jofunk

Saturday turned into a fix the runway at the field /Panther build / pizza party /bonfire day. John Abrahamian blew out his Panther and brushed a coat of primer on his fuse. He also set up my compressor and shot primer on his wings, hatches, and John Roth's hoz. stab. John Roth sanded out the brush marks his hoz. stab before Mr Fun sprayed it. He also attached his tip tanks. and to boot he did a little work on his Boomerang wing that got damaged when a tree jumped in front of it on landing. I just played support man for those two all day. Mr Fun's Panther looks pretty impressive completely covered in primer. John and Nick posed with it for a sense of scale.

jofunk

Monday John Abrahamian worked on his flap hinges over at John Roth's house. He also helped glass John Roth's Panther winglets. John R. worked on a little of everything including his Boomerang. I started drilling holes in my fuse. with my forstner bits to start running servo leads. What nice clean holes they cut.

jofunk

No big news. I just made a nice battery tray to fit in the boxed in area in the nose. It will plug in the pocket in the front and will have a single screw holding it on the other end. Monday mr. Roth primed a bunch of his airplane. His primer is yellow while mine and Mr. Fun's are two different shades of gray.

Jeff Foley

My Feedback: (45)

Just a suggestion.....get some "Split Second" filler made by US Chemical. It is much lighter than light weight bondo, sands easier and squeegees on nicely. Uses a cream hardener like bondo and cures quickly. It is little hard to find, but you can find it online.

jofunk

Things going slow with summer here. I screwed down the battery tray where it will go. The half moon notches are for the zip ties to clear the sides of the box. I am not sure on a good splitter plate shape since Ziroli's LE is nothing like the full scale Panther. This is the shape I came up with so far to fake it in. There should be more of the plate showing on the bottom than on the top. Any good pix and suggestions? I also started to lay out where the radio and engine equipment will go. It seems that if you just start screwing things in it doesn't take long before you have a rats nest of wires and hoses. I'm not saying I won't but I'll try to keep it clean.

jofunk

I started to make some plates to cut the splitters out of. I took some 1/64 ply and laminated each side with 2 layers of 2.6 oz. cloth. I then stacked them up with waxed paper between them, and then pressed them under a block so they would cure flat. The bricks kept the block from sliding. When I first put the block on the stack it felt as if there was grease under it. They wetted out nice and the waxed paper gives them a nice finish. they are also very thin and stiff. My home made G 10 board. Now to cut the shape and glue them on the fuse.

jofunk

I cut the splitter plates to shape. The one extra blank that I made I didn't need. The wing root at the fuse is 3 ply lite ply. I took a sharp chisel and removed the top layer of plywood. This gave me enough room to glue the plate to the fuse and have it lay flush. The wing plugged back in and still fits nice and tight to the fuse. I also trimmed the leading edge of the intakes parallel with the fuse so I can install the intakes and finish the L.E.

jofunk

The intakes are glued in. I glued a few scabs on the fuse to hold the intake flush with the side of the fuse. I then glued the intakes in with 2 different types of glue, urathane on the scabs to fill the void and ca around the perimiter of the intake lip. They will get attached in a few more spots once the urethane cures. I also drilled a hole under the intake prior to gluing them in to run something. I am just not sure what, but once I would have glued in the intakes in I would have never been able to drill the holes.

jofunk

I couldn't let the scrap wood go to waste so I glued some on the intake le. With the primer brushed on I could see dips and ridges in the fuse., so I hi-lighted the areas with a marker every time I saw one and smeared some icing on the areas to save a step before I sand it.

jofunk

I worked on a retract valve mount. I made it the old fashioned way with a drill and a hack saw. But it is made out of hi tech aircraft aluminum. Not really, it's made out of dead soft Menards aluminum. It should be plenty to hold the valve. I want to make the tray as small as possible with a standard servo, so I am going to hang the valve off the end. I'll take a few more pix when it is done.

Instructor

My Feedback: (16)

Just go to your local building supply store, Lowes Or Home Depot, and get a strip of 1/8" angle Aluminum. I use them all the time to make things like that. Following this thread all the way so far........


Good Luck,
Larry

jofunk

Hi Larry,

I took your advice and found a piece of angle aluminum hiding in the basement for the valve mount. It is thinner stock but more than stiff enough to hold the valve in place, Like anything, when you make it for the first time it takes a few tries till you are happy with it. The first ones were too thick, and the bend wasn't that sharp. So here is the final version, and where it is installed. I used up some dead space in the nose. I just had to make sure the battery tray cleared everything on the way out.

Instructor

My Feedback: (16)

Looks real good tucked away in the nose....

Larry

jofunk

I glued on the rest of the wood that will make up the intake leading edge. Over the top of the intake the sheeting looked a little flat where it meets the leading edge. It didn't flow into the LE. The primed and glassed part got some icing and the bare wood got some light filler. when it all dries it will get a little sanding and shaping. then the fuse will get flipped over to see what doesn't look right on the bottom. Once it all looks reasonable everything will get hardened with some glass cloth. I started measuring for servo extensions. when it is all said and done it might have 50 or 60' of wire in it.

