abufletcher

See! It's still purdy from the left!

abufletcher

Another plus of this installation is that the throttle linkage (not to mention position of the throttle servo) becomes easy-peasy. Also connecting the glow starter is dead simple.

abufletcher

I have to say that I sure like the look of a gas engine, any gas engine, on the front of a model! It's just so cool in a Popular Mechanics, 1950s sort of way.

abufletcher

You know, with a little creative camouflage I might be able to give the right side a look that would go with the rest of the model. These are just quickly hammered out mock-ups, but with a nicely done "blister" with some "rivets" (and some grit) that might work.

Mein Duff

Thats what I'm talkin about !

GianFrancesco

Don
My first "rhino horn exhaust" that did not last long (*) was done in two half shells in epoxy-glass fiber epoxy-glued to the six exhaust pipes; of these only two are connected to the exhaust port of the laser 90.
(*) Note that the position of C.G. (21% of the chord average) facilitates the rollover and the exhaust hits the ground immediately!
The second was made in copper sheet embossed by hammer always in two halves and silver soldered to the six pipes; 50 gr. heavier but it works and is more robust.
The first iphoto shows the old exhaust; the secon the two copper halves; the third the new exhaust.

abufletcher

GF, you are the God of Modeling! I am unworthy.

abufletcher

BTW, how did you paint that copper exhaust and have the paint stand up to the heat?

abufletcher

It may not BE scale, but it LOOKS scale! At least it looks better than the naked engine manifold, IMHO. I've carefully blended the two parts together with JB Weld so I'll be able to take this off as one piece. Not sure yet, if I want to do something similar for the upper cutouts. Also not sure, if I'll leave this as "dirty aluminum" or whether I'll paint it gray along with the other metal fittings.

GianFrancesco

Thanks for the compliments made by who work well and with such dedication as you do, are certainly worth twice as much!
The color of the exhaust of copper has been a little complicated: on the advice of a friend I tried to cover the entire complex with tin (as is done in Italy for the interior of the copper pots), but I did not like the result; so I had to stabilize the surface, then I painted it all with a silver "hi-temp paint" for motorcycles exhaust systems.

Mein Duff

GF, your exhaust systems are works of art in themselves...almost like jewelry making ...exquisite.
Just wondering how you got that copper to bend to the Rhino horn shape so smoothly? Did you make a negative form to hammer the copper into?
That right. there are a lot of high temp spray paints in the automotive industry now..even high temp black paints for barbecues !

Don, your alu cover up is looking very convincing as well.

Nieuport nut

My Feedback: (10)

Nice hide, Don. Someone once said that scale modelling was all about tricking the eye - and sometimes the way to hide something is to accentuate it.

Of course there are other solutions that would have eliminated the need to cut anything, but they involve electrons and I know how you hate cleaning them up after a flight!

Martin

GianFrancesco

The negative mold I own is made of fiberglass and therefore was not useful; the two positive halves that served to make the mold are made of wood too soft and , so the two half shells were simply made by hammer embossing the 0,6 mm. copper sheet on a layer of hard rubber with a lot of time and patience.
I must admit that I am pleased to have won the challenge with that "damned" rhino horn exhaust even if only in the second round....

Mein Duff

GF. True scalers always win in the end ! there is always an elegant solution..maybe not obvious on first attempt.

GianFrancesco

Eric
Thank you for your understanding, I see that you know what often happens to us "scalers".
Sometimes I wonder if all this really worth it but then I continue in spite of everything.....

abufletcher

They can have my 4-stroke when they pry it out of my cold, dead hands!

abufletcher

Of course, there's still going to be a big honkin' engine cylinder hanging out the side, no matter what...even with a scale rhino horn exhaust. That's just unavoidable with the narrow CI nose. So all you can do is decide where it's least disruptive. I'd hate to have it hanging down visible from all sides. And upright it would have interfered with three of the six dummy engine cylinders. It might be possible to use one of the RCVsp engines but good luck cooling that (and the exhaust would still have hung out). So as I said, this really is the cleanest possible solution (with a gas engine) and the RCV actually looks the part (more than say an OS or a Saito).

