bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

So after priming the whole plane with warbirdcolors primer I came to the conclusion that the stuff sands like granite which is a good and bad thing the good is that you get less sand through areas the bad is if you have a drip or drips there a pain to get rid of after much sanding and prep I went back to my old stand by Derusto auto primer in a spray can because it fills great and sands off easy.

I had sort of burned out on RC for a bit because I have had too much on my plate and not enough time but I have been slowly grinding a tiny bit at a time on this project with filling and sanding shaping all the little areas, I did pop out another cowl for a RCU member.
so I had some time and did the last little bit before my final sanding and assembly.

next will be to install the servos again and hook up the pushrods and start painting one of my favorite parts just some progress pics from my months of fiddling,I also have some ideas for the canopy but that will come later

johnboy151a

My Feedback: (68)

Still here Tim.....

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

yea just moving a little slower the last few months I guess I could have pumped up this thread with all the little details of filling sanding and priming but its just labor to me.

I did allot of blending at the wing fillets and cowl area so there should be minor transitions at the seams I will post some more later on some products and applications after I sand the whole plane down before the finish painting starts

johnboy151a

My Feedback: (68)

No problems here Tim.... This is a Hobby and we all need a break to take care of other things. I'm still wanting to see how your Exhaust system works out with the FS 91.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

its the little things that count

so I finally started hinging surfaces and re-installing servos I forgot what a pain fine tuning Robart hinge points are, but after a few I began to get the hang of them again, I really wanted the control surfaces to pivot in the recessed areas properly after some trial and error I was happy with the results on the rudder and elevator once satisfied I used 5 min epoxy to glue the points in,I prefer to do the elevator/rudder side first and once set then install the surfaces so the hinge points don't slip out of position and create a real head ache

I also am using the flexible light weight pushrods so I can keep the weight down in the tail area,once the rudder and elevator were in position I installed the servo tray that had been sitting in a corner for months, and fit the rod to the servo,after making a small retainer that would secure the guide tube in place I epoxied it into position works nice and smooth

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

a small note on the elevator after primer and my first initial test fitting I noticed to my horror that it had a mad twist to it.

I am not sure if it was builder error, or due to the WB poly warping the wood, regardless I sawed off the top of the rudder where the top block was, and with my razor saw carefully sliced down the center aft portion about 2/3 of the way down then I carefully twisted it back to strait and with thin CA wicked it down my cut line to fix the twist had I left this it would have been ugly on the first flight no doubt.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

next was to remove the left over glass from the wheel bays and servo and access hatches, I threw the gear in just so I would have a set of legs to stand on when the wing and fuse are joined,very temporary since I have some more work on the wheel wells regarding fuel proofing and some detailing, how much will be determined by the weight when I get all the servos and engine put back in.

next mission is the wing aileron servo mounts, and flap horn covers, after pulling the servo mounts from the wing( they were a little stuck from the primer) I mounted the servos, having done this before, I purchased some Dubro servo horns, the larger ones extend past the hatch enough so the aileron will have plenty of throw if needed, I then carefully opened the slot so the travel of the horn didn't bind on either side of the slot yet gave maximum travel, I didn't want a huge gaping hole just enough so the horn didn't bind at all.

next was to fit the flap pushrod's I had made small holes in the wing skin before glassing but they needed to be fine tuned,and opened up, to allow the rods to move freely,after a few slices and some work with my rat tail file I was satisfied with the fit of the rods to the flap connection, the original Royal plans had no flap detail so mine are pure improvisation using 3 view drawings and my model example as a reference in general I am pretty happy with the results, I didn't mount the flaps permanently so I could paint the flap bays, but there such a tight fit that I was confident the rods are spot on and they actuated the flaps perfectly.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

so after marking the screw holes with a sharpie I went to my trusty drill press and drilled the primary holes.

more often than not the hatches will never be removed unless there is a major servo failure or some other situation that I don't want to remove the wing skin to fix, the aileron servo connector lands perfectly in the flap horn bay and in previous posts I noted that I made paper tubes in the wing to feed the leads through they work like a charm.

what I decided was that I didn't want screw heads poking out from the wing, so I purchased some #2 screws from RTL fasteners that will sit flush with the surface of the wing, but to ensure this and allow the screws to seat properly, I again used my drill press and carefully made a slight counter sink in the hatch so that the screw heads will sit flush while not warping the ply hatch, once installed the hatches will be painted in place which will require me to cut them free if need be once the screws are removed.

now that I have the hatches prepped, I added tri stock to the corners of each hole in the wing, so the screws will have a firm anchor point I will install the hatches tomorrow and harden the screw points with thin CA before the final install, I didn't do it tonight because I did not want to risk gluing the hatches in place in case the corners were still tacky.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

after making the flap linkages I went a scrounging through my piles of tiny parts bins and found some threaded push rod ends, when I fit the linkages I found that they were pretty small but decided that I wanted clevises on both ends of my servo to flap connectors it allows some more flexibility in case I need to adjust the ailerons.

