turbofixer

Looking good Joe.
Wichet ..Nice What plans did you build from? Frankel? yours is a mark 1 with low back.cool to see more Viggys being built. I need to get back to mine.

jofunk

Thanks TF......... I was messing around with a hatch lock. The first prototype was wood, the second I made with an aluminum channel. It is just a screw wheel coller and a pen spring. I glassed the inside of the two main doors and glassed the top of the rudder servo hatch. for fun I pressed the cover with bricks on wax paper.

jofunk

I cut off some foam to cap the wing control surfaces with 3/8" balsa. The cut is 3/16" behind the hinge line at 35 degrees. Then a squared off cut at the hinge line again. I preserved the location of the hinge line by drawing a line one inch behind it before I did any cutting. After everything was capped I brought the hinge line forward again for the squaring cut, which will be rounded to match the hinge. Hinging can start soon.

jofunk

I glued the control surface hinges into the pockets. I also started capping the root of the wing. The 1/8" sheeting is glued on with some urethane glue to fill the gaps as the wings are set in and tightened down.

jofunk

I jigged up the hinges parallel and square. The surfaces will get aligned with the wing and this will be glued into place. Once dry the balsa will get busted off.

jofunk

I notched out four areas where the hinges and pockets will get glued in. They are installed with urethane glue and the wood jig is tack glued to the sheeting with CA and kicker to hold everything flush to the top skin. As the glue was expanding I tried to remove what I could to have less to sand off.

jofunk

I attached the right side flaps. When the glue dries the balsa will get busted off and everything will get sanded down flush. The canopy hatch got a few coats of primer brushed on. To keep the smell down I let it dry inside a plastic bag.

jofunk

I busted the wood off and started cleaning everything off. Running a very thin sanding stick in the hinge line gave me a nice even gap. Here's how much flap I have. The wings are plugged in backwards to make them easier to work on.

turbofixer

Cool..that should make some nice lift!

jofunk

An hour of sanding got the canopy hatch glossy smooth. It needs a coat sprayed on and some more sanding. i put some filler on the hinges to smooth things out.

Terry Holston

My Feedback: (1)

Lookin' Good Joe!

jofunk

Thank you Terry........ I glued in the flap servo mountain blocks. The hinge area on the wings got some glass over them to bind everything together. I started an experiment to try and make some thin stiff stock out of some card stock, resin and glass cloth pressed between parchment paper. I need thin material for hinge covers and the spoilerons. We will see what we get tomorrow.

jofunk

I filled the canopy with foam to make it a little more crush resistant. I will also pull a fiberglass shell off the top of it before it goes in the vacuum machine. I made some hinge covers out of file folders. Before i glued them on I taped on a card to show the position of the nut and bolt and then flipped it back. Once I glued on the hinge covers I flipped the card forward and marked the nut and bolt position on the hinge covers. The hardware will install through the covers and the covers will have covers to hide the openings. The covers got some glass to harden them. The flaps got trimmed down on the ends and got capped. Wood glue and a lot of tape secured things. I also cleaned up the pockets in the hinges.

jofunk

Parchment paper kept the resin off the flaps. Some more Pix.

jofunk

I cleaned up the ends on the flaps and made some linkage mounting blocks out of maple. I drilled some holes down the center first. It is pretty amazing the holes hit dead center just using the bubble plumb on the end of the drill. I squared up the blocks in the vise and drilled half way in on each side. I then ground a square hole in the flaps. By the time I got to the fourth one I was pretty quick at it. The blocks will get trimmed down and then glued in. I started filling the wing gap where the fuse starts to taper in. once that is filled I can start glassing the wing.

jofunk

I finished filling the gap. Not very pretty right now. The linkage blocks got trimmed down and glued into the surfaces. The pilot holes in the blocks got plugged with lite filler to keep glue and resin from filling them. They will get cleaned out once everything is glassed.The canopy hatch got a coat of PVA mold release sprayed on in preparation to pull that shape off of it.

jofunk

After a little sanding the filler blocks look pretty good. You can see the curve the follows the fuse. There is an odd shaped fairing that goes between the fuse and the intake. I glued them in with some urethane to help fill the gaps. On the bottom of the fuse behind the radome there is some sort of sensor / skid when the nose gear collapses. I cut down a bad LED bulb that seems to be the perfect size. I just need to fashion a fairing behind the lens.

jofunk

A little sanding and filling on the intake fairings. I hot glued some blocks on the bottom of the plug to hold it off the table a little. I also hot glued it to the cardboard to make things easier to move around. I laid some glass and resin on the cockpit hatch. The first coat was thickened resin then I started laying on the glass. Once it is cured I can pull my copy off. If the plug gets crushed in the vacuum machine not all will be lost. My guess is the plug will hold up since I am buying all this insurance.

Terry Holston

My Feedback: (1)

NIce work, Joe. Can't wait to see her finished.

jofunk

Thanks Terry for the continued words of encouragement. Hopefully I will see you in Winamac........ I pulled the lay up off and it looks pretty good. It took a little coaxing, tugging ,and sliding in a hard balsa stick. The plug looks good too, with most of the PVA mold release still on it. The PVA will wash off with warm water. The blue tape was on the bottom to keep the resin from running onto the bottom and gluing itself on. I will trim it down and put it on a shelf hopefully to never need it.

jofunk

I laid one more layer of glass on the bottom of the fuse., and glassed the cut out in the front plate. The wings and control surfaces need glass and a few small spots on the fuse.

turbofixer

That looking real good Joe. it amazing for such a box shaped fuselage how hard it is to get correct. and yours is looking great

mr_matt

My Feedback: (10)

Looks great Joe, great modelling, rare online these days. Any target all up weight yet?

jofunk

Thanks TF and MM........ Hopefully it will bb in the fifties on the weight. The last things I weighed out of curiosity was the center section with the wing plug in and gear mounts with the gear bolted in and it was around 15 Lbs. I also weighed the wing pannels and the were about 5 Lbs each. I think it will be reasonable for the size of the plane, using traditional building techniques. Im itching to finish it and to give it a try. Hopefully this season if I keep at it.

jofunk

I trimmed all the excess glass off the fuse and sanded down the overlapping seams. I snapped a pic. of the bottom when I was flipping the fuse. I also cut some cloth to glass the wings. I should buy stock in a fiberglass company.