ORIGINAL: ampeater
Dave,
You did a great job restoring yours, she looks great! That is the same scheme I was thinking of, but I also have an old picture that I might go with, still undecided. I was thinking of using Koverall/dope but decided to stick with the simpler iron-on covering. I read your site, sounds like the .40 didn't work out for you, you had to put in a .60? I'm shooting for a .35 equivalent, so I hope it works out.
Sounds like you also had to add some tail weight, was it because of the bigger engine? My motor is a heck of a lot lighter up front, and I should be able to slide the batteries back and forth to balance. I was thinking of putting the rudder and elev servos as far forward as I can, but if it's gonna be nose heavy, I might keep them per plan.
I thank you kindly for the good words - yeah, she's very much a favorite when she's on the field. As far as "paint jobs" go, most of the original planes came in 2 fairly simple color patterns. The first is like mine, solid fuse and fins with the tear-drop that matched the wings, and the other is the centered paint stripe down the side. Got some pics of that one below too.
The modern planes, coming out of the factory today, are all over the landscape as far as color scheme goes - I don't think any 2 are the same, with the exception of 5 that one guy out West has - all are identical, all are powered with a turboprop engine. From what I've been able to find out, they do precision aerobatics at rather high speeds and the planes are capable of in excess of 350 knots. That's truly MOVING for a 2T.
Yeah, no doubt about it - the .40 didn't work out so well. I went to a .45 with 11X6 prop that was a bit better (she could get higher than 10 feet with that one) but she really came to life when I put the OS FSa.56 4-stroke with 12X6 prop and Dubro motor mount into her.
IMHO, you're going about your build absolutely perfectly - stay with your thoughts, keep her LIGHT. Mine was apparently built in the 60's and 1960's methods were used. The entire nose was CARVED from balsa blocks, hardwood engine mounts, a huge amount of ply behind the firewall and in the wing-mount area. When I put the .56 into her I rebuilt the entire nose section (sure wish I'd had access to your fibreglass nose), narrowing it down a bit to a more "scale" appearance (also cut a lot of drag) and cut many many lightening holes into the plywood. Shaved a lot of other things up-front too.
One thing I'll never be able to prove, but I suspect strongly, was that mine originally had an ignition engine. The entire area ahead of the firewall was cut for a large (size-wise) engine but the area just behind the firewall had a spot for a rather small fuel tank - I'm guessing 4 oz. or so.
Anyway, during the final set-up I moved the radio battery and receiver into the rear of the fuse, first bay behind the lower wing, and all the servos are right there ahead of that bulkhead, right under the rear cockpit. Fuel tank (8 oz and I use 15% nitro fuel) takes up the rest of the space under the front cockpit. Never did put any weight in the tail, fortunately. CG, today, is right at the LE of the lower wing and she flies pretty decently - she's certainly no aerobat but she can loop, roll and do all the basic maneuvers that folks like to see.
Got a link here to a whole bunch (couple hundred) of pics of 2Ts as they're flying today.
http://www.russellw.com/photoalbum/p...?qModel=e2T-1A You'll see #841 (not 840 as I said before) and a BUNCH of others, including some 2T-1C's (radial engines with round cowls) that must be awesome to fly.
Pic below - the other main "old time" color pattern.
Dave