chistech

Gerry made special tapered sticks to support the trailing edge of the wing ribs and build in washout. As most know, Royal/Marutaka kits don't have any provision to support the ribs for the washout. It's all on the builder to figure out how to build the wing.

I-fly-any-and-all

My Feedback: (1)

washout isnt needed unless stated on the plans. ive been flying war birds for years, all you need is to have a good strong speed at take off and make your final turn on landing approach with no less than 1/4 to 1/2 throttle and maintain 1/4 throttle till 10 feet ff the ground then idle all the way back and let it sink descend to the ground, dont float it in or instant tip stall!

chistech

Wash out is intended and the degree is shown on the plans. That is why I said the way you build the wing (basically support it straight to achieve the washout) is all up to the builder. There's no "tabs" or pieces supplied or suggested to do this like other kits have. If a wing jig is used, the builder has to know to drill the holes with the washout percentage figured in to the hole location.

chistech

Some recent work that Gerry's done.
PHOTO: 5597; Ailerons being fitted.

98: Brass hinge-point extensions which attach to wing T.E.

99: Flap hinges getting counter-sunk and aligned.

5600: Flap deployment.
601: Ply-lined pocket of flap torque rod on top of wing.

02: Pontoon pylon and V struts getting fitted to wing.
03: Wing to pontoon being squared and leveled.

06: "V" strut attachment points getting sanded perpendicular to wing ( when viewed from above).
07: Flaps resined, ready to be sanded, primed and sanded again before pre-painting.
08: Aft port wing skin getting fitted to underside.
09: Flap torque tube w/ silver soldered glue tabs to anchor the torque-tube more securely.

iron eagel

A true work of art!

chistech

Photo 5610: Flap bays painted before getting permanently installed.
12: Flaps cemented in place.

13: Leading edge balsa glued in.

14: Wingtip & L.E. sanded to shape.
15: Pitot tube hole re-exposed.
16: Replacement block w/ file used to align block w/ hole in L.E.
17: Done.
18: L.E. ply ( for wing mounting dowels ) getting sanded into shape.
19: Wing getting fitted to fuse.

southpaw50

Hi gang, Gerry Dupont here, finally ensconced with my own membership and personal build thread for my Royal Zero / Rufe conversion which began under the membership of good buddy
Ted Brito ( aka Chistech ) . With time and hunt 'n peck typing, will try to answer any questions regarding this ( and future ) builds. There's been decent progress and much info and pics to post so with time permitting, we'll pick up where we left off.

southpaw50

These next few shots illustrate the wing bolt blocks installed and drilled, tapped and ready for the wing bolts. In order to strengthen the outer edge of the wing saddle, especially toward the
trailing edge, I cemented cross-grained 1/64th ply. ( I made up a sanding jig to take down the open face of the saddle to allow the ply to fit perfectly.) Once the ply was in place, any roughed or
damaged edges of the balsa saddle received a cosmetic application of House Bondo and finish sanded spot on.
Wing bolts are nylon and semi-recessed into the ply reinforcement. ( I fabricated a captured-head screwdriver for these bolts, as well as another for the "V" strut screws.

southpaw50

More shots of the ply reinforcement to the saddle faces and the Bondo touch-ups to even everything out. Now its beginning to look some kind of slick.

southpaw50

Here's the carved top of the "V" struts on the main pontoon, after which is a photo of the top of the main pontoon pylon, just forward of the "V" struts. You can see a raised edge just inside of the
outer edge. It was made from shaped balsa pieces and its purpose will be revealed later. The next photo is the other shaped cuff top which covers half the plywood tab that attaches to the top of the "V". Now we can see the finished attachment. I made the shaped streamlined attachment tab covers on the wing out of balsa. The mating half on the "V" struts are maple, drilled and tapped and the
whole works held by the nylon screws.

southpaw50

Here's the main pylon as it appears in its current attachment "situation" with the wing bottom. I didn't want it to merely meet the bottom wing skin because there'd always be a gap and to make matters worse, there's a bit of a curved fairing that streamlines out the leading edge of the pylon where it meets the wing. The following shots show small angled pieces of balsa that get cut, sanded
& shaped to complete the transition. That shaped "fence" that was shown in prior photos serve as a stop for the small transition pieces of balsa being fitted and glued only to the wing bottom.
Lastly, the final forward pieces that make that streamlined L.E. portion of the pylon get shaped and fitted. Once everything is fastened, it should look slick, tight and relatively water-proof.

