Keil Kraft Senator Covered

I eventually got a few spare moments to cover the Senator with some really garish orange tissue. Since covering, the tail has warped a little, so I need some extra work to tease it back straight again. I just need to make a couple of balsa wheels and attach them to the wire undercarriage.

Senator Tailplane Completed!

I've now completed the tailplane to the Senator. It took longer to construct than I anticipated because I was rather fussy on cutting the curved tips and ribs exactly to shape. I think I'm happy with the final result, however, we will see how it works out once it is covered as I suspect it may warp if I am not careful with the shrinking of the tissue.  The 1/16" wing spars were fiddly to cut and I hope they are strong enough.

The wide-angle lens on the camera is distorting the image.

Starting to take shape

 Next.. making the wing tips!

Keil Kraft Senator Tail Fin Completed

Spent some of this afternoon constructing the Senator tail fin. Not a demanding build as all the parts are just cut from 1/8" sheet balsa.  Most of the laborious work came in the sanding and ensuring I didn't break the weaker parts.

And now onto the tailplane..

Keil Kraft Senator Fuselage

Although it was a very busy week I managed to find some hobby time by working on the fuselage of the Senator at sunrise and also very late at night.  My intent was to follow the plans exactly and to keep the weight as low as possible. However,  I decided to add some more rigidity by adding some extra diagonal bracing on the underside of the nose.

To try and avoid any warping I also added two 1/8" sheet formers in the box section under the wings and behind the nose section.  The nose was a little more challenging than I anticipated and I had to re-cut the sheet balsa three times before I was finally happy with shape and fit of the nose panels.

Not too bad really, no warping and an improvement on the fuselage I built when I was a teenager.  Just a little heavier than the original design, but I hope to save some weight on the wing ribs.