Working Model #6

Now apply a bead along the abutment that stands proud of the panels, then run a knife along to apply a filet. If you want a best means of attachment you can raise the panels on thin sheets of ply to coincide with the mid-height of each spar ~ then applying one filet and later flipping them to apply another.

I have found this not to be necessary, however, and what we will do eventually is to turn this over so the topside is flush from prow to tail. If nothing else this makes the initial assembly of horizontal and vertical panels altogether easier.

That'll do for this evening though, won't it Gromit?

Courtesy of Craiyon and Aardman Animations

Working Model #5

And squeeeeeeeeze. Don't do this too hard however as we don't want to squeeze the adhesive out. Note that I have slackened off the spars for obvious reasons; if you were in a hurry though you could use a jury-rigged jig to enable adhesive to be applied at once at the prow, centre-section and tail.

Working Model #4

Taking care not to glue anything to your workshop floor, mark off where the planes meet the spars and run a bead of adhesive along the lower edge of each.

Working Model #3

Note the 500mm points circled for separate attachment

I chose these dimensions as they happily encompass metric and Imperial measures. Here I have taken spars measuring eight feet (2400mm) and reduced them to five apiece. Each is a 6mm by 21mm section, or a quarter-inch by three-quarters.

Notice that if carbon-fibre laths* are used, they might comprise three at one metre (1000mm) each, with one divided in half. It is for this reason that the wing or deck is positioned one foot forward of the tail-assembly (300mm): so that the forward and aft sections of the craft can still be joined by attaching the panel at 500mm.

The prow is 2' 6" forward of the wing and just doable when it comes to flexing spars a quarter-inch (6mm) thick. An advantage of timber is that it eventually adapts to curvatures imposed on it, so that for decades people have used steam treatments to bend it into various shapes for the production of furniture.

You may wish to pursue this stage of the build naked in the sauna to take handicraft parties to a whole new level?

* Which attract substantial packing and shipping charges beyond one metre.

Working Model #2

Here's the template we shall be using. The board is easily cut by scoring it with a sharp knife and folding it until it snaps, before running the knife along the join to cut the mesh... the work of seconds, and a positive joy.

Each board is divided lengthwise into three quarters and one quarter, so the first produces two panels to form a wing (or main-deck) and one of the pontoons which will be slung beneath.

The second board is divided in the same way and then the remainder is sliced into two shallower halves to be divided between the tail-plane (identical in width to the main-plane) and a pair of upright fins to fit beneath the tail.

The remaining square panel from this exercise is essentially spare, but will be used as previous to provide a ramp that sits beneath the forward end of the main-plane and which will support the pontoons besides working as a ram-wing to produce lift.

Working Model #1

These how-to-build posts seem to be consistently popular and so we'll work through the re-build of the five-footer, which is amended slightly from a learning-by-doing perspective.

Here I've bought a tile backing-board from a DIY chain that in this instance is 10mm thick and laminated both sides with a polymer cement and fibre mesh. The sheet measured four-by-two (or 600 by 1200mm) and so I only need half in the shape of two sheets at 50% scale.

The fact it is 10mm thick works well when we come to build a prototype double the size using existing motors, for it also retails in 20mm thicknesses at the same size ~ which will of course mean that we would need two such sheets at the outset.

Penal Code

Many of you following posts in recent months will be wondering what happened to my Penis and so I have to thank the publishers at Hachette for their helping me re-discover it in newer ways altogether: for there it is joining the line-up at Google's range of eBooks!

I look forward to reading it myself, which I've not done since writing it all those years ago, and I'll let you all know what I think. Really it is up there as tribute to beloved co-author Graham Barker, who is no longer with us and probably now glad of the fact.

It was Graham who suggested to me that we start a series of books about invention among a variety of different fields, and which never got beyond sex. Not between him and me, I should add, but in the series. Accordingly I suggested to him that he feed me with dirty pictures and that I would provide a hilarious text to go with.

So put down your Jane Austen and get stuck in, and don't you dare call it grooming!

The cover was adorned incidentally with a used Durex wrapper, a coffee-stain and a Post-it note to Graham suggesting we add blow-up dolls. I did ask ChatGPT if it thought such adornments were better taken out, but together we decided it were better to leave them in ~ or at least until such time Durex sue for loss of reputation.

Don't know how a book on the Bangkok Hilton got included in the search, but I have stayed at the hotel and don't know what he's complaining about.