I placed the horns slightly outward from the plan location the holes were aligned according to the plan references at the hinge line,in the original plan the horn is at the inside seam of the aileron I wanted them to be moved slightly more outward towards the center of the control surface.

the ailerons are real barn doors on this model.

after screwing on the hatch covers and looking at how flush the hatch screws are,I decided the counter sunk holes needed to be larger and slightly deeper, a 3/16 drill bit did the charm using my press I enlarged the hole just slightly to allow the screws to sit flush with the surface I am now pleased with the fit and finish on the covers and servo mounts

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

well I am happy now with how the screws are sitting opening up the holes was a major improvement on having the screw heads sticking out off the surface of the wing,after removing the screws I realized how inadequate the tri stock was so I ended up adding larger pieces to the corners on the servo trays in the wing the last thing I wanted was the servo coming loose because of some small piece of wood in a corner.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

so as happy as I am with my reproduction canopy from uswing what I didn't like was the overall fit from it in general I wanted something more scale looking yet light weight, so today I went to the hobby shop and picked up some ball links and a few little pieces of brass channel to create a movable canopy nothing servo operated but a bit crisper than what Royal had in mind.

after checking my reference books I started framing up the basic outline for the canopy frame so I can install the slide mech, and form up the balsa sheeting for the turtle deck, using the stock canopy at a general guide because I plan on using some of the plastic to finish the frame off I used some 1/16 balsa as a base taping the areas that I didn't want to over sand I carefully removed the excess balsa so I had a nice accurate base for my frame time and patience required, but it was the foundation so I didn't rush it.

next was to relieve enough wood so the 1/16 sheeting would blend with the fuse properly, a little carpentry skills came in handy, as I used a sharp pencil and scribed a line around the base sheet to remove the extra wood yet allow it to line up with my fuse.

I picked up some 1/4x3/16 light weight balsa from the store,I chose the light weight because it bends and sands easier.

glued in the border with med CA, and began to make the base former using my stock canopy as a reference I made a cardboard former template since former #1 was going to be the master guide I was careful fit it as close as possible,this also is at a angle so I also sanded in a bevel where the former came into contact at the glue joints, my plan is to remove a large portion of this former once the skin is in place more on that later.

I used a heavy rigid 3/32 stock piece of scrap to make these parts since I wanted whatever was left t be strong it also doesn't sand easy which helps.

once the master former was in place I took some balsa stock and ran a stringer along the ridge line,then worked in a couple of filler pieces to finish the framework and sanded the basic frame to shape.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

sliding canopy continued, with some reference outlines from the stock canopy I began framing of the forward portion of the canopy this took some time trying to match the general outline of the stock unit when I had my numbers and marks layed out, I did some simple build up of the frame using some of my harder stock for the main frame parts once I was set on the shape I pinned the rear turtle deck in place and built up a matching frame for the rear portion.

the small strip that the clamp is sitting on is a spreader so the rails remained in the proper position when I glued in the rear frame parts in place I will remove it when I am finished, when matching the rear to the front section I used wax paper as a divider to limit any sticking of parts, it helped but did not entirely prevent it from occurring, this lead to some reassembly when I tried to separate the two sections nothing major but just some extra assembly tweaking, those tiny clamps come in handy when doing stuff like this just holding the parts in position to get the alignment right.

so far I am happy with the rough shape there will be some sanding to fine tune the frame and dial it in, I used some light balsa on the forward portion so that I could blend the frame into the fuse the light weight balsa sands off quickly and tapers down to a nice fine edge, so there is little to no transition into the fuse.

next is the sliding mech that is going to be interesting I am confident in my concept its the tiny little details that will take time of course.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

so today in natural light I checked the canopy frame and decided it was a little large to be able to properly utilize the plastic canopy parts I have some razor saw action and it was closer to what I wanted I also reduced the size of former #1 on the turtle deck by about 1/4 of a inch to lower the footprint and clean up the lines.

my main project tonight was to manufacture the canopy rails and get the basics ready, it took some surgery and a few tricks to get things started.

firstly I purchased some square brass stock from the LHS and after scribing a center line with my strait edge I used my small cut off wheel on my Dremmel to cut the first channel down the side, once I had the first cut done I switched to my larger wheel and opened up the groove so that a ball link would slide through tightly.
I then used some 80 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper folded over several times, to smooth out and clean up the grove so the ball link slid down the channel nice and easy,this took some time and patience for sure to get it clean and straight.

next was to clear some room for the rails I took some measurements so the rails would be nice and level in relation to the sliding turtledeck, and with my razor saw and exacto knife removed the sheeting carefully along lines I drew on the fuse, from the area where the forward rails will sit.

