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Widow's Mesh


riffclown
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A familiar pattern. Looking at 7x8 or 5x7 strips.. Just trying to keep it even. Thinking I might go with a Spider motif on this one given the weblike appearance. More soon.. all but 2 strips are hemmed.. everything not done is still undecided at this point.. will make the LE Sleeve tomorrow. Probably Black this time.. just to be completely different.

20181225_215043.jpg

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Are you going to include leading edge mesh? This type of venting pretty eliminates the need for it. It can save you a step or two during construction and some materials, and if you build a higher aspect ratio sail it will increase the kite's overall speed, regaining some of the speed that the massive venting removed.

Of course, that would involve shortening the uprights, but if you don't mind a non-interchangeable frame . . . 

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18 minutes ago, makatakam said:

Are you going to include leading edge mesh? This type of venting pretty eliminates the need for it. It can save you a step or two during construction and some materials, and if you build a higher aspect ratio sail it will increase the kite's overall speed, regaining some of the speed that the massive venting removed.

Of course, that would involve shortening the uprights, but if you don't mind a non-interchangeable frame . . . 

I will have the LE mesh (or some facsimile thereof) always. It is my preferred technique. I've made several high aspect kites, including a few that rival the super sonic for aspect ratio.  I made one that was full width but only about a foot high. It was a scream across the window but very hard to control due to smaller height emphasizing the vertical controls. Seemed like flying just the leading edge almost.  I made a few that were 1.5 width but only B2 in height. those seemed to be a good aspect for speed but did not like the mesh when I tried that due to the aspect conflicting with the actual surface area of the kite.  Not a fan of the holes and even less of a fan of the direct transition. I've made a few like that and it just doesn't do it for me. 

This one is for my personal bag and probably isn't going anywhere so it will be a standard 1.5 size frame-wise. I may tweak out the bridles a bit but the size is firm in my head already..

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About an hour's worth of work and now you can see the Spider. It's a little rough but it's also my first try at this level of detail. In retrospect, I made the legs too thin to be back-cut well so I'll only back cut the hourglass which will be bright red.

20181228_203510.jpg

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First a slight disclaimer. since this was my first real attempt at doing any sort of detailed applique, I used scraps to start with. The black was two triangular pieces seamed diagonally to give me roughly a notebook page sized rectangle. The midnight blue PolyMax was two pieces cut from the last kite and seamed in the center to make a triangle to build upon. I was NOT expecting this to actually work so didn't plan ahead on a few fronts. First rollback decision was to no back cut due to the thinness of the legs. This decision gave me a nice black spider even on the backside when light is shining through. This decision also allowed me to work a small piece of classic Robin red between the layers of the body so I could fully back cut the hourglass from both sides..End result is the hourglass just glows and the double layers of fabric around it makes it look even brighter..

20181229_084730.jpg

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First a slight disclaimer. since this was my first real attempt at doing any sort of detailed applique, I used scraps to start with. The black was two triangular pieces seamed diagonally to give me roughly a notebook page sized rectangle. The midnight blue PolyMax was two pieces cut from the last kite and seamed in the center to make a triangle to build upon. I was NOT expecting this to actually work so didn't plan ahead on a few fronts. First rollback decision was to no back cut due to the thinness of the legs. This decision gave me a nice black spider even on the backside when light is shining through. This decision also allowed me to work a small piece of classic Robin red between the layers of the body so I could fully back cut the hourglass from both sides..End result is the hourglass just glows and the double layers of fabric around it makes it look even brighter..
20181229_084730.thumb.jpg.3e76b6cea5c179603bf7a67221a6691f.jpg

Good job.


Sent from my iPhone using KiteLife mobile app
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Thank You Mark..
Framed and Bridled. This kite is ready for wind.. Unfortunately, no breeze to try it in today. Flight pics and video soon.. Bridles and loose ends will be trimmed up after flight test..
20181230_153432.thumb.jpg.e6c982750323ba3016e9aafda440635d.jpg
Very nice, Riff. Hope you get great winds soon.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using KiteLife mobile app

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My video didn't turn out very good due to camera angles but I was able to get a few stills from it.. This kite is not as responsive as the snowflake kite but it will eat gusts like no other kite I've ever flown.  Hopefully I can get some usable video today before the wind dies out..

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