Chad Veich

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Great news John, thanks for the update. I kinda figured you would be happy with Manzano's quality. Looking forward to your build of the Hellcat.

hessian123

I just picked up one of these kits at the Warbirds Over The Rockies (WOTR) charity auction. I haven't given it an exhaustive look for completeness, but I do know it is missing the cowl. Is the cowl and/or any other kit parts available for purchase separately so I can make this into a complete kit? I can tell the wood is lazer cut, but is there any way to tell when it was cut and by whom? I'm a very novice but aspiring builder, so I'm looking forward to studying the contents of this thread and getting my own hellcat built. Thanks!

Chad Veich

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Chances are this is the kit that I donated as a pilot's prize to WOTR last year. A fiberglass cowl was included with the kit but in a different box since it will not fit in the kit box itself. I can provide a replacement cowl but it will probably be towards the end of October before I will be getting more of them. Please send me an email and we can discuss the details hessian123.

Chad
[email protected]

hessian123

Chad, thanks for quick reply. I was able to speak to one of the event coordinators today and they will check if the cowl is still around somewhere. If it's not, then I'll be taking you up on your offer to get a replacement. One more question, is there a kit manifest accessible somewhere that I can check the rest of the contents against?

Thanks again!

Chad Veich

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Hessian123,

I can provide you with an inventory list for the kit, just send me an email and I will reply with the files attached. Fingers crossed that the cowl will turn up!

[email protected]

hessian123

I got an email off to you a little while ago. Thanks for your help with this.

js3

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Hi Chad,

Before I start applying glue to wood, do you advise cleaning up the laser cut lines or should I just glue the pieces as is?

Thanks,

Chad Veich

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John,

I've never really bothered with cleaning up the laser cut edges and have not had any trouble.

js3

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Thus far I have the fin built and have made progress on the stab/ele on my Hellcat project. I'm not going to post photos in this thread unless they differ from what has already been provided or if I modify the plane or deviate from the plans in a significant way. The content of this thread is valuable so I won't clutter it up with more pix of the same thing.

That said I am considering deviating from the instructions in the construction of the rudder. I am thinking about making a built up structure and covering with coverall or similar fabric, fashioning a rounded LE of the rudder and using hinge points rather than CA hinges. Not sure what I'll decide on this. If I build the rudder this way, I should probably do this to the other control surfaces as well. Not sure I want to go there.

I do plan to make significant changes to the way the flaps are actuated. I doubt I'll add the piano hinge gap sealing mechanism to the underside of the wing but I think I can get the flaps to actuate back and down rather than just dropping from the TE. We'll see if I can do this without adding a bunch of weight.

Chad Veich

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There should be no issue with a built up rudder (or other fabric surfaces) but I'm not sure of the advantage. The reason for not using built up, fabric covered surfaces for the flaps, elevators and ailerons is because these items are built integral with their respective surfaces and then cut free after sheeting. This makes it much simpler to get everything accurate, particularly in the case of the flaps and ailerons which have a twist built into them due to the wash out. Trying to construct these surfaces seperate from the wing and getting them to all line up properly when complete can be a real exercise in frustration. Simpler, in my opinion, to build them integral and then simulate the fabric covering. The fabric covering on the full size is stretched quite taught and if it were not for the stitching and pinking you would be hard pressed to tell they are fabric covered at all. I did not build up and cover the rudder in my kit simply so that it would match the rest of the control surfaces and would accept the "faux" fabric effect in the same manner as the rest of the surfaces. As for scale hinging, that could be accomplished relatively easily using the normal methods and Robart hinge points. At least where the rudder and elevator are concerned. The ailerons on the Hellcat use an external hinge which is visible on the underside of the wing. This too could be replicated with a little effort. There is a thread here on RCU about modifying a CMP Hellcat to be more scale in which Luke Zollner details how he did the scale aileron hinges. A search of this forum would probably turn up that old thread which has lots of good Hellcat info in it.

Tighe O'Meara built his Hellcat with flaps and used Robart hinge points mounted externally to simulate the slotted type flap of the full size airplane. This is a scale compromise though as the hinges are visible beneath the surface of the wing which is not accurate. My system is more scale in appearance but less scale in operation. Everything is a compromise!

js3

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Thanks for the reply Chad. I'll look up that other thread for the tips on hinging. Yes, I was aware of how the ailerons are hinged. Seems pretty unusual. Do you know why Grumman chose this method?

I do like how you've engineered the surfaces to be integral to the wing and stab then cut free later. That does make things easier to align. Good point about the rudder matching the other surfaces as well. You've convinced me. I'll be needing those 3/8" rudder pieces after all. At this point, you can include them with the plastic parts when you're ready to ship those.

