In an effort to help SAM 27 members with the construction of Old Timer Models, A building seminar was held at Richard Beck’s Sonoma R/C Hobbies store on Wednesday, July 27, 2005. Ed Hamler, SAM 27 CD and master builder, offered tips and techniques used in the constriction of O/T models. Ed brought samples and tools and used Jay Beazley’s Kerswap project to illlustrate his methods of producing plumb,well-built stick models. Ed also brought a wing section for his Lanzo Bomber wing, which he had prepped for covering with SAMSpan and covered it to illustrate the method he uses to cover.
Illustrating the use of shop “squares” to glue cross-members to the fuselage sides of Jay’s “Kerswap.”Ed uses “white”glue for its sanding qualities and the setup time it affords the builder.
For many who had not used SAMSpan before, this was a great introduction to it’s ease of application and Ed’s methods for obtaining the consistent high quality finishes that he does. You can describe the techniques but seeing it done in person, removes all the mystery and makes the technique much more approachable.
Ed’s governing philosophy is the “make haste...slowly” he carefully prepares his parts before gluing so that the fit is precise and the builder’s errors are minimized. He illustrated that philosophy by pointing to applying SAMSpan from the center outward. He points out that
Using square weights to hold the fuselage sides plumb whie the glue sets keeps the fuselage plumb and prevents the old “banana fuselage “ syndrome
attaching the covering from one end to the other means that the little errors that inevitably occur are magnified by the accrual of small errors becomes unresolvable by the other end, creating a covering job that looks bad and cannot be corrected. The same principle applies to fuselage cross-members. Begin towards the middle and you avoid the accumulation of small errors that can lead to “banana syndrome.”
