Tamjets Rafale Build

First Impressions
All I can say is this is by far the best looking ARF that I have ever seen come from any of those factories in china. All the glue joints are nice and bonded, all fillets are even. Landing gear are the best to date that I have seen from anyone, all machined… the paint job is awesome with lots of detail like hand drawled rivets, must be thousands on rivets. All the body parts fit without bind. In all at first glimps this ARF is A+++. “Now to the build Hope that’s good as the visual” I could not wait for the manual so I started putting her together.

Retracts
I started with the retracts since this should be a drop in and bolt processes, but this is not the case. I test fit the first main and the mounting plates were no ware wide enough to even drop in to get a bolt pattern started. This required cutting off some of the plate insides about 3mm on each side. Then I was able to drop the mains in and get a bolt pattern for final mount. After that I needed to cut out the gear door area for strut and wheel clearance.
Now on to the nose retract. As with the mains the nose retract does not just drop in either is requires about 3mm on each side as well to make it seat in. There is also a delima with a brace up in the front area that needs to be cut down for that retract to clear, and add bracing to beef it back up.

Nose install
This is straight forward, there are three hex head bolts with washers and they bolt on just as it looks.
About 2.5 hours to do all this so far
More to come

David,
Thanks for the comment.

The gear fomer is smaller than my gear. There is reason for it. As you see. My gear is built to be heavy duty and quality. So the price are higher than standard retract available on the market.
Some customers might just bough the kit and not want my gear. So this give them an option to fit standard 645 gear from Robart or what ever gear they have.

O.K. Since I be away for a week and hope able to find time while in china to do the instruction manual.
If you plan to hinges the ailervon.
Make sure to plug in the wings to check for clearing. If you push the ailervon in too close. It will bind with the fuse.
I be my office later to get some photos to show you what I mean.

Brg,
Tam

Dave, did you pick the Rafale up from Todd at FIJR? Wish I could have made it.

You lucky dog. There are so many choices now, I'm having trouble deciding what to get.

Keep us posted!

George

George, Yes I picked it up from Todd AKA www.dreamworksrc.com at FIJR and this jet took my breath away when I saw it. I would have bought the A-4 he had too as it look just as nice, but I don't have any small turbines. Yeah I was hoping you were going to make it down, maybe next time. There is so many new jets hitting the market now, it's going to be tuff to make a decisions on what’s next.


Tam yea I noticed that the root edge will bind if the elevon is pushed all the way in and will only give you a minimum area of upward and downward movement in the elevon also noticed that the rocket rails will bind with the elevons if pulled to far bad too so this is a area that needs some close attention when gluing the hinges in.

Dave,
You good...
I was worry a little about it.
All this little detail tip when assemble so important. We built the third one in the shop right now. With this third kit. We able to catch more detail for the assembly and address in the instruction manual.




Tam yea I noticed that the root edge will bind if the elevon is pushed all the way in and will only give you a minimum area of upward and downward movement in the elevon also noticed that the rocket rails will bind with the elevons if pulled to far bad too so this is a area that needs some close attention when gluing the hinges in.

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I finished with the Fuel tanks, they went together very easy with the supplyed hardware. One additional thing the builder will need to know is to blow out the tanks, there is a lot of fine dust in the tanks from manufacture drilling out the hole for for the fuel cap fitting. This can kill your bearings in your turbine so they need to be cleaned out good.

Tam, Me puedes decir que servos lleva este modelo en las alas?
Tam,You can say to me that servos this model goes in the wings?

Y el servo de direccion donde va instalado, porque no veo ninguna caja.
And the servo of direction where it is installed, because I do not see any box.

Gracias desde España
Thank you very much from Spain

Hi Miguel

We use the Volz MicromaXX Xp on our demo rafale ( then we have a scale aspect ) because off the very thin wing. Our Rafale as now many fly without any problems . You can use DS 8411 ( 19 mm servo ) but the servo will be 7 mm outside . I think Tam use DS 8511 ?

regards

Christophe
www.jetunivers.com

Tam, What screws are you using to mount the Missile rails on, and when can I get the Missiles and pylons for the under wing? Do you have them in stock?

Tams Rafale has a conformal cover that looks like it will acomidate most servos. I will have to check and see if a 8611a will fit in there, because that is what I want to use. I wil use one for sure on the canards.

