Hi All - Well another week and a little bit more progress. I pretty well finished the engine cowl. I blocked in the bottom as close as I wanted it. Side profile is what I wanted at least. I have a little bit of sanding and fitting to do yet as you can tell by the gap, but that will be easy. I started the cockpit this week. As you can tell by the first shot of these 4, I framed in a piece to take the roof and a filler area for styrofoam. I have never messed around with styrofoam before so this should be interesting.

Well, I started by getting 4 pieces of styrofoam shaped to fit and match the turtle deck (That was fun). After ordering a hot wire cutter (which was a little to narrow), I managed to get the glued blocks all whittled down to where I could start a final sanding. I think I managed to get it all to run into each other pretty seamlessly. I then started filling in some small seams with filler and the interface between the cockpit and turtle deck. I finally got a very nice seamless roll into each other. I then fit in the front window braces, and yes, I cut a seat with headrest to mount. Just need to sneak in and get some of my wifes different colored hobby paints Since there is no structural strength in this, I opted to now use and fiberglass and simply put on a thin coat of 30 minute epoxy. I was worried about things sticking to the filler. I still haven't decided whether to MonoKote the cockpit or paint it.
I guess I also got the top curve on the Vert Stab and Rudder about where I wanted them also this week.

Next will be adding the three piece cockpit window to the front. First trial fit of the original 120 canopy shows that I hope I can cut out the windows in one piece and wrap it around the braces. With a little of the black canopy edge trip it should look all right.

I like the profile I have. It's as close as I'm going to get to the real thing for now on this kit.

Well, what do you think........ Am I just building a lead sled ?? I never planned on this being a 3D plane, but I hope it at least flys scale.

Very nice Greg. I'm working on the 4*40 and like seeing the bigger version.



One suggestion I would have: On your payload bays make a small opening in the front to duct slipstream air in. This will help blow the dust out of the storage compartment. Doesn't have to be a big hole, you'll have to experiment with it and can always make the hole bigger.


Good Luck

Greg, Looking good man! With the wing area of the 120, I doubt its going to fly like a led sled! Cant waite to see vidio of a powder drop!

Hi Guys and thanks for the compliments. Yea, i can't wait to see it make that first drop either

Actually I have thought about how to get some airflow and positive pressure in the bays, but I think I'll wait until I do some testing first. I'm going to dry fit it all together one of these days when the weather cooperates a little bit and load the bays up while I've got it secured to the stand with the motor running and see what it does when I pop the bay doors open. I'm hoping the air rushing over the opening creates a negative pressure and actually pulls the powder out as well as creating a disturbed airflow that kind of boils the powder while it's in the bay. If all of this doesn't work I've got a plan for a simple airduct that I could include for scale purposes that would allow me to run a small tube to both bays giving it the positive pressure I might need. When I do the test I'll take a picture, and if it's worth posting I'll put it on here.

Hi All - Well it's been a slow 2 weeks of building. Played hooky last weekend with a trip to Cleveland for a Rodeo (Yes, thats my Wyoming Native side kicking in) only got a few hours a night of building for awhile. These will be the last pictures I'll post until it's covered, I'm getting into some of the smaller detail work now and I won't bore you with all of it. I had to do a dry fit of everything today, so I thought it would be another chance for a photo op.

Our Club's Mall show is next weekend in Findlay, and so I am going to take it in the bones so folks can see what's actually under all of that pretty covering they always see I'm sure it should create some interesting questions.....

Well here are four shots of it just sitting out in the driveway.

GUESS WHAT - IT WAS 56 TODAY WITH LIGHT WIND BUT, WE HAD OUR CLUB AUCTION TODAY, SO NO FLYING[] BUT FIRST FLY TOMORROW

Greg, very nice ! What's the total weight like ? This sure is a fun plane

Since the Saito 150 is inverted, I didn't want to try and fish around with the glow starter every time I wanted to fire it up. I got one of those remote glow plug extensions. I built a box for it, mounted it, and then fit the box up under the front fuselage so I hope it sort of looks like the slurry/water hatch used for filling the tank. Please excuse the sloppy extra black paint, I'll get that covered later. AirTractor's also run an awesome turbo charged engine and have these huge dry stacks coming out the side of the cowl. I got a couple of 45 degree brass fittings, took the propane torch and did a heat treatment on them so they kind of have that heated oil slick metal kind of look (if you know what I mean).

