1/4 Scale Roland C.II build

VNulk · 13 February 2007, 08:50 PM

A number of years ago, I began research on the C.II when I picked up a 72 scale plastic kit and saw that the model shown was flown by Eduard von Shleich, the same pilot represented in the markings of the replica Albatros D.Va at Rhinebeck. I had been flying a 1/4 scale Albatros modeled from the Rhinebeck A/C for years and became very interested in the Roland from the pilot connection.

It didn't take long to find that there was next to nothing for C.II documentation - my real work began. Over the years, I began poking around and soon was put in touch with interested parties all over Europe and the US and many sent photos and details that helped me take a stab at a set of drawings later published in WWIA No. 145. The drawings are far from perfect and contain several known errors (for now), and a fair amount of conjecture, but I needed drawings I could build from and stir up more interest in the plane. Perhaps others might be able to use some of my work to begin one of their own?

The first 1/4 scale model was a static copy constructed for a client and also served as a proof of concept for building procedures that I adopted in the current project.

I began the construction by mounting the frames on a heavy alum. angle beam as shown in the first photo. The beam was removed only after the covering was completed. After adding the stringers, I packed the frame, a section at a time with construction foam and shaved and sanded the foam down to the frame. This technique is detailed in WWIA No. 84, one of the Special Scale issues. On the first plane, I covered the fuse with 1/64 ply strips and because I had such a hard time getting the skin fair, I opted for strips of maple veneer on the latest effort, thinking that the veneer would be easier to sand down to shape. The mistake I made is that if I were to use veneer it should have been mahogany as it is more dimensionally stable with humidity than maple and it resulted in many small warps until sealed with the final finish two years after starting the covering. As the covering process progressed, the foam was cut out and I progressed to the next section, eliminating the need for solvents to remove the foam from the completed fuse. The final shape is pleasing but it has been a real effort. The fuse was eventually sealed with .5 oz glass cloth and thinned Envirotex and came out fine. I also found out too late that I could have saved some effort if I had assembled some of the interior hardware before covering - I was too anxious to cover!

Tom Polapink's (of Pfalz fame in particular) approach is one I might consider in the future where he builds for efficiency and function where the methods don't detract from final appearance and if I were to build another C.II, I might consider covering most of the fuse frame with balsa and using ply strips only where they would be visible on the inside of the cockpits. Something to think about? Final painting with latex is next - final weight should be about 6 lbs for completed fuse.

I'll cover the wing assy's as soon as I can get to it.

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...rameonbeam.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...eframewrap.jpg
(process during build w/ ply strips)

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...eringfuse1.jpg
(process during build w/ ply strips)

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...eringfuse2.jpg
(process during build w/ ply strips)

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...glassfuseR.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...lassfuse2R.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...sepainted1.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...sepainted2.jpg

Thanks for your attention - sorry if I'm too wordy!

Vern

Martin Irvine · 14 February 2007, 01:50 PM

Your Roland looks really nice Vern. I have a set of drawings I started a year ago for a 56" version using balsa skinned foam. I used the DataFile drawings as the basis. I figured that with the axes defined by the top and side views, the cross sections were just elipses - no?

Martin

VNulk · 14 February 2007, 03:50 PM

Hi Martin,

I didn't find that simple ellipses fit the frame. When I started the drawings, I realized that no one had drawn enough detail into the published illustrations and that I had little idea of what the shape of the frames were, or where they were positioned. Several photos helped me with locating size and shape. The best of the lot is attached. Then, as I had difficulty locating the quarter stringers on each frame, I built a foam mock-up of the fuse and plotted all the stringers such that they would line up properly on a finished construction. The frames and stringer locations proved to be fairly accurate, but needed a bit of tweaking with each construction so I edit the plans as I find better fits.

Does this help at all?

Have you started construction on yours? If so, how about some pictures.

Vern

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...Foammockup.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...e-onecover.jpg

Martin Irvine · 14 February 2007, 09:59 PM

Thanks Vern. No I haven't started construction yet - I'm working on a Lloyd 40.16 right now with a 40.15 right behind it.

I hadn't realized you had your plans in WWI Aero - (the problem with a good collection of documentation is that you lose track of what you have!) Your plans are much better detailed than the Windsock version. Yes, I can see that the fuselage formers have flatter sides than a true ellipse would give. I'll have to revisit my drawing with yours in hand. I am waiting for Dan San Abbott's book and hoping there might be some interesting colour schemes.

Martin

VNulk · 21 February 2007, 05:47 PM

While I get together info re: the wings construction, I thought I'd post links for the drawings I've used for reference. I use links as they provide better resolution that those I could attach within the forum pages.

