cgrcjet

Ty

I was messing around with the retract and door installation today and here are a few pics of what you will need to do with it. The door will come forward and go down into the fairing close to 1/2" maybe a little less. This is the area it will be hinged.

chris

cgrcjet

Installing the mains retracts

-I cut out a small notch for clearance of the air fitting.

-Mark forward about a 1/4" from the back side of the outline that was cut out for the retract. The back flange of the retract will butt up against this mark.

chris

cgrcjet

Cutting the Robart strut down

-I disassembled and cut 3/4" off the end of the 1/2" Robart strut. I also cut about the same amount off the spring thats inside.

-The total length from the retract flange to the center of axle should be 6 1/4". If you decide to use a different retract, the measurement would be the same, just make sure its an 85 degree down retract. Tam says he has better retracts that he will modify for the A10, not sure what he has but you can check with him.

chris

cgrcjet

-I put a mark at center of the wheel opening on the fairing. The center of the axle will be just forward of this mark or the wheel will hit on the back side of the opening while retracting into the up position. If need be you can always trim the front of the opening farther forward with a drum sander.

-I put the retract with strut in place and angled it in a bit until the wheel fit into its opening. If you put it in straight the wheel will go to far to the edge of the fairing, thats why i angled it in.

-In the down position the wheels will be angled in. Just loosen the strut and turn them back out until the wheel is straight with the runway.

-Now in the up position they will look angled in a bit.

chris

cgrcjet

Verticle stabs detail

-These will need to be cut at the flange edge. I cut them with scissors and sanded the flange edge to shape with 120 grit.

-I used CA to glue them on and then a light sanding with 320 grit. I sanded the top of the flange a little extra so it was not so pronounced. This is about where you want them.


chris

cgrcjet

Just thought i would ask and see if anyone was in need of some larger scale A10 dry transfer decals. I ordered 2 sets from aeroloft, the boss hog and a set from the 355 fighter wing. I payed $450 for both sets and i had asked for 1/9 scale and they seemed to have given me 1/6 scale. Dont know how that happens but its been over a year now and im sure they wont take them back. If anyone is interested i will let them go for $50 a set.

chris

avicom

My Feedback: (14)

Interesting Chris, same thing happen to me with my PST Panther masking and decals by this time last year. Mine were order to Pro-Mark. They sent me the 1/5 scale ones instead. Never used them and panther is now resting in pieces.

Alex

cgrcjet

Yes Alex, just another way to flush some money down the toilet. Especially at that price. Thats why i do my own now.



Just a tip before the wingtip light goes on , you will want to make sure the decal fits in place before you glue the light in place.



chris

cgrcjet

Magnitude of the pylons. Another 22 mold halves to lay up. That puts it at 65 not inluding all the vacuum form and casting molds which is alot. If the A10 did not look so much better with the eleven stations i probably would have said forget it. Well maybe not.

After tossing the first molds to go with a fully closed mold to save on time, i will finally have some new, new pylons tomorrow. Unfortunately i wasted a few days work on the first half of these molds due to the release bubbling on me after i applied the surface coat to the plugs. Ofcourse i did not see this until the first half of the mold was completely finished and i pulled the plug out to check it. All the first mold halfs had pits all throughout them. With temperature changes you cannot always count on PVA. Luckily i have a substitute mold release that wipes on and dries quickly , which i ended up using on these.

Soon, I will be working on a mold for the external drop tank and cockpit. As for the other ordnance i am just going to go with model rocket tubes and a vacuum formed nose cones for now. I was even able to find model rocket tubes with 1/4" diameter for the Aim-9l sidewinder. I did not know they made them so small. The others i will be doing are the Maverick and MK 82 bomb.

chris

cgrcjet

Fitting up the new pylons.

If you want more scale realism there are a few links below that supply miniature rivets and bolts. I did not put the bolt detail that goes in the circular insets on the pylons because i thought it would be easier to glue these in after if one wanted. If you want to put all the rivets throughout the whole A10, the aft section has raised rivets while the front section has flush, and i hope you have a little time on your hands.

http://www.tichytraingroup.com/index...ivets&offset=0

http://www.scalehardware.com/


chris

cgrcjet

Here is another idea for detail.

