Terry Holston

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Joe, Your welcome, I can't wait to see that beast in person. You gonna be ready for Winamac in June?

jofunk

Nice Blue Tail Fly. Maybe we can fly together some day. I am trying to get it done before summer......... I drew a line on the table and did my best to find the centerline on the frame. I then started taping off the final frame shape. So here is my best rendition of a 1/4 scale Panther canopy frame. I know it is not super scale but I think it will pass. I started doubling up the cockpit area so I could cut out the deck to install the cockpit. I was planning on gluing the canopy and frame on and making the cockpit removable from underneath.

jofunk

Sebastian sent me some pix of his landing gear with the Robart wheels brakes and tires he bought for them. It is all very nice looking stuff........I am heading down to to basement to do some work making something that looks like a cockpit.

sysiek

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Big thanks to Sierra giant for the nice custome made struts and robart for the tires wills brakes set ,no back in the game will start to do cockpit and plumbing for retracts.

jofunk

The area I knocked out for the cockpit I used for the armor behind the seat and to make an instrument panel. The gauges are a picture I took of a book and then shrunk down just for fun. I boxed in the cockpit and set it up to key in at the rear and have two screws to hold it in the front. I will be able to remove the screws and it will drop out. Since this whole project is a big experiment I found it necessary to make an ejection seat for the pilot. Don't tell him it doesn't work. It is just some thin cardboard , dowel rods, foam , and balsa. I need to make some switches, levers, and dials to fill up the cockpit.

jofunk

I sanded down the canopy frame to show the low spots. It will need some filler and primer. I also painted the cockpit and ejection seat. Finally I worked on some cockpit detail. Does anyone know what goes on the deck behind the pilot armor?

jofunk

I think I am done priming things, with about 8 ozs of primer to spare. I started with a gallon and sanded about 3 quarts off. I did a little more detailing on the heads up display. The hatch and frame need some color, then the canopy can go on.

Terry Holston

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Joe Here is what I made for my Panther: http://images.rcuniverse.com/forum/u...53/Vq51479.jpg http://images.rcuniverse.com/forum/u...53/Ni23614.jpg

I can't find the pictures of the real thing I used to make these, but these are correct. I made the Defroster ducts out of aluminum tube and plastic strips you will have to use bigger stuff. All is explained in my thread "How to detail the new PST Panther" Post 118

jofunk

Thanks for the info Terry. I spent some time looking at your thread. Lots of scale stuff. Unfortunately my Panther won't be super scale. When I build from plans and am not going to any scale competition some scale features are good enough for me. Anyways I have been building this long enough. It's soon time to try and fly it .............. I assembled the plane with everything in it and where it goes to take a shot at balancing the plane. I usually check my CG by putting the plane on the end of the table and sliding it forward until it starts to tip off. This plane is too heavy to do it that way without crushing the bottom of the fuse. The front wing plug in is 3/4" in front of the CG. I made some plywood jack stands to hold the plane up at that location and then started adding weight until the plane started tipping foreword. Anyone want to take a guess at what it took in the nose to balance it?.................Anyone?...................Anyo ne? .........Bueller?................Bueller?......... ........... 5.7lbs of lead. Not exactly a split shot but it needs to be balanced. I melted the lead into a square lithoplate container I folded to fit in the nose. I removed it and fine tuned the fit with a rasp. Now I will need to make a mount to keep it from leaving.

jofunk

After sleeping on it here is what I came up with to secure the nose weight. The upper and lower plywood will be glued into the nose box at the proper depth. The rear plywood plate and the lead nose weight will sandwich them. The threaded rod and lock nuts will draw them up tight. The plywood is some die cutting plywood I got from Pat Jensek a few years ago. Its hardwood and I mean HARD WOOD. Don't try cutting it with a dull blade. The mount will add more nose weight to the plane. I will adjust the weight by drilling it out.............I also glued in a push plate under the hatch nose for the day when the hatch doesn't want to come off. I will be able to go thru the nose wheel well to give it a poke and hopefully not go through the top of the hatch.

jofunk

I was planning on going flying today to get a few things ready for our air show next Sunday but the temp. in Chicago never got above 52 degrees. I glued in the upper and lower blocks for the nose weight mount. I also reenforced the box top to bottom with some aircraft ply. The only way to get the reinforcements in the nose was to glue a handle on them. once the glue cured they just snapped off. I need to modify the nose cone to clear the nut and to sink a cup hook in it. A rubber band will eventually hold it on. A paper towel roll will get glued into the nose cone. I reinforced the card board tube with some glass cloth. With the extra resin I fuel proofed the nose wheel well where the vent line exits. My custom made brush reached the hard to get areas.

