Skip

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Here I am beginning to build the wing. I made some work for myself by wanting a taildragger. I filled in the rib cutouts which were designated for the hardwood gear blocks and relocated the rectangular cuts about 3 inches further forward.

windslore

Hi Skip,

I have at last retrieved the fibreglass Taurus from the attic! I had to wash the mould off it and it's certainly deteriorated over the years, must be something to do with the cold damp climate over here in the UK! The model was built with a swept back wing similar to the one in the May 2006 AMA magazine page 32. The model never used to be all red but a few years ago I started to refurbish it and then lost interest and it went back into the attic. The orange fuselage is a 'virgin' one straight out of the mould. It's in pretty poor condition but with a little work it could be ok. I'm hoping Deadstick is going to run a thread on making a mould from the Interceptor fuselage so that I can have a go at making a mould from one of these old Taurus fuselages. I put the old engine back in it for the photograph which I'm sure you'll all recognise.

Enjoying your thread on the 'Primus,' great job Skip.

John

Skip

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Here's the beginnings of the right wing . The left wing panel has been completed. I will show all the steps in later posts as I build it.

rainedave

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Looking fantastic, Skip! It looks from the pics that the balsa is of very high quality, too.

Are you familiar with Worldtex from Horizon Hobby? It's rebranded Solartex, I think, but a bit cheaper. I've used it on a few models and it really looks like painted fabric. Goes around wingtips like silk. It irons on like Monokote, but does not bubble or sag in the sun. It would be perfect for an early '60s vintage design like this.

Skip

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Well here we go with the other wing. I decided to make this plane a taildragger so it took some modifications to the location of the gear block and braces. I moved the gear hardwood blocks forward to butt against the spar and made up some ply supports to match the cutouts. I sure hope this works!! Sometimes I get myself in trouble by going off on tangents. I do believe it will work out OK but I don't necessarily recommend my "engineering" to anyone. I filled in the old cutouts as you can see and substituted some rock hard wood for the vertical torsional brace for the 5/32nd landing gear wire.

Lou Melancon

Hi Skip,
I'm enjoying your build along. I live north of Atlanta and am also starting a Taurus build. Like you I am enlarging the fin. I also gave away the canopy and got a more streamlined style from Wing Manufacturing. I plan to dope and silk the plane.

I would like to side mount the engine, an HP .61 Gold Cup, but right now am stymied because I haven't able to locate an appropriate muffler. Davis Diesel is no longer producing the side mounted, strap on Soundmaster mufflers. I've emailed MECOA asking when mufflers will be available and am awaiting reply. If anyone has a strap on muffler that will fit the engine I'd like to know about it.

I had planned to use some RoboStruts that I had on hand but they are too long. The nose gear is fine but the wing mounted units will be too long. They are heavy but I think the plane can handle the weight. I am looking at how they can be shortened to work but may give up on them. Too bad if I have too because they look really good.

What tank and motor mount did you settle on? Keep the information coming, its great stuff.

Skip

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Fortunately I have a friend that gave me an ARF tank which is oval so it will fit between the formers. Every other tank I tried was too wide. I am using an OS .61 with a standard Dave Brown glass mount. There isn't a great deal of room in the engine area to work with. I really wanted to use a Saito 72 but that would cause C/G problems and there wasn't enough rear area for that engine without moving the firewall back a ridiculous amount. I am going to modify my rudder and stab again to get a more vertical hinge line that I did in the beginning of this build. ( see beginning photo) I want to minimize any knife edge coupling if I can avoid it. I plan on reducing the dihedral to 1 inch under each wing tip also.

kingaltair

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Your bracing looks plenty strong to me----if it ever breaks, the whole spar will break with it--the position of the gear blocks against the spar like that looks like it was designed that way. I also always use a solid block to anchor the gear into for torsional support.

You've got the neatest workbench I've ever seen--or is that because of the pictures

Skip

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Installing rear sheeting using aluminum channel to insure straightness.

Lou Melancon

Skip,
One inch per panel of dihedral sounds pretty good. The dihedral brace supplied with the kit looks to have at least three inches per panel and possibly more, I haven't measured it, just eyeballed it.

I looked at KingAltair's rudder and your earlier photo in planning my rudder. The swept rear end of the fuselage presents challenges with making a straight hinge line. Not impossible, but does require moving stuff around. I took a simpler route and added an inch and a quarter to the movable rudder, so the hinge line stays at the same location but the moving mass is larger. We'll see how it works out.

