jerrybates

Dave,

I to am collecting the red box Top Flight warbird kits. Let me know if you have any 'doubles' you would like to sell.

Jerry

US185Damiani

HOwdy gang,
Take a look at the Pics of the Original Gulfhawk 3 in the Smithsonian, You should be able to get an accurate color Scheme there.
Good Luck

Dave G

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Jerry, I'll give 'ya 3 each of the Red Box warbird kits for your Hellcat. Sorry, just kidding. We'll make a deal so you can get one of the Bearcat kits I have.

As for the project...

I've been known to having formed a committee before cutting a piece of wood and here is one example. The offending stringer was laid out, measured, marked, checked, triangulated, laser etched (well, not really), and finally cut. Same for the other side. Here's how it turned out. Looks like it'll work. The top stringer ended up not being in the way. There's a couple of tiny wedges that fill the void between the leading edge and the #10 former. Now, if I only could find a 3 year old with those tiny fingers for a few minutes! The fin is in place as a reference. The sheeting needs to be applied long before it's bonded in place.

The green filler is a new product I've been trying and really seems to work well in blending seam lines. It's called RAGE Gold by Evercoat. Light weight and really sands easily.

jerrybates

Dave,

You do nice work.

I have used Rage for quite some time now. It is a great product. It basically is a light-weight polyester auto body filler material. One of the biggest advantages it has over the comprtition is there is no 'wax' present. Wax is added to most poyester products to seal the surface and keep the chemically genetated heat in the product to induce setting-up. It is also what makes 'body putty' so hard to sand (initially).

I know it sounds weird for a guy that only builds from scratch to want a Red Box Top Flight kit but, those kits where a major source of competition models in my early days of Scale R/C.

Keep up the great work and please call on me if I can be of assistance.

Jerry

FliteMetal

Jerry and I both could find a home for the process you're using to create wannabe scale spoked wheels using countered Williams Bros 4.5 and the CNC insert.

With the cost of "looking" good, it leaves the econo scale group without the "Look Of The Real Thing". Considering there are oh I would say maybe six or seven styles needed you could "turn":^~ into cash if you are incline to do so. One real need is the German and Brit styles for mains and tailwheel hubs.

Get with me back channel if you're interested...

Dave G

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Ed, When I made up the wheels to have the disk on the inside, the center hub fell out of the tire since the "bead" on the tire was cut away. I called Williams Bros, and Carlo sold me a set unassembled so I could have the tire and foam insert loose from the center hub (you can also get just the tires themselves and not have to buy the hubs). I figured that it was easier to make the hub too and not leave it part aluminum and part plastic. The bead on the tire was needed to give bonding area to the whole assembly so counterboring (pocketing) the plastic hub was out.

As for making 6 or 7 different ones... well maybe when this project is finished and I'm looking for my next, maybe then. I've had a few guys ask if I'd make up wheels for them (Bearcat) and if there's others need, I need to know what people are looking for. If anyone's got a particular style in mind, post a picture here (let's not get carried away) and I'll use them for future reference.

As for the tailwheel, this is going to bug me until I end up forming my own tire company. The Bearcat's tailwheel has a very wide, flat tread and practically no sidewall. I may need to look at what the RC cars are using and make a hub for it. Anybody know? I need a tire 1.5" dia. x 5/8"-3/4" wide.

There is the proverbial buttload of guys subsrcibed to this thread. I sure wish more would chime in with ideas or suggestions. If you're all using the thread for info, that's great, but to quote WC Fields, "I don't mind being a pioneer... I just hate being a guinea pig". LOL

Dave G

My Feedback: (1)

Okay, I have finally changed my Avatar to the "real" Gulfhawk 4th.

FliteMetal

With the absolute horrible costs of some wheels, there is definately a place for an alternative. An alternative that naturally need not be more than a program awaiting an order to be filled.

The Me-109/FW-190, Corsair, Bearcat, Hellcat, P-51 (in 8 and 10 spoke for other airframes), Spitfire... these constitute most of what's built in volume. Realizing the idea here is to make what would be a less expensive alternative to the ultimate super scale wheels manufactured by those who specialize in such.

In my opinion, you'd be wise to seriously consider this as the only down side or investment would be to convert to CAD a straight on view of the wheel design.

Don't think anyone would argue the need for a less expensive alternative...at least on the exterior side of a Williams Bros or Dubro aluminum hub wheel and tire...

Dave G

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Here's a shot of the fin gettng sheeted. The sheeting is long at the bottom.

Dave G

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Here's the rudder shaped to nearly final size. It has it's trim tab and hinges to go but was really pretty straight forward to build up and form. It'll be fabric covered.

A little tool I've seen advertised and finally couldn't resist having is the Great Planes Power Plane. I've used the same razor plane since ~1970 and was a little skeptical about letting 110 volts loose on a piece of balsa. The Power Plane has a very fine depth adjustment, and made short work of tapering the rudder to near net size and then a little block sanding to true it up.

I'm very happy that I got one but will hang onto my old razor plane too.

Dave G

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Trial fitting the rudder to the fin.

Not a lot of magic here, but the scale hinges lends itself to the leading edge binding against the material that hangs aft of the fin's spar as a cover. A little finicking will cure all.

Dave G

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An overall shot for perspective. A lot still has to happen before I can start to sheet the fuselage. Looks like the elevators are next on the build list.