jofunk

Mr fun came over Monday night and did some work on his fuse. He sanded down some previous glass work and stiffened the hatch lip with some heavy glass. While he was at it he also threw together a 61" foam Mustang, so he would have something to fly at the Palos RC air show this Sunday. It's all done for $189..........I cut down and installed the tube with a cup hook in it to attach the nose. One of my hole saw bits was the perfect size for the tube I made.

jofunk

I put a little detail behind the seat. There are defroster tubes back there, and a hood that covers the slide mechanism. I glued on a piece of construction paper for the hood and some straws for the defroster tubes....... Now some paint on the hatch and frame,and some new tires on the mains and that's it. Anyone know where to get some 5" stiff tires and some hubs?

sysiek

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Will got the tires for you tomorrow looking to go to the pallos show.

jofunk

I finally squirted some color on the canopy frame and hatch. It may need a second coat. I'm getting to the bottom of the barrel on excuses.

jofunk

I force dried the paint on the frame and hatch in the attic. With the frame dry I knew it had some white trim on it. I masked off around the rear glass and painted it. I then opened a book to look at a picture to double check that I painted the correct area. I was close, the whole movable portion has white trim around it. I masked it off again but by now the Rustoleum can had almost no paint in it and the valve had clogged...... I drilled a hole in the can with an xacto knife and emptied what paint there was into the air brush. It is just my way on how to turn a ten minute job into an hour and forty five minutes.

jofunk

I painted the area under the canopy black. I also glued the canopy into the frame. When that cures I can glue the canopy and frame onto the hatch. I have till the 21st to do this to meet my deadline of getting the plane done this spring. It will be close. I also laid a piece of shrink wrap over the engine hatch. I put some baby powder on it to keep it from sticking to itself. I was thinking of laying up a fiberglass part over it to save the shape since the hatch may fall, grind or burn off.

jofunk

Ta Da......... That's it for building for me. I glued on the instruments and positioned the canopy/ frame. once I was happy with where it was I outlined it with tape. I removed the canopy and sanded down the blue paint between the tape and cockpit. I then laid down a bead of brown silicone to glue things down. you ask why brown? Because it is what I had laying around. I then pulled everything down with some rubber bands. Where things were away a little I stuck some wood in there to put some pressure in that area. I removed the tape while the silicone was still wet to clean things up. My completion estimate was spring 2013. I think the silicone was still curing at midnight on the 20th . I don't know if that means I made it or missed it. We'll just say I came really close on the completion date. I can scratch on a few more panel lines while I am looking for different tires but I'm really excited to try and fly it.

doubledcom

My Feedback: (49)

Congratulations Joe!....can't wait to see it tearing a hole in the sky.

sysiek

My Feedback: (176)

Hi is the wills work for you ,the jet looks good I think will be ready for winamac .

jofunk

Hey Sebastian,

I put one of the tires you gave me on the plane and it started to flatten. I think I need some solid rubber tires to hold the plane up.

jofunk

I broke down and pumped up the dubro tires with air. They seem to be holding the plane up. The tires got slightly larger so they may not fit in the wheel wells. I'll let it sit for a day or two to see what happens. The picture is the complete air frame minus fuel on the pumped up tires.

jofunk

Well one of the tires was flat the next morning. I worked on making something to protect the fuse from the radiant heat coming off the back of the engine. I ran the engine with nothing back there but I feel better with something there to insulate things. after a couple of tries and this is pretty close to what I will use.

jofunk

And a few more insulators. These two I painted black. These might be version 4 and 5. I finally mounted #5. I was at the point where I could bend one up in about two minutes.

jofunk

With the help of my lovely girlfriend I was able to get a test run on the motor with the two hatches on and the radiant heat reflector in place. Everything seemed to behave even with a prolonged run at full throttle. The good news is that there was no need for the fire extinguisher or the garden hose I had stretched out in the grass. The noise got the neighbor kids to come running over. Maybe this will get them interested in RC. Here is a video of the run. It's a little hard to video and do everything so some parts are a little shaky..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZijBBb7_5Q