Started

Before commencing each stage of con- struction, have all the parts for that stage identified and ready to use. It helps to lay each part on its corresponding location on the full-size plan to facilitate identification as you proceed. Lightly sand wood parts as required to remove any fuzziness and pre- pare the castings parts as noted above.

To achieve maximum accuracy in your model you must fabricate bent laminated parts for wing tips and the empennage. The flexibility of the supplied Tanganyika wood strips - especially when wet - makes this relatively easy. The necessary jigs are included in the kit. Because some of the curves are relatively tight, you may need to apply heat to the wood as you wrap it around a jig. This may be done with the angled tip of a 20-30 watt soldering iron. Firmly affix each jig, to a work board with a sheet of ordinary typing paper or news- paper sandwiched between the jig and the

board. This will prevent your gluing the formed part to the work board. The part will end up glued to the paper, but this eas- ily sands off during the final finishing. Some people prefer to use waxed paper to prevent the part’s sticking, but if you use heat against the jig, you will melt some of the wax into the laminated part.

Begin by soaking the wood in cold water for 5 or 10 minutes, then pat it dry. Start- ing at one end of the jig, pin the first strip tightly against the jig, applying heat when needed, then move along bending and pin- ning the wood to shape as you go. Cut off the excess strip at the end of the run.

Go back to the end where you started and brush on a thin coat of white glue or car- penter’s glue and apply the second strip of wood, pulling and replacing pins as you go. Applying heat at this point will make an almost instant bond between the wood strips. Proceed in this manner until you have built up five wood strips and then allow the part to dry thoroughly, after which the formed shape will be permanent.

Carefully remove the part from its jig and sand off the excess glue and paper. The final step is to sand the correct profile as required by the instructions and full-size plans.

Painting & Staining

The Model

With one exception, your NIEUPORT 28 model need not be painted or finished at all. However, it is recommended that you seal the wood parts and Britannia castings for protection. Due to the intri- cacy of the finished model, this is best done as you go. My personal preference is to use 3-pound cut shellac, thinned 50% with denatured alcohol. This dries fast, so you can keep working, and a sec- ond coat can be applied if you want more shine.

A light tan stain on all wooden parts will help to make the entire structure uni- form in color. However, glue spots on the wood will resist staining, and any end grain will stain darker than the rest. To achieve an even application of stain, carefully scrape off any excess glue, then seal the wood - especially the end grain - with thinned shellac. After this is dry, a light application of stain, using a soft artist’s brush, should give an even finish.

When dry, another application of shellac or your favorite varnish will complete the process.

Britannia castings parts may be left polished or painted a steel or gunmetal color. Other fittings, such as turnbuckles, can be painted black or dark gray. Varying the tones on the various parts will add a nice contrast to the finished model.

The distinctive woven plywood “peach basket” seat back is provided as a Britannia casting to simplify construc- tion. You will need to paint this, after gluing it to the seat, to give it an appro- priate wood finish. First paint the seat back with a very light tan. When this is thoroughly dry, dry-brush a light golden brown, allowing much of the tan to show through, then finish off with a russet brown wash to accentuate the pattern. A light coat of varnish will then give you the desired wood effect.

After you have shaped and finish sand- ed the laminated basswood propeller, you can achieve a more authentic look by staining it golden mahogany and then building up two or three thinned layers of varnish or shellac.

Sand all wood surfaces with 400-grit dry sandpaper and thoroughly wipe off all dust. A tack rag would be helpful.

Stage 1: Building

the Engine

The Gnome-Rhone Monosoupape Type 9N rotary engine is essentially indepen- dent of the rest of the aircraft. It slips onto a fixed crankshaft around which the engine rotates. Super glue and/or epoxy should be used to assemble the parts. Care must be exercised with the many small parts. Refer to Figures 1/1 through 1/13. For clarity, drawings may show a single cylinder. It is a simple matter to repeat the assembly for the other eight cylinders. The actual assembly of the engine is pretty straightforward. The key to success is to carefully clean up all of the castings and then to dry fit every- thing before applying glue.

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