Rob Schaffer

Since the club meeting work has been pretty busy, but I've managed to get the gear doors cut out and I am about to primer them. I primered and painted the motor cowling and installed the radial engine. This turned out really nice and just that little spash of color makes the project start coming to life after looking at balsa for so long.

I was sent a photo by a friend showing the interior of the wheel well, so I am going to dremel down the ribs to get close to the sheeting in that area, then add some little strips of 1/16th balsa to get the ribbed effect. I'll then primer and paint that area as well.

Last weekend I had to work, but there was a real corsair at the local air show not 20 minutes from my house. Some guys from the club were nice enough to get a few photos for me, but I really wish I could have been there. They did a flight with the corsair along side an F-15,.. must have been pretty sweet seeing it fly.

I've decided to follow the paint scheme that I posted earlier with number 17 from the Jolly Roger's. After looking at the scheme, I've decided to try vinyl graphics and found kirby's graphics online. Sounds like an easy material to have made up and use, so last night I spent about 45 minutes measuring and determining what I am going to have made up. Sure beats cutting things out of monokote....

If all goes well, I'll get a little bit of time tonight to work on the project and I'll take some more photos to post.

Rob Schaffer

Here's a photo of the cowling, along with the primered gear doors. Some of the imperfections in the gear doors will hopefully not be as noticable after I paint the white,... we'll see I guess.

timothy thompson

My Feedback: (1)

question on the batts dont you mean wired parallel? series would double voltage not amps. I want to do a multi pack conversion on the h-9 hellcat. than ks

tim

Rob Schaffer

my motor runs best on 22 volts becuase of the lower Kv value, which is putting my packs in series, since each are 11.1 V packs. In order to have the batteries handle the amp draw and to increase the flight time, each of the packs are made of 3 cells in parallel, giving me a 6000 mAh pack.

For the Hangar 9 Hellcat, the same system I am using would be great for that plane. The AXI or the Eflite 60 has been used in all the Hangar 9 60 sized birds (mustang, corsair, P40, and the Jug)

[8D]

slkret

Rob:
It looks like this will be another great electric scale conversion! I like your pilot figure...I recently finished an electric conversion of a 1/7 scale TF P-39 [link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4261439/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm[/link] and had a heck of a time finding a proper size full body pilot figure. Whose product is yours? What scale?

Steve

Rob Schaffer

Hi,.. I visited your thread a little bit ago,.. did you fly yet?

My pilot is 1/6th - 1/7th, a great fit for your setup. He is from Blue Box Toys International (BBI) from the Elite Force WWII line,.. ( 8th one from the bottom of this page [link=http://www.toysnswords.com/?token=1887771163-238646117-1542282126&A=15&B=BBI+%26+Elite+Force]DOC MILLER PILOT[/link] ) This one is "p40 pilot DOC Miller" They come with full flight gear, or you can put them in uniform complete with holstered gun, knife, sunglasses, etc. I think I posted a photo earlier with the two pilots , they are the same, just dressed differently. My Corsair is 1/8th scale, so his shoulders were cut a little bit to look better in the cockpit, and he has lost his legs to clear the servos inside. Think they run about $40 or so....


With respect to the corsair project,.. I've made a little progress, but ran out of CA [X(] I am going on vacation for July 4th, so I should be back in business building after then.

Rob Schaffer

Back from a nice family vacation, and then the dreaded week of work afterwards trying to catch up!

While I was gone, I did have the opportunity to work with Denny from Kirby's Graphics and I am very impressed with them. They took the time to help me get what they needed to make some vinyl graphics for me and my Top Flite Corsair. They never did a Gold Edition, but did many other larger giant scale corsair's and predominatly the Ziroli one. I arrived home to find the graphics very nicely packaged with clear instructions inside. I haven't worked with vinyl before, so I had to take some down to the workshop almost right away to try it out.

WOW,... this stuff is great! I'm going to definitely be using this more. I think it is going to really help this corsair project, and make the end result really come together. Attached are some photos of the cowling with the Jolly Roger's flag on the sides, and the Number 17 located on the lower portion of the cowling. I also had some special ones made up showing the members of the VF-17 squadron that were KIA or MIA. This will be located on the side of the fuselage between the star-n-bar insignia and the leading edge of the elevator.

Now to the photos.

Rob Schaffer

Finally able to post a few photos of what I've been up to on the corsair,... as work and family time permits.

I am a little past half way on covering the fuselage right now with the tri-color scheme. Things are going well and I hope to finish by the end of the week (on the fuselage & tail)

Here's two images....

Rob Schaffer

Here's a few more photos of some progress. Going to hinge the rudder and elevator tomorrow night and paint the canopy this weekend.

v6goose

Thats a nice tribute to VF-17 Rob...

