rt3232

My Feedback: (6)

[QUOTE=Alex48;12123750]Hi Bob, would you be able to PM your email address? I'm currently involved in building a RC 1/6th scale Pogo and was wondering if you could shed some light on a few photos we have.


As per the wings, the fuselage has been glassed in heavy 4oz cloth to give a rock solid base to the pattern.......the whole upper rear fuselage being done in 1 piece (good game, good game!!!)

Alex

PM sent, but I have not been getting notifications from RCU


Cheers Bob T

Alex48

A few of the different parts to the SeaDart Pattern having the first coat of re-face applied.

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The parts having been rubbed down and in various stages of primer. Next is another coat of primer to achieve a perfect glass like finish ready for surface detailing.

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Alex48

Another motivational assembly… I might be biased but its starting to look really good.

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A good view showing just how thin the vertical stab is. The fin and the wings will have a full carbon pre-preg layup and be cured in the clave creating the strongest parts possible.

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The exhaust pattern being blended to the fuselage.

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Alex48

The surface prep & priming stages we are going through are a little different to what we'd normally use on a flying model.

The 'Re-Face' Alex has mentioned is a U-Pol product which is in effect sprayable car body filler. It is VERY thick and is like spraying treacle so has to be used through a large gun (1.8mm in this case). It builds very fast and once cured sanded beautifully filling every imperfection. After the 1st sanding with a small electric pad sander (flat surfaces only), we are applying 1 heavy coat of Klass Kote epoxy primer. This again builds very fast & sands superbly. This is then wet sanded with 120 before a 2nd coat. This has a 3rd sanding with 240 (wet) which leaves a very good surface.

As the pattern will be fully detailed, the application of flush rivets into an epoxy primer proves problematic as the epoxy doesn't melt very well...........multiple coats of standard grey cellulose primer were then applied to give a decent thickness to burn the rivets into as well as scribe in the flush panel lines.

A long process yes, but the end results as we'll show are well worth the effort to achieve the desired results on the pattern.

Phil Clark, FighterAces

Airliner-rc

My Feedback: (1)

Yes Sir, I also use U-Pol sprayable primer when I made small parts. Very useful thing. But on big parts and if you want to have guarantee for moulding process I use 2K primers only.
i recommend you to make some experiment with your release agent before moulding.

Alex48

Hi Mike, Thanks... We've followed the instructions from the tooling company with regard to paint process of the patterns the final coats are in 2K, I hope it pans out! (fingers crossed) FighterAces have made patterns before with no issues in the tooling using this process although this is the biggest to date. They will start with the smaller parts so if there are any issues we should catch it in time.

Cheers, Alex

Dave Wilshere

Will be interesting as the curing heat on a small surface part compared to that size of flat wing will be way different!

D

Alex48

It certainly makes me nervous Dave! The composite company seem un-concerned by it and by their standards this is not that big. Doesn't help my blood pressure though

Several different tooling techniques will be used, carbon LTM tooling on the solid parts which is basically a pre-preg carbon tooling layup thats bagged and put into the clave. On the parts that aren't dimensionally stable a more traditional cystic tooling will be used.

Dave Wilshere

It was more whether the structure and finish stays stable making the molds! Whole lot of chemical Voodoo going on setting that lot, I'm sure they will deal with it.

Alex48

Yeah I agree with you! Fingers crossed...

I’ll be the first to admit I’ve been very fussy with the surface detailing. Every rivet is being added to the pattern which amounts to over 100,000 each individually applied. It’s not only the rivets which will be emulated but we want to capture the whole character of the aircraft which involves producing every ripple or bowed panel which can be seen on the full-size. So often very large models are impressive only due to their size but lack any real depth of character. The full size was built to withstand 126,000 pound landing! thats around 7G at its max weight. It really was a bit of a battleship with regard to its construction and this creates a very distinctive appearance which we want the model to have. You can see the amount of effort FighterAces have put into this and really does look incredible... photos just don't do it justice. It's a very subtle effect which looks more prominent than it is in the flesh. While we wait for the hull CAD work on the fuselage FighterAces have used the time to make a start on the wings, fin and control surfaces building in the very subtle undulations in the surface which you can see below.

