sunnybreeze-inactive

This is the start of a new thread of my Hawker Tempest project. A WW2 plane which went into production to late to see action. I want all the experts to take at look at my progess and I'm looking for input to how to do some layup. I have not yet fiqured out how I'm going to build the flaps, stab, rudder, vertical stabilizer. I want to do them in full composite. Some input here would be great. This first post is all fuse. The wing plug is done and I'm starting the mold layup on that Monday. This series of pics shows the foam fuse plug from glue up to shaping. Then 2 layers of 2oz cloth and west epoxy in the vacuum bag. Sanded to 320 and partall waxed. The parting board box is MDF with Myler glued to the parting board. Then the clay and spray on the PVA. Layup for mold is West, graphite and conicila for covering layer. Then 5 layers of 6oz. I'm quite pleased with the shiny mold and it should lay up a nice fuse. Fuse layup to be 2 layers of 2oz satin weave cloth with 2oz carbon sandwiched in the nose section.
Here are some pics

sunnybreeze-inactive

Here are more pictures of the fuse mold layup

sunnybreeze-inactive

Last couple of pics

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

Watch this series of videos, then contact him. You're way over most people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ge3yw99b9g

Props4ever

Soarrich,

Good that you pointed him in James (Slow Low on here) direction as i was going to do the same too, yep both of you guys are way ahead of most on here..my hats off to both of ya!..

1967250s

Hi, Fantastic work you are doing there, wish I could match your quality! However, I must disagree most heartily on this point, the Hawker Tempest MkV you are modeling had a very succesful career, if shaky start in 1944, during WWII. They were responsible for shooting down some 630 V-1 Buzz bombs and being one of the few fighters that could take on the new german fighters with its great power and speed. The later models of the MkII ( radial engine) and MkVI came after the war and eventually evolved into the Fury and Sea Fury which flew for many years with the RAF and have recently won at Reno Air races. Several other air forces also flew them. It was a magnificent machine and unfortunately there are only two Mk V's known to exist, both in English museums. There are lots of sites to research it, too. Best of luck!

Props4ever

Nice to know bit of it's history on MkVs, i wish MKII's were modeled also as i really like to have model of it. PAF had a full squadron of Tempest MKIIs and Sea Furies after the independence in 1945 from India!!...

1967250s

Hey, if anyone would like to see some real Tempests go to-
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/london/c...-tempest-v.cfm
There are also two very good books- "Typhoon and Tempest at War", and one by Pierre Clostermann, who was a Frenchman flying for the RAF and wrote " The Big Show" about flying Tempests. Lots of good web sites to research. Lots of people love these fighters ( including me-can you tell?) The Sea Fury that followed was another step in the type and was also a great plane and many of these are still flying and some win at Reno air races! There are also lots of good plastic kits out there. Sea furies show up at lots of airshows, too. Enjoy!

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

Great book! I loved the way he used to navigate, German flak burst where black, Allied flak burst where white.

sunnybreeze-inactive

I guess I was misinformed. Glad to know I'm building a plane with such a great carear. I even plan to to paint in reno theme which will be great looking. Stay tuned for the wing next!

Slow Low

Steve - got the email - found the thread - looks like a party!
Rich & Sammy - always good to see you guys!
1967250s - nice to meet ya

If memory serves, the last time we spoke the days were a little longer and you were workin' on some panel lines. Glad to see you making progress on the tools, but even more so, I'm glad to see the thread. It always does my heart good to see you guys inspiring others by sharing so openly.

If you're out there reading this thread and find yourself inspired to make your own mould, or you learn something new, you should take the 5 minutes it will take to thank this man. After that you should post whatever pics you can of your own project. Not everyone who would like to do this sort of thing has someone to show them how.

I'm onboard watching this one, and looking forward to the pics to come!
Peace and Love.

sunnybreeze-inactive

SlowLow,
Glad to see you back onboard. Will be starting the wing parting board tonite with pics to come later this week. The one area I need help on is layup of Flaps, stab, Rudder etc. If I build the plub, mold etc what do you suggest for lay up procedure. I'm thing 1/32" balsa with .75 oz cloth on both sides and create a hollow sandwich. What do I use for hinge pockets? I'm sure it's all been done before but some guidance would be great!

Props4ever

James Slow Low glad to you see you back one again, it's always nice to have you around. This is one of those great thread filled with wealth of information and knowledge. In my opinion it takes alot for a builder to post what he does with his project to other can also benefit from him. When people do stuff on so called "Secret mode" na man it doesn't cut it...