- I have been supplying some vacuum form pieces for the 3 little vents that go around the ladder door. There is also one back aways on the same side of the fuselodge. Unfortunately i just found out that i have only been making 2 of these for each kit that i have been sending out, but it actually needs 4. The reason being is that i never got around to making duplicates for molding.

- The next better idea i had was to use some small mesh screen from Special Shapes and K&S engineering. Its a 5/64 diamond pattern, stock number 02710. Some A10's have some sort of screen over these areas and some do not. I think the screen would look better and thats what i will be using on Tams. Just a note, if you plan on cutting these areas out to put the detail in with the door insert, you will want to come a little farther out from the door than where i had marked out to put them. Probably at least a 1/16".

-Here is a picture where these pieces go. They are the darkened square areas around the ladder door. There is also another one back aways on the fuse. Notice how close they are to the door. Just bring them back a bit from the door. When i first started designing the kit i was not thinking about putting detail pieces in these areas.

-The door insert has an offset that you can slide a piano hinge into. The hinge gets sandwiched between the door insert offset and the fuse skin. I had some small brass hinges that i tried but ended up using the dubro nylon hinges for the door. I had taken a few of these hinges and pulled the pins out of them, lined them all up together and drove a longer piano wire through all of them to make one longer hinge that fits into the offset of the door insert.

chris

cgrcjet

First look at the weaponry. Well, maybe a step before that.

I plan on using model rocket bodies for the weapons with a vacuum formed nose cones. One reason is weight savings with all the ordnance and another is that i do not want to lay all these up, i have enough on my plate. These are very light weight and if you want to beef the structure up a bit you can use some .75 ounce cloth over them. I dont think it will be necessary after the balsa couplers are inside. I think they will be fine. I have seen people make the whole piece as vacuum form but it looks like a pain to join the 2 halves and it is because i have tried doing this at one point. I may even do the external fuel tank with a rocket body. I also plan on doing the rocket pods and countermeasures pod including the others i had stated a few posts back.

Another option is the fins for the ordnance. I have had good luck scribing my fin files using a plotter with .03 styrene. When you scribe the plastic to shape you can just bend and pop the fin out. This takes a matter of seconds on the plotter to do a number of fins. Thats if you want plastic fins. Another route for the fins is to make them out of G10 film about .02 thickness. These fins would be more rigid and nicer but at a higher cost. Unfortunately i do not own a laser cutter to cut these out quickly, i would have to cut them out on a slower cnc router, so it would take more time. The material cost is also higher for G10. Anyone know a good laser cutting service?


chris

cgrcjet

Here is how i installed the formers in the engine area of the fuse

-The formers.

-Tack the ends on 90 degrees to the main former with CA glue.

-Glued on top of the end formers as well as both sides of the end formers.

-This time i made the mistake of applying to much glue to the long flange area that the nacelle sits on and the other flanges the end formers sit against. After i have it in place i tack it with CA glue so it holds in its place but the glue squeezed out making it hard to tack the flanges to the formers. Apply just enough glue to where it does not squeeze out from under the flange and former. Apply more glue on the inside of fuse and formers.

-I tacked the end pieces to the flanges after aligning.

-I then fit up the engine nacelle to make sure it was flush with the sides of the fuse. I had to push in on the fuse sides a smidge to align them with the nacelle and then tacked the long flange to the middle part of the former.

-I then clamped the flange to the former.

Or you can just do it your way.

chris

cgrcjet

Engine nacelle

- 4 harpoints need to be glued in on each corner for the covers. I use a #2 x 1/4" screw.

- I do not fit up the covers, i just roughly trim them to a line after demolding, so the edges will need to be trimmed up by sanding until they fit. There is a left and right on these, so make sure the right one is on the right side.

- Another thing you may want to do is put some glue in the 2 voids that are on each side where the formers are glued to the nacelle skin. You will see them, they are just the spots without glue. I do not put glue in these areas for demolding purposes. The other planes were fine without the glue but i had an old nacelle that was for practice that was broke in this area and made me think, what if? I will be putting glue in these areas after demolding from here out.


chris

cgrcjet

Wing area fuse formers

- Front flange former.