I then positioned the ball links around 3/16 back from the forward edge of the turtle deck rails on the bottom of the frame, and after lining up and marking the rail positions I glued the sheeting back onto the fuse, and removed the wood that was in the way of my rails since the fuse has a taper at the cockpit and the rails are parallel I had to remove some wood towards the rear of the cockpit area so they would slide properly.

when satisfied with the fit and function I liberally sanded the brass stock rails, and with some 5 min epoxy glued the pieces into position the parts now slide fairly smoothly, and I will prepare to make the center line channel to secure the pieces into position my plan is to make it removable but more on that later.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

after making some reference marks and working the details out in my head as to how I wanted to approach this project.

the first thing to do for the center line channel was to open up the bottom of the turtle deck along a carefully measured center line this will serve 2 purposes first as a hole for the ball link to protrude through and so my deck can slide along the brass channel, I worked out the length of the brass to be 3.5" .75" longer than the forward pieces this will make sense later,I also made sure to only use just enough metal to get the job done adding as little weight to the project as I can,there will also be some dietary measures with some excess balsa removal wherever possable.

the next thing was to cut a shallow trench in the fuse side of the turtle deck for a glue bed, I cut some clean lines in the wood and then used my 1/4" chisel to clean the wood from the trench.

I then fit the TDeck onto the fuse and determined my location for the ball link connector that I had mounted to a small piece of light ply, like I had posted prior, I wanted this to be removable,not easily but removable none the less, to accomplish this I took the brass piece and with my drill press I opened up a round area in the channel testing to see if the ball link I had previously mounted on a small wood block snapped into the groove when I was satisfied with the fit, I glued the rail into place with 5 min epoxy,I cleaned the excess that squeezed out with alcohol on a paper towel this made a nice clean filler around the brass piece.

one note on the location of the rear ball link, I made sure that the front links were about a 3/16 shy of the ends of the rails so I could pop the rear of the frame out then slide out the forward portion I am really pleased with the fit and function of this little mod,a unexpected bonus is the canopy frame stops when open right were the hole is but its tight enough that a good amount of effort is required to get the frame off of the fuse, I also used some 3/32 balsa to shim the ball so that it was a nice tight seal between the fuse and frame.

now its time to do some filling and wood removal in a few areas so I get the look I want for the finish details, I have glued the 1/16 balsa sheeting to skin the turtle deck with and its setting up now probably more work later

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

Happy fathers day, it was nice for me for sure.

the key word for this project is adjustments, it seems its all I do with this model, after forming the balsa sheeting with 50/50% water and alcohol mix in a spray bottle applied liberally to the wood and wrapped around a med sized Tight Bond bottle over night I had a nicely curved piece of wood for the turtle deck, one thing I did was to add some scrap behind the former that the rear section of canopy was to attach to it needed thickness for a few reasons one to handle being sanded vigorously, and another was for screws if necessary.

once sheeting was applied to the rear area,and it was glassed with WB poly, I separated the various parts of the canopy, a bit nerve wracking since I didn't want to buy another one if I didn't have to, I was very careful when separating the 3 sections.

to fit the main section of canopy I cut a relief in the balsa sheeting, so the canopy would sit a little bit lower against the turtle deck, my plan is to use filler to blend the parts together for a seamless look after the final fitting, I also removed almost all of the rear former to simulate the scale look, more dietary measures will be in affect later.

when I was happy with the fit on the frame I began to make the armored head rest, after checking my references for the general shape I wanted to add some detail so it would look better and some what scale,I took some light weight brass sheeting( lightest I had) and bent a shallow U shaped piece about 4" long.
I then drilled out a section serving a dual purpose one to allow me access to use a small screw to attach the piece to the rear of the head rest, and on the scale plane there is a bit of a open channel,and it also serves to remove some weight from the brass piece, the piece also serves as a anchor for the top most machine screw used for the canopy and its corresponding nut that holds the canopy in place, I epoxied the nut into place on the bracket, the nut was tiny so it made sense.

to attach the headrest to the frame I used a small aluminum tube glued to the lower section,and bent some small 1" long pieces of piano wire into a "L" shape as a hinge pin, after drilling small holes in the rails I wicked thin CA in the lower section as to not gum up the hinge now the head rest can pivot if for some reason I need to get it out of the way.

so far my little mods havent added up to much perceivable weight gain of course when I get back to assembly we shall see how fat she is

johnboy151a

My Feedback: (68)

Really great work Tim!

