The great Tip debate.
The wing was coming along great. The included Rib spacing templates are a huge help. They get the ribs spaced and aligned properly. As you can see there are a ton of ribs and riblets (Sounds like a Sonny's BBQ menu) When I assembled the wing I got installed all of the ribs to the rear shearweb spar, and using the templates got the correct spacing and glued the rib tabs to the surface.
NOTE*** This wing has unequal wing panels the inboard side of the wing is longer than the outboard half. This is why the shear web and the templates are marked inboard and outboard. Keep this in mind and use the the correct spacing template on the correct side! I do not recall reading this in the FM article.
After getting the ribs fixed into position I attached the bottom spar (Top in this case as the wing is built upside down) I used slow cure epoxy to glue the spar from the center of the wing out to Rib #4 the second ply reinforced rib. I let this cure overnight and then I carefully glued the spar to the rest of the ribs using CA. This makes the whole process easier to manage, as this allows you to lift the spar up and glue each rib separately rather than trying to do them all at the same time before the CA kicks off.
I repeated the process then on the left half the top and bottom. With the spars installed it was time to add the riblets.
Not you will have to shim RBH 3 as the notch is too long. Something different between that half rib and the LG mounting blocks. Did you remember to install the PLY LG mounts to the ribs before installing the spars??? You need to install the block first the spar goes over them.
I had to trim a notch or two here and then on the half ribs but all in all they went in without a hitch. Here the Spacing templates come in really handy. Once the riblets were in I set the oven to 450 degrees and the cooking time........................... Oops wrong topic. With the half ribs installed I added the leading edge reinforcement strips. What seemed to be a spidery fragile wing now became a rigid structure. At first I had my doubts about the strength of this wing but after all the spars were installed it became solid as a rock. Looks like it will be really light weight too. Kudos Gordon.
Everything was going along swimmingly until I got to the tips. To accommodate my building surface I glued the tip plates to R 11 before adding Rib 11 to the ends of the wing. It just made it easier to square up the tip plate to the rib. Once done I popped them on the wing ends. This is where I ran into the problem, I started looking for the material to attach to the wing tip plates. Shown on the plans and in the FM article there were supposed to be some blocks for this purpose. Well no such blocks in the box. I contacted Eric and got a long response which I won't get into here about how Gordon changed the design. so the blocks were not necessary and that no block for this purpose were going to be supplied.
In my opinion this was a song and dance. Clearly all of the wing tip parts that are laser cut match the plans and the FM article exactly. Using the laser cut parts supplied you requires that the Blocks shown in the plans be used! The tip plates alone are not sturdy enough to make up the assembly and leaves you no way to mount the adjustable leadout guide. Not using the blocks requires you to completely redesign the way the tips are constructed.
To make a long story short as of this writting you have to order a piece of 1" X 3" X 12" long minimum balsa block to finish the wing tips as detailed in the FM article and illustrated on the plans. The photos I've attached validate this. You can use thinner balsa sheet and use a laminating technique with the layers pre-cut, simulating the hollowing process as well. This is how the Brodak Vector 40 wing tips are constructed. Up until this point I've been relatively happy with the quality of the kit. But the deficiencies have accumulated to the point where I caution that this kit is ONLY! for experienced builders with balsa stock and ply stock on hand. First it was the shortage of 3/8 X 1/2 stock, then the kit did not have any 3/32 X 3/8th stock, Then the bellcrank supports were cut wrong, the nose gear not bent correctly, 1/8 dia horns when the Flap and elevator ply mounting clips are designed and cut for 3/32" for starters.
Compared to the Brodak Vector 40 kit I last built the Brodak kit was a 10 this kit is down at a 5 at nearly twice the price. The best features of this kit is not really the kit but the design kitted, The consideration and forethought that Gordon put in when making the model easy to construct, strong and light. So far the execution of the kit it's self has been not more than OK.
Anyway, back to the construction, I am rapidly approaching the point where I am will have to form the leading edge sheeting. I dread this, as I still have not found a way to construct the forming buc's with the tools at hand. As I have to wait on the order of the balsa block for the wing tips, I guess I'll have time to figure a way to make those darn BUC's.
BTW. You will find a weird duplication. In the kit you get 4 ply landing gear pieces marked LG-1, a wider ones and a slightly narrower ones. USE the WIDER ones that's supplied. I think the narrower LG-1 piece is a error as I can not seem to figure out how it would be useful