Now on to fuel proofing the engine compartment. [:@]

abufletcher

That small but significant task is done. The semi-circular notch on the bottom is for the needle valve extension and the two holes will allow for oil drainage.

abufletcher

One upcoming challenge will be to construct the entire upper portion of the nose. Ideally, this will all come off as one single unit, though this might not be possible because of the forward cabane struts. At any rate, this is an area of the kit that's still under development.

abufletcher

Today's little baby step was to make the cable exit flanges. They're made of 1/32 ply and nailed on with miniature nails. Eventually, they will be painted gray. The flanges are a bit oversized but they have to be to cover the exit holes. That brings to 27 the number of custom little "decorative bits" I've put on the fuselage. This is really what brings a model to life. There are probably a dozen or so left to do.

abufletcher

Every once in while you need to step back from the trees (and the pine needles) and look at the forest. Here's where I am after about a year of off and on work. The biggest upcoming task will be to hang the wings...which involves doing the wing fittings, the struts, and the rigging. Then there's the upper nose area to be made (from scratch). After that...well...after that there are still a myriad of jobs large and small to be done.

abufletcher

At the moment the upper nose area isn't much more than just a gaping hole. Chris, Tom, and I are still working out a solution for the kit. The original idea was to have this area removable and the kit current supplies a lite ply upper former that goes against the dashboard former. This piece does fit perfectly, but I don't see how it would be possible to remove this forward section without removing the cabane pylon which I certainly don't want to do. So I think we're going to have to work out a different solution. Tom has already scratch-built this area using glassed balsa planking for the upper cowlings (and a one-off blue-foam shaped nose cowling). But then his electric powered version has different requirements from my gas version. Ideally, the kit would allow for either installation. And down the road the kit should also provide a nose cowling.

One place to start will be the an additional piece of the forward "false" firewall. In order to mount the engine it was necessary to remove the upper-right quarter and since this missing piece is where the cowling (or the balsa planking) would attach, we need a "bolt-on" ply section here. If possible, I'd like to make the cowlings from metal sheet. In which case all I really need is the support points on the interior to screw it onto.

And of course, the dummy engine is the most significant piece of this nose area so I need to get to work on that. I don't think there's been any progress on the resin cast engine kit that Chris was working on. In some ways, I'd actually prefer to build the dummy myself. After all, this is the FUN in scale modeling. But it might be nice if the kit could supply some wooden parts and a details "sub-plan" for building a 1st class dummy. Tom's done a wonderful job on his dummy.

abufletcher

Here's the drawing of the Benz Bz.III from the datafile sized to 1/6 scale. The Benz had dual rocker rods on the right side of each cylinder and the rhino horn exhaust on the left. By the way, as far as I can tell, the manifolds from the engine to the exhaust didn't wrap around the cabane strut as was the case with the Mercedes installation. Since I'm modeling an "earlier" version of the CI, the Benz is probably a better match (since it was generally replaced by the Mercedes on later machines). Plus there's the modeling novelty of doing something new.

fliegertom

Abu, masterly investigated!! Awaiting your report with pleasure.
Tom

abufletcher

Here is my first attempt at the "blister" fitting for attaching the flying wire. There would be six of these on each side (2 on the UC legs and 1 on the nose for the drag wire). I used 0.5mm stainless sheet between two MDF boards with holes drilled through them. Then a piece of rounded 4mm music wire served as a punch. But I'm not getting a clean, round dome shape on the blister. I'll try annealing the stainless first and if that doesn't work, I'll have to sandwich the stainless between two metal parts.

A 2mm machine screw goes through the blister and into the brass turnbuckle. I haven't even begun to think about how these plates would be attached to the fuse.