flyn2high

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After the belly pan was cut out and the center section of the wing was fitted to each, I used a 6” long ¼-20 tap drill to drill through the center section into maple blocks that were in the fuselage. I then taped the blocks and opened the 4 holes up in the center section. To make a nice clean edge I applied clear shipping tape on the center station where it would come in contact with the fuselage. This is used as a nonstick surface for my epoxy filler. I also applied a liberal amount of release wax to the tape to make sure it would release.
I then used West System Microlight filler at the joint and then placed the center section on top and screwed it down.
Once cured I was able to pop it free so that the joint was perfect.

flyn2high

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On the belly pan I choose to attach it to the center section with six 4-40 machine screws. I made light ply brackets with a 4-40 t-nut in each and attached it to the inside of the belly pan. After fitting and sanding the brackets so that they aligned with the center section I was ready to glue them in place. I knew that each bracket was nearly touching the center section when the belly pan was in place. I applied a liberal amount of Hisol epoxy to the surface of the bracket where it would come in contact with the wing center section. I paced the belly pan on the center section with all the brackets screwed in place and let the glue cure. I had only to remove the six 4-40 screws to remove the belly pan. The bracket were permanently glued to the center section

flyn2high

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Ok here is where I have to stop to address a problem. If you notice the red arrows on the attached photo, you can see that the belly pan will interfere with the action of the flaps. I understand after speaking to builders of the standard size hellcat that this is also the case. My fix was mark the flaps where the belly pan comes in to contact and shorten them so that there is 1/8” clearance. I also added a block of balsa to fill the area of the center section where the flap was.

flyn2high

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Next I carved out the recessed area for the engine exhaust. I used several coats of microlight filler here before attaching the firewall.

flyn2high

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Next step was to glass the fuselage and belly pan.

The tail wheel assembly needs quite a bit of room to install. I decided to mold a fiberglass access cover so that I had the minimum opening necessary for the wheel to operate and also let me have enough access to install or remove it if necessary. Again I used clear shipping tape on the area where the mold would need to release from and used a liberal amount of wax on it. I layed up several layers of 6 and 8 oz cloth and resin for the mold. Once it was cured I popped it off the fuselage and cut out the opening needed for the tail wheel assembly.
I used the mold (which I cleaned up the edges) to make a thin access cover with two 6 oz layers of glass cloth and resin. I used several #0 flat head screws to secure it.

flyn2high

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I was hoping to have the exhaust come out in the scale location on my Hellcat. Actually the full size for my type has 3 pipes on each side just above the wing and two pipes on each side at the bottom.
To limit the complexity I decided to go with just the 3 pipes on each side to be functional. The lower pipes would be dummies. On my little CNC machine I fabricated some aluminum parts that I had TIG welded. I also purchased a rather expensive flex pipe from Volglesang to link the engine exhaust collector ring to my header pipes. Note: the photos are shown with the fuselage upside down.

flyn2high

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The next photo is the construction of the engine box. I have support for a throttle and choke servo directly behind and I will be using two 24 oz dubro fuel tanks. I have one 50 oz tank but it will not fit.

By the way the engine is a very tight squeeze in the cowl. The push rods go up and down 1/4" and they do clear but not by much. If I had to do it over again I would go for the 7 cylinder 250 cc Moki which is a smaller diameter. If you notice at the top I do not have the single cylinder. I had to rotate the engine 36 degrees so that there is a cylinder at the very bottom and two equally spaced at the top. This allowed me to lower the engine 3/8 of an inch from true center to clear. No one will ever notice because of the large opening in the cowl

flyn2high

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The cowl is mounted to the firewall with 6 maple blocks that have 8-32 socket head cap screws. Yes I had to make a special long driver to get to it. I also have two aluminum brackets (that may be over kill) to support the cowl in the area of the cowl flaps. Cowl Flaps? Yes I could not resist to add functional cowl flaps. They operate with 4 very small servos that are all tied together. The large span between the cowl flaps did not allow me to add any mounting blocks in that area. So I made an aluminum bracket that is hysoled to the cowl in front of the flaps. Hopefully the photos and CAD drawing will explain.

flyn2high

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I made another simple fiberglass mold to add an accessory hatch door. I will be using a 9 channel power safe Spectrum Receiver with two 2300 mah batteries and two more going through a regulator for the engine ignition. The voltage at the ignition needs to be less to then 6 DC keep the unit happy. So there are ports to charge everything, air, air gauge, fuel and I added LED’s to let me know the ignition is on. The latch I will be using is really nice. One push and it is latched and one more and it is open. To latch you need to push the door below flush a bit so you need to account for that. Here is a link to my source.

