invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

I have been working on this project for a few weeks now, but forgot to start a build thread here.. So I'll post a few pic's to bring everyone up to date where i am:

Chosen color scheme:



Sierra Retract install into Foam wings:





Wing Construction:













Tail Construction:




Sliding Canopy:







Custom Made rivet burner tool:





Currently All the bulkheads have been installed in the fuselage except for the Firewall. All of the balsa surfaces have been glassed and sanded down and ready for primer and detail. The belly pan area is ready for build up and the gear wells are ready to be sealed and then detailed. Progress will be slow till the end of the year due to work commitments and the holidays. Then in jan, it will be Non-existent due to having to leave for work.

Ram-bro

My Feedback: (101)

nice work there. a lot of progress for just a week or two. Everything going together pretty good? Like the scheme you chose also......unique

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Its been going together fairly well. Most everything has fit well other than the wings to the fuselage. The airfoil shape doesn't have enough "curve" from about 30% chord forward to the the Leading edge of the wing. So this causes there to be about 1" gap at the trailing edge with the wing dowel in the dowel receiver in the fuselage. So in order to fix that I had to actually remove some of the fiberglass wing seat. This eliminated the gap at the trailing edge, but even so their is 1/8" gap from 30% chord aft to the trailing edge between the wing and wing seat. Which i figured would happen as these old fiberglass fuselages never seem to keep shape, so i'll use some epoxy and microballons to fair in the wing fairing.
The plans are really worthless other than an idea of what the thing should look like. They provide no information on sheeting thickness' for the wing or tail, and the systems setup is very "old-school". So it draws on allot of previous experience in order to get to work. For wing sheeting I used 3/32" balsa, and the tail section is sheeted with 1/16" balsa.

tfarmer96

I have one of these birds and its been sitting in line for a while.

Bluffman

My Feedback: (1)

Great job, a friend and i have been working on the same plane for two years, i will show him this thread, how did you cut out the aileron lightning holes. Ian

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

I stacked all four aileron skins together with a light dusting of 3m 77 spray. The glued the paper template I made to the stack. The drilled a hole inside each lightning hole, and cut the rest of the lightning holes out with a scroll saw. It took about 2 hours to do the elevators, rudder and ailerons. I still have to do the flaps.

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Starting work on the forward belly pan.
The lower exhaust duct sides were trimmed to shape and glued into position. Looking from the back of the plane into the cowling, the size is about 1/2 of what it should be. So I'm debating on trimming the center area between the duct sides so i can get the depth just right. It would only really require the wing to be flattened between the sides to get the depth correct. The center ply ribs have plenty of material.

For those paying attention, what do you all think?

Bluffman

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This could be a cliff hanger, LOL your progress is amazing for such a short time.

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Thanks! I've decided i'm going to adjust the wing center in the duct. its just a matter of getting the time to.

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

I knew i would never be happy if i didn't fix the lower exhaust/wing duct issue... Sooo out came the ruler and the dremel tool w/ a sanding drum and about 30 minutes later, we get this:





And The new view from behind looking into the cowling.



Overall i believe it looks much better and am glad i took the time to clean out that area. I only removed about 3/16" of material from the 1/4" center wing dowel ribs at most, so their is very little decrease in strength. The duct will probably get filled with a piece of .020" g-10


I also roughly cut out the aft portion of the belly pan. I need to get the correct 1/4-20 wing bolts and a piece of cardboard tube, then i'll install the aft belly pan and finish trim it to shape.

Bluffman

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Hi I was checking out the pictures, and it did not look like you installed a wing spar, do you think the wing skin and then the glass will be strong enough, or did i miss it. Ian

wulf190

My Feedback: (19)

I can answer to part of that Ian. I've had the Holman planes both with, and without wing spars in the wing. The spar isn't really needed, but it does strengthen things...at a weight penalty in the wing. Using carbon tow strips and epoxy in a channel works good too. As long as the gear box and mount area is sturdy and distributes the force, the wing is good to go with or without a full spar.

