invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Other than trimming the trailing edge, the left wing panel is at the same stage as the right.

pandissix

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Thomas

Well finally flew the F4 on twin TJ 100 on 10s. Venom 50c 5000mah packs. Very solid performance. I think a good option for those who may tackle your Horten.



http://youtu.be/GC61_hU7-fc

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Yesterday progress.. I got nearly everything I wanted done completed. I got a few more things done, and a few less done. The wing panels are nearly ready for glassing, i'm just getting the flap and elevon fit perfect before glassing so I don't have to redo anything..

First up, put the wing panels onto the center section to verify the trailing edge trimming and to shape the leading edge.. it also makes for a good time for motivation photo's:


Then the elevon and flaps were cut free from the wing panels.


Then the Elevon hinges were hysol'd into the brass tubes, then once that had cured for a few hours, the brass tubes were epoxied into the wing panels using the elevons as the jig to ensure their correct positioning:



Then the 1/32" aircraft ply Gap Seals were installed:


Then the flaps were hinged. When I built the original wing panels, the flap ribs that separate the inner from the outer flap were parallel to each other. This caused an issue with the hinge angle difference that when the flaps would go down (inner) and up(outer) the separating gap between the two flaps would hit each other and cause the servo's to stall. When I built these wing panels, The outer flap's root rib was angled outwards on the bottom skin side so as to provide a slightly larger gap when viewed from the bottom, but it looks fine from the top. Now what happens, is the gap between the flaps gets bigger as they open which allows for some pretty large flap deflection angles, as can be seen in the next photos:



Then a coat of primer was put down over the bat tail seam. After the primer dried, some more body filler was applied and sanded to get the seam nearly invisible. I'm not to worried about making it look perfect, since after all the real plane is wood.



Tonight I capped the Leading edges and tip ribs of the flaps with 1/64" aircraft ply for some extra ding resistance and did the last bit of filling. Tomorrow once i get home from work, i'm going to get all that sanded down to size and then verify the fit one last time. Then its finish sanding before glassing, which I hope to do the bottom of everything wed. and then the tops Thurs.. and sand and first coat of prime on Fri.. Then last prime and sand on saturday along with panel lines and panel line prime.. Color painting on sunday! Hopefully...

If all go's well, i'll only be about a week behind my goal of having it repaired by the end of the month.

leo12305

Hallo Thomas
what is your tool for cutting the hard epoxy for doors from the wheels ? Have you a special saw?
greetings
Leo

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Leo,
I do multiple scribe cuts using a thin Zona saw on the straight edges. On the curved segments of the doors, i use the Zona saw set that includes four different blades, one of which is a very narrow keyhole saw that is used for cutting curves.

wphilb

My Feedback: (10)

Have you ever tried a hot knife? Works really well for me. The cheap one from tower hobbies, it's a low watt soldering iron with an exacto attachment.

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Whit,
I have not tried a hot knife, ill put it on my list of stuf to aquire though

glazier808

My Feedback: (1)

Oh wow Thomas, I went away to Hawaii for a couple of weeks on business, and wow how things have changed...sorry for your outcome, but it looks like it won't keep ya down!

Looking forward to version 2.0

Casey

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Progress finally!

First I finished the flap fitting and then glassed the bottom surface of the wings, flaps and elevons:





Then I made up the Flite-metal hatch's for the wing panels:


Then I made up the insignia paint masks for the wing panels:


Then the last bit of filling and sanding was done to flair in the new bat tail. I then applied the new flite-metal exhaust trail panels:


Also complete, but not pictured is:
Fan unit cleaning and re-assembly
nose gear door was re-hung and the hinges epoxied in place
Some other little odds and ends that I have been putting off.


The Center section is ready for paint (other than one gear door, which has a coat of filler on it that needs sanding). The top of the outer wing panels will hopefully get glassed early tomorrow AM, and then I will let those cure till late afternoon, then sand and apply the first coats of primer.

The plan is to have the outer wing panels ready for color paint by the end of sunday.