On the flaps, I plan to make a mock up before attempting to modify the actual parts. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to use the mechanism and still have a scale appearance. Problem is, it might require three servos. Or I might be able to get it to work with four bell cranks. We'll see.

js3

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Oh, and I'll be keeping an eye peeled on your site for info on finishing! I'm intrigued with your method for simulated fabric surfaces.

baldguy

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When I get my kit I will just do the faux fabric covering. The originals were quite tight. As far as the flaps are concerned, I'd rather have scale appearance than scale operation. Hard to see the flaps operate while flying, and this is a sport scale model. It just happens to look really scale!

js3

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I got the stab and elevators sheeted then trimmed to shape. The trailing edge came out a little wavy so I used a steam iron to flatten it. It worked really well! After a little while the warp returned somewhat but it should sand out just fine.

portablevcb

For ease of ordering we have the laser cut parts up on the web site.

www.manzanolaser.com

Have fun folks!

charlie bice
manzano laser works

Chad Veich

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Thanks for the heads up Charlie! Just minor typo though, the home page says 72" span when in fact the airplane is only 64". You got it right on the "New Releases" page though. Thanks for all your hard work, it's been a pleasure working with Manzano.

Chad Veich

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John,

You can also flatten out the t.e. again right before you cover or glass them which should then hold them straight. Glad to hear that somebody is actually making progress on their Hellcat! I have cleaned up my garage working space and will be back to work on mine within the next week.

Sharpeye22

Hi Chad,
I was wondering how you layed out your panal lines and hatch locations. I can not seem to get mine where they look right. I have tried a few suggestions by my club members but they just do not appear to be in the right place.

I will be doing mine in Red as well. (It will be one of the few of my planes without a pilot setting in the cock pit.) Ido plan on a full cockpit though and am looking forward to seeing how you do your second one.

Chad Veich

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Larry,

I used the same 5-view drawings that were used to design the model to lay out my panel lines and hatches which makes things a bit easier. When the model and drawing do not match exactly the best you can do is "eyeball" the differences and lay them out as best you can. When doing the panel lines around the rear fuselage it is very helpful to have some sort of jig that holds the fuse perfectly level. I have a jig that bolts to the firewall and allows me to rotate the fuse which makes it much easier to get the panel lines parallel to one another. Can't really offer much beyond that except to say it is a time consuming process that is not a lot of fun but the pay off is worth it in the end.

Chad Veich

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Hello gents,

The Hellcat is rapidly approaching flight status once again! If all goes as planned I will be running the motor and doing some taxi testing next weekend. If everything functions properly (And nothing falls off!) then flight testing will probably take place the weekend after that. I'm still working on the dummy radial installation but will probably fly again before that is done. As I had the Hellcat put together today for some CG testing I took the opportunity to shoot a pic with what will probably be the next project I return to, my Ki-61 Tony. The Tony was actually test flown in early 2009 but was shelved in order to do the Hellcat. After nearly 3 years hanging in the shop I think it's time to finish it up! Although they are similar in overall size the Tony is actually just over 1/7 scale (1:6.65 to be exact) as compared to 1/8 for the Hellcat which gives you some idea of just how large the Hellcat is.

Sharpeye22

Chad Veich

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Hi Larry,

This one is the prototype, yes. I have a second one about 50% finished that has flaps and will have a full cockpit. I am currently just about finished with the installation of the control runs in Hellcat #2 and then I will be able to finish sheeting the bottom of the fuselage. After that I will probably go ahead and work on the full cockpit installation as I have a number of customers waiting on that option.

Regarding the time it takes to do the detail work the running joke is that the last 10% of the build takes 90% of the time.

Chad Veich

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Well, I decided to go ahead and get the dummy radial installed prior to resuming flying the Hellcat so work is underway in that regard. One of my pet peaves is dummy radials that are installed much too far forward in the cowling. In order to get the radial back a believable distance in the cowl without having to cut out large portions of it to fit around the engine I decided to install a 3/4" shaft extension on the .91FX. I think this is going to work very well with only the top cylinder needing to be removed from the dummy and a couple of cooling holes opened up between a couple of the cylinders to feed air past the muffler. The dummy radial from Aerotech is fantastic and includes the wiring harness, pushrods, and magnetos which are not installed in these pictures. One drawback of pushing the engine back is that I will be adding more nose weight than installed initially but we pick the trade-offs we can and can't live with! I still think it will under 11 pounds ready to fly. I will be building a weight box to go up underneath the .91 just behind the dummy radial to carry whatever is needed and get it as far forward as possible.

js3

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Looks great Chad!

Sharpeye22

I agree that the shaft extention is the way to go for scale but to find one for the Saito FG20 or many other engines is difficult if not impossible. Yours looks great. I can only dream.