Skip

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My work bench is clean only for pictures!! I have seen the floor to literally dissapear from balsa shavings at times. Sometimes I choke on balsa dust from sanding despite an exhaust fan by the bench. I am going to rework my original rudder /stab arrangement because I think it was swept back way too much. Here I continue the other wing build. Skip

rainedave

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I think Jeff was wise to re-design the wing to use a conventional leading edge. I was just reading the 1/63 MAN article where Kazmirski explains how he bent wet balsa around a 3/4" dowel to form the LE on the original. Not necessarilly any harder to do, but probably not as strong and resilient as a solid LE. The advantage - as he pointed out - was a uniform radius from root to tip without any shaping or sanding.

kingaltair

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My Taurus is one of the original Top Flight kits with the pre-bent L.E. I can tell you from experience that it is like an "egg shell", and quite fragile. I've had two "cracked eggs"so far---what you do to repair is to manipulate the pieces together like putting Humpy-Dumpty back together. If the damage isn't too severe, it's actually easier to fix this way. I am very aware of that L.E. now, and take care to not damage it again.

Skip

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The right wing is shaping up.

Skip

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The other wing just about finished. I decided to use two servos for the ailerons and the method for doing this is provided in the rib cutouts. 1/2 x 1/4 basswood inserts are included in the kit. All that remains is to put hinges on the other wing. I elected to use CA hinges due to the narrow ailerons. It seems that using thicker material such as nylon would cause more problems than they were worth.

rainedave

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Beautiful work, Skip. The tip makes the whole wing. Teardrop tips are so worth the time it takes to shape them.

8178

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Excellent work Skip! Keep the pictures coming.

Skip

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OK Funseekers!! It's time to join the wing panels. I used 1 inch under each tip rather than the extreme dihedral in the original. I hear this works well. I also use two robart meters to insure the correct zero degree relationship between each wing half. Time to go fly tomorrow but not this bird yet.

Skip

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Here's a part of building I don't enjoy. I usually make a mess putting on the fiberglass center section wrap. I have already drilled out the 5/16 dowel opening in the leading edge. When the bottom side cures by tomorrow morning I will do the top and overlap the cloth for strength. Then I will feather the edges and fill them to a smooth transition for the covering. At this point I am getting warnings that my photos aren't loading. If they don't appear now I will try later.

rainedave

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The pics seem to be uploading, Skip.

MHester

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Dang Skip, you managed to get Lou over here? I gotta introduce you 2 one day. Then again, that could cause some cosmic vortex or something.....LOL

Ok Skip, I have decided to take you up on your offer to come over and be fed. So I'll have a 24 oz ribeye, medium rare, ceaser salad, and a baked potato loaded. Drinks are optional.

Because I have to show you how to properly mess up a shop. Yours is too clean. See only one section of my floor for details....

-Mike

Skip

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Too late Mike!! I ate the steak and drank the beer. If you come home with a trophy from the NATS I will e-mail you a pizza. A clean workshop is what I have to do to keep from losing everything. See you in Muncie. You will do well for sure.

Skip

My Feedback: (76)

Here I have drilled and glued the wing dowel in place and drilled and tapped the 1/4 -20 nylon wing hold down bolts. I installed the wing and it seats OK. I will make any minute adjustments if necessary to insure 0 degree incidence with the fuse. I set the stab in place just to see how it fits and it looks like it will take a little sanding to make it parallel to the wing. The stab looks huge in the picture due to the camera angle. After I do some internal bracing of the fuse ( firewall) I will add the top piece and sand to shape.

eness76-RCU

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man that thing is looking really good. Are you going to fly it in SPA? I think I saw you did a Phantom too, does this mean that sweet Patricia is getting lonely in the corner? I hope she's not high maintenance, you know what happens when you leave the hot ones alone for too long!

Skip

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You can't have too many SPA planes built !! I am building this Primus to fly from short fields, bombed out fields, and as a backup to my other planes. It will land much slower. I noticed there is a fiberglass Atlas kit on e-bay. I'm bidding on it but I believe it will go over my budget at the end. Here is a before and after of the supplied elevators in the kit. It took about 20 minutes of sizing and sanding work to match the trailing edge of the stab. I am going to glue the top fuse former on today to complete the fuse. You will notice the fuse has to be squeezed and squared to match the top. I'll be taking a building break from the 20th to the 26th to go on a trip. I'll be at the NATs on the 17th. Skip