Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

I actually started this kit in December, but because of the holidays and such it got pushed to the side.
I haven't committed to any particular engine right now, but do have a set of 615's that should be here on Thursday.

I've never built a rounded fuse before. Actually.....I've only built trainers.

I decided to take to plunge and build my favorite plane.!!

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Started on cockpit fitting and detailing.
I had to request a new Canopy from TF as the one that came in the box had a big crack in it.!

Thankfully, they understood and sent me a new one for free.!!

Hopefully some more prrogress pics to follow shortly.!!

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Looks great so far!

Pro-E

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Thanks Minnflyer.!!!
Always appreciate encouragement.!!

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

Yes indeed, looking good. Keep us posted on your progress. Good Luck, Dave

Ram Jet

I have a 1:18 scale static model hanging two feet over my head right now in South Pacific colors. It's gonna be a beauty!

Bill

Pro-E

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I need to get one of those. I'm guilty of losing focus from time to......Oooh,.... pretty.!!

djr1007

Pro-E
I have one of these on the shelf, even have the retracks and engine, but It's #3 in line for the building table. I'll be watching for your updates, keep them coming. LOTs of pictures please. Just a suggestion, get a little more light on the subject and get closer with the camera. Any thoughts yet on covering?
Thanks, Dan.

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Hey Dan.!!

Its pretty cold here at the moment. should stat making pretty good progress again by this weekend.

As for the pics, part of it is my photo experience, the other part is that I'm using an older camera.
My Girlfriend has a better one, so I'll start using it. I'll also see if I cant get some better light in there.

Concerning the covering......I really wanted to glass and paint, but because of the smaller size and added weight of the retracts, etc., I'm concerned what the AUW would be.
For now, my plan is to build the entire plane RTF (sans covering) and weigh it. At that point I'll make my final decision.

I've been trying to find time to look into some lighter weight resin possibilities. I'm sure this has been exhaustively covered here on the forums somewhere. I just need to find the time to search.

Kindest Regards
Bryan

cold_reboot

My Feedback: (20)

You could try 1/2oz cloth and water based polycrylic to glass (I plan on using this on a .60 size FW190). The thinner fiber would take fewer coats of the WB Poly to fill the weave, and since the WB Poly contains a lot of water, a good bit of your weight will evaporate, unlike resin. Probably about the lightest glassing job you'll get. If you use water based, make sure you seal the wood first with something like Deft Lacquer Sanding Sealer so the water content in the poly doesn't warp your balsa sheeting. Tom Pierce has an excellent page comparing the weights of different glassing finishes. You can check it out on his SBD Dauntless build at TomPierce.net. If you decide to go that route, make sure you give your Sealer a good bit of time to gas out (like at least a week), or you might get some bubbling under your glass.

Redback

Bryan

I am in the final stages of my second TF 1/8 Corsair.

I initially covered the first one with Monokote but, after a crash that required an extensive rebuild, decided to glass with 1/2oz cloth and Z Poxy finishing resin.

I was surprised and please to find that even with the repairs the glassed and painted model came out no heavier that it had weighed previously. Had no hesitation in doing the same for #2.

Regards

Terry

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks Cold Reboot and Redback.

I'll definitely check 'em out.!!

cold_reboot

My Feedback: (20)

Forgot to mention that if you go with Waterbased (WB) Poly, let it gas as well. If you try to prime and paint too soon you can have the same problem with bubbling as the water content evaporates. The good thing about the Polycrylic is it's water based, so it cleans up with water and doesn't create the mess that resins do and doesn't require a respirator like a lot of things that smell awful like polyester resin. Also, Polycrylic comes in a single can ready to brush on so there's no mixing involved. Open the can and brush it on. Since it go's on so thin you don't have to scrape excess out with a plastic card or similar apparatus as with resin, just re-apply as needed to fill your weeve and sand it, all done.

ArrowNaughtic

I am also building a TF F4U .60 and am in the final stages of sheeting the wing. Being my first kit build ever I have definately learned a few things along the way. All I need to finish the wing sheeting is to install the flap servo rods and finish the lower center wing section sheeting. I found this thread after almost finishing the wing framing : [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5238850/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm]Building a Top Flite GE scale F4U corsair[/link] . Sure wish i could have found this one before i started........... I definately would have done it a little differently.
I see you went and started the fuse first or is the wing already finished?


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Of all the things I ever lost....................................... I miss my mind the most!