THESCALEMAN

just found this site....really great work!.......

i saw Dave's 1/4 scale F9F at a show here in the UK some time ago now......at the same time my mate and i were building 20% bigger versions, when i say 20% i mean taking the standard plan and blowing it up 20%........don't know what the exact scale is but it's pretty impressive.

before making mine i made the exact plan size just to see how things went together.......pretty much how yours has gone together.......we ahve flown the small one and i'm just in the process of giving it a final paint........tailormade decals from Germany........coming on ok......

here's mine in the workshop.....

looking forward to seeing more of the build

first image........side by side...the smaller one behind the large one, second shot the larger version P120, last shot the smaller version with P70....flown in this condition

all the best

Dave

jofunk

That is really cool Dave. I could ask you a hundred questions about your big Panther. What's the wing span? Could you post some detailed photos of your enlarged Panther? It would be interesting to see your construction techniques and how you are engineering and installing everything. My building and engineering is close to finished but some of the other guys could steal some ideas. Keep us updated on your progress on this thread................I flipped my fuse over and did some more work on the inlets. There was a lot of excess wood on the bottom so instead of turning it to sanding dust I whipped out my precision RASP. It took the wood off in about ten seconds. That was for both sides. I also sanded down the brushed on primer where I am going to glass so I don't have lumps under the glass when it cures. I skinned things over with some light filler. when it dries I'll start to final shape everything.

THESCALEMAN

Hi......

the wing span is 87".........basically the build was the same as the small one......we had the kit enlarged by Belairkits here in the UK......(laser cut parts)...beefed up the regions like the tailplane/retracts etc........2 servos on elevators rather than the one on the smaller version, robart hinges all round.......sort of made the retracts and oleos, the smaller version users robarts.......canopy we are in the middle of making......2 top hatches like the smaller one of mine the original plan has the one...well you know about that.....

wing tanks made from blue foam cores cladded with 3/32" balsa......all glasssed with Z epoxy finishing resin.........

THESCALEMAN

some more......

jofunk

Hi Dave,

As you make progress post the pictures. I like the spiral tip tank sheeting. Lets see the gear, and the canopy progress if you get a chance.

Thanks
Joe Felonk

jofunk

A little shaping on the bottom and a little on the top and it close to glassing. the t v is broke so I am going in the basement.

jofunk

Just cut a few pieces of glass for the intake LE. Everything will get 2 layers to harden it. That should be plenty to securely hold the intakes. While a little more filler was hardening I threw a gremlin wing together. Always gotta have a few in the pipeline because the combat guys are always out for blood. Just bring one out and put it down in the pits and someone is tying a ribbon on it. A few posts back I brought my Panther intake plugs to the club gremlin build. At dinner Thursday a few of those guys in those pictures asked about having another club. The word on the street is a Ziroli Sky Raider. So come on guys knock these Panthers out so you can get onto those Sky Raiders.

jofunk

I got a little blip of motivation today so the inlet leading edges got glassed along with the splitter plate. I didn't want to flip the plane over so it was no fun glassing upside down especially inside the inlet.... So when it cures it will get rough sanded to knock down all the lumps and bumps and then a coat of primer brushed on. Then sanding, icing, primer, sanding, Priming, blah, blah, blah.... The Space Shuttle lift plane got an engine upgrade to a quadra 50. Maybe I'll like flying it now. It also got some tundra tires I won at the Model Masters fly in last month...... Some local engineering students needed some airfoil segments to experiment with so I cut some cores and sheeted them. They only needed a 4" wide section but they are going to get some extra.

jofunk

I had to flip the fuse to sand what I couldn't see. I ll sand it down as far as possible and then brush on a few coats of primer. I also took the fuse outside to start sanding out the brush marks in the primer. Soon it will all be ready for a final sprayed on coat of primer.

jofunk

I sprayed primer on the wings, engine hatch, and all the control surfaces. Things went fine until an old piece of latex paint got caught in the metering needle of the spray gun. I got a good coat on almost everything except for 3 control surfaces on one side and the bottom of one wing. The gun started giving too little paint and too much air producing a sandy finish. I thought for sure I screwed them up royal, giving me a ton more work re sanding things down. After they dried I sanded the problem down with a 120 sanding screen. It took the rough primer off pretty good. They then got re sprayed. Between spraying things I brushed a coat of primer on the intake LEs. After brushing on 3 coats it built things up nice to sand smooth. I also sanded out more brush marks on the fuse. About 1/4 of the fuse is sanded down. Once it is all sanded I will glue and glass on the hoz. stab. The fuse will then get a coat of primer sprayed on. The wings, engine hatch, and all the control surfaces are ready for color. So someone( John and John) figure out what the right color is so I can have it mixed up at Menards. July 4th is fast approaching...........Or should I say December 21st 2012...... I cant believe I am being rushed by a bunch of Mayan calendar chiselers.

jofunk

The fuse is completely sanded down top and bottom. Most of the bottom I did with a palm sander. The top I did by hand. It was satisfying to make progress and finally get it done. It will get a final once over before it is shot with primer. The hatch I only sanded around the perimeter because I think it will need a to have the instrument panel moved back a bit. I think I will spray most of the fuse with the hoz. stab off and glue it on last, last and final spray that area. It is a little tricky moving the fuse around with no tail. The inlets sanded down nice. I want to see them with primer sprayed on them. The 2 K sanding dust really takes the oil out of your skin so when my hand started getting a little raw from holding the sanding paper the dryness made things worse. I threw on a pair of work gloves which helped. I went to Menards and had a quart of paint mixed up off of John Roths color sample. So if it's wrong blame him.