I use 1" 4-40 socket screw.
I do have the drops tanks, missles and pylons instock.
When I get back from the trip. I'll updated on my site. I put you down for a set.
Sunday night at the airport. I'll had little time to update some of the photos you need.

We use 8611.
Only kit that sold by Tamjets dealers network will had the detail instruction manaul. This is what we offer for our customers.
Kit purchase direct or different dealers has no manual. So that why you didn't find in the box.
But the kit it should be easy enough put together. Some of our customers will share their experience here and post pictures. You should able to pick up detail tip to work on yours.
As for me. I been very busy doing the manual for all our lastest kits we had instock. So I only can answer question on my free time.

O.K.
I got few photos this morning.
This photos give you an idea how it look like. The one do for instruction manual will set up little different.

Any more updates on the build?

Sam

Well it's been alittle bit since I last updated here but I decided to finish of my Jet Storm, now that is completed I can restart the Rafale again.

I have got the radio that I am going to use which is the DX7. I Have pre pregramed the radio for Delta and canard mix.

1 Ali
2 Elevator
3 Turbine
4 Steering
5 Retracts UP-3 with doors
6 Canards mixed with 2
7 Rudder

Mini hobbies brake valve setup on the down elevator for brakes.

Tam question the 8611A will not fit in the wing in there perspective slots with out the conformal cover lifting "see picture" what are you doing to get them to fit looks like there needs to be a modified pocket there?

i thought the Tamjets Rafales were using a different "more better" resin for the molds ?? looks like the same blue stuff Fabio uses on all of their other stuff .... so whats better/different ? ? the FaeBao factory hardware also seems to be of a top notch quality ..

.... also don’t forget the brakes in the channel list ... probably could easily tack these onto another channel or take the nose wheel and matchbox it off of the rudder to free up a proportional braking channel. I think this spread spectrum stuff is great ! can't wait to see how the technology advances ..


Voy

Brakes are on the down elevator which is channel 2 and it will turn off when when the retracts are up, that can be programmed by the brake valve to shut off when retracted.

cool ...


looking forward to seeing more jets flying on these radios ... sure enough a 10, 12, 14 or more CH radio will be out eventually, and hopefully sooner than later ...

brg,
Voy

Well Tamsjets Rafales are the Febio Rafales, he is just the reseller for them here in the USA for now.... they are not going to change there process for Tam when they ship to many other countries the same plane, if that where the case they would use the better resins in all there models.

my mistake .. i just though that there was a reason ( besides the manual ) that Tam was chargin almost $1K more ....


it really is a beauty of a plane ! Im thinking of picking up one from the original designer of the plane ( Xtreme jets ) to complement my BVM one [8D]


Voy

well Xtreme jets don't offer a painted one yet, and I am sure when they do, the price will reflect that; plus whats the quality of the plane? I have owned a few of Antons planes and the quality could have been better. But I am sure he is now put to the challange to produce a quality jet at his selling price. I have order a couple of his Xtreme jets and nothing has come to light yet so we will see.

around $1300 for a painted one including gear, wheels, struts, pipe and tank , and all that shipped to the US via air ....

considering how Anton has had his products manufactured at the same places where Tamjets gets their products from, i do not see why there would be any differences in quality ... FWIW, Anton has left several factories behind because of them not getting him the quality he was looking for ... i think bottom line: its the same plane ...

if you can, lets see some flight footage of your when ready !! [8D]


Voy

well I don't want to turn this thread in a who is whos better, let's keep it to what it was intended for. So when you get yours from Xtreme you can use what ever derives from here to complete yours. by all means thats what his forums is intended for. I am happy what I got and I don't care if I made Tams morgage for that month, lol , Well Todds thats who I got it from; so the money was spread out between the the three companies and this will keep them in business. Plus I like the little dude he speeks funny and he makes me laugh at FLJ. So I will be at Florida jets this year with it and you can see it there or maybe in the SKS video they have done a couple of my planes in the past, but if I can get my daughter to take some good video I will post it here, she is still learning to film.

FLJ, man, that's sneaking up on us all really fast !!! really looking forward to it ! and seeing everyone


Voy

Yea it’s unbelievable how fast this year went. Hey great thing about the radio I am using is will not have to wait to get my channel to fly... hehehehe yahh yahh yahh you know how busy it gets there and how long it takes to get a free frequency.