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Casey,
Not exactly the outcome I wanted, but these wings are better than the previous in a few aspect so it should be alright in the end....

t_burley

My Feedback: (59)

go man go!

looking good Thomas

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Tops of the wings, flaps and elevons are all glassed. after 9 hours of cure time, I pulled back the peel-ply a bit from the root rib and glassed the root rib as well. Tomorrow morning i'll peel all this off and roll a coat of WBC primer on.





And while I waited, I got this little gem a buddy of mine gave me ready to fly. Its power setup should take it up around 165-175mph, which is only about 20-30mph faster than my other little screamer..So this summer, i should be plenty versed in speed for when it comes time for the 265mph screamer i've got my eye on

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Got allot done today, but still allot to do!

The wings, elevons and flaps are all ready for panel lining.



I also cut out the servo hatches were cut out, then the hatch supports added to the edges, then the forward hatch holding tongues glued to the hatches and then finally, the ply screw plates glued in place.



The gap between the wing and fuse was filled and sanded to shape.

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Work has me doing 8 to 15 hour days b/c our maintenance division is 4 1/2 weeks behind schedule in getting our airplanes ready to go out the door.. soo b/c of that, i'm having to work first and second shift to get the application equipment installed into the airplanes this week so we can begin testing the new setup next week.. unfortunately its not working to well!

I have gotten some work done, but not much..

Wings are all sanded down and ready to go. The panel lines have all been drawn into place and ready for the panel line tape and primer to be applied.

On the original set of wings, i had intentions on doing wingtip Nav lights but never got around to it... these are getting those lights, soo..

First up was cutting the wingtip where the lights lenses would be positioned:



Then the cutoff parts were glued to a tongue de-presser to be used to make the lenses:


Then the lenses were made. I just took some .030" PETG and cut about a 3" square piece. Then took some 1/4" ply and drilled a 1" hole in it. clamped the plastic over the hole, then heated it up till it started to sag, then pushed the cutoff wingtip into it to form the lenses.

Then I heated up some Rit dye on the stove to dye the lenses green and red...


Which ended up being a waste of time and money as once you gave the lenses its cold water rinse, all of the dye washed off and the lenses barely took on any discoloration.. So i'll get some transparent green and red tamiya paint and paint the lenses instead.

I then made up the LED nav lights and wiring extensions:

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Just so yall don't think i'm slacking off and reposting photo's from the last set of wings.....







And if you didn't catch the difference from last time... this time the squadron tail bands are in place. Tomorrow i'm going to Hinge all the flight controls and then do all the weathering.. If i'm motivated, i'll start installing servo's and what not..

Ramstein44

My Feedback: (157)

Machine I tell you...MACHINE!!!

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Control surfaces hinged
Weathering done
Gear doors re-installed and hooked up
Nose gear steering servo arm upgrades to metal
Right wing panel servos installed
Right wing panel octopus extension installed
Right wing panel flaps hooked up
Riggt wing panel elevon hooked up
Right wing panel servo hatches trimmed to fit over the servos and installed

All that is left to finish this thing... Again... Is the left wing panel servos, linkages, hatches, clean the thrust tubes, install the edf units and install them. Balance and fly!!!

The plane assembled and weathered:


Right wing panel linkages. I like these wing panels more than the rest in this regard bc the linkages will be harder to see. Especially when i paint them.


Led nav lights. I still need to make the extensions and battery harness for these.

leo12305

The position ligths are very strong. you can't see the real colors.

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

You can in person, the camera takes out most of the color

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

The other wing panel is done.

So all that is left is fan unit install and CG balance.

wphilb

My Feedback: (10)

Were the drag rudders always on the bottom?

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Yes, there are drag rudders on the top and bottom

miklos

My Feedback: (38)

Are you still planing on having this ready for Warbirds over Delaware? Would love to see it there.

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

That is the plan, hopefully two will be there

leo12305

Hi
Thomas
if you glass the this wings. Is there a layer fiberglas and epoxy or only epoxy for balsa wood stabilisation.