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Thank you for that link, I will be reading that as well. Looks like some great info. (Yours looks to be coming along quite nicely might I add.!!... Good motivation)

Yes, I started the fuse before the wings.
I didn't want to start the wings until I had all the retract parts. Now that they are almost here (Thursday) I can begin the wing.

Also, I've seen where people have mounted the air tank to the top center of the wing. This makes pretty good sense to me.

I only built the top part of the fuse so far.
I want to have all the rest of the gear (tank, radio, servos, etc.) so I can easily make installation / location adjustments as I see fit.
Its easier when it hasn't been sheeted yet.!

mesaflyer

Pro-e,
I will be keeping an eye on your build, looks real good so far. My son wants a Corsair, so I will be building this kit, probably sometime in the near future. Have other projects to finish first, like my Sea Fury. Here is a link http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_72..._3/key_/tm.htm
I will be getting back to it shortly, but wanted to let you know about the fiberglass/poly method. I weighed mine (see post 61, wing and 67, fuse, I think) to see just how much weight was gained. I did the cockpit kit (not REAL happy) and full pilot figure. Probabaly would not do that again on a plane this size. To me, just not worth it.
Good luck on you build.

mgowerintn

To Pro-E and Everyone

As with you this is my first rounded body also.

I havn't built a plane in a long time 15 years or so.

Your planes are looking great. I to am in the middle of building the same plane. I am building the tip panels(wings) right now and on step 7 (pg 13)it is telling me to to glue the TE flush to the top (toward plan) of rib T-7. The planes are little hard to read on just were to glue it. It i were to glue it flush to the top of rib T-7 (the spot after the jib tabs removed would be)then that would involve a great deal of bending of the TE or lifting up rib T-7 so the top spar is off the plan. I was wondering how you made yours and if you shaved both top and bottom of the TE to get it to fit on the T-7 RIB.

I have attached 3 pic's two of the full tip panel (wing) and one of the close up on the T-7 Rib. I drew a tick mark on the T-7 to show what I was talking about and where I understood the flush mark should be.


Any help from anyone would be greatley appreciated. I look forward as to seeing everyones progress.

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

Mesaflyer - Ill be reading your thread as well. Thanks for the link.
The cockpit is flimsy....but I have managed to make it fit pretty well. I haven't finished detailing yet, so I don't have a final opinion just yet.

mgoweritn - Your ahead of me on the wing, so I don't have an answer.
I will say this though. I built the main spar, and because of the humidity in Texas, the whole thing twisted.....

R-1(L) to R-1(R) was out more than 1/2" at the TE. (haven't glued anything in place yet)

I saturated the main and clamped it to the flattest surface I could find. I might even make a jig to keep the whole thing in line.
Your not talking about the same part, but could be experiencing the same problem.

I noticed that MOST of the wood in this kit is warped and had to be corrected.
Do your best to make sure everything is in perfect alignment before final glue.

I had to use debonder and cut all the stringers out of my fuse because F-1 thru F-9 ALL had a forward curve.

I'm finding myself truing ALL parts before assembly.
Not sure if its a kit defect, or just the humidity.! []

Everything is straight and true to this point.

mgowerintn

PRO-E

Well I have almost finshed my SPAR the only issue that i had with it was was about 1/16" off. I was flat(level) on the TE end of it. That is when they said to set it on a flat surface and check for straightness the whole TE was flat on the table but when I fliped it over to the LE the out side R-1 area on both sides it was about 1/16th off if that. I havn't completely glued the SPAR in. The only thing left for me to do is the landing gear area. Still debating on the type of landing gear I want weather I want to go retracter or not. Also I am going to have to make wider 3/8" by 3' by 5 ply plywood support. The area where the LG is bolted in is about 1/8 in wider then the wood that was supplied and I did have the R-2 and R-3 ribs aligned up with the plane blue prints.

Yes I have noticed that the wood did come slightly warped. (I have them laying all over the place with weights on them to try and flatten them out) And also some of the rib cut outs are not exact. I have noticed that when dealing with the rib cutouts I was having to sand the SPAR cut area out due to the spar was not fitting in properly so I had to ensure I sanded to the correct side(front or back) because if you sand the wrong side of the spar cut out it will shift the wing rib forward or backwards on the plans causeing it to have a gap or a bow on the TE or LE.

The Issue I was having with the ribs was not becase of warping but because of design maybe. I think they forget to say in the instructions that the TE needs to be cut on top and bottom between ribs T-6 and T-7 because this is doing the same on both wings. The TE is staying straight all the way down the wing but once you try to do what the instructions say it just dosnt seem to work for me that is.
should
Well I hope things get better for you. Check to see that if the length of the spar ribs from the SPAR to the LE and TE are the same length all the way up and down the SPAR only two should be short and that is R-4 where the trippler is added on to the front LE.

