So, back in the spring of ’22, Ron and I went to the Toledo swap meet where Ron bought a Stevens Aero HeMg2 2M glider. I was very interested in that design and have enjoyed flying it whenever Ron offers. However, I wanted my own. As luck would have it, about the time I decided to start looking into finding a suitable kit for myself, one kept showing up on my FB feed. It’s name is Vimana which, apparently, is an ancient reference to a flying Roman city. It checked all the boxes for me; It was a 2.6m, powered glider. It flies on 3ch, and it’s super good-looking. Plus it breaks down for easy transport. The down side, if there is any, is the fact that it had to be shipped all the way from Brazil, lol. Bluesky Airmodels has been producing kits, mostly gliders, for about a year now and are gathering steam in the gliding community. Their kits are well-engineered for an enjoyable build experience from quality materials. I thoroughly enjoyed building the kit, and can’t wait to get it in the air. Follow along as I build this unique and easy-to-build airplane!
Here is how the kit arrived all the way from Brazil! Al at BlueSky got the kit cut and shipped to me in less than three weeks!The kit was very well packaged and double-boxed. Inside, all the parts were safe and secure inside the bubble wrapped bundle.This is how all the parts came out of the box. It includes all the balsa parts to build the airplane, and a modest hardware package.Full-size plans aren’t necessary with this kit. The inter-locking design of the parts eliminate the need for building on top of the plans.All of the balsa parts are laser cut.The laser-cutting is excellent! Some of the parts nearly fell out of their sheets! Here’s everything unpacked. All the parts were in great shape despite the long trek from Brazil.Al left tiny little “islands” of balsa that required a cut with the trusty Exacto to free them from their sheets.I was very happy with the quality and weight of the balsa included in the kit. It made for easy work separating the parts from their laser cut sheets.I sanded all of the parts after separating them to try to remove as much of the ‘burning’ on the edges since I was planning on using transparent film for the covering. 220 grit shown here on the old GP Easy touch sanding bar.I used the roll of sandpaper to sand the inside edges of the concave shapes.Here the fin is coming together. Al cuts and labels the parts with the laser. Assembly is always with the labels facing up and/or to the outside as if you were sitting in the airplaneHere I’m using a straightedge to ensure alignment since I’m not using reference lines as I would if building over the plans.Fin and rudder assembled!This is what happens when you build with CA over wax paper. I have used this method for years without this problem. I must have a bad batch of paper. I switched to cling wrap, and I am much happier for it, lol.Starting to assemble the horizontal stab and elevator.Here the horizontal stab and elevator are almost complete. I really like the shape of it! Note the cling wrap under the parts.Sanding everything flat…And I’m done with the empennage! Although the plans and instructions didn’t call for it, I sanded a taper into the trailing edges of both the rudder and elevator. I think it looks better that way.The battery hatch went together quickly, with only 7 pieces, lol.Here’s a look at the inside of the hatch. Pretty straightforward stuff.Cutting out the ribs and getting them all sanded smooth was probably the most time consuming part of the build, next to covering.The rib spacing is automatically set with the laser cut slots in the spars.Everything locks in place without fuss. Easy!All of the parts are assembled ‘dry’, then glued together when almost fully assembled to help guarantee alignment.Here, in addition to the leading and trailing edges, the gussets are added.Adding the sub-ribs completes the bones for one of two center wing panels.After completing both center panels, construction moves on to the outer panels, where the process is similar.With all four panels constructed, I moved on to sheeting them.The pre-cut sheeting was nice to work with.The sheeting is all laser cut, and fit really well with only minor touch-ups with the sanding bar. As you can see, it’s cut a little long so it can be sanded for a good fitting joint.Here I’m using my Master Airscrew razor plane to trim the sheeting flush with the fronts of the ribs.The leading edge all sanded ready for the balsa leading edge cap, which is also laser cut to shape!Here the laser cut leading edge balsa cap is glued on one of the center