In this article I present you a detailed description of the manufacture of skis for aircraft models. These skis are designed for small (about 500-800 grams) models. For larger models, it is recommended that instead of a ruler, use a wider plywood from fruit boxes to model didn't fall into the snow.
Materials and tools:
- Wooden rulers
- steel wire
- PVA glue
- Jigsaw
- Round pliers and pliers
- A screwdriver with a thin drill
- Clothespins
- pencil
- Acrylic paints
- Varnish
- brush
Step 1. Bend the workpiece.
We start by bending the blank for runners from the line.
We boil water in a kettle and in a pan on the stove. We put a ruler (50 cm) on the pan and pour it with boiling water in the center.
After a few minutes, we begin to gently bend the ruler, immersing its central part in a pan with boiling water. The most important thing is to be patient, since the ruler will not bend right away, it takes time for the wood fibers to get wet. If the ruler does crack, you should not throw it away - continue to bend. In the end, the skis will still work, only not very bent.
You can fix the ends of the workpiece with anything: clothespins, a vice, elastic bands ... I used a tire from a model wheel.
I recommend to leave to dry all night. In the meantime, the base dries, you can do skiing.
Step 2. Making overlays.
Cut the pads with a jigsaw from a ruler or from thin plywood. We cut in such a way that the wood fibers of the long parts and the short central ones are crosswise. Lining length - 10 cm. Height - 1.5 cm (central part - 2 cm).
We glue the short central parts with PVA glue and fix with clothespins. I highly recommend the Moment PVA glue in a tube. Grabbing in a few minutes, and after half an hour no longer tear.
Step 3. Glue the skis.
We cut the bent blank in half, rest the halves in something with the bow, measure and saw off about 5-7 cm and grind the sliding surface of the skis with fine sandpaper.
We drill holes in the pads for the diameter of the axles of the chassis, then glue the pads to the skids of the skis, retreating 1.5 cm from the back of the ski. The ski on the axis should not dangle too much, only rotate on this axis.
Step 4. Painting and springs.
We paint with acrylic paint in any suitable color. I painted in black, because light acrylic paint does not paint over the numbers and markings on the ruler at all. For better readability of the model in the air, only the upper part of the skis can be painted, leaving the lower sliding surface intact.But this is a matter of taste and the overall color scheme of the final model.
While the paint dries, we bend the springs, for which we take two pieces of steel wire 12 cm long. On one side of the spring is a hook, with it the spring will cling to the landing gear, and on the other hand, leave it straight.
We cover finished skis with varnish. It is better to cover the sliding surface several times.
When the varnish has dried, weigh the skis (for further centering of the aircraft model). These skis weigh 24 grams.
Step 5. Change the plane.
We remove the wheels from the model, fix the wire springs (you may need to solder them) and put them on the axis of the ski. The tips of the springs should be directed to the tail of the model and look down (about 15 degrees down from the horizontal).
We bend the ends of the springs with pliers (the bend is not more than 1 cm), drill holes in the ski pads and insert the bent ends into these holes. It remains only to fix the skis with purchased clips or terminal blocks.
The front ends of the skis, when lifting the model, must be lifted up due to the action of the spring. This is necessary so that when landing the skis do not "dive" into the snow, thereby causing the model to tip over. If this does not happen, shorten the ends of the springs, or take a thicker wire.
One of my ski models is shown in the photo.
On small models, it is not necessary to do tail skiing - when the model accelerates on takeoff, the tail part rises above the surface and the plane goes skiing without touching the snow with its rear wheel.
There is a video of winter flights: