RE: MK Beetle Build
 

what if i fly to singapore and buy as many as i can carry back. hell the shipping on 10 or so kits would pay for a flight wouldn't it?

david

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Naaahhh, hindsight is always 20-20!!!!
Singapore hobbies lists what they have - check the drop down menu on the far right for a price list. Yes they have LOTS of Hatori headers - all of which are out of production.
I'd love to take a tour of pacific rim hobby shops (with lots of cash, of cash of course :D).
Will Bartlett

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Hello Everyone

It has begun!

First step was to dry assemble and clamp the engine mount formers. After that I positioned the motor in the soft mount and then into the formers to get the mounting screw position. After drilling and tapping the wood I glued the whole lot together.

Next step was the fuse sides and doublers. The MK kit is worth every cent! The fit is amazing and the prefabrication is unbelievable. Each of the sides has a groove routed into the bottom and rebates down the length. The rebates are to allow the top and bottom turtle decks to key in.

More photos next time.

Cheers
Tarquin

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Hello Everyone

A couple of pics of the fuselage coming together.

Before I put the top and bottom turtle decks on I need to plan the control runs. What is the prefered option for the two elevator halves and rudder?
Pull-Pull wires for rudder
independant push-pull for each of the three
one elevator rod y'ed off with dual rods
Carbon pushrods or gold-n-rod snakes

Cheers
Tarquin

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

the quality of the MK kits is very apparent in the few photos that you have posted. have fun.

david

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Hello

Work has been progressing slowly.

Turtle decks and the nose block have been fitted. Before fitting the bottom turtle deck I made up a mock elevator pushrod to ensure I could fit it after the fuse has been finished.

I also have come across the first part in the kit that doesn't fit perfectly. The top former appears too big or the turtle deck too small. I will ponder this one for a while before commiting to sanding the former.

I am heading to China for three weeks for work so there wont be any updates for a while.

Cheers
Tarquin

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Hello Everyone

I have got a bit of work done on the Beetle since my return from overseas.

The blocks under the tail have been fitted and carved roughly to shape. Same goes for the wing fillets. I will leave all these areas roughly shaped until I am closer to finishing to keep them from damage and also to allow a closer fit.

The fin has been built but not glued in yet. I need to build the stab and mounting system before the fin can go on.

Cheers
Tarquin

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Excellent!! :D :D

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Hello Everyone

Stab construction is well under way.

It is built with the incidence adjuster in place to keep everything square. The stab has a 1/8th strip through the C/L of the ribs at the rear but has nothing at the front after the first two ribs. I couldn't see any easy way to jig it to avoid a twist so I just glued some correctly sized pieces to my work bench.

One thing is for sure about MK kits: there are heaps of really small pieces!

I think the other pics are pretty self explanatory.

Cheers
Tarquin

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Some more pics.

I gotta see the progress! Next I need to put the skins on.

Cheers
Tarquin

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Very Kewl!! Keep up the Great Work!! Love the pics!!

That horizontal and wing set-up is dang neat...

Love it... :D

Chuck

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Hello Everyone

Progress has been extremely slow lately. I was sent on business to the UK again and then had a couple of weeks holiday away from the shed.

I have sheeted the stab and rough shaped the leading edge. Also the tips have been stuck on.

Cheers
Tarquin

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Of course being sent to the UK I ensured that I had a few hours in Singapore during the day. Any guesses were I went shopping?


I picked up a Dash5, header, and tuned pipe for the next project.

For reference they don't have the 40 size Dash anymore but do have a 25 size. They have an MK Wild 7 (for 120 size), Silent, and Silent 90, as well as a Blue Angle ARF and some newer MK pattern machines (topstar I think).

They have a bunch of Pilot kits and some EZ stuff too.

Cheers
Tarquin

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

ahhhhh...drool,drool,drool.



DM

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

No Kidding!! Excellent!! I had one of the Dash45 kits but I sold it (not too sure why??)...The quality of the kit was allot like the MK kits in my opinion. :D

Please keep us posted on the Dash5 as it matures as well... ;)

Take Care...

Chuck

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

I assume the Yongs were all in good health!
What a lot of flying for a trip to the hobby shop...:) Then again, what a hobby shop!!
You didn't hear anything about MK ceasing production of their kits while you were browsing throught the shop???
-Will
The Beetle looks good so far!
The Dash-5 is a great flying airplane!

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Hello Flywilly

Yes the yongs were good as far as I could tell. I spoke to Mr. Yong at length about the Beetle build. He is very familar with the beetle as he and another singaporean flier took them to the worlds in Wangaratta Australia (91 I think). He said I must ensure I glass the tail section. I thought this was to ensure the tail didn't come off but he said that without it that the snap rolls were not as precise and tended to over rotate. Mr. Yong's beetle had a Hanno in it but he thought RF-P was more powerfull and a better suit.


It was a heck of a lot of flying time. The way I look at it: if you have travel for that long you may as well as go to places that have good model shops.

I didn't hear anything about MK stopping production of current kits but they did say it was getting harder to get thm. Also they said that they are just about out of old MK kits and they can't convince MK to build another run.

When the Beetle is finished I will do a build thread on the Dash. I will also scan the plan and post a link to it then. For reference the beetle plan has been downloaded 84 times since I posted the link.

Cheers
Tarquin

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Hello Everyone.

A little more progress has been made.

Stabs have been skinned and tips rough shaped. The tail mechanism has been glued in as well as the fin. I spent about 2 hours measuring everything for squareness for 5 minutes of glueing :).

The wing fillets have been carved and rougly sanded. I can't finish them until I have wings in place to check the match up.

Cheers
Tarquin

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Hello Everyone

It has been a while since I posted any progress but there has been some.

I decided it was time to stop working on the fuselage until I had the wings joined and skinned. I have done the basic framing of the left and right wings: spars, ribs, trailing and sub leading edge, and shear webs. Next up is the undercarriage mounts and then joining and skinning.

There are no pictures this time. The lower nort island of New Zealand had one of the nastiest storm for 25 years. We lost power for over 36 hours and my PC has ***** itself. Only half of the stuff works so I have been backing up as much as I can before a complete reinstall.

Cheers
Tarquin

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Hello

Here are some pics of the wings.

The undercarriage mounting group consists of two ply plates and hardwood bearers. This group matches up with the ribs and back of the spars. You will notice that my reatract doesn't fit properly in the bearers. I will replace these with wider ones. It means that there are at least two sizes of MK mechanical retract. Does anyone know the differences between what I have and an "S type"?

There is a square notch on the top of the first few ribs. I assume that this is intended to allow the servo wires through. I don't really like the idea of square notches in the ribs and gaps for the wires to drop through. Therefore I plan to fill the notches with a sub spar and use the rolled up paper technique to run the wires from the servos.

Cheers

T

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

i have a set still in the package. how wide does the retract need to be? i will measure mine and report the model number later today.

david

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Looks great. Can't wait to see the final product.

Jeff

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Hey T Brooks. I was wondering if you could give the dimesions on that MK floating mount and maybe show a pic of it next to a ruler. I was going try and make one for a project I'm working on. Also, did you build in right and down thrust into the firewall? and if so how much?

Thanks in advance

Bryan

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Hello Dhal

Here are a couple of pics from the plans and of my retracts.

you can see the difference between the hole patterns
30*25 for mine and 34*23

Bootalini
Thank you for the nice comments. I really like seeing how all the little pieces come together and am looking forward to the time I can get it sitting on its wheels


Cheers
Tarquin

RE: MK Beetle Build
 

Hello Rougedog

Hope this helps.

I think the pics are mostly self explanatory. About the only thing you cant see is that round parts that the wood screws go through are stepped bushes. The bushes go through almost to the screw heads. This stops the rubber from extrudingwhen you do up the screws.

It would be worth asking Singapore hobbies if they have one that suits your application. The catalogue list them for about Singapore $36 but I think I only paid about $4.

Let me know if you need more detail.

Cheers
Tarquin