Mini Bee by Angelwing Designs

[Hank GB Z]

Hey Y'all,


Thought i'd post up a thead on my new build. This is the Mini Bee from Angelwing Designs. It a version of the old Lazy Bee essentially. It's supposed to be a 2 chanel glider but i'm adding an electric motor to the nose of mine. I don't get to the slope enough to justify making it a glider, with the motor it becomes a park flyer i can fly more often.

I'm currently stuck in a hotel so i brought the kit and a bottle of glue with me. I went to a local store and they had a small pieces of MDF I grabbed one to be my building board, i also picked up a small cutting matt a box of pins and a small roll of tape.

I started the fuselage today. I got the first side framed up. Pretty traditional building the laser cutting is pretty good not to much burn marks on the back side. The motor im going to use is an emax 1106 bolted on to a 3d printed motor mount that looks like an old TeeDee 0.010. This will require quite a bit of rework to the nose and canopy area. But hey i've got time.

enjoy the pics,

Hank

 

[jure]

funny nice fake plastic engine !

 

[Hank GB Z]

Thanks Jure,


Yeah I got the fake motor from Willi Nillies. They also have some other cool stuff. I bought my dad the Q-Tee kit and fake 020 motor for it.

Hank

Willy Nillies

Find the latest and best selection of RC airplanes at our hobby shop. Explore our range of RC planes and accessories for enthusiasts of all levels.

willynillies.com

 

[Wayne]

Very nice, and good use of horrible hotel time!! I like your thinking.

 

[Hank GB Z]

Hey Thanks for all the comments guys. Not much done yesterday i had to work late. I did fit the servos to the servo tray. Much easier to do this now before putting the tray in the fuselage. The servos are Power HD HD-1440A that i got from Aloft hobbies.

Hank

 

[thenated0g]

@Hawaii Sloper was super impressed with the angelwings and stuff from @Red . We talked to the owner of angelwings about doing a big order to save on shipping but i think his wife has been sick so he has been not working on production very much lately.

 

[Hank GB Z]

Yeah. I wanted to order the prandtl wing but it was out of stock. The mini bee and pug kit I ordered took awhile to ship out he said he had to cut more kits. But it’s important to remember that for a lot of these small kit makers it’s a part time side hustle. So fast shipping isn’t always possible.

Hank

 

[Konrad]

How do you get these back home?

 

[Hank GB Z]

Hey Konrad,

Well it depends. If I’m driving home I just put it in the car. Otherwise I don’t finish assembling the wing. Then I make a stout box for it that fits in the overhead bin and cross my fingers. Right now I don’t plan on gluing the outer wing panels on this plane but if I find something suitable to pack it in I might.

This isn’t about finishing the model. It’s about staying sane.

Hank

 

[Hank GB Z]

Ok a few small updates, I got the second fuselage side built. Here is a pic of it still on the board. I have pulled it off the board but both sides need to go out side to be sanded. The film i used to protect the plans stuck pretty good to the balsa with ca. I looked at the sides and they look good The formers fit ok. Now that i have this off the plans i can start to draft a better nose for the motor system.

Hank

 

[Konrad]

Plan protectors. In the old days of cellulose and Elmer's white glue I used wax paper. Then I read that the wax might compromise the glue joint. So I switch to using Saran Wrap. And in modern times (late 70's) I started to use CA glues. Well, since Saran wrap is a plastic the CA stuck real well! I had to switch back to a waxed paper protector. Now it actually is difficult to find wax paper. So much that claims to be wax paper actually has a silicone release agent on it. I think I've had to go to specialty baking stores to find real wax paper.

 

[Wayne]

Oh darn - I still have a small stash of wax paper in my garage from a long time ago.. I almost tossed it out during a recent cleaning mission. Glad I saved it.

 

[Hank GB Z]

Well I’ve done a bit more work on the mini bee. I glued up the cowl. It is laminated from several pieces. I laid the out and cut what I would need to cut for the motor, before gluing all the parts together. It’s coming along well at the moment. Still needs lots of sanding and shaping.

I also sanded the sides of the fuselage and glued them to the servo tray. Tonight I plan on pulling the sides together at the back.

I’ll post pics later,

Hank

 

[Hank GB Z]

Ok here are the pics I promised. I pulled the fuselage sides together and one set of stringers was denser than the other so even though the rudder post is in line there is a bow to the fuse. I’m going to live with it. Won’t be able to tell when the wing is on and it won’t affect the flying.

Hank

 

[Wayne]

Looks really nicely built.

 

[doug35]

Plan protectors. In the old days of cellulose and Elmer's white glue I used wax paper. Then I read that the wax might compromise the glue joint. So I switch to using Saran Wrap. And in modern times (late 70's) I started to use CA glues. Well, since Saran wrap is a plastic the CA stuck real well! I had to switch back to a waxed paper protector. Now it actually is difficult to find wax paper. So much that claims to be wax paper actually has a silicone release agent on it. I think I've had to go to specialty baking stores to find real wax paper.

Try parchment paper from the baking section of the grocery. It is treated, but I have not seen it impact anything I have built on it.

 

[Haoyang Wang]

My wife was surprised that I need to use the most expensive brand of parchment paper in the baking section.

 

[Hank GB Z]

Ok, another small update. I've done a bit more work on the fuselage but i'm not really happy with it so i've set it aside to work on some other stuff.


The rudder is a single sheet item and has a bunch of holes cut in it that look like a bee and a flower. This looks cute but makes the rudder really weak. I've decided to keep the rudder with the bee since my daughter said she liked it. So i added a strip of 1/32 balsa to the bottom of the counter balance area to add some rigidity. That didn't really add as much as i would like so i sanded the o.d. back about 1/16 then added 2 laminations of 1/32 to the out side. I cut the strips for the laminations from scrap wood in the kit, let them soak in the sink for a couple of hours. I put tape around the rudder so the water wouldn't affect the wood much and i used tape to pull it around. After waiting a few days i glued the lamination on and sanded everything. It is much stiffer and will definitely help when i cover it to keep it from warping.

Normally in this situation i would have just made a whole new rudder being built up with the wood grain running the correct direction every where. However this is an ok compromise. I will do the same with the elevator and horizontal stab since it suffers from the same issues.

Hank

 

[Konrad]

Cute!
But because one has a laser cutter doesn't mean you should use it! This reminds me of my Lady Bug hoops. BTW; anybody have a surce for Trexler wheels?

 

[Hank GB Z]

I don't know about a source but i might have a few I got from an estate. I'll check when i get home.

Hank