PolyWog-
Teach kids to build this fun model and they’ll learn a new hobby to last a lifetime!
PHOTOGRAPHY: BILL WARNER W
hen I began teaching in junior high in 1960, all teachers were requested to start a club. Hav- ing built models as a kid, I jumped at the chance. Little did I know then that model airplanes would become one of the most important things in my life! One of the first things I had to do was to find appropriate projects, and I literally tried everything I could find that was suit- able for beginners. I was learning a lot as I went, getting involved with people who knew what they were doing such as Bill Hannan, Walt Mooney, and Frank Zaic, and spending every chance I could get designing and building new projects.
Soon we were using winders and better rubber, adding polyhedral, and stretching the fuselages to those 29-cent wonders. From there, I designed a 1⁄32-inch balsa sheet model of my own called the Mini-Wog, using a flat wing with raised tips. It flew pretty well, and turned in 1–2 minute flights in thermals. In the mid-’60s the Poly-Wog was born of the Mini, having a more pleasing shape and polyhedral. It flew so well that one of my Balsa Butchers even made one with a wingspan of several feet, which he flew on rubber power in a contest at Taft. The Poly-Wog was not designed as just a beginner’s model, but as a high-performance, simple transition from a really super-simple anyone-can-build-without-supervision to a stick and tissue plane. It was, and is, best built with a small group, led by an experi- enced modeler building and demonstrating each step before the students take it. Learning is twofold: First: reading a plan, following directions, and learning building
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skills and secondly learning the basics of aerodynamics and aeronautics.
The model is built of balsa. Light “B/C”
grain 1⁄32-inch sheet for the wing and tail is best, and 1⁄8-inch hard balsa for the fuselage. Make two photocopies of the plan, and cut one up for patterns, which can be either stuck down on the balsa using an “Elmer’s Repositionable Glue Stick” or just traced around with a ball-point pen. I use a phone book to cut on, and also for using the glue stick. You can tear off the sticky page, or hacked-up pages and have a fresh working surface.
Balsa wood is porous, so put a light coat of glue on each surface you are going to join and allow to dry. Then put on a second coat, and assemble, holding the parts together for a couple minutes until set. When dry, smearing a thin coat of glue on the joints is a good idea. Walmart’s “Multi-Purpose Cement” is great. I strongly recommend not using “instant” glue.
Getting it together You can use a ready-made Sleek-Streek- type prop hanger assembly from Easy Built Models
www.easybuiltmodels.com or Peck Polymer
www.a2zcorp.us/store, with a 5- or 6-inch plastic prop.
If you use a ready-made assembly, it helps to cut out a bit of the plastic hanger (glue and bind with thread to get a bit more rub- ber clearance). Cutting this can be danger- ous, so be careful. Sometimes the knife slips or the plastic can break.
Another way to make a front end is to use a short length of 1⁄32-inch aluminum tubing and a spacer block, which is worth the extra work. The spacer block needs to be angled for
downthrust (see picture), and the roughed-up- so-the-glue-will-stick tube should be glued on pointing slightly to the right as seen from the top. Glue and bind with thread. A glass bead goes between the prop and the bearing block. Buy or make a prop shaft of 1⁄32-inch music wire.
The empennage (tail): Glue the stab on the underside of the fuselage. Gluing the rudder to the side of the fuselage, instead of on top, keeps it nice and straight. Rear rubber hook: Bend a straight pin for the rear rubber motor attachment point and glue and bind. Note: the position on the fuselage is not optional. Rubber motors: 1⁄8-inch flight rubber
works fine. If you do not have a rubber winder, a loop of 1⁄8-inch about the same length as the distance between the prop and rear hooks will work best for finger winding. For high performance, make the loop as long as the fuselage and use a winder. Building the wing: The wing has three sections which meet at angles. Note that where they glue together the edges are curved in a bit to allow for them to be put to- gether while cambered. Sanding each joint a little with an angled sanding block makes for a better fit. See the dihedral sketch and photos for a rough idea as to the angles. This is not critical, but should be close. Lick the top surface with your tongue, (swells the wood fibers on top and gives you a dandy camber). Glue the curved wing for- mers underneath using the double-gluing technique. When dry, applying a light coat of glue at each join is good.
The pylon is cut from fuselage material and glued under the center of the wing. The
FEBRUARY 2013 By Bill Warner
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