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hoonnz -> RE: Juice's rcv90 (11/30/2003 3:13:48 AM)
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I'm happy to share, especially since I have found so much great info here. First, the model is of NZ5385 which is one of 400+ Corsairs that the New Zealand Airforce had thanks to lease-lend and which flew out of Piva in the Solomons in WW2. this particular one was one of the few Kiwi planes that had nose art and it was named 'Aline'. Unfortunately she was painted on after the photos were taken, and just before the brush with the fence.
The tail wheel was knocked up from a Klett tail wheel, attached to a cut-down light steel hinge. I dreamed up a clever mechanism for raising/lowering and later found it is identical to the way Robarts work, so I won't explain that. Steering is by way of cables which are run through holes in the former, slightly above the pivot point of the hinge so that as the wheel comes up the cables go slack. 2 weak springs then straighten the wheel so the doors can close around it, and it doesn't try to turn with the rudder. I marked out the doors by measuring from scale drawings, then had to do a little sanding to make the entire length of the hinge line straight. For hinges I used Dubro or similar small hinges with removable pins, I put one length of piano wire through about 12 hinges, then cut the row down to simulate one long hinge of scalish width. The tongue of the steel hinge that the Klett arm is bolted to extends on and is bent up (into the fuse) to enable 2 ball links to be attached. These are then clipped to the doors and cause them to open and close with the raising and lowering of the wheel. The photo's aren't too good, but I hope they show what I mean.
The aerials and pitot tube I made from aluminium tubing, the streamlined stuff for the aerials. I used some nylon tube that is used as the outer for piano wire pushrods to mount them as it gives when you bump them or whatever. (Don't say crash!)
By the way I put scale exhausts on mine, and ran them right through the firewall as they gave a useful extra cooling air exit. I rolled them from litho plate - great stuff. Finally, to make the tail surfaces airfoil-shape, I sheeted with medium-light 1/4"balsa instead of the relatively heavy 3/32"(?) provided in the kit. By the time you sand that to correct shape I believe it adds next to no weight for little extra work. Most of it ends up as sawdust. Trench out the bottom centre to fit the mount.
happy landings
HoonNZ
P.S. has anyone come up with a better way of attaching the cowl? Trying to get at those cap screws deep in the pitch black bowels of the cowl, past baffles and exhausts and throttle cables etc. makes stamp collecting look quite tempting as a hobby.
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