Great work...


Goose

Bruno Stachel

My Feedback: (4)

Very nice Rob. I just noticed this thread, and will watch for more. Looking great!

rlarkin70

My Feedback: (1)

hey, any progress on your Corsair? Looks like it was really coming along there for a while. What scale is that pilot supposed to be? He looks a bit big in the cockpit.

Rob Schaffer

Things are going well. The last photos were from Tuesday night's work session, so although I am a little bit behind on where I wanted to be, it is coming along well.

Yea, the pilot is a little large (1/6th scale vs the 1/8th of the plane) but it was a good deal and a very good looking pilot figure that suited the purpose. I searched quite a bit to find a full figure for the 1/8th scale, but had no luck. After amputating the legs, he fits well and adds a lot better detail than I would have otherwise not had. His pants are folded at the knees, and make it look just like he was a full figure in the cockpit. Now that he has been actually installed and fastened, he sits about 1/2" lower than shown in the photo,.. I'll have to take a new one showing the finished canopy. Looks like a better fit.

Painted the canopy last night, and hope to begin finishing the wing this weekend.

v6goose & Bruno: Thanks for the comments as well. The VF-17 was a neat squadron from what I have been able to read up on the about. Hope to provide some more insight later in the thread when I reach completion.

Rob

Ectomorph26

Looking very nice there. I would worry about the imperfections in the gear doors. The more I look at scale models the more imperfect they look the more scale they look.

Rob Schaffer

Finished cockpit and canopy,... more to come later this weekend. [8D]

Rob Schaffer

Finished the hatch installation and that ends the fuselage construction!!! WAHOO!!

This week is busy at work, but hopefully I can clear off the table this week and organize myself for tackling the remaining items on the wing. They are: Flap Servo Hatch, Flap Building & Fitting, Aileron fitting.... then the final retract fit and install the Robostruts,... Cover the wing, and DONE!

The end is getting closer. Thanks for keeping me going....

Rob

Rob Schaffer

I had some time this week to get the Robostruts fitted to the 615's and to setup the retracts for the final time prior to taxi tests. Things are going pretty well and I am making good progress. Ailerons and the stock flaps are fitted, just have to build that center flap section and then try getting them all to work right.

Here's a few photos,...

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

Rob , really nice work .Good luck hope to see this to completion
Thanks
Lou

Darrell B.

I'm opting into this thread. This is one of my future projects.
Darrell B.

Paul S.

Rob what a nice job so far on that Corsair. Really enjoying the progress. Did you fiberglass the wheel bay area?

Paul S.

Rob Schaffer

Paul:
No, I didn't fiberglass the bay, but after I routed down the wing ribs passing in the bay, I soaked them with thin CA and applied a med CA fillet around the perimeter of the bay at the top wing sheeting intersection with the ribs and formers. Pretty solid.

Well, pretty close on the flaps now. They are all sanded to shape and need to get some adjustment after I shape the TE of the wing. This weekend I'll mount them with hinges and get everything aligned. I'll try to shape the TE between now and then.

Once the flaps are fitted, it's time to cover the wing. Goal is to have it operational for my upcoming October club meeting, so expect to see more regular postings from now till then.

Crossed the 90 building hour mark in the log book,.. coming along nicely.

Rob Schaffer

probably should have posted these earlier, but this is how I am securing the battery hatch on the top of the fuselage. I picked up these two great spring loaded pin hatch latches from hobby lobby, and they installed pretty cleanly and easily. Cut the slot in the hatch and drilled a hole in the hatch end for the pin to fit through. A little black paint on the end of the pin allowed me to transfer the mark to the fuselage former once the hatch is in the closed position and flush with the top of the fuse. Open the hatch, drill out a hole where the black paint transferred, and WaLa,.. nice fitting hatch.

Paul S.

Rob, how did you hinge it, I can't see, but it looks cleanly done. Cowl looks nice too.

Paul S.

Rob Schaffer

Paul:

It is a double layer Monokote hinge. The covering was done on the hatch, and then I placed the hatch in place and held in position with some small pieces of masking tape (low-tack). I then used a 3/4" wide strip of monokote on the outside of the plane, centered on the hatch and fuse. Opened the hatch up and used another 3/4" peice along the inside (which is what you see in the photo when it is open). This is now a gapless hinge that will work well and is durable for the use it will be under.

Rob

Rob Schaffer

Here's how I shaped the TE of the wing to recess the flap.

Cut the TE to a rough shape first with the X-acto, then used the metal edged ruler as a guide for the dremel tool to smoothly sand the vertical portion of the TE. With a steady hand, and slow movements, used the dremel to round the upper portion of the wing (remember, wing is upside down right now) to fit the flap shape,...

Now,.. it's on to covering and hinging!