MarkShapiro

My Feedback: (52)

The Bearcat kit is beautifully detailed with rivets, etc., so I was a little surprised that the oil coolers at the leading edge of the wings was so unscale in appearance. I fabricated the cooling vents out of ABS plastic and then made the verticle separation out of balsa and glassed it. It just doesn't look right if left alone. Plus, I always looked at that as one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Bearcat. Finally, it just looks cool!

pitsspecial

Hi guys,

Mark the intakes look so much better, it amazes me when maufacturers make a big effort to do the all the panel lines and rivets to detail this big bird and they cant do the intakes right!! looking good!!

Mick used a set of Centry Jet articulating retracts running on oil, Darrell makes a set but they will cost $3,000, but WOW do they look good!!

Graham where did you find that cockpit stuff from? has JC still got the Bearcat cockpit kit????


Di n Dave....

MarkShapiro

My Feedback: (52)

Thanks Dave. I heard about CJ having the articulating gear, but have not had the best experience with CJ in the past. Darrel's ariculating gear is probably worth every penny, but 3,000 is a little pricey to hide the imperfection mentioned.

As far as cockpits, I got mine from Dynamic Balsa and it is very nice. Working on it right now, as a matter of fact.

Howard Davidson

I have TWO sets of the Century Jet articulating gear if anybody wants to buy them. Never damaged because they NEVER worked!!! I flew with one set for about a year and they never would come up so I left them down till I finally bit the bullet and bought the biggest, beefiest set of Robart gear I could cram in the wing and then flew the 'Cat another 6 years this way without a glitch. Bruce at CJ swore it was my problem and wouldn't honor any liability issues with his gear as he said they worked when they left the shop and I had to have screwed them up?????? I bought another set of the gear from John Light up Missouri way thinking Bruce had convinced me I was an idiot and maybe I could make another set of the gear work if I bought them. Guess what, as John Light told me, they didn't work for John or myself and I tried to engineer the issues out of both sets of gear to no avail (I'm an engineer!!). Anyway, I'll take $250 for one set or $400 for both and you pay shipping. The issue with the gear isn't the layout of the mechanics, it's the lack of machining knowledge! Darrell at Sierra actually uses a mill or some sort of CNC equipment and CJ appears to use a flat-file or wood rasp!

ww2birds

My Feedback: (14)

Same experience with CJ as Howard. I have an old set of CJ's of my B'Cat that I'll send for the cost of postage to anyone who wants them!

I am flying mine on a set of Darrell's C-ARF P-51 uppers with a set of sort-a scale legs and forks he makes. Not articulating, of course, but it just works. Kind of boring .. just what you want from LG.

I know Darrell has a set of articulating gear for the Ziroli-size B'Cat, did not know he made them sized for the 3W plane... that alone would get me thinking about building another one :-)

Dave McQ

Jetjockgb

My Feedback: (4)

Hi,all

It seems to me that maybe Darrell could be persuaded to do a run of scale gear for the Cat, if he can get a few of us interested he might be able to keep the price down, I think Dave's quote was for a one off set??

Hi Howard , Dave MCQ,
Might be interested in your CJ gear would you ship over to the UK???

Hi Dave, yes I can get the Cockpit panel and side Panels direct from Progagteam, just waiting on a price.

Cheers Graham B
WWW.TIGERMODELS.NET

pitsspecial

Hi Guys,

I seemed to have stirred something up here!! [] i dont think the CJ gear worked for Mick either, if you look at the photo i posted you can see it has a diffrent 'trunion' section, this was to help with the wrong geometry, also Mick run them on oil hydraulicly, off a pump, which i think i am right in saying was around 180 psi!! im sure mick will come on here and put me right!! LOL

Graham, looks like you maybe fitting 'scale' gear after all!! and yes you are correct, the set i was quoted for was £1,800 or $2,873.37 dollars! and they was for an enlarged set of his 1/5 scale gear, i looked over a set of these at last years 'Monster planes' in Florida, very nice!!

Let me know how you get on with the avaliability on the Progagteam dials and cockpit sides, the cockpit kit that Mark is using is the same as JC has, nice kit, saves a lot of work and time!! Mark are you going to attach the cockpit kit to the top decking so it all comes off together or are you fitting it as a seperate unit??

