Thanks jls! Great link too! Here is my favorite: [link=http://www.airwar.ru/other/drawe.html]3 Views[/link]

Time to finish this tail wheel project! Hope you all found it enjoyable to follow if nothing else!

Sand the bottom of the mounting plate flat and as close to the holes as you can, they only need about 3/32” of material around them anyway.

Time to finish soldering our lower brass wheel fairing. Attach your thin aluminum fairing and make sure the brass one lines up, trim the sides as needed and then clamp it for soldering.

Soldering on the outside seam will be enough to hold it, it’s very thin and only takes a small amount of heat to allow the solder to run throughout the seam. After soldering sand the joints smooth.

We need to finish out the yoke by adding a small bearing and a control arm. First drill a 3/32” hole in some PC Board. Then draw a 3/8 circle around it. Trim it out with tin snips and then finish sanding on the bench disk sander. Cut a strip for the steering arm that is about ¼” wide and 1 3/8” long, drill a 3/32” hole in the middle and two small holes on the ends for the steering line.

Before we can finish the attaching the yoke permanently we need to smooth out the forks. Mix a batch of Micro-Balloons and 5min epoxy, use plenty of MB. I like the 5 min because of the fast drying time, use whatever you like but just make it thick so it will stay put.

When it’s dry sand the sides flat leaving about 1/8” of material on them or maybe a little less. Then continue to round and smooth the edges with some 320 sandpaper. I use a small round file to open the wheel axle holes, then I use a Dremel with a drill bit to finish the hole. To seal the epoxy and MB I like to add a few layers of thin CA. After you apply a layer quickly wipe off the excess. After that give it a final sanding.

Now the last of the soldering! When we attach our retaining washer on the steering rod we need to allow for some clearance, if we don’t and you make the joint very tight then it will bind when pulling force is applied to the steering arm. I use 2 pieces of card stock as a clearance gauge.

Apply a clamp if needed and solder the control arm on, solder on the top and bottom of the arm. That’s it, you’re done with the construction of the tail wheel!

I’m using a Klett 1 ¼” wheel, I hope you made your forks wide enough to accommodate your wheel!!! Cut a length of 1/8” brass tube as a bearing, make it just as wide as the inner dimension of the forks. The 3/32” tube is the axle itself, this makes the tire spin quite freely and will allow you to glue the axle to the forks later during final assembly.

Disassemble everything as shown and then give them a final going over with sandpaper to eliminate any rough spots.

Position the forks as shown on the main assembly for painting, suspend it on a small wire going through the pivot point.

That’s it, just have to paint the main part white and I’m done! All is drying today so I’ll finish up this tutorial tomorrow…

Dion

What, no fuctioning shock! LOL


This is very impressive. I've been wanting to see this type of info since you posted pics of your corsair wheel.

Very nice work!

Keith

Thanks Keith! No shock on this one, sorry!

This is it, final post on the tail wheel tutorial! First picture shows my painting wire.

I lied, one more thing to solder, you need to solder a brass washer to one of the ends of your pivot rod.

Well, here are all the parts ready for assembly.

Insert the wheel axle and then add a small amount of medium CA to the end.

Insert the pivot wire and bend the end, and that’s it!

[sm=sunsmiley.gif]

Dion

Dionysusbacchus,
MAN YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!!!! GREAT WORK>>> I AM SPEECHLESS!!! Really...WOW!!! Thanks for sharing your techniques with all us!![sm=thumbup.gif]

Amazing!!!!!!!!

Hello Dion,

Thanks for all the posts. I will hopefully be finishing mine up this weekend. So far it looks great!
Then, if I can find some extra time, I may try an aluminum version, just for kicks.

Regards,

James

Thanks Tomas, glad you enjoyed the build![8D]

Great work James! Can we see? I would not bother with an aluminum version unless you are going to build something above a 90" wingspan. PC board is MUCH lighter than aluminum, and in 1/8 scale it would be way to heavy if it were aluminum. I think Hal built another tail wheel also, so maybe we'll have two built!

