www.stef.com
Posts: 32
Joined: 11/12/2004
From: , CA, USA
Status: offline
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Thanks again for the nice comments! 
I am progressing rapidly now, definitely kicking it into high gear to meet my self imposed deadline. I want to finish by August 20th because that is when I go off on a family vacation. First flights, with video of course, will be the weekend of September 15th/16th. I will post the video soon after that.
Cowlings:
I resumed work on the wings, this time with the top half of the engine cowlings. I had previously molded these forms wrapping saranwrap, then 6 oz glass, then more saranwrap around my wood form. They are featherweight at this point, and will have increased strength and stiffness when bonded to the wings, firewall, and bottom half. I roughed out the depressions for the exhaust stacks, and created fillets both inside and out with expoxy and microballoons. I will smooth the transistion later, and I will add the exhaust pipes at the very end.
Fuselage:
I finished sheeting the fuselage. Some parts went more smoothly then others. There are quite a few difficult transitions. I had to redo one section near the tail as I didn't correctly anticipate the way the tail's underside flows into the rear chines - I will update my plans accordingly should anyone want to build one of these for themselves. I then began to glass the fuselage with 2oz in the forward areas and 3/4 oz in the rear. I doubled up certain areas that I know I will be doing considerable sanding and thin filling.
Wheel wells:
After crossreferencing pictures of a real albatross, I decided to make my wheel wells more realisitic by adding the rounded section you can see in the pic, and narrowing my strut flaps to a more accurate dimension.
Front hatch:
I wanted to the nose section into a large removable hatch so I can easily service the still camera, the video camera, and the front landing gear mechanism should it need servicing. I knew I would end up with a thin fiberglass shell for the hatch so I did a sloppy basket weave-like layup of stringers. I used copius amounts of bondo to finish the form, drew and masked my hatch line, used furniture wax for mold release, applied the equivalent of 3 layers of 2 oz glass, and cut and released the part when cured. The remaining shell is very light and strong, and I plan to use a snap on tongue and groove type connection to the fuselage to ensure a watertight seal.
Until next time -stef
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RC scratchbuilt Albatross in progress - 
Stef, 
