vogel605

I luv solertex. It's a low heat iron on, and as someone stated earlier it goes around curves wonderfully. I did not have that addendum in my kit. I did recut the firewall, F3, and one other former. I'll take a pic. of my tips and hopefully it will help. I didn't encounter any problem with the tips. I did have a little filling to do, but nothing major. I got the motor mounted, and approx. half of the radio so I'm slowly closing in on it. This work and family stuff really cuts into the all important airplane stuff.

monkey77

Yeah, some pictures of your wing tips and the firewall would be great. I am going to have to do a little fill work on the wing tips as well...shouldn't be too bad though.

I came up with a pretty good way to align the two wing halves (as I stated earlier in this thread) so I don't get any fore or aft sweep in the wing...I've attached pictures. I am just using a simple Craftsman laser level and turned the beam so it shoots a vertical line. The light drops straight down the top forward spar. I have started to sand and adjust the wing roots. Looks like it is going to come together well. I should be ready to glue in the center ribs and get ready for the dihedral brace soon.

Dan

vogel605

Looks great. Sorry I have not been able to get any pics. on I'll give it a go tomm. things have just been to hecktic. I've got a couple of the wing tip (don't know how well they will turn out). If you need any other ones let me know.

monkey77

Well, I finished (for now anyway) the top wing. I ran into a little discrepancy between the plans and the instruction book. According to the plans the cabane mounts on the bottom side of the top wing are one piece and run from the first W-1 rib on the left wing half to the first W-1 rib on the right wing half. No big deal....except that the W-4 and W-5 ribs have cutouts on the bottom to allow the cabane mount ply to fit in. The pictures in the instruction book show the ply being glued to the bottom of the ribs with the surface of the ply being flush with the 3/32 balsa sheeting. I had already glued the ply for the cabane mounts in when I noticed the discrepancy. The interplane strut mounts (I think that was what they called them...the mounting points out toward the wing tips) glued to the flat bottom of the ribs. The instuction book show the cabane mounts the same way as the interplane mounts at the ends of the wing. The instructions also call for a lite ply backing to be placed on the inside of the wing on top of the ply for the cabane mounts to keep the blind nuts from protruding thru. On that note I decided to cut two 3/4x10 1/8 piece of 3/32 ply from my stock pile of hobby wood and just glue them to the outside face of the cabane mounts to double up the thickness. Then just run my 3/32 sheet balsa for the bottom center section of the wing right up to the ply. Has anyone else run into this issue? As far as I can tell I should be ok in doing what I did.

I got the elevator and rudder surfaces glued up (for the most part) tonight. Here are some pictures. I have also included some pictures of the top wing, primarily showing the center section to give a better idea of what I was rambling about in the above paragraph. I think when I finish the tail surfaces I will move back to the bottom wing construction. After that the fuse will be my focus...... Should I purchase my motor before I start work on the fuse? Is it easier to lay out the motor mounting and drill everything before I glue up the firewall? Or do I just go ahead and build the fuse and then fit the motor in? Most of the kits I have done in the past have you measure out and drill the motor mounts before you assemble the fuse....this kit doesn't seem to address that very clearly.

Dan

bps

My Feedback: (3)

After building the Dr I would want the strut mounting plates to contact plywood instead of the balsa sheeting. The sheeting crushes. I have tried to harden this area with CA.

JEB

vogel605

I'm not sure if these pics. made it or not. Hope they did, and hope it helps. I agree with the last post you will need to harden the balsa with thin CA in the cabane area.[img][/img][img]

vogel605

Also I forgot I did not mount the engine until after the fuse was built. There is plenty of room to get behind the firewall to install your blind nuts etc.

vogel605

In covering, I'm not real happy with the dowel joiner for the elevator halves. I drilled two small holes in each half and inserted toothpicks with glue to strengthen the joint. I used regular wood glue on this joint but I just was not comfortable.