Dave G

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While building with balsa is fun, trying to locate a "piece", out there in the world is sometimes impossible (for me). I simply couldn't find a tailwheel that even came close to looking right...

So I made one. The hub is aluminum, machined to resemble the full scale version. Documentation was a black and white photograph and my "Mark One Eyeball" .

Since the Bearcat had a solid caster type tire and not pneumatic, a piece of Delrin (fancy plastic) was turned to 1.5" and bored for the hub.

I think it'll do. Eventually, the hub will get painted and then the tire can be bonded to it.

Dave G

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Here's another shot of the new tailwheel. That huge phillips head screw will have to go.

Well, back to making wood chips .

Dave G

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Well... It's been a while, and I have been building, but it sure is hard to show. I've put together some current work and will post several pictures tonight to sort of get "caught up" here.

Here's a mock up, in cardboard of the smoke oil tank that'll be made of copper. This needed to be set up to be sure the tank box will not be too far forward for the engine.

Dave G

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Here's a pair of brackets made of 1/16th aluminum being fitted for the air tanks

Dave G

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After doing as much research into this bird as I can practically stand, it was with a flip of a coin and some paperwork from the Grumman Historical Library in NY that I decided the "Gulfhawk 4th" was built up from a "-1" airframe. Sooooo, a inch and a half was chopped off the top of the "-2" fin and rudder that I had already built to turn it back into a short tail. Oh well... I luckily hadn't installed the tip blocks yet.

Dave G

My Feedback: (1)

Here the brackets that hold the air tanks have been installed and the Sullivan "Gold-N-Rod" for the pull/pull on the tail wheel and rudder have been routed through them. On the bottom, the airlines from the tail wheel pass through them too for support. Positioning the air tanks this way leaves a clear path for the elevator control.

Dave G

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Here's the elevators built up waiting to be shaped. Obviously the tips are still to go. A secret that I learned from building the rudder is cut the "notches" where the hinges go before they're tapered. Cutting the notches with the this way leaves the center core parallel to the band saw table. The rudder was already tapered when I cut the hinges for it and a little jig was necessary to hold the core at the correct orientation. Make sense?

Dave G

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We all gripe once in a while about a vendor and their service, but this time Ron Eker from Slimline gets a standing ovation for his helpfulness in modifying one of the mufflers for my application. I wanted to use one of their smoke mufflers in this project and the Moki 2.1 is a BIG glow engine in the cowl. Ron took one of their mufflers for an "inverted" engine installation and mounted the exhaust tubes out the opposite side so I could keep the Moki upright. He placed the exhaust tubes to go between the engine rails and canted them aft 10 degrees. 5/8" flex tubing will direct the exhaust out the lower oil cooler doors at the bottom of the cowl.

Dave G

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Here you can see that the exhaust tubes fit neatly between the rails and will easily exit the "oil cooler" openings at the bottom of the firewall. The "exit" is several inches aft of the leading edge of the wing on the bottom (of course).

Dave G

My Feedback: (1)

Here's a shot of their "STi preheat system". This will be supplied by one of the Slimline "Show-Time" pumps. Ever since I saw one of these systems in operation, I had to have one in this project. Ron and the team have hit a solid Home Run in my book for their willingness to modify one of their products with no gripes whatsoever. A couple of emailed pictures and a phone was all it took. Thanks Ron.

Dave G

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Here's the standard "Pitts" muffler. Can you imagine the plumbing nightmare I was facing with this as my starting point? I would have loved to been able to use the side exhaust tubes as an exit, but couldn't stand the thought of 2 pounds of copper tubing and all the associated fittings involved!

At this point, I'm tempted to block off the opening for the tank box and build my own fuel tank. I figure it'll increase capacity from 24 ounces to nearly 35.

Dave G

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Here's a shot of a mock up of the firewall to create the actuators for the upper cowl flap door. The pieces above are a series of homemade universal joints that I machined from scratch that ended up being a total failure. The tolerances in all these moving parts add up quickly and the 15 degrees of rotation needed to open the flaps couldn't be accomplished. Then when surfing through Tower, making up an order I found that the RC cars use a universal joint made by Traxxas. So I got 3 pair, some 3/16" aluminum round stock and machined the little "pillow blocks" for support. The actuators are servo horns trimmed and drilled, and there's a control horn on the end for the servo "push/pull" that'll penetrate the firewall. The little aluminum triangular pieces will be bonded in the corners of the tank box for the (2) pillow blocks there to secure to.

BTW, the universal joints are $4.80/ pair! Good job Traxxas.

Well, back to the Bear!

Longlake

Okay Guys!!!!! Here is my plight or humble request. I have no time to surf the web or build models right now in my life. I have been flying since 12 for 30 years. My father flew off the Intrepid in WW2 in Hellcats. He trained in SNJ (AT6) for AF folks. would like to find a flying Hellcat, SNJ and or Bearcat. Dad was flying a Bearcat over SF Bay when the war ended and almost reupped just fly that wonderful bird. But my joy has been my Ziroli 101" SNJs.
An old friend Dave Kool in Canada is the Hellcat king, but my comupter and PDA crashed and I can't find Dave. Hope to find something closer since our last meeting was in Myrtle Beach SC and involved lots of $ and a trailer. I think I was out of my mind, but Dave has Kool stuff Any ideas would be most appreciated.
Lee, North Fla 352-475-1683 352-494-1199 cell
Kindest regards,