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Ian,
Exactly what wulf said. To add more to his comment. What i have found, is that a set of foam core wings w/ 3/32" sheeting are more than strong enough if some sort of wing tube or Dihedral brace is used. I quit using conventional "spars" in foam wings a long time ago as they are just extra weight for most airplane. On a 33% and larger plane, the wing tube acts as the main stress carrier. And the leading/trailing edge stock and wing skins transmit that load to the rest of the wing. Since the FW obviously doesn't have a Wing tube, What i did was make a 1/8" 5-ply "dihedral" brace that goes about 11" span wise into each wing panel and runs the full thickness of the wing panel as well. This brace runs right up to and about 1" in front of the span wise running Gear spar. I've attached photo's of the dihedral brace and some of it installed:

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

While waiting for glue to dry on another project i did a bit of work to the FW. I used a piece of .020" G-10 to make up the bottom/top of the exhaust trough on the bottom of the wing. Their is small gap where the molded fiberglass sides are, so i'll fill in that gap with another piece of G-10. I also got started working on the forward wing fairing. I used scrap balsa to fill in the gaps between the molded fiberglass parts and the fuselage. I sanded that to shape roughly and then filled it in. Once that dries i'll go to it with some lighter grade sandpaper and finish sand it to shape. Then i'll remove the wing and glass that area.
I also trimmed the lower center aft portion of the cowling to shape, since it wasn't correct.

Anyone have any experience w/ the Seidel ST7-70 Radial engine in a 1/5 scale warbird?

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

all i have done so far to the 190, is stabbed myself in the palm with a #11 exacto blade that went completely to the handle.. good thing it was new! ha.. other than that, did a bit of sanding and some more filling. so the front fairing should be done later tonight or tomorrow.. Depends on how soon i can get the last of this UAV done.

DLEVETT

My Feedback: (13)

Looking great! Ya just gotta love the A series FW 190's. Its my favourite german WWII aircraft.
Is this kit still available?
Keep the build pics coming.

Dave

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Dave, the kit is available through bob holman.

DLEVETT

My Feedback: (13)

Thanks Thomas,
I,ve ordered a number of kits from Bob before so I,ll get in touch with him about this one.
I really like the idea of the fiberglass fuse to help with a quicker build.

Dave

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Yes, you and me both! I REAALLLLY hate all built up airframes. They just require way to much work to get to the stage where i've gotten in a few weeks. I absolutely LOVE all composite airframes, but hate the pricing hahaa. So this is a good medium point.

DLEVETT

My Feedback: (13)

I,m with ya Thomas.
The cost of complete composite planes is more than I like to spend, but a built up wing and tail group with a glass fuse [ eg Yellow aircraft ] is the perfect solution.
I,m going to give Bob a shout right now.

thx
Dave

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Originally I had planned to put the Seidel 7 cylinder radial this airplane. But unfortunately its just a little to big to fit. I only have 9 1/4" diameter from 2" aft of the cowl leading edge to the very back. The seidel is 9 1/4" in diameter, and the prop flange washer is 1 3/4" infront of the cylinder heads. so i'm about 3/8" to short from being able to fit it. So i'll probably stuffa DLE-55 in the thing now.

DLEVETT

My Feedback: (13)

The Seidel would be awesome for the scale sound, to bad it won't fit.
I wonder if the new Saito 57cc gas engine would fit? I,ll have to look into the specs on it.

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

It "looks" like it would fit, but OUCH on the price for just a 2 cylinder. I also think that a 57cc 4-stroke puts out the power of around a 30cc 2-stroke. Since i like to be able to fly "scale" at about 2/3 to 3/4 power, im not sure the saito would be a good match.. and its reaaallly new, so who know's.

Bluffman

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for the response on the spar, the multi cylander motors sound really cool but they are pricey. Ian

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Yea, the Seidel isn't to bad at $1350 shipped and would of really made this model stand out. Unfortunately it will not fit which is a real bummer. Oh well.. I've got a DLE-55 on order, so atleast i dont have to bother with home-made glow-fuel.