Good Luck and thanks for the feed back info

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

You bet.....and thanks for yours as well.

Keep in mind....if the wood is warped, just wet it and clamp it for a day or so (until its dry)
It should hold shape.

ArrowNaughtic

The confusing part about these plans is the size of the pics and how little detail you can get from them. I ended up going to Top Flites website and downloaded the manual so I could blow it up on the computer and see the pictures better. The link is [link=http://manuals.hobbico.com/top/topa0101-manual-v3_0.pdf]HERE[/link] and will allow you to blow up the pictures and see in more detail.
As far as the T-7 Rib goes, it must be aligned with the top of the TE and the tab should be above the TE. To get the spar to bend enough at T-6 I used a hacksaw and made a straight cut across the spar where it crosses over T-6. that seemed to allow enough bend to make it down to T-7. Cutting a notch in the spar resulted in a break on my first try.......the hacksaw trick worked great and saved having to glue a spar back together. I will attach a pic (somewhat blurry but still useable I hope) that shows my T-7 glued in place and the tab sitting below (closest to plan) the TE.
As far as wood quality goes with mine...all seems to be straight and fairly decent. I have yet to find a warped piece or twisted anything. Still spackling and sanding the wing tips and top center section and all seems to be smoothing out nicely.
Additional pics of the wing progress and one more of the T-7 from the end with sheeting on.


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Of all the things I ever lost....................................... I miss my mind the most!

Pro-E

My Feedback: (1)

I need to catch up to you guys.
I see what your saying.......but at this point it does me no good.!

I'll have the retracts by tomorrow..........possibly on to T-7 by Sunday.

ArrowNaughtic

Pro-E ..........
I have yet to even start on the fuse, I am following the plans step by step and am finally starting to see a pattern to the manual. I did find reading thru and considering electronics and all will greatly reduce head scratching time. I think your wing build will go much quicker than mine has. Sounds like you have a good build plan and things should go smoothly for you. The thread i linked to earlier has a wealth of info and I even downloaded some of the pics of his wing to my computer and enlarged them to see how he did certain things. Until I found that one i was using the 1/6 scale group build as a guide but found some differences that could not be resolved using it.


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Of all the things I ever lost....................................... I miss my mind the most!

mgowerintn

Arrow and Pro-E

Hey thanks for the help and pics on what your doing.

I went back and debonded the T-7 rib TE area and re glued it where the instructions said to. It did not alter the straightness of the LE and TE and it brought the T-7 rib into place for the skin covering. I guess when i was orginall tryin to glue it before all the other ribs were secured it just looked like it was deforming the wing to much but as it turned out it didnt.

Thanks also on the tips of starightening out the balsa. I dont think mine are as bad as yours are from what your saying. But I am gonna use your suggestion to straighten mine.

Also in ther area between T-6 and T-7 of the SPAR where it said to cut a notch in the bottom spar(spar away from the plan) to help bend it I did the notch and ended up breaking off the first wing SPAR so I notched out a section between the two ribs on the top and bottow SPAR and installed a piece of balsa wood inbetween the top and bottom spars I did this on both sides to even out the weight. (you can see it in the photo I posted earlier) It acts something like an I span or I beam and it strengthens the area and adds more glue space area to glue to. I have seen this done on other planes all the way up and down the wing SPAR. Some people used dremal tools to router out the groove. I used my miter saw and free handed it.

Thanks again on the infomation and help.

I look forward to seeing everyones progess also.

cold_reboot

My Feedback: (20)

I recently had the same problem with the Texas humidity Pro. Back however many weeks ago it was when it was 63 degrees at sunrise and everything was so wet you'd swear it rained the night before, I got a small twist in the horizontal stabilizer on my 60 size FW190. Sprayed it with a water/alcohol mix and clamped it to the table. Once dried it retained it's shape. As I've said before....living in Texas has it's great points...like a flying season that pretty much lasts all year (with exception of a few days when it's actually cold like our ice storm 2 days ago, it's going to be 63 today and 67 tomorrow). The bad is the Humidity if you like building.....it'll surely try to sabotage you. You could try getting something like a dehumidifier and keeping it in the room where you build, it may help to pull some Texas humidity out of the air. That's what I plan on doing before spring/summer (and awful humidity) gets here. Easier than constantly fixing twists