RCUer23843

I am looking for a cockpit & Canopy for the Royal F8F... Anyone avaiable?

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

you should be able to buy a canopy for it from ebay seller uswing he has most of the after market parts for the Royal model kits, and I know he sells a canopy for that model.

now finding a cockpit kit thats another story, there few and far between and I havent even seen one for that model, you are more than likely going to need to either adapt/modify a top flight cockpit kit or make one from scrap, I happen to have a FW190 cockpit I am going to use as my example to fabricate mine.

I wish I had a Vacuum forming table to make some particular parts for myself

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

well I came to a tough decision about the front of the canopy, it wasn't giving me the fit or look that I wanted, mainly the fit so I went down to TAP Plastics with the intention on buying some PTEG scrap well they only had large sheets of the stuff 48x24 was the smallest sheet available and I din't feel like buying a big sheet of stuff for 3 tiny little scraps.

so I bought a small piece of 1/32 clear Polycarbonate sheet,its very tough stuff I needed to cut it with my Dremmel cut off wheel after scoring it with a razor knife the thing is it looks allot like the bullet proof shielding on the real thing which I like.

before I glued the pieces into place I cut a small channel in the frame I had created for the original wind screen to fit on, this worked well to allow me to glue the clear pieces n pace with some canopy glue, holding it in place with pins while the glue set up.

I had to figure out a somewhat scale looking frame so what I came up with, was some very thin ply scrap I had lying around some sanding and cutting grinding later I had my frame pieces, I think it looks decent and should get better with some strategic use of filler and paint.

lastly for tonight, was to tape off the bottom area of the side screens, and with my high performance spot putty and a dummy credit card, I feathered in the lower section against the fuse, its going to take a few coats to build up and sand back but its not to thick,by tomorrow the tape should be off and I can tune some of the other areas.

RCUer23843

Hi BigTim, thank You very much, I Will look for uswing on eBay! All the best.

RCUer23843

Tim, by the way, If You still having an old add from uswing, please send me the link so I can add Him to my favorite seller and watch his itens. Thank You and congrats for the very Nice Job in the F190.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

did a bunch of stuff that I haven't posted because there all connected into the one area, so a bit of a summery of what I have done on the canopy,first was to prime the frame with some spray auto primer it fills well and exposes any blemishes that may need sanding.

I then trimmed the canopy in the rear so there was a small gap between the wood and the plastic that I could use to blend the 2 surfaces together,to secure the canopy to the frame I bought some tiny little slotted screws from the hobby store, they are used in model rail roading but they look the perfect size for my purposes, once the plastic was screwed down I trimmed the edges with a exacto knife and bent the plastic so it snapped off cleanly.

after taping off the rear section I used my spot putty to blend the rear area so there was a nice clean transition and had a fairly seamless look, after filling and sanding back a few times I pulled the plastic off and cleaned up the edges by sanding and trimming with a razor knife there was quite a bit of fuzz on the plastic but it came off quickly.

I also used some Bondo on the bottom area of the canopy frame, with some wax paper to protect the fuse to fill the gap and tighten up the seam when I had packed the edge and the Bondo had hardened up a bit I removed the frame and carefully trimmed the filler before it was hardened up.
I then mixed a little more material and filled the area a little more, once it had hardened up I sanded it with my block to shape it, it is still a little tight but just a small bit of tuning will loosen it up, I do like it snug so it doesn't slide all over the place.

there was also some filling required at the forward wind screenand on the sides to get a smooth transition I used some small balsa strips next to the canopy frame as a base to tighten up the gap,after sanding it back some,I then used my light weight filler to dial in the area and blend in the transitions.