The last shot is just me and my ugly mug to give you a size comparison if you don't happen to know much about the SIG 4 Star 120. Wings have ended up 83.5".

Well like I said in last reply, next pics I hope are of it covered and ready to go...........

Hey Rajul - I'm not sure of weight right now. I've never had a very good set of scales for a whole plane, so I'm going to have to take it to one of the guys to get it done. I'll let you know, but it is definitely heavier then if I had built it stock ......[:@]

That is one awesome looking plane! Can't wait to see how you cover it.

Yea Yea - I know - I said I wouldn't post any more pics until I had it covered Well we had our annual Mall Show this weekend and took it out for show and tell. Seems like it got quite a bit of interest, I was hoarse by Saturday night[X(]. I suppose because it just wasn't quite like anything else there.

Since it does actually have some color on it I thought I'd share two shots of it.

Thanks for the pat on the back Deadeye, I hope it turns out like I want with the covering on it to......

And since were are all going crazy until we can go fly - I thought I'd share two more shots of a few new planes that will grace our skys here in Findlay for the first time this Spring

Hey Greg,


That plane is wicked cool. Can't wait to see it fly this year. Keep posting the great pics.




Scott

Great plane to bash - lookin good!!

How much weight do you think you've added?

How did you come up with the cockpit design? Which Ag plans did you use???

Thanks Scott - I'll have to see if Jason can bring out the digi cam to record the event.

Hey WWW - Thanks to you to. I built a 4*60 last year, and so I got a feel for what I could do and what these kits were like. I thought it would allow me to do a semi scale of the AirTractor, and so far it seems to be working out.

Not sure of the extra weight yet, but once I get it done I'll do the over all scale thing and let you all know how much I eneded up hanging on it.

As far as plans, I really don't have any. I have some friends that fly these and have always loved them. I went to AirTractors site [link=http://www.airtractor.com/]AirTractor.com[/link] and found a 3 way view with dimensions and then just printed off a bunch of the pictures. It's all been scratch from there. If you really want to see a BUNCH of pictures of this build go to my website and look up the 4 Star 120 Build album. I kind of have some step by step pics of different parts of the build.

Later all, I hope to start covering tonight

Hey that thing looks pretty good. I too have given some thought to trying to convert one of these. I fly a full scale AT 402 and built a 4*120 last summer with a 31cc Ryobi up front. Always thought that it might be possible to make a pretty good AT out of it. The only thing that you need to really make it look right is a better gear setup. I have been thinking about how to do that. Anyway, great job on that model.

Hi All - Well, I have the bulk of the covering on the fuselage, so I thought I'd share 4 quick shots. Stayed with the traditional color scheme from AirTractor so far. I think the ends of the elevators will receive some treatment. Trying to think of some type of slurry bomber, forest fire fighting type decals. I haven't started covering the wing yet because I've decided to rebuild the ailerons and flaps. The 4 Star's taper out to the end where as the AirTractors are same width from inboard to outboard. I'll see after I get them done.

Next shots hopefully will be with wing attached, engine mounted, and everything balanced and ready to go

Later All - Thanks again for the compliments............

Greg,


Looking awsome!!!!!!!! Can't wait to see it when it's done!!!!




Scott

SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man, that looks AWESOME! You ever seen the movie 'Always' with Richard Dreyfuss and John Goodman? The 'Fire Eater' logo he has on his plane would fit your plane wonderfully. I'll try to find a pic.

Scott, Mark, and DeadEye - Thanks again. Scott anything new in the Baby Department ??

DeadEye, I have watched "Always" at least 3 or 4 times, I love that show. Some of the planes in that show are from the Hawkins and Power Slurry Bombers out of Greybull Wyoming (yea, I've mentioned that before). But I hadn't thought of the decals before on the planes. If you happen to find anything let me know, I'll do a search also. That's exactly what I'm looking for to set this plane off.