cooper998

Dan,
I have a 28 all framed up waiting to be covered, it is set up for electric power. I ran into the same problem you did with the cabane mounts in the top wing, I used small sections of 3/32 ply inset in the sheeting so that it would have a harder surface to seat against. When you are ready to mount the wings make sure you build the alignment gage flat and straight, after setting up my wings they were only off about a 1/16 tip to tip, easily adjusted with the interplane struts. Instead of the dowel joiner for the elevators I went with two pushrods, one for each elevator. The space is a little tight in the tail section but it can fit. When you start on the fuselage check your formers carefully, I ended up with a former in the wrong spot and had to make a new one, also there is a curve to the top of the fuselage (its seen in the side view on the plans) and I had to use two pieces of ply on the top to fit the compound curve. I have a website with my progress [link=http://home.comcast.net/~tnunez08/ERC/Nieuport.htm]Nieuport build[/link] and also a build along on RCScalebuilder.com.
I will be covering my plane with solartex and then a quick paint job to represent Rickenbackers plane, it should be finished by the end of Easter break.


cooper998

monkey77

Well, again time has slipped away and I haven't had much progress on the Nieuport. I have managed to get the fuse sides framed and glued up along with the fuse doublers. I am at the point now where I will join the two sides and start making this box of wood look like a plane. Here are some more pictures of my progress.

Prop Nut

My Feedback: (3)

Glad to see that you are back at it. With spring here I figured that you had shelved it until fall. Course, if your spring is like ours it would be better to stay indoors. Its either raining or sunny......either way there are 25-35 mph winds :P

vogel605

Let me tell ya, I've switched from the Newport and started my Ark. Were just gettin hammered by the rain.

monkey77

Well here is a little more progress... I got the fuse sides glued up to the f-2 former and the fire wall. Wasn't too bad to get it setup, just took my time to make sure everything was square and straight. The instructions said the aft end of the fuse would be about 2 inches off the bulding board...mine was only about 1 1/4 inches. I double and triple checked the front end of the fuse sides and only about 2 inches of the front was actually touching the table. I figured I was ok...any suggestions? I thought about how I was goint to "sight" down the fuse to make sure the tail section is glued straight and in line with the center. The plans actually do say to "sight" down the center of the plans..... I decided to get my laser level out again. Man, that thing has come in really handy on this build! I just set it up to shoot down the center line marked on the plan top view then (to make sure it was perpendicular to my building board) placed my combination square down on the bench and made sure the laser light line ran parallel to the vertical edge of the combination square. Once I had it setup I could then use a couple combination squares on each side of the tail (to make sure they stayed perpendicular to the board) to squeeze the two fuse sides together over the plan. Once the laser light lined up with the vertical joint between the two sides I knew I was good to go.

I haven't actually glued the two ends of the tail together yet... Is it better to cut all of the top and bottom fuse spacers and get them in place before glueing the tail? How do I know that I will have the same amount of "curve" on each side of the fuse as it comes back? It seems like it will be hard to keep everything lined up like the directions say.... Anyone have any tips on these next few steps?

Thanks,
Dan

cooper998

Dan,
Any progress, I know its flying season but lately with all the rain weve been getting I started back to work on my Nieuport. I almost put it up for sale when I lost interest but after seeing a few of them fly at Warbirds over Delaware I got my enthusiasm back and have started covering the plane

cooper998

monkey77

Sadly I have no progress to report right now....we sold our house this summer and moved so as of now all my plane stuff is still packed up in the basement. I plan on getting back to the build later this summer or fall. It seems harder and harder to find time to build...or fly! We have been having some record breaking heat these last few weeks and this weekend's forcast calls for more 100+ heat indicies....yuk...flying doesn't even sound good in that kind of heat.

I'll be sure to post my progress as soon as I get my shop setup at the new house.

I'm anxious to see some pictures of your covering progress coop...what type of covering are you using?

Dan

cooper998

Dan, I am using solartex in "Linen" color to try and save some weight since the bottom wont need painting. I have the top wing done and was about to start the bottom wing when I noticed it need more sanding to smooth the edges and to fix a few dings from hangar rash. I am hoping to get all the covering done by the end of the weekend. Here a pic of the top wing bottom covered.

getterflash

Thanks for all your posts, I hope to be starting on this kit this winter. Has anyone tried the aluminum cowl? Is it worth it or is the stock plastic one fine? Did yo have to reinforce it in any way?

