Scheibe-Loravia Topaze 1:4.2-Scale

Part I: The Initial Build

The Topaze was built under licence in France as a version of the popular Scheibe SF 27, and took my eye some years ago, culminating in a version scaled to 1:3.5. Three more versions followed over the years until recently, in line with my current down-sizing regime, I produced a version at an OAP-friendly 1:4.2-scale. Spanning three-and-a-half metres, and weighing in at 10lbs, this is a sweet-flying and practically-sized scale glider.

This time around we will look at the some of the building process, before finishing off with the project completion in next month’s issue. You can click any of the pictures below for a higher resolution version.

01: First stage of fuselage construction on the ‘Bridson’ jig. (Alternative simplified jig would be a suitably-sized straight piece of wood)

02: Fuselage almost ready to be removed from the jig.

03: Now, the front end can be filled and sanded to shape.

04: First stage of all-moving tailplane (AMT) construction.

05: Hinging up the rudder to the fin

06: Tail group now completed.

07: Finalising the wheel house arrangement.

08: Rear end complete, including the guide tubes for the rudder cables.

09: The wing joiner box is anchored to its own former via two aluminium brackets.

10: First stage of wing construction.

11: The ailerons are built flat on the board and top-hinged.

12: Making up the centre wing/fuselage fairing.

13: The airbrakes are best made up simultaneously to ensure they are properly ‘handed’.

14: Installing the airbrake assembly into the wing.

15: Underside view of the wing/fuselage.

16: Free plan available in PDF format (see Resources below).

See you next month, where I will wrap things up. In the interim, if you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the Responses section, below, and I’ll do my best to answer as many as I can.

©2021 Chris Williams

Resources

Finished Aircraft Specifications:

• Scale: 1:4.2
• Span: 3.57M
• Weight: 4.5kg (10lbs)
• Wing Section: HQ3514–12

1:4.2-Scale Topaze Free Plan (three PDFs):

• Fuselage
• Wing
• Tailplane

Detailed Build Photo Gallery

• Coming shortly…watch this space!

All images and drawings by the author. Read the next article in this issue, return to the previous article in this issue or go to the table of contents. A PDF version of this article, or the entire issue, is available upon request.