panels.Here’s an outer panel all ready for final shaping and sanding.In retrospect, I would wait to glue on the wing tip until this step (you can see it glued on previous to this) as it gets in the way of trimming the sheeting flush with the rib fronts.The razor plane hard at work! I used the kit box to catch the shavings, lol.I knew I wanted to add lights to the model even before I ordered the kit, so I ordered a roll of 12v LED strip lights from Amazon. My plan was to add them to the surface of the spar, shining aft. Ron found some that are narrower than these, so next time I’ll use those!I used my super-long 3/16″ drill bit to drill holes to pass the wiring from strip to strip.Here’s what it looked like after drilling the holes.Since the LED strip can only be cut every third LED, I cut 20 sections of three-light strips, and stuck them to every other rib bay in all four wing panels.Here’s how they look installed. Once construction is done, and before covering, I’ll solder them all together.Here you can see how I mounted the LED strips in every other rib bay. I peeled off the waterproof rubbery outer coating to save some weight.4 panels become 2! I’ve joined the outer and inner wing panels together for each wing half. It’s starting to look like a big wing.And the wing construction is done!Moving on to the fuselage. It’s a long fuselage, which necessitates producing the fuse halves in pieces that need to be joined together.I stacked the second half on top of the first, with cling wrap in between, so I made sure to get two identical fuse halves.Fuselage construction moves along fairly quickly thanks to the interlocking nature of the design.I used a speed square (not in the pic) to make sure the formers were at 90* to the fuse sides before I added any glue.Here all the formers are glued and ready to be joined with the other half.This is the magnetic hatch hold down.Joining it all together was a simple matter of sticking all the protruding tabs into their respective slots on the other fuse half. It was impossible to get it mis-aligned!I wanted lights in the fuselage too. So I cut slots in the fuselage top and bottom……then I added balsa sheet slightly wider than the slot to the inside of the top and bottom to create a mounting floor for the LED’s.I made sure to leave room at either end for the wiring.The LED strip can only be cut where indicated on the strip. In my case, it could be cut at every third LED. So I cut the strips as long as I could to fit as much fuselage as I could.Adding the firewall using epoxy. It’s worth noting that the entire airframe, minus the firewall, empennage and wing panel joints, was assembled with CA.I’m using a brushless outrunner-type motor, which means the only part of the motor sticking out of the fuselage is the motor shaft. I used the Dremel to make some additional space for the motor wiring so it doesn’t rub on the motor housing while running.The motor is a good, but snug fit inside the nose. You can see here why it was necessary to remove some material from the inside to make room for the motor wires.Dry-fitting the tail to see if it looks ‘right’, lol.TLAR = That Looks About Right!LED’s attached and I’ve started soldering them together.On the fuselage, I was able to get four LED strips on the bottom, and two on the top. Should be bright!What the wiring looks like from the inside. When I was done soldering the LED strips together, I glued on the fuselage top pieces.Here’s how I wired the LED’s in the wing.Since I’ll be using an 11.1v 3-cell Li-Po for power, I wired up the connections as if they were servos. I soldered a pigtail on to the battery connector to a basic on/off switch so I could turn them off or on.And there was light!Final shaping/sanding of the fuse after the wiring was done.The nose before shaping.Looks like an airplane! It takes up a lot of room when assembled, lol.I like it!Pretty basic covering job, but I like the orange/white combo.Here’s the wing with the lights on. I dig the alternating lights in the rib bays.Lori used the Cricut to cut me some sweet decals!Fuselage getting some covering.Almost done! I toyed with the idea of adding neon green to the color-scheme, but I’m glad I left it off. I really like how it turned out with just the orange and white.I covered the LED’s with transparent orange, then covered over that with a piece of white with slots to expose the orange. I think it looks neat.Pretty basic radio install. 2-56 rod-in-tube pushrods with z-bends at the servos and clevises at the control surfaces.Done and ready for the maiden.Looks good at night……and looks good in the sun!