I had a little set back last night. Mounted Motor Mount, Mounted the Saito, hooking up throttle and all as I go. Of course using the Red Thread Lock-Tite on all bolts. Install foam in fuel tank compartment and slip tank in.

Now for connecting all the lines again. Tank to Carb - good, filter in place. Crank Case Vent, add a piece of brass to end. Hook up line to SlimLine fuel dot, good. fits like I want.
Go to hook up line off of the brass nipple on the SlimLine Pitts muffler that is now tucked up inside Can't get my fingers in there[:@] Can just slide a wrench in however and screw nipple out of muffler Install fuel line on nipple and try to start threads back into muffler[>:] Suddenly twist off threads on brass nipple in muffler[sm=punching.gif]

Spent the rest of the night trying to fight all of the bolts out that have been lock-tited into place.

Anybody know a qucik place to get the brass fitting for a SlimLine Pitts Inverted Saito 150 Muffler????????????? Already have a call into SlimLine

Drats.

Ah well, it's just been going to well up to now. Take a breath and accept my dumb mistake, and continue on

Well - I got the new stick frame Flaps and Aileron's built. 3/8th x 1" for LE and TE and covered with 1/16th. Added the 1/2" tri-stock to LE and sanded down flush with sheeting. The full size AirTractor's flaps and ailerons have no taper from inboard to outboard end, so I decided to see what it would look like. I now have the flaps at exactly 12" by 3.5" instead of what I had started to call my 'Token Flaps', which were only 9" long. That leaves the Aileron's at 28" long each. I went from 6oz with all of the originals to 9 oz's with these. I think they look better then the tapered. What do you all think?? I also have the SlimLine muffler headed in for repair, hopefully back before I know it

Well - I'm still waiting to receive my muffler back from Slimline, not as fast as I was told it would be. They were going to replace it, but apparently they don't have any in stock. They are just going to fix the one I sent it and we'll see if it works.

Ah well, just more time for other finishing touches.

While I was in Toledo the Slimline booth happened to have their new pilots at a nice price, so I decided I had to have one.

I couldn't help but think that a Cigar Smoking *** Kicking Pilot's Pilot would be just the guy I needed to fly my Slurry Bomber.

He was a little short so I had to carve a spacer for him to make him taller, including scarf. Well, that wasn't to hard but then I had to try and match the paint of a weathered leather bomber jacket I got close is all I'm going to say about it....... I might add the web harness to hold him in the seat still.

I bashed one too...in the old racer fashion....sort of....! Here is a pic of the fuse only....it has a G25 inverted....hasn't flown yet.Have a great day....Jim J

Gregg,

Bravo on an extremely entertaining and informative thread! I would be very interested in your thoughts on bashing the 40 size four star with your mods. My initial thoughts are no slurry drop equipment, no functioning flaps (but I would draw them in), fiberglass cowl, and and possibly a pilot shed made out of a coke bottle formed onto a plug.

I'm thinking that weight will be a serious issue on the 40 size, so I think some of what I said will help in that department. Also, I have built the 4*40 before and it was a floater. Did you remove any dihedral on yours to get to the scale view that you desired?

Thanks for any ideas or suggestions you have on the smaller size.

Great job, and keep us posted.

John

Well - Believe it or not everyone - it's 99% complete

Hi Jim J - That is a pretty cool kit bash of the racer. I really like how you formed the top air intake. Let me know how it fly's with the gasser in it.

Thanks Scale Dreamer - Glad you've enjoyed this thread, I've had a lot of fun doing this build. I think you should be able to do something similar with the 40. The real AirTractor has some dihedral in the wings so I left it all in mine as well. I knew I was adding weight and I didn't want to take the chance of it getting to squirrelly. I also left the wing full length because I wanted all the lift I could get. This is for flying scale, not 3D, although I've seen the cropdusters do some pretty amazing aerobatics at times

We've all been wondering and asking about the final weight - well according to my new digital fish scale it came in at 15 lbs 4 oz's. Which is 3 lbs over.

The reason I say it's 99% complete is I have to do the permanent Rx install and CG. Hopefully I can move things around to accomplish that.
I also need to come up with some cool final graphics and numbers that will fit, and be worthy of the slurry bomber role