southpaw50

Time to mount the outer wing pontoons. I wanted to keep the wing undersides as smooth & flush as possible which meant routing out recesses for the nylon attachment plates ( which incidently
came with the Royal Zero kit to mount the fixed "as is" landing gear struts for builders who didn't use retracts.) Although cap-head screws were used for photo purposes, the nylon plates were
drilled out a little bit larger and those holes were counter-sunk to accept the bronze counter-sunk screws that it now has. I didn't want to see strut wires showing in their channels so I Gooped and
Zapped balsa on the wires to hide the whole shooting match. Just keeping it smooth, slick and drag-free as per the druthers of the design teams of Mitsubishi and Nakajima.

southpaw50

A few pics of the end result of fitting all float attachments and fairings on the Rufe. Coming up next....... Aileron faux-fabric sag, aileron pocket fabrication, simulated wing lights, cannons & shell
ejection chutes, etc. Also wing servo fabrication too.

chistech

And you said you couldn't work a computer good! LOL See, a little practice and those posts and pictures become second nature. Looking great.

southpaw50

Photo # 5652: I made a sanding block out of balsa with a slight convex curve and glued 220 grit sandpaper to it to sand in an almost imperceptible dip between where ribs would have been on the
actual Rufe. With the rudder and elevators built up and covered on this model, having flat, sheeted ailerons wouldn't have looked right. With the ailerons being glassed and sanded,
the ribs will be accentuated w/ masked primer pinking-tape replications, just like the elev. & rudder.

**54: Cannon barrels made from h/duty control rod tubing w/ end of barrels drilled out to a more believable muzzle opening.

**55: I turned a dowel down to fit the muzzle opening and use it as an aid in tapping the barrel into the L.E. without distorting the plastic cannon muzzle.

**56: Once temporarily in place, a brass hole cutter was centered around the gun barrel and worked in about 3/8ths inch.

**57: My reasoning for doing all this was to provide a little visual credibility to the finished product, rather than painting a black dot or just drilling a hole in the L.E.
The Rufe had short barreled cannons that were flush with the L.E. encompassed by a small opening for cooling.

**58: I cut out a couple of pieces of 1/64th ply, wet them and clamped them around a dowel overnight to take the "fight" out of them. Once drilled out and centered, they were counter-
sunk and mounted flush w/ the L.E.

**59: While I was at it, I drilled an oval opening in the starboard L.E. near the root for the cockpit cooling intake.

**60: Both openings were treated w/ C.A. and painted w/ flat black epoxy paint.

** 61 & 62: All covers in place. A couple of areas needed some touching up w/ House Bondo and when finished, look pretty convincing.

iron eagel

Very nice detail work.

southpaw50

Thanks Iron Eagle from Middleboro. For awhile there, I was wondering if anybody was visiting the site but with a long absence between building sessions this past year, I don't blame them one
bit. Expect more progress as the building season continues in earnest. G.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

I'm lurking,, and enjoying your work,,, keep it up

southpaw50

I'm hoping to get more done in the near future as building season resumes in earnest. My next task includes shell ejection chutes, all wing & navigation lights and finally get the aileron servos &
ailerons hooked up. And thanks for checking in.

I-fly-any-and-all

My Feedback: (1)

Ive still got my plans and short kit i bought a few years ago from royalhfarms on ebay. Come to think of it living in Michigan I'm only about an hour or so from where he lives i should pay him a visit

I-fly-any-and-all

My Feedback: (1)

when I go to build my model and thinking of enlarging the plans one and a half times.

southpaw50

I say go for it!

chistech

Just so people know. The float Gerry is using was a laser cut short kit scaled up from the .50 size Marutaka Rufe by Brian at Royal Farms. Gerry could elaborate on the short kit but one thing was Brian did not scale the slots in the formers so the dimensional size of the stringers and other parts were slight larger than the norm. Gerry simply worked around that issue and you can see how nice Brian's short kit, with Gerry's excellent work, frames up.

southpaw50

Good buddy Ted speaks the plain truth! But truth be known, as slow as this build has been, it would never have gotten this far without his "behind the scenes" help. G.

southpaw50

Hey gang, back at it again as building season begins once more here in the frozen N.E. My hope is to make this my fourth ( and last ) winter on this project and would like to move on to more scale
and simpler builds I already have scheduled.
Before doing any more scale "candy" on the Rufe wing, I thought it prudent to get the wings glassed and sanded, rendering them more resistant to hangar rash, once the aileron pockets mentioned below were finished. ( Also, the immediate candy work would be easier to work through with the wing at this pre-primer state.) The photos may not be shown in chronological order but in essence, 1/4" triangular balsa stock was ripped on my Dremel table saw, glued to the aileron pocket L.E., w/ routed-in 1/64th ply glued flush with the wing skins. With the right-sized rubber sanding forms from Micro-Mark, a decent half-round tapered pocket was sanded and there you have it. On to the scale eye candy.