Hey Dion,
I will take some photos this weekend and post them. Once my tailwheel is done I am starting to tear into my wing.

Thanks again for all your help! By the way, I'm sorry to hear about your P-51.

Regards,
James

Dion Very nice tail wheel asm. I amnot building the Hellcat but that is very good info you gave.Much appreicated Rich

I have the second tailwheel done and now I am working on the wings. I have marked the position of the panel lines by multiplying the drawings in the Squadron Signal book by 9. I am using aluminum tape for the hatches/inspection panels. I will be laying down 1/64"chart tape to simulate the panel joints. The tape will be removed after a couple of coats of primer.

Hal,

what is your source for 1/64 tape? The smallest I can find locally (and I'm in Southern California) is the 1/32. Thanks....

randy

I just found some on the Internet www.SuppliesNet.com

You're welcome Rich, and thanks, I hope you can use the info some time.

Thanks James, stuff happens! Looks like no tail wheels got made this weekend.[&o]

Nice work Hal! She is coming along great and it looks like you passed me up!



I wanted to show my radio installation so you all can see how it looks with the cockpit floor installed. By the way you must install the cockpit floor before you hook up your control surfaces! The only modification to the stock servo tray I made was the addition of a few ¼” ply plates under my elevator servo so that the pushrod could clear the cockpit floor. This thing has got plenty of room in the fuselage, it’s very easy to keep everything ahead of the CG. I installed the CJ air tank above the fuel tank. The fuel tank and air cylinder for the tail wheel is not installed yet. I did remove the tail wheel so that I could hook the control rod to it though. This was easily done through the removed tail cone hatch with an 8” screw driver.
I attached the tail cone with 2 sheet metal screws, I’ll have a removable tail hook to gain access to them if I ever need to take the tail cone off again.

Now I have to get to that wing so I can catch Hal!

Dion

Hey Dion,

Sorry, I got involved in a Mother's day mess. You know the one where they say one thing and actually mean another. I'll be on it this week.

James

Great work as always Luke!!
Where are people deciding the best location to install the fill valve for the retracts as well as the on/off switch for the radio (as to keep it hidden as much as posssible) ?
I worked on my CJ retracts all day Sunday and finally have got them where the wheel would lay flat in the wing without the 4 inch wheels being skewed to one side.
I'm getting there, slowly but surely !!
John

I put my tank, fill valve, and servo all in the wing. I can cycle the retracts without hooking it to the fuse, and there are no air lines to disconnect. You can see the fill valve under the right wing in the belly pan.

If I buy the Hellcat retracts from cj do they come with 4 inch wheels and tires and if not do you know where I can buy them, Robart has them but they are to expensive.

Edit: do you think that warbird would be a good third or 5th plane?

Thanks, Dave Trimmer

4" wheels may be scale, but they are big enough to make it tough to fit them in. I used 3 3/4" wheels and I think they look plenty big. The skill level needed for this plane is about normal for a warbird. It's not a floater like a Hanger 9 ARF, but it's not as bad as some others. As far as a third, fourth, or whatever, that's hard to say. Maybe your first four planes were LT40's. I'd say it would be good to have warbird experience with a bit lighter warbird, then step up to the Hellcat.

Got ya James, it was a tough weekend to get things done, looking forward to your completed tail wheel pictures!

John, Thanks bud! Where your valve is located is up to you. I'm still working on my installation so I can't show you pictures yet. I have a retractable tail wheel as you know that has it's own air cylinder, so locating everything in the wing would have been of no benefit. Also mounting everything in the fuselage I was able to keep it all ahead of the CG. With the detail I've added I can't afford to have anything mounted behind the CG that can be mounted further forward. I usually mount the switch inside the fuselage and run a small wire outside. Not sure where I'll hide that, I'm just getting to that point now so I'll have a solution soon!

Hal, wait up!