monkey77

I am planning on using the aluminum cowl. Not sure how many others have used this setup. I just started building again a week ago...slow going since I have been away from my building table for quite a bit. We are in our new house (new to us...built in the 50's) now and I have my building/hangar area setup now...much better setup than I have ever had I must say. I have my 4'x6' drafting table (main building board) and another 3'-6"x4' drafting table setup. They both work really well and are extremely flat. I will post some pictures of my progress from the last week. I, once again, am skipping around on this build. I am at the point on the fuse where you are supposed to add the super thin plywood sheeting....so I decided to hold off on that and go back to wing building. I have the right half of the bottom wing about 80% finished and will soon start building the other half. My plan is to finish the bottom wing and then move back to finishing the fuse. From that point I have a lot of sanding to do and a lot of soldering to do. This has been a very interesting build so far and to date has been the most challenging.

I am gearing up for my next build once this one is complete...a P-38 Lightning. My Grandpa used to paint nose art on the sides of the P-38's in his squadron. I have quite a few pictures of the planes and of himself next to many of them...quite interesting. I know the P-38 build will be by far the most challenging build for me. I built a Guillows version (rubber band power) when I was around 12 or 13 and from what I remember it was a really difficult kit. Of course a 90" wing span, gas powered P-38 will be a different animal....but still challenging.

Anyway...back to the Nieuport build...here are a few pictures of the new work area and the progress so far....and a few pictures of my Grandpa and one of the P38s he had a picture of...

Getterflash...have you started your Nieuport build yet? Cooper998....have you finished your Nieuport yet?

Dan

monkey77

Been a bit since I posted last.... I have both the top and bottom wing framed up. The tail surfaces all framed. The fuse all framed. I ordered the wheels, Vickers machine guns and Solartex from Balsa USA early last week and had them all in my hands by Friday! Awesome company to work with. Went to my local hobby store and ordered my Zenoah G-26...should be here in a week or so I would guess.

I have some additional sanding to do on the wings and tail surfaces but other than that I am getting ready for the hardware fit up. I built the jig for the cabane struts....but need to buy a new soldering iron before any soldering work can begin. My old soldering iron gave up. The instructions call for wrapping the wire with copper binding wire before soldering...I couldn't find any copper wire in the kit...I'll go to the hobby store and pick some up.

I couldn't stand it any longer...with all these main pieces built I wanted to get at least some sort of idea on the scale of the plane so I stacked the wings on the fuse and taped the tail feathers on....loosely laid the plastic cowl on ( I will be using the aluminum cowling).

Here are a few pictures so far.

Dan

monkey77

My pictures won't upload from my mac....anyone else in RCU land using a mac? I can't get the photos to upload....made em' smaller...changed file types...nothing seems to work....

Have a few more things finished since my last post as well. The cabane wires have all been soldered up along with the landing gear wires. Things are moving along pretty smoothly. My new G-26 is sitting in the package under my building board now...ready to go...

Dan

monkey77

Ok....same picture files....but uploading from my Dell....this should work...

fomocokid

My Feedback: (103)

Nice work monkey77, I have a question about the landing gear, does it stay on the fuse or is it connected to the bottom wing so you have to take the landing gear off to get the lower wing off?

Thanks

monkey77

The landing gear stays connected to the fuse. You do not have to remove the gear to get the lower wing on and off...

I'll be uploading some more pictures soon...I have the cabane struts soldered...interplane struts soldered....top and bottom wings can now be mounted...I am starting to install radio and gear now before I attach the tail surfaces.

Dan

ellgee

My Feedback: (1)

Hi-posted msg and pix last nite-msg said sucessfully posted-never appeared-testing now.

ellgee

My Feedback: (1)

Heres pix of progress-lots of mistakes in plans-Feb.07 R/C Report tells all about it.
1st.pix-side view,#2 tail-faired out area around skid-faired skid too,#3headrest-filled in as per prototype,#4Saito 170-had to build out front of fuse 1" with bass due to length of engine-too much sticking out of cowl otherwise,#5 ring of 1/4" ply ring used to stiffen cowl-screws thru ring attach to front of fuse extention from the inside of cowl-nothing showing on outside-cowl really stiffened,#6 made an exhaust manifold from copper tubing and fittings silver soldered-machined couplings that screw into cylinders just bought powder coating system-will "paint" manifold black with it,#7exhaust tubes exit cowl thru bottom rear of cowl-extend under fuse.Will have to load pix one at a time.