I am wondering if one of you guys could share your opinions and suggestions
with me on my thread also, i am not so new with what i am doing but proper guidance will be appreciated..
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8098192/tm.htm

fokke

Hi sunnybreeze ,nice work you have [sm=thumbs_up.gif]
I see that you don't use pins ,how you will graze two halfs ?

sunnybreeze-inactive

I plan to stick the Plug back into the two half molds and drill for pins. After the two half's are molded I will build a 1/16" mating joint line using balsa and epoxy the two together in the molds. Stay tuned for pic's later in November. thanks for the nice comments.
Steve

1967250s

Found this other link that covers most of the developement of the Typhoon and Tempest
http://www.aviation-history.com/hawker/typhoon.html
Lets see more pictures!!

sunnybreeze-inactive

As promised here are pic's of my Tempest wing plug to finished mold. The Mold came out super smooooth and shiny. Will produce a wing skin light, strong and smooth with little to no effort to paint.

sunnybreeze-inactive

More Pics to finished MOLD

Props4ever

Nice wing molds Steve!, i'm impressed with you work. It sure is a lot of work but end results are priceless!. I noticed the you didn't added any panel lines to you plugs before making molds, any special reason?.
By looking at this thread and work that James (Slow low) did on that P-40 molds i am getting encouraged to actually tackle making molds myself with a help of another friend to supervise who did huge Dinosaurs for the museum in US few years ago. Man if he allowed me to post pictures of what they did, it's be something else to be seen, just as Mike Emilio says "Dynamite Work" just phenomenal.....

sunnybreeze-inactive

Here are Pics of my first pull from my Tempest fuse mold. As you can see in the pic's I layed in a single layer of .05oz cloth in the mold dry holding in place with a mist coat of spray contact cement. Smooth out the very best I could. Then repeated the process with 2 layers of 3oz cloth and then a layer of carbon veil in the nose section and a final 3 layer of 3oz in the nose. Inserted the entire mold in the vacuum bag and pulled to 30"hg. You also can see a piece of tubing wrapped in peel ply snaking around the flange which is simply 1/4" plastic tubing with 1/16" holes drilled thru it every 2". This creates a vacuum train which will help draw the resin towards the sides of the mold. The resin is interduced via a tubing suction and a flow medium running down the center of the mold. Check out the pics. The final results are great. The fuse half is very strong and Light.

sunnybreeze-inactive

Final Pics

Slow Low

Looking good Steve, nice job on the infusion. What did you use for a resin?

dertjack

Where did you learn to do resin infusion? What are you using for the resin distribution material?

sunnybreeze-inactive

Thanks Slowlow for the comets. Resin infusion is the way to go. The process is so slow and control for the setup. I can take my time laying in cloth with it all dry and I don't have to wear gloves. I use the mist coats of 3M 5200 spray contact cement on each layer and form and work it into all the nooks and crannnies. Then I insert into the vacuum bag and pull a vacuum and then remove it. Now the various layers of cloth are all formed and pushed into place. I can trim cloth around the flange and add my vacuum tube and flow medium down the middle. Then put it all back into the bag and pull my vacuum again. Once I'm happy with the setup I mix the special resin (it has to have a high viscosity for flow) and allow it to be sucked into bag. The best thing is never do I get any resin on my hands. It also creates a perfect 70/30% ratio of cloth to resin. The cloth will soak up resin until it's wetted out but no more. This is key to saving weight.

Resin infusion is quite easy as long as you have the equipment. I learned how to do it by reading the free online brochure the following website: www.Fibreglast.com
go to the learning center icon and then the free online brochures then vacuum infusion. Read it all and it will show you the stuff you need to buy. I used the 120min resin for infusion. Any questions please do not hesitate to post questions or email me.

Wing Skins later this week!!!!!!!!!

SlowLow: What's up with your P40??? Do you have a finished plane? Let's see some pictures!!!!!

Blue Note

Impressive. I went though a quick clinic on vacuum infusion at Oshkosh during their fly-in a few years back, but even the instructor had problems making it wet out well. Of course they were also considering doing entire panels or components for 1:1 sized planes. I was impressed with the final products, but the 'how to' left a lot of gaps and it introduced more questions than it answered. This may be the first application I stumbled across with RC building. Do you have any first hand knowledge about the strength/weight advantages as compared to conventional vacuum bagging? How about resin usage. I understand that there is often more wasted resin with infusion. Comments? I'll have to check out the references you listed above. From what I understand about it, it should be superior to traditional vacuuming bagging once you get it figured out. Thanks for bringing this to out attention and I look forward to watching your progress.

BNC