Glad ya like the new look! lol Glad you're ready for paint, I wish I was!

John, my young Jedi! How dare you question your master! lol Seriously, the doors are scale in size. Check out the picture below, that is the Robart 4" wheel. You can still patch those giant holes you have in your wing! lol Before you do the radio you have to install the cockpit floor remember, I need to make a few more cockpits for those that wanted them later so I'll get you one by the weekend.
I show a simple wood method for mounting the doors, look back a few posts. I'm not going to do this; I posted it as a simple solution. My gear doors are going to be held on in a much more scale manner with clamps made of PC board.
Keep it going John, and let's see some pictures of your work!!!

Luke Skyscraper

Got a picture of the gear door fit on the full scale Hellcat as it does a flyby at an airshow. Must be at least a 6" gap in the door to wing fit!

Hi Dion , great build , I have a question for you , are you going to soder all those set screws to the pushrod connections once you get your servos set ? I know its a stupid question for someone with your expertise but I would hate to see them come loose and they have been known to do so . I just figured I would give you a heads up in the event you forgot lol

Well,.... I worked on installing my gear doors one one side last nite and I've got a question for you, Oh Luke Skyscraper, master of all things good , LOL!!!! ( or anyone else that wants to chime in)
I ca'd some small wood pieces to the inside of the doors so I could have a mount of some sort to screw a lilttle plastic strap around the struts to keep the doors steady and straight.The problem is the little wood pieces are preventing the door from closing all the way now.The slot in the wing where the struts sit when the are closed is a little too narrow and altho I could take the dremel and make it(the slot) wider, it would look sorta ugly.
There's gotta be a smarter way to install the doors that what Im doing- (I'm not known as the smartest pup in the litter anyway, LOL
Whatup with dat??
Thanks guys!!!
John

The doors are supposed to be flush with the wing skin. You may have to install the retract deeper into the wing. If you have the Squadron Signal book F6F walkaround, it shows on page 15 what the doors should look like when retracted. Which retracts are you using ?

Hey Hal !! I'm using CJ's retracts. The wheels(4 inch) are sitting into the wing pretty good and I dont see any way to get them to sit any deeper.Maybe I could take out the 2 wing ribs that are in the wheel well and that "may" give me another 1/4 inch or so of depth but no more.Are you guys seeing that you had to totally remove the 2 ribs(and have nothing but the upper balsa sheeting for the wheels to touch) to get yours to operate correctly?
Thanks!!
John

Thanks LDM. That's not my favorite method, it's just what I had in stock at the time. By the way the connector on the elevator is not a stock one, it's a very good quality aftermarket one. Once adjusted it will get a drop of blue Locktight though!

John! What is wrong with making the gear well a big ugly scale size opening? That's what I did and it looks fine, when it's on the ground no one will see it and when it's in the air the door will cover it! If you want to keep the openings in the wing smaller so the bugs on the ground enjoy the nice work you did then I would use a smaller piece of wood that is flush with the door or less. (I'd have to look to see how big they need to be) Then you can use a small brass band on the inside and a few small bolts from outside. They would be attached on the inside with some small nuts. I have not tried this, just giving you more ideas! Of course your door now looks ugly but you'll have smaller wheel wells. Keep us posted on your experiments, and I'm just teasing you, it's all about what makes you happy in the end!

Dion

I made a more scale appearing tailwheel. I turned a piece of hardwood dowel so that a 1-1/16" heater hose would just fit over it . Made the wheel 7/16" wide. Drilled the center to 1/8"and inserted a piece of brass tubing for a bearing. I am using a 2/56 socket head screw for an axle. Marked and drilled the holes in the sides of the wheel.

Hal! That’s some great work, wish I would have thought of it![sm=thumbup.gif]

Dion

I was just giving Hal a hard time! This was a collaborative effort by both of us. We started talking over the phone about a scale tail wheel, I said that I could machine a hub out of aluminum and use a rubber hose as a tire. That’s what I thought we were going to do, but then Hal got to tinkering as usual and came up with the wood idea. I would have never thought wood would work well, but it worked out great. Aluminum would be to heavy for this size plane anyway.

I used some ¾� inner diameter universal fit-all drain hose and a large hard wood dowel.

I used my mini lathe to spin the hub so that it fit my tail retract forks. Make it just small enough for a tight fit in the rubber tire. The center hole was drilled on my lathe and the rest were drilled on my drill press. As in all my tail wheels I use a 1/8� bearing axle and then the smaller brass tube as the main axle.

I sealed the wheel with thin CA and then hit it with some 320 grit sandpaper. Use a small round file to clean up the holes.

Now that’s a Hellcat carrier wheel!

Dion

I think I can hear the band playing "Pomp and Circumstance" as I pass through the scale tailwheel graduation line. This is awesome! Tremendous job showing us some of the ropes Luke.... er "Professor Luke". Now I know what PHD stands for... Pretty Handy with a Dremel!