http://www.homedecorhardware.com/sugatsune-pr-4pk.html

The hinges are custom made from G10.

flyn2high

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I turned some scale guns on my lathe. I will spray them with clear and coat them with graphite power rubbed to a gun metal shine.

flyn2high

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My version Hellcat had side windows behind the canopy. I made them out of lexan and using a template I cut the fuselage to fit them exactly. They are nearly a press fit. After the paint is finished I will glue them in place with canopy glue.

flyn2high

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Using the edge of the wing as a form I heated up 0.010 thick clear lexan up and stretched it over the edge of the wing. This will form the lens cover for the navigation lights on the wing tips. I then cut out the corners of the wing tips and shaped the plastic to fit. I used 1/32 ply to clean up the edges of the openings. I have dummy lights that will go inside after paint.

flyn2high

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I have used several coats of lacquer based primer surfacer on the painted surfaces. Sanding in-between with 150, 220 and finely 320 grit non clogging paper. I then added the panel lines with 1/32” chart tape and sprayed a final coat of KlassKote grey epoxy primer. The chart tape was removed and I added raised rivets. I am currently in the process of applying the color coats. The last photo is with the white on the bottom surfaces. The paint I am using is Klasskote semigloss epoxy paint. I will apply the marking with the same paint using stencils that I designed. When all markings and paint is done I will apply a clear coat mixing up a custom sheen again with Klasskote clear.

bzyguy01

Amazing Build!

blhollo2

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meh

flyn2high

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Hi bzyguy01:

Thanks for the kind words. I am really motivated to finish this project now. It's increadable to think that i've been at it for just over 5 years now. I did build 6 planes in between though. Maybe this summer I'll have it flying.

stevegauth30

Wow. Your an amazing craftsman. I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread. When did you start building? At first post in "09"? Absolutely beautiful.

bpoates25

Absolutely astounding workmanship. Please stay motivated. I as well as everyone else wants to see this beauty in the air. I just love to watch a craftsman at work. She is going to be awesome.

OldScaleGuy

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Awesome! Thank you for sharing.

rcavi8ter

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Let me know when you are ready to sell it

flyn2high

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Hi Chris:

Interesting thought. What do you do over at Horizon Hobbies?

flyn2high

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The painting is coming along nice. I used my high end Iwata HVLP gun to shoot the bottom white and dark blue upper surfaces. I don’t think I ever had this gun set up properly. It actually needs a very large amount of air at 9.5 cfm. On the other hand the pressure at the gun should only be between 14 – 18 psi. With standard ¼” quick connect air fittings at the compressor, regulator and airline there is no way to get the required CFM unless you up the pressure. However then you will get a lot of overspray. I changed my air setup by making a direct connection from the regulator to the compressor eliminating two ¼” quick connect fittings and an extra regulator that wasn’t used. I also changed the quick connect fittings to huge 3/8” type leaving only one ¼” quick connect coupling at the gun. This helped a lot to cut down on overspray. I also bought a cheap HVLP touch up gun from Harbor Freight today with a 0.8mm nozzle. My Iwata has a 1.3mm nozzle. I used the touch up gun to do the light blue middle color on the fuselage and rudder. The over spray is minimal and I only have a small amount of touch up with my airbrush to adjust the width of the transition gradient between the colors.

My cell phone photo shows the result. It looks like a shadow but it is actually three colors.

stevegauth30

Looks great man. Can't wait till the weather warms up so I can get to shooting some paint. My shop isn't heated. Well, my shop is, but I can't spray in there. Where I have to paint isn't heated. Can't wait to see it all done up.

flyn2high

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Hi Steve:

I know what you mean. i set up my garage with lots of light so I can see what I am painting. Unfortunately it is not heated either. At my company we have a good size warehouse that is heated. It is a 10 mile trip and for me and I need to wait for all the employees to leave for the day to paint. Still it is great to have a place to paint in the cold building season.

flyn2high

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I drew up the marking in the computer and gave the artwork to my friends Mike and Marshal from Red 5 to cut paint masks for me. They worked out very for the big “37” and the stars and bars on the wing top and bottom. However I did have problems with the mask on the fuselage. Part of the problem is that the fuselage has a double curved surface and the three piece mask would not align without creases. What I ended up doing is to print out the star and bar on 3 sheets of heavy paper stock and cut it out to make a template. Then I used the template to draw a pencil line and used striping tape and masking tape to form my mask.

I found that using a laser helped to get things straight. The red line you see was actually photo shopped in but that represents where the laser line would be.

The paint used for the making was also KlassKote epoxy paint.