SAvannah kit 2 comming home tomorrow :)

[rmorton]

Well I am off to sleep so I can get up at 5 to set off and collect my Savannah from ICP. Finally the day has arrived and I will get my grubby little hands on the biggest airfix model I will ever build, cannot wait to get home and start unpacking. I will upload pictures of the more interesting bits in due course.

 

 

[MajorTom]

the biggest airfix model I will ever build, .

Never say "ever" or never ever ... ;-)

 

Wish you save driving and not a single snowflake on the road !!!

 

 

[Icarus]

Well I am off to sleep so I can get up at 5 to set off and collect my Savannah from ICP. Finally the day has arrived and I will get my grubby little hands on the biggest airfix model I will ever build, cannot wait to get home and start unpacking. I will upload pictures of the more interesting bits in due course.

Look forward to following your build,Enjoy !

 

 

[jaybee258]

Well I am off to sleep so I can get up at 5 to set off and collect my Savannah from ICP. Finally the day has arrived and I will get my grubby little hands on the biggest airfix model I will ever build, cannot wait to get home and start unpacking. I will upload pictures of the more interesting bits in due course.

Well I am off to sleep so I can get up at 5 to set off and collect my Savannah from ICP. Finally the day has arrived and I will get my grubby little hands on the biggest airfix model I will ever build, cannot wait to get home and start unpacking. I will upload pictures of the more interesting bits in due course.

Great news. Exciting stuff

 

 

[Guy s]

You'll have a lot of fun building the Sav and even more fun to be had once you've finish a great achievement and start taking the Savannah to the skies.

 

Will also watch with interest the progress

 

 

[facthunter]

And wash your hands before you work on it. Nev

 

 

[Guest FlyingPhil]

Wow! Man I would be like a excited little kid on Christmas morning. All the best with the build bud.

 

 

[IBob]

Aye....go well.....we'll be watchin'......)

 

And how did you feel when you opened the box???

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I bet you felt DAUNTED for the first 10 mins :)

 

 

[rmorton]

Thank you all for your best wishes and encouragement! It is appreciated.

 

How did /do I feel?

 

initially knackered as it was a long day and more heavy lifting than I care to do these days.

 

When we opened the box (it was at ICP so they could explain a few things) I was impressed at the organisation and dedication to their work, surprised at the weight of it and preoccupied with a safe return, so I didn't really get any real sense of what I have let myself in for.

 

I am starting to get excited now and my mind is beginning to race with all the things I can do from riveting to painting to wiring etc. It is daunting when you look at the pile of bits and what it will end as, but when I looked at the instructions and got used to the shear number of parts it certainly doesn't look impossible. In fact all credit to ICP despite some oddities in the manual it seems very well organised and easy to follow.

 

So the next step is to finish organising the garage (which is now even harder due to having a plane scattered in it) check that I have all the parts and organise them into "chapters" as per the manual. I want to start with the smaller parts such as the elevator or fin just to get my (washed) hand in. I have got Kitlog to document the build and track costs etc but it is a bit frustrating as you can only do three photos at a time. I also post on Facebook to the Savannah owners club and one or two other places. As the whole computer thing I find frustrating I may stick to kitlog and a blog. The draw back is I have no idea what a blog is or if it can do what I want. Any ideas here would be helpful. My aim is to document the build as a way of helping me remember what I did and to share as much of the pleasure and pain as possible. Lots of photos and some written explanation are more my style.

 

 

[eightyknots]

Thank you all for your best wishes and encouragement! It is appreciated....

My aim is to document the build as a way of helping me remember what I did and to share as much of the pleasure and pain as possible. Lots of photos and some written explanation are more my style.

That's so cool rmorton. I look forward to plenty of pictures and updates.

 

 

[rmorton]

Please be patient I am still unboxing!! Got the rudder parts together and have been demurring cleaning filing etc

 

 

[rmorton]

I will try to follow up here with most of my pictures and comments/ questions. Here is the first attempt. I have sorted out the fin and rudder parts so far and started to prep them for assembly. I have filed off the tags from the cutting process with a fine steel file. where there is a sharp edge to holes of edges I have ruled then down with scotchbrite. A rag and cellulose thinner gets rid of the grease and lettering, followed by a rub down all over with Aluprep and scotch brite. once dry I have had a go at dipping in Alodine but with mixed results. If the part is dunked in the stuff for a couple of minutes it turns it a deep golden brown, or if you paint ever the part keeping it wet for the same amount of time then it seems to just dull the surface. I am not convinced that this is even worth doing but I would be interested to know if the Ali is protected all the same?