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...Dwgs/Page1.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...Dwgs/Page2.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...Dwgs/Page3.jpg

These are a long way from perfect but I think they provide most of the best information we know about the A/C. I am continually adding details and better information as I am able.

SCMc · 21 February 2007, 09:26 PM

Vern,

Thank you for posting your drawings. I appreciate the comments that you have added, including those about sources and what is unknown. The comments are hard to read on Page2.jpg and Page3.jpg. In post #3 you had Page3 as a pdf. This provided a much clearer copy.

I hope that this thread is being read by people outside of the modeling community. Your quest for historical accuracy deserves a wider audience.

Thanks again,

Steve

VNulk · 22 February 2007, 05:35 PM

Thank you Steve for your comments. I apologize for the poor quality in the previous post. I too hope that as the drawings and any new photos that may surface from some, as yet, unknown source(s) are scrutinized, that corrections and/or additions come to light and I will be able to edit the drawings to make them as accurate and useful as possible. As I have mentioned before, they are far from construction drawings now but could be very useful to anyone who might want to reference them during a Roland C.II build.

As you mentioned, the pages last posted lack resolution so I'll re-post them here in .pdf format such that they can be enlarged to read the comments and details.
If there are any serious readers that would like enlargements, I encourage them to contact me and perhaps we can work out some arrangements for that.

Vern

VNulk · 5 April 2007, 06:03 PM

The approach I took to wing design and construction on this plane is focused on portability. In other projects, I concentrated so much on scale construction that I was left with a model that required fully functional wire rigging to keep the very flexible wing panels properly aligned. Such rigging can take up to six hours to tune and safety wire all turnbuckles and because of that, I have had to transport the model fully assembled, which in a 1/4 scale plane can be a challenge. The current Roland C.II wing structures make use of wing tubes, and modified scale internal structures to minimize the reliance upon functional rigging, although of course all wires are still installed.

The scale wing design builds upon two box beam spars that, by themselves, are very flexible span-wise. By adopting a design and commonly found in kits, the completed panels are much more rigid and are well suited to the installation of wing tubes to mount them to the fuselage.

The ribs were cut from 1/32 ply and the wing tips were formed from 10 epoxied layers of birch veneer bent onto a wood frame and sanded to final shape. The leading edge was made from balsa and trailing edge is 80# test plastic coated fishing leader. Each rib was capped with 1/32 plywood strips. The rib caps were covered with a length of 1/8 waxed electrical seizing ribbon (black) which was secured to the ribs with synthetic carpet threat (white). After covering, stitching is secured to the black seizing ribbon and rib tapes cover the stitching.

When the panel assembly was complete, a fabric tube of very light polyester fabric was pulled over the frame and secured to the wing root and tip with "StixIt" heat sensitive adhesive. If the wing tubes are properly sized, very little heat shrinking is required to draw the covering taut.

After the covering is tightened just a bit, outside stitching is sewn (I used a curved needle) to secure the fabric to the ribs. Most other giant scale modelers will rely upon adhesive on the ribs to secure the covering to them, even on an under-cambered structure. This approach had seemed to me a risky method to assure that the fabric doesn't part with an under-cambered rib but as my fascination with unseen (except to me) scale construction, and that so many have had undeniable success with the method, I think I'll follow suit in the future.

Rib tapes to cover the seizings are last and in this case will be fabric ribbon with the edges removed to allow for scale fraying of the edges. If the ribbon appears too heavy after application, I'll back off and use strips of the polyester covering instead.

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...rwingframe.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...rwingframe.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...apeseizing.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...mecovering.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...ecovering2.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...gstitching.jpg

Martin Irvine · 13 April 2007, 08:05 PM

Looks great Vern. Your point about portability is sometimes forgotten until you have some enormous airframe you can't take apart! I spend as much time figuring out how to deal with reasonably quick set-up and dismantling as any other part of a design.

Martin

VNulk · 13 April 2007, 08:30 PM

Thanks for your comments Martin. I know that one of my primary goals while building the Albatros was to build it to scale as much as possible, inside and out. In the end, although it is a beautiful flying plane, the construction methods, well, bit me in the end!

I'm quite a bit more focused on scale appearance now, with the possible exception of the wing covering/stitching which is a technique that I'm just comfortable with....for now.

A possible solution to the portability of a plane such as the Albatros is one that I've seen used elsewhere. Severe the fuselage just behind the cockpit and make it a bolt-on structure so the assembled forward fuse section and wings can be fit in a smaller space for transport.

Nevertheless, having the Roland wings slide onto wing tubes completely eliminates the transport problem, although it's still a long fuse. The few rigging wires that need to be attached should not be such a difficult problem to overcome.

Vern