Kitebuilder.com - Fly... with a little help from your friends.

DxFoster

I'd seen this picture of Ralph Deitrich's Hata a number of times.

I always wondered how he managed to produce the skin. Curiosity got the better of me and I went looking for an English version of his plans. Never did find the English version. Managed to get a rough translation and along with all the construction pictures, was able to come up with my version of Ralph's Kite.

Here's the skin I came up with:
Note- this is a LH version of Ralph's kite- my left side is Ralph's right side

I didn't want to copy his kite exactly (plus I didn't have the blue color ripstop) so did a a green color plan.

Ralph has a really neat way of constructing a Bargello skin. Basically he came up with a design that involved using two identical layouts of ripstop nylon. The only difference between the two layouts is the color of the strips- they have contrasting colors from layout to layout.

Here's a picture showing Ralph's layouts. I followed these layouts to construct my bargello skin, just changing the color scheme.

The layout shows the color pattern and the width of each strip (in cm). You can see that from layout to layout the widths are the same, its the colors that are different, they contrast. Note that black is every other strip.
Each layout is made up of 26 strips of varied widths.

The ripstop has been cut to width and laid out on the table according to the design.
Strips are ready to be sewn together to make up the two layouts.

Both layouts have been sewn with a straight stitch and a 1/4" seam allowance

The following picture shows the two layouts with the seam allowance folded over and sewn in place.
NOTE- each seam allowance has been folded towards the center of a black strip. Each layout is now ready to have horizontal strips cut.

26 strips are now cut, 13 from each layout. The strips are cut in the same width's and sequence as shown in Ralph's layout- the trick is to alternate from lay out to layout as the strips are cut. The 12cm strip is cut from layout 1, the next, 10cm strip is cut from layout 2; the 9cm strip from #1; the 7cm strip from 2 until all 26 strips have been cut.
The last strip being cut:

The completed skin:

Completed kite on its first day of flying:

Was a bit gusty so the kite was moving around a lot. Made the mistake on the first flight to fly with out a tail. Kite went up and up and up till it stalled, turned to face the ground and went straight down. The line was tied down so I had no control over it, my only thought was, well now I'll find out how well its built. The Velcro holding the spine in place popped (thank goodness), other than that, I lucked out- no damage. Started playing with different tails and what worked the best and looked the best was two 100' tails.

Got to do something about the color of the tails- trying to figure how to make a bargello graded tail!

Really happy with the kite. Got a nice low to medium wind kite.

Dennis

kenny KAF · Joined: 04 Oct 2010 Posts: 599 Location: lyon, france

Wow!!! wonderful kite! Congratulations!

I may give it a try some day... Need to add Bargello design on my to-do list Laughing

_________________
if there's no solution, it means there's no problem

OldGoat · Joined: 01 Apr 2006 Posts: 3718

Beautiful kite and beautiful work. Thank you for sharing the step be step. Smile

powder_pig · Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 3:41 pm Post subject:

Thanks for taking the time to explain in clear, easy to understand, language with the well thought out photos. It's easy to miss the fact that, because you understand the process, things that are a slam dunk for you can be confusing to others. This is great. Thanks. Very Happy

Beautiful kite. Very Happy

_________________
Ron

It's sunny and windy in the summer and cold and snowy in the winter...this must be what heaven is like.

KiteSquid · Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 3:49 pm Post subject:

Nice kite and the graphic is eye popping!!!!!

Nice color selection too.

so what else did you learn???
_________________
VR/
KiteSquid AKA TakoIka AKA Harold of King George VA
PS Yet another post by the Squid... Shocked

Doesn’t he ever shut up?
PPS The wind is like the air, only pushier.
PPPS All information provided is for hobby use. None may be used commercially.
PPPPS Vir sapit qui pauca loquitur. x11.5K
PPPPPS Please excuse my speling errorors.

TBHinPhilly · Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 4:13 pm Post subject:

Fantastic kite. With great explanation and detail to boot. Thanks for sharing it.
_________________
Ben

reynolds5520 · Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 4:52 pm Post subject:

Wow Dennis, you've got the Bargello techniques locked! I am looking forward to seeing this one up close the next time we fly together.