 

 

[eightyknots]

I would like to know whether AluPrep is worth it too. Some people say it is dear as poison. Other say that AluPrep is likely to poison the aircraft builder. Most of the comments about AluPrep are not really all that positive.

 

 

[rmorton]

Well Aluprep is an acid degreasant make it shiny type of thing and so far if you wear gloves and rinse everything well it doesn't seem to be too harmful. The next phase, Alodine is a rather nasty and poisonous liquid. In small quantities it is ok but the amount you need to treat all the ali parts is just out of the question. Not only is it poisonous it is very difficult to get rid of. I am trying to find out how and where I can bin the stuff safely. So long as you dont breath it in, eat it, get it on your skin or soft tissues, it is ok to use. The big advantage is the corrosion protection it gives for little or no weight gain. Paint is the other alternative but you will of course add weight. I am going to see what the cost of the local alodine bath will be and then I will try the following:

 

totally enclosed inaccessible areas (fin, rudder, flaps, elevator etc I will alodine

 

Inaccessible but inspectable clean and paint with primer only

 

External surfaces primer and paint

 

 

[rmorton]

I am making slow but steady progress and have now assembled the rudder apart from the lower skin and one or two rivets that clash along the trailing edge. As suggested elsewhere on the forum you need to "shorten" a few rivets to get them to fit. So I hope the following is useful. (you can buy 6mm long rivets but not round where I live and I couldn't wait for the post)

 

After a couple of less than successful attempts my preferred method was as follows:

 

1) make a cut at roughly the length you want the rivet to be, I did this using a razor saw and rotated the rivet, it is also possible to score the rivet with a heavy duty craft knife, but this resulted in several bent rivets for every successful one. Be careful not to cut into the mandrel.

 

 

2) I drilled two holes in some scrap metal, one the diameter of the rivet and the other the diameter of the mandrel. Place the rivet and the larger hole and knock out the mandrel with a hammer and remove completely.

 

 

 

3) Remove the waste rivet material from the mandrel with pliers and reinsert the mandrel into the shortened rivet head. It is a good idea to file the head flat where you cut it and then debut the end so the mandrel fits easily in the hole. Leave the rivet head in the hole to support it while you gently tap the mandrel back in place. Be careful not to squash the rivet.

 

 

That's it, the only issue I can see is that when the you break off the mandrel you can see the stump in the head of the rivet and in one case it protrudes and needs filing back.

 

 

 

 

 

[rmorton]

Fin is now complete apart from the rivnuts. The skin is a little wavy and some rivets were a very tight fit but over all it went well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rmorton]

And some more of the frame :

 

 

 

 

[rmorton]

And now the almost finished thing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rmorton]

Thanks to Major Tom and Bob for the flat head rivet trick, This is how I did it:

 

Two small squares of hard aluminium 4mm thick. drill one with a hole just big enough for the rivet mandrel and one with a hole big enough for the rivet and countersink the hole.

 

Place the rivet in the larger hole and slide the smaller one over the mandrel.

 

place in a vice and tighten, turn the plates over if needed.

 

That's it flat head rivets made easy.

 

 

 

 

 

[IBob]

And there always is more than one way to defur a feline........)

 

 

[rmorton]

Indeed but thanks to you I was able to do this at all. Sadly having read everything I could on the build of this plane, I seem to have done the typical male thing of just opening the box and having a go, then re-read the instructions! Thanks again for all your posts they have saved the day on more than one occasion already :)

 

 

 

[IBob]

Just to be clear: I also am a first time builder, asking a lot of questions and certainly making my own mistakes. In the process I have had help and advice here from Canada, the US and Australia. Which is special to me on several levels.

 

Here in NZ there are just a few scattered Savannahs (but with a few more on the way) and you could say we are feeling our way.

 

In Australia there are a large number, and a real depth of knowledge. I believe a number of improvements and innovations also came out of there, and were picked up by the factory.

 

 

[MajorTom]

defur a feline

To do what? Are you serious? Is there enough meat on them?

 

 

[IBob]

To do what? Are you serious? Is there enough meat on them?

It's a colloquial English adage: "There is more than one way to skin a cat".