Edgar Percival EP.9

[Balsabasher]

In 1969 I moved from Baginton airport to Elmdon airport as an aircraft engineer,one of the first tasks was to assist in the restoration and certification to airworthiness standards of a most unusual aeroplane called the Edgar Percival EP.9 registered as G-ARTU as it had been used for aerial photographic work,the task also included a total repaint to its former Army Air Corps colour scheme as serial XM797 I was entrusted with the paintwork no easy task as this was a very large aeroplane that stood very high on the ground,after studying the original Army Air Corps drawings of the camouflage I set about spraying this monster with its brown and green overall camouflage and huge roundals and fin flash plus the serial numbers which were also underneath the wings,I made up the full sized stencils for those roundals masking them off and layering in the red/white and blue colours doing them just like I do my models today,the serials were hand painted a back breaking task laying flat out on trestles positioned umderneath the wings,the whole job took me the best part of three weeks to complete and looked stunning as can be seen here in this old photograph of XM797,after its delivery flight to Old Warden for use as a parachute club aircraft it was written off within a day striking a tree on take off,I could have cried especially as all of the hard work had been put into it,it was a total write off,there is a 'fake' XM797 flying as such in South Africa.



Now to the model,as the fuselage is basically a large boom and a complex shaped front end it was decided to make it in sections as shown in the photographs below,two pieces of wood formed the boom portion with side pieces which will be pre sanded to a curve shape and eventually glued into place as one then finally carved and sanded to shape.

Barry.



The templates.





The fuselage pieces that will be glued together as one unit after a bit of pre-shaping.

[Balsabasher]

The two central fuselage membranes are glued together,here is a useful tip when dealing with sliding wood and glue on such surfaces,put adhesive on one half then take two pieces of coarse glasspaper,rub the glasspaper together so that the glass debris lands into the wet glue,place the two halves together and press,the unique glass beads dig into the wood locking the two halves together,glass debris is sharp and really keys the wood,apply gentle pressure and allow to cure.

The two outer side panels have been pre shaped as its easier to do this at this stage,they will be glued next then the whole lot tapered in plan view and the fuselage shaped up carefully.

Barry.

[Balsabasher]

Here is an example of pre planning and how it can save you problems later,the boom tapers and this was incorporated before the side panels were glued into place,if it had been done later then it would not have been possible to cleanly plane it to that taper as the fuselage side panels would have restricted this and got in the way,sometimes a little bit of thought can save so much energy and time.

Barry.

[Balsabasher]

The whole fuselage has been carved and carefully sanded to the complex shape demanded by this particular aeroplane,the blend in of the boom to the fuselage pod is virtually impossible to achieve with subtle sanding and a little filler helps in that area.

The wing blank has been cut and marked all ready for carving to aerofoil shape.

Barry.

[lastvautour]

Moving along well.

Lou

[Balsabasher]

A new video of the total build sequence so far on the Edgar Percival EP.9 project,I did add some background music but it was over the size permitted limits on Photobucket so I had to do another sans the music,anyway here is the result

http://s180.photobucket.com/user/UDAZONE/media/SOLID%20MODEL%20MEMORIES%20VIDEOS/Movie.mp4.html?sort=3&o=0

Barry.

[lastvautour]

Very nicely produced Barry. Nice effect of having stills followed by a closing video.


Lou
PS
Be careful if you want to add music. My son has been warned a few time about using music from living artists. They get kind of snarly when you play their music without paying them royalties.

[Balsabasher]

Just found that out Lou,I downloaded it to my Facebook page and it was removed straight away giving me a warning,never had that before ? it was Bethovan so hardly applicable to any royalties,what a pity as Facebook is full of copyright music being used on video's,thanks for the warning you were spot on.

Barry.

[Balsabasher]

The tail components were made from laminated ply and balsa,left to dry overnight then sanded to aerofoil shape and added,also the top centre section has been cleaned up blending in the edges nicely.