- Rear flange former.

- Installed front former.

- Installed rear former.

- Inside shot from canopy opening.


chris

cgrcjet

Ty has some video taxiing his A10 getting it ready for flight.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfnzh...eature=channel


chris

cgrcjet

Rear canopy area former

- The former

- The former will sit against the inside flange that the back part of the canopy butts into. I aligned it parallel to a panel line thats on the outside of fuse in this area by shining light on the outside of the fuse to make it easier to see from the inside. You will want to put the vacuum form vent pieces in first before you install it.

chris

ddennison

My Feedback: (15)

Looks great!

Any idea when full kits will be in stock?

Dave

cgrcjet

Hi Dave

I have been busy and unable to keep any backstock. Just let me know when you are ready and i can give you an approx. ship date.

thanks
chris

Shawnusa

My Feedback: (3)

I put in an order for one last week. Now just waiting on delivery in a few weeks! Still trying to decide what EDF fans to use. I'm thinking Tam's or going heavy and real sounds of Stumax. Not sure yet. Waiting on possible new fans designs.

MadDawg.

cgrcjet

Yes. My 7 year old daughter holding up Tams A10 at 9.4 pounds. There are a few more detail pieces yet to put on. Airframe weight will come in at about 10 pounds. Your fan setup will determine where you will be from here out. I am guestimating 1.5 pounds for the pylons and ordinance and that includes the drop tank. I ordered the 3" body and 2 nose cones from apogee rockets http://apogeerockets.com/Hi-Power_tubes.asp. Machine some fins for it and this will be my drop tank for now.

I will be dropping Tams A10 off this week, so hopefully we will see a flight soon. He will be finishing the install and paint. You may also want to ask him about a 5" 11 blade fan that he has mentioned. From what i hear, it will be coming out pretty soon.


chris

cgrcjet

Lowell
You and John did an awesome job with the A10 picture on your site letterhead. I didnt even know you had your site up yet. I will be bringing your decals down to San Diego at the end of the month. http://rcjetsdirect.com/


chris

cgrcjet

This is how i installed the engine nacelle

- marked 3/4" from back former and 3/4" in from side of fuse.

- marked 1-5/8 from front former and 3/4" in from side of fuse.

- I then drilled a small hole at all 4 marks. The holes were a bit smaller that the screws that are to go in them.

- I then used a small piece of all thread to determine where i wanted my openings in the bottom of the fuse so i could access these screws. I used a sharp scribe to puncture a small hole at my mark from the inside. I only did this to one side and measured and marked over the other one from the outside so they looked even from the outside with one another. Same with the 2 front holes.

- I pushed the scribe through the puncture from the outside to open the hole up bigger.

- I then taken the screwdriver that i will use to loosen and tighten these screws and opened the hole up even bigger.

- I then put the screws in the 4 holes on the mounting plate former of the fuse and let the ends stick out a bit so when i set the engine nacelle in place they will make small marks on the bottom of it.

- I lined up the engine nacelle where i wanted it and put pressure on the front and back to get my marks on the engine nacelle bottom. I then drilled small holes at these marks. For extra strength , you can put a 1/8" or 1/4" ply doubler on the back sides of the fuse and engine nacelle holes. You can then replace the screws with blind nuts and bolts.

chris

cgrcjet

For the fuse center hatch i just used 4 #2x 1/4" screws. The 2 formers on both sides of the hatch act as a hardpoint for these screws to sink into. I know this is not very convenient and i am working on a way for it to be more convenient. I was thinking some push type pins instead of screws but i have not been able to find what i am looking for yet. Open to any other suggestions. The old hatch had sructure to it but the fit was not 100% to me ,so i tried something different.


chris

cgrcjet

Nose area formers

These formers all fit together like a puzzle, with notches. I noticed when i was building Tams , i had to sand down some of the end tabs so they would fit in there grooves. Small inconsistency in material thickness.

chris