I've never had a retractable tailwheel of this sort before. I see in your photos how you made a pull-pull steering linkage off the rudder servo. Do the lines simply go slack when retracted? If they dont' go entirely slack, did you stub a short piece of goldenrod through the tailwheel mounting bulkhead to prevent the lines from chaffing when in the retracted position or something? Or I suppose we could make holes for the steering lines large enough that this isn't an issue? I'd hate to string it all up only to find I was in deep dung! LOL

I need to get all the appropriate sized brass tubes. I've got the shopping list! I hope to get what I need and try my hand at building my own tailhweel this weekend. Yes, I'm dropping everything else to dive into this little, FUN project.

Tom

LOLThank you Tom and best of luck! I feel as though I'm pushing one of my little chicks out of the nest, it's such a proud moment!

When the tail wheel retracts the lines will just bend upwards, they do go slack a bit. I'm toying with the idea of some sort of centering spring wire as is on the Robart unit. Use 50lb test fishing line, and don't worry about it getting cut on the ply. I just run it though tube near the sero's, and the tube is not glued in so that I can pull it all out and thread new line if I need to. You just make the tail wheel first then worry about the mounting, take it one step at a time!

OK, what has Hal been up to? He is kind of slow at posting pictures so I though I'd show you a few of his cockpit. The back window still has the film on it so it looks a little cloudy, but that will come off after painting. Looking great so far! Nice work Hal!

Dion

which pilot figure is that?

Don't know, Hal who did you say made that pilot? Here is another picture of Hal's Hellcat, pilot sure does look good! Can you tell it's a CMP? lol

I have had that little guy for many years and I don't remember who made them. I am sure they are no longer available.

The pilot looks like the IM piolots that Circuss Hobbies used to sell. They were light weight and easy to paint. I think they were 1/6 and 1/7 scale.

I know he's not 1/6 scale and he's even to small for 1/7. I would say he's right on 1/8 scale by the looks of him in my cockpit. Hal is going to send him to me so that I can make one for myself, so he'll be back from the dead in a way! I'm going to change a few things on him, like his big fluffy neck piece for instance. I'm going to pour a silicone mold and slush cast him in resin, so he'll be light.

Any tail wheel action going on out there?[sm=surprised.gif] The silence can't be a good thing, anyone need help please ask!

Dion

Dion, just a bit of advice or maybe even a lil scale hint. You can take it or leave it. Have the pilot sitting more upright in his seat and leaning forward. If you look at most pics of any warbirds and especially the Hellcats, the pilots are always , always leaning forward. Other than that man, there is nothing I can tell you. Keep up the good work,its hard to believe that an arf thread could go this long and strong.....

I have a pilot in my ZOLLNER COCKPIT that I squeezed into my Customized H9 CORSAIR that I am selling(hint hint) ehehhe
It was an ACADIANA R/C Pilot from LOUISIANA...and it looks a lot like that pilot you have HalH...
It is vacuum formed plastic front and back pieces glued together..mine is 1/8 scale...Pretty cool little dude...
Could not find anymore on this company....did a websearch ...

p.s.fixed the wrinkle on the dash..darn zapadapaGoo wrikled it![:'(]

That's a good observation Bro and you are right! I was looking at Hal's pilot as a quick fix type of thing. My Hellcat has a working harness so I can take him out when another better pilot comes along. I prefer to display and show my plane without a pilot anyway. I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

Dion

Dion,
Have to sell the Corsair even though I like it...Need room for the VQ P-61, P-38, A-26, P-51B, MIG-3....and the list goes on![8D]
Cant wait for you to Bash a TWIN ...especially the WIDOW!!!!!!!ooooooohhhhh can you handle all that open glass???[sm=drowning.gif] lots of room to fill with lots of details...[sm=spinnyeyes.gif] heheehehee
But really cant wait if you are up to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


NOW all these distractions ARE ONLY KEEPING YOU FROM GETTING TO THE PAINT!!! ....get to steppin!!! WE ALL WANT TO HEAR THE SOUNDS OF COMPRESSORs and Paint guns coming from your shop!!!![sm=lol.gif]

Yeah Dion, I'm working on mine. But had a lot non-model related stuff going on this weekend. Nephew is graduating high school and all.

Anyway, I drew patterns on the PC board and cheet metal stock. I instantly ran into trouble trying to drill the 5/16 hole in the sheet aluminum. I need to use something other than a twist drill bit. Maybe get a stepped bit or something. Twist drill bit makes a triangular hole in such soft, thin metal. Or I can simply make a hole with a grinding stone and my dremel. I'll get it right. As always.. I'm sloooow.

Tom

Tom, you can't use a drill bit on that stuff! Well you can but use the Dremel with it's largest size drill bit. Then just keep working it around as a grinder, you will see how easy it is to cut this way. Work in a counter clockwise circular motion with the bit coming from under the part. Do it just as I show in the picture below:


Dion

Roger that! I hope to have a photo of fabricated parts ready for building soon!

It's nice to see all of the great scale work you are all doing. Let's take a break for a second and see what you should be doing when it's nice out... Flying!