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The below picture hopefully shows the undulations in the panel work, our historical research also backs up this look. Ignore the large raised panel that runs though the wings. This is patch work to cover up where they chopped the wings off for transport.

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Dave Wilshere

That's a lot of sanding and burning! Many layers. You guys think the rivets are 'bold' enough, they are very prominent on the original.

D

Alex48

We think this looks about right on the wings for the flush sections but a few areas were re-worked. I think they went a bit insane when doing this and my fussy rivet counting didn't help! I think Phil said he was on around 30,000 of just the small cross heads!

The prominant rivets we can see in the above photo in the ski wells are larger dome head rivets. The fuselage flush rivets do stand out more as you can see in this photo which the guys will hopefully emulate.

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DelGatoGrande

My Feedback: (23)

Amazing work as always Alex!
Just remember..there are more planes in the sea than submarines in the sky ..fill it up with foam to float!

rt3232

My Feedback: (6)

Hi Alex

Great work, looks like your molds will be a lot smother than the real thing. that said back in that day 90 % of all rivets were installed with hand held rivet gun and another person on the back side bucking them, and most of the rivet holes were dimpled for the flush rivets rather than countersinking witch also contributed to the rougher surface, also in the water tight area's they used a green sticky past in the holes and on the rivets when inserted and it would splatter and spread when the rivet was set to provide a seal and then the surface was cleaned with a solvent I think naptha but that was a long tome ago for me.
again hope you don't mind this bit of triva.

Cheers Bob T

Alex48

Thanks guys

Here is the result after the first topcoat of 2k. Having seen this in person I can testify to the fact I’ve never seen something so convincing. Not only does it look incredible but the model is also very tactile… you’re just drawn to dragging you hand over the surface and marvelling at the subtle undulations. The photos really don’t do it justice. In the daylight the wings and fin look sublime but more importantly its created an effect almost indistinguishable from that of a real aircraft. Well done FighterAces as I know this was a big ask when I laid down the specification of the pattern!

Wing detail.

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Fin detail.

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Elevons, Fin and Rudder.

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ZivBit

Amazing machine.Incredible craftmanship.

Thanks for sharing Alex.

Ziv

rt3232

My Feedback: (6)

+ 1 on what he said

Cheers Bob T

Alex48

Thanks guys... I'll pass your comments along

Airliner-rc

My Feedback: (1)

Wow, wow, wow!!!

Alex48

It’s time to finish the fuselage structure now that the CAD work for the hull is complete. The CAD work has used the dimensions from the Florida SeaDart and it’s important that the hull is built accurately as the ski mechanism is very geometrically sensitive.

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Pork Chop

My Feedback: (5)

I've been thoroughly enjoying following along this thread and I've been impressed with the workmanship but the recent pictures reveal a level of craftsmanship that's second to none! A "well done" to all involved!

Alex48

Glad your enjoying the build... Loads more to come

Detailing the exhaust.

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It's had a light dusting of standard silver just for effect. We aim to assemble the whole pattern once complete and this will look better in the photos.

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There is a bit more detail to add with some small rivets etc...

Alex48

The effect shown after the sanding shows the various product used...............

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Glass & epoxy
Reface
Klass Kote grey primer
Grey cellulose primer (2 different brand were used as we ran out of the 1st after the 1st coat.....the new batch being slightly darker than the 1st hence the dark, light dark' grey layers).

All rivets are burned in using the regular soldering iron technique. We did make them more prominent than you'd maybe do on a 'flying' model as opposed to a patter simply because a degree of definition will be lost in the colour coats + waxing etc.....prior to moulding.

The Blue is Klass kote. We mixed this 1 part colour, 1 part gloss catalyst, 2 parts Reducer to give a very thin mix so as not to partially fill in the rivets with the colour. The fact all are showing white/light blue is due to the fact the surfaces has been flatted (wet) so there are still traces of dry rubbing down water collecting in the rivet rings.

Phil Clark, FighterAces

Hustler58

My Feedback: (1)

Wow that is Beautiful !

Lvan09

Very nice work, great attention to detail. I'm wondering if the panel contour effect is the the reverse of the full size? It appears that the center of the panels has been sanded lower when normally the structure with the rivets is the depressed area,

LV