Robart has a few different filler valves that I know of. The longer one in the picture has a built in check valve and the shorter one does not have this feature. With the built in check valve you can leave the filler cap permanently attached to the filler valve. This makes it much easier to hide and can be hard to see even when it’s installed so that it’s sticking conveniently out the side of the aircraft!

Next I just wrapped it in masking tape and epoxy it to a small piece of wood inside the fuselage. I picked a spot on the outside of the plane with a lot going on to help hide it, just by the cowl flaps and exhaust exit area.

Next picture shows the inside of the fuselage and the air valve glued in place.

OK, there it is, easy to get to but really hard to see!

My tail wheel air cylinder had to much throw, so I asked Hal how he’d fix that and he said use a bell-crank! With the bell-crank made of PC board I am able to adjust how far the tail wheel retracts very easily, thanks Hal!

Just another shot of the pushrods, all works very smooth. Just need to install my fuel tank and radio switch and I’m done with this area.

Dion

Keep it coming Luke!! Looks like you're getting closer and closer.
Luke, on your gear doors; I used a robart 4 inch wheel and the your gear doors were designed for maybe a 3 inch wheel or so (?). 2 questions for ya: how would you recommend making them fit a 4 incher and whats the preferred way to attach them to the strut?
I apologize for the questions if you've covered this before.
Also, when you get ready to paint , are you going to use modelmasters acrylic (waterbased)
paint? Also, what will you need to do to fuelproof your work , posibbly spraycan hanger9 lustercoat or something equal to it? About how much does it need to be thinned to come out of a small sized airbrush?
I've never airbrushed before so thats the reasons for the lame questions
What do you think your all up weight is going to be like or is it too early to tell on your plane?
Thank you sir!!!
John

No problem John! I usually make stuff up as I go, that's just how I like to work. You are working ahead of me a bit, if I think to far ahead I get distracted and sometimes overwhelmed so I avoid it and just live in the now!

I'll try and answer what I can. On the gear doors they are scale in size for a 4" tire. On the full scale Hellcat they did not have a 6" over hang on the door to wing fit, look at the picture below, you can see that the doors were almost the same diameter as the tire. I don't recommend the use of 4" tires for a few reasons. One they look to big and two, the slop in most model aircraft landing gear requires the wheel well to be to big. If the wheel well is a little bigger than the door I don't see why that's a problem, especially if you are going with the overall glossy sea blue finish. The wheel wells on the Hellcat were the same color as the bottom of the plane, so this would help to hide the fact that the doors are a little smaller than the well. If you want you can add some flight skin to the door to enlarge the flange area by 1/4" or so, I would not do this though.

I'm not sure what I'm going to paint it with yet, I do have the Model Masters paints and I also have some Perfect paint. The Model Masters would probably be the best bet to keep the plane light. For a fuelproofer I may try the Klass Kote clear http://www.klasskote.com/

The best way to learn about airbrushing is to do it. Practice on something first and get the hang of it and understand what the airbrush is doing. Mix your paints well and experiment with thinning when you practice, you'll get the hang of it!

Not sure what the final weight will be, I've done everything I can to keep the weight within reason. Like I said before, the tail wheel is the only real weight penalty but I've done everything I can to keep everything in front of the CG, we'll just have to wait and see!

Dion

luke, dude you need to change your avatar back
that one kills me

ready for paint pics now [8D]

Too late for me to change to a smaller tire man I've already cut the hole for the wheel wells. I'm using a robart 4 inch diamond tread, but if I'm not mistaken, thw wheels are a little larger the the doors- let me double check them tonight.BTW, you are way ahead of me because I still dont have any radio components inside the fuse but I'm not too far behind you.
What are you using to mount the gear doors to the struts, just some small pieces of hardwood(on the inside of the door) with some kind of strap or something that wraps around the strut?
Thanks again Luke!! Keep on trucking and get that bird going!!
Oh, btw, did you set me aside a cockpit kit ? I need to pay you for it too.
If you'll email me with the details , I'll send you some money
JMc