I then reprimed the frame to cover up all my sanding and filling, painted the headrest black, and reinstalled the canopy onto the frame after some additional sanding of the bottom it slides and I like the look so far, before I taped off the plastic to paint the plastic portion of the frame

I snapped a few pics

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

enough with the fluff and on to the insides.

so one thing I realized about this model is the space for all the servos tank and just stuff I need to pack into the planes belly originally I had the gear valve towards the wing area but realized this wasn't going to work since I needed a throttle servo and so I needed to rethink my positioning for getting maximum weight forward.

what I did was to place some mounting rails in the forward compartment deep into the upper portion of the fuse, and mount the valve tray up in the top of the fuse there was just enough space for the valve and a micro servo to actuate it to the side of the fill valve.

a early photo of the servo layout, and the new valve location deep in the fuse compartment.

I am using a pumped engine but I want to locate the tank on or slightly in front of the CofG, I had to relocate the throttle servo forward since its old location was based on my first engine choice which had the throttle lever on the L. side and my wanting to pack as much gear forward as I can

moving the servo from the rear tray and placing it on the old retract valve rails, there is just enough room so the servo clears the wing saddle lying on its side mounted to 2 hardwood blocks,under this tray to the side will be a space also forward of the CG for the battery out of the way to the side of the tank.

this upper tray will double as a retainer for the fuel tank, the trays may look large but there all made from lite ply and are actually very light in weight.

for my throttle pushrod I made a Z bend in some wire I have and used a EZ fastener to secure it to the servo works nice and smooth passing through the firewall in a small piece of plastic pushrod for the guide tube

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

some finishing work on te canopy I installed a alignment pin in the canopy frame a small scale detail most would not notice but it helps keep the frames aligned I also glued the canopy to the frame along the bottom edge by loosening the screws and squeezing some canopy adhesive in the gap,tightening the screws, and clamping the areas between the screws for a nice tight seal and a smoother looking edge along the bottom.

my next mission was to make a bomb/tank rack pod.

the center section of the wing has a pronounced ridge and every photo and illustration of the A8 has one.

my solution was to compromise between the plan version and to refine the part to resemble a more scale look,I included a pic of the plan representation its a bit off from scale.

what I did was to take some tracing paper and make a outline of the side view on the plan, that I transferred onto some 3/32 balsa, I then took a piece of 1/2 balsa block for the front of the pod that I cut to size before gluing the 3 pieces together making sure to align the parts so it was fairly strait from front to back.

using another piece of the sheeting cut to size I glued in 3 pieces to fill in the pod body I also traced the general shape off of the plans as a reference,after I made the box I installed a piece to serve as a former where the first main bend in the pod was, and then a second former where the wing seam will be eventually this will be 2 pieces the bulk will be on the wing but a section will also be on the fuse.

I then used some 1/4 balsa tri stock to strengthen the corners in the forward area and some smaller square stock in the rear,I sanded the corners to give it a soft edge and the corner stock added enough wood that I didn't need to worry about sanding through the sheeting.

lastly was the struts I used some scrap 256 pushrod wire bent to shape again using the plan as a reference guide.I then made some slots in the sides of the sheeting for the wire to slide into that I measured, so they would be properly positioned on the pod and glued in some filler pieces to hold the wire in place.

I then referenced the plan and with some 1/16 balsa made a wrapping trim piece to cover the slots and add some thickness to the base of the forward section of the pod.

with the wire in place I cut and sanded 2 pieces of dowel and carefully drilled 2 holes in each one all the way through so I could slide them into the optimal position before I cut the wire once I was satisfied and after checking my reference books for the general look I cut the wire to length.

I then used some scrap plastic pushrod tubing to add some thickness to the exposed sections of the wire to simulate a bulkier support strut.

next was to bend the lower support strut, I drilled a small hole, not through the dowel, but deep enough to allow the wire to slide into the wood in 2 spots, then carefully bent the lower struts to fit between the wooden dowel rails when satisfied I used CA to glue the parts together.

I also installed a hard point in the sheeting so if I decide to install a tank in place it will have a secure mounting area.

generally happy with the results I didn't realize how involved this little part would be it took quite a few hours to fabricate it together

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

servos in and the basics have been put together for a weigh in and balance check,I also hooked up the gear to make sure they operated smoothly with no hang ups, I do need to trim off some of the extra air lines they are a bit out of control.

the plane balanced a little nose heavy, I think because I had the battery, a NiMH set in the most forward section of the fuse when I set it close to the recommended CG it tipped forward quite a bit but it was nearly perfect when I set it up at 25% of the root chord.

the current weight is 9.8lbs as it sits.

with the pipes I made for it they serve as a great piece of ballast, if it comes in at right around 10.5lbs with paint and a few more details like the wheel covers and the latch for the gun hood I will be pleased.

there is also a good amount of sanding it needs before paint