.
_________________
.

Kevin R

Recently Completed:
Square Beam No. 3 workshop at U-MAKE

Now on the table:
piles of unrelated stuff Crying or Very sad

But some of it is chocolate Very Happy

Next up (if I don't get sidetracked yet again - who am I kidding, I am ALWAYS sidetracked):
Probably a kite workshop somewhere...

JC · Joined: 17 Apr 2005 Posts: 800 Location: Belgium

thanks for posting this, Smile

_________________
JC

I like copy-kites....

nckiter · Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Posts: 1157 Location: USA NC Apex

This puts a bargello on the to do list! Looks Awesome!

_________________
Kip Clement
Apex, NC
Quads and SLKs

DarrylW · Joined: 02 Jun 2005 Posts: 1937 Location: Holland, Michigan

That looks awesome but it's seriously screwing up my eyes. Shocked

Darryl
_________________
If I knew what I was saying, I probably wouldn't have said it.

Lex B · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 7:54 am Post subject:

nckiter · Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Posts: 1157 Location: USA NC Apex

I understand (I think) about laying and stitching the seam to the black strips when doing the two initial pieces. Now when you cross cut and assemble for the final pattern, you get the "checker board" of alternating black sections. Sooooo..., when you sew these strips together and after the first straight stitch on the seam, are you snipping the seam so you can continue to lay it on the black sections for your final ZZ, that is right- left- right- left..... ? Or are you just laying it over to one side and ZZing it down?

As clean as the back lit photos look, I'm thinking you must be snipping the seam.
_________________
Kip Clement
Apex, NC
Quads and SLKs

reynolds5520 · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 1:41 pm Post subject:

Looks like it isn't snipped, just all laid one way. If you look closely at the picture of the skin back lit in the window, you can see the shadow of the black edge behind the light colors.
_________________
.

Kevin R

Recently Completed:
Square Beam No. 3 workshop at U-MAKE

Now on the table:
piles of unrelated stuff Crying or Very sad

But some of it is chocolate Very Happy

Next up (if I don't get sidetracked yet again - who am I kidding, I am ALWAYS sidetracked):
Probably a kite workshop somewhere...

Jeepster · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 3:25 pm Post subject:

Awesome kite. Love it!!!

Cheers,
Tom

DxFoster · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 4:41 pm Post subject:

Kevins right "Looks like it isn't snipped, just all laid one way".

The two original layouts, that had alternating black strips worked out perfect for folding the seam allowance towards the darker strip. After the layouts were cut horizontally and sewn together the seam allowance was folded one way (except for three 1.5 cm strips). At this point my only concern was the structural integrity of the kite. I wanted to have a complete run of stitching across the kite to lock the stitches on the rotary cut horizontal strips. I did the triple stitch zig-zag, again for structural reasons. Still not sure if that is over kill but didn't want to chance it with 626 total squares in the kite.

Picture showing back side of finished kite.

Now wondering what stitching you would have used on this kite?

Dennis

TBHinPhilly · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 4:48 pm Post subject:

Given the fact that it is constructed from strips, which are then rotary cut and resewn, I would use the 3 step zig-zag for stability and flatness in the final skin. I think you made the right choice - and looking at it clearly establishes that it worked really, really well.
_________________
Ben

nckiter · Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Posts: 1157 Location: USA NC Apex

OK thanks! I think I gots it! Very Happy

_________________
Kip Clement
Apex, NC
Quads and SLKs

alanballou · Joined: 26 Feb 2011 Posts: 240 Location: Chesterfield, VA

excellent! A job to be ultimately proud of!
_________________
"Normal" is just a setting on the dryer

Fore Check · Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:29 am Post subject:

I like it. Cool

However.... Laughing

Just thinking about what's used as the top stitch (3-step zag in this case)

...I personally would use a small, applique sized single zig-zag. But hey, tomyato, tomAHto... Laughing

The results speak for themselves.

_________________
Simon

Discovering Something that Doesn't Exist...

Radix Lecti Rex

mototrev · Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 9:42 am Post subject:

Fabulous stuff...thanks for the tutorial!
_________________
Trev-(R)

As my wife often says: "Trev- Go fly a kite!