Man, never thought I'd be saying this but I'm joining the ARF brotherhood! lol Got this thing or something close to it for my birthday, I can't throw it away that would make my wife sad. Appears I got the copy, so it looks different in some ways. Anyway I'm going to take the band saw to the wing and the fuselage to get a better look. Corsairjock you are correct in your observations.
ORIGINAL: CorsairJock
I am also looking at shortening the fuselage by moving the cowl farther back, so it sticks out 130mm instead of 150 as called for in plans. Much more scale look, BUT it severely restricts engine size: Saito 1.20/ 1.50 would not fit.
Also looking at removing 1/2" from each wing at root for better scale appearance. Part of the problem is that the dihedral 'break' is too far outboard, and main gears the same. Ditto for flaps. So, removing a short section of the roots will improve scale looks in a lot of areas.
How about C.G: anyone having trouble/ needing to add nose weight? If so, what engine are you using and how much nose weight?
When I get to this thing I'll start my own thread but here is what I have figured out. Full scale dimensions:
Span: 42' 10"
Length: 33' 6"
The model has a fuselage length of about 50", so 33' 6" = 402" / 8 = 50.25"! The model is 1/8 scale, that makes the true wingspan for this model 64.25". Cutting the needed material out of the center section would fix the gear location and the dihedral. I was going to move the gear, but this would be much harder to do. Chopping the wing on my band saw is much easier! The cockpit is also off, it's not long enough, so I'm cutting the fuselage in that area one inch back and fitting my own scale canopy. They say the plane weighs 4500g (9lbs 14oz), that's not bad for a plane with a 65" wing. Some were complaining that it floated to much, so I'll fix that! lol
Of course, drop tank and two 1,000 lb bombs are in order along with scale molded gear covers and 4" wheels. Pulled the covering off the wing and will be sanding the fuselage so that I can glass and paint it.
I'll post the mods when I gather all the needed equipment to finish her.
Got some great looking birds in here, thanks for the inspiration!
ARF's rule! yea!
Dion