Di n Dave...

pitsspecial

Hi Guys,

Here is the video of Micks test flight with his 3W Bearcat, and the retracts do work...... eventualy!! this will give you insparation!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_hDfmg6P-M



All the best,
Di n Dave....

mobyal

I know this is from the UK; are their radios set up backwards from ours? I could swear I saw him operating the throttle with his right thumb.

pitsspecial

Hi mobyal,

Yes you are right, he flys on 'mode 1' throttle and elevator are in oposite places to 'mode 2', well spotted!!



Di n Dave....

Howard Davidson

Dave,

I can go see what it'll cost to get a set shipped to you. Of course, I need your address and such so I can get an accurate price. Just knowing that somebody got a set of these things to work would be worth the trouble! Just a reminder to you guys thinking this new post/string is something new. I was involved in a string like this around 7 years ago and all the discussions went doen the same paths! Darrell at Sierra promised to build me a set of gear for the 3W 'Cat back then also if I'd round up 6 total orders and then he could justify the building of this set of gear. I did just as he said and spent a month canvassing the world for 6 owners of this plane and sent the names and numbers to Darrell and you see where you guys are still at 7 years later? Still no gear and a lot of promises, good luck! Darrell DID build one gear leg assembly and post it on his website and I was impressed with what he had done. I tried to buy a set from him (build one more gear leg?) with a blank check and he still wouldn't do the gear for me, go figure!! I also did a CD of building pics on my plane during that time and sent a copy to whoever thought they could whip the issues with this plane to just try and get them through the issues you guys are going through. I'm loving this string and re-living things with all of you!

Howard

Howard Davidson

I was really impressed with Mick B's "Rare Bare" actually getting both gear to retract................finally!!! That was always my problem, one leg would NEVER go up while the other one would work???? I tried doing rolls, loops, flying inverted, etc to no avail and that's when I finally said to heck with it before I had to land with one gear! The gear was flawless in the shop with no air loads to deal with. Once in the air, the air load on those LOOOONG gear would bind up all that sloppy workmanship and there wasn't a chance in the world of them working. I have to give kuddos to Mick for his plane but with one caveat.......................those gear are gonna bite you one of these days and that's too nice of a plane to dork due to sloppy workmanship. Get some REAL gear from Darrell if you can coax them out of him!!! It'll be worth it.

MarkShapiro

My Feedback: (52)

Starting tinkering with the guns. Some of the later versions of the Bearcat had 20mm cannons. I have seen very few actual photos of this set up, the I think the cannons are cool. Here is a rough mock-up. I only have one cannon shown. There are two in each wing if I go this route. If I can not fabricate cannons to look right, however, I will stickwith the 50 cal guns only.

Greg Wright

My Feedback: (6)

Hey mark i was just looking on the net and found these two images for you. Hope they help you out a little.

MarkShapiro

My Feedback: (52)

Thanks Bandit driver. I have a copy of the images you sent. Discovered them during my research phase of the build. What do think about the cannons vs. the 50 cal guns?

Greg Wright

My Feedback: (6)

Mark i think the cannons would look better than the 50 cal. machine guns.





Thanks,

Greg Wright

Jetjockgb

My Feedback: (4)

Hi all,

I think I might have to go for this with some help http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvPN2yeh8yc

Cheers Graham
WWW.TIGERMODELS.NET

MarkShapiro

My Feedback: (52)

Alright guys, I have totally neglected the Bearcat build while taking care of some construction projects at the house. Time to get back to business. Next area to focus on is the fuselage construction. While most of the kit is very well constructed, I found my fusleage to be a little too soft and thin on the bottom and sides. Though not included with the kit, the fuselage cries out for formers to stiffen the fuse. I went one further and laminated heavy fiberglass cloth to nearly the entire inside of the fuse. After adding this and the formers, the fuselage is built like a tank. Both formers were purchased from Rohn Erich of Austria. Very nice stuff. The rear former doubles as the tailweel mount. Since I am using Sierra retracts, I had to make some modifications to this former in order to accept the air cylinder. While I was at it, I extended the tailweel former so that it would actually span the side walls of the fuselage. I used Rohn's former as a template in making the modified one you see in the pic. The "black" front former is also from Rohn and it fits perfectly. As suggested by others in this post, a final former will be istalled just behind the wing tube.

MarkShapiro

My Feedback: (52)

Since I brought it up, and since many of you will probably use Darell's gear, I include here a few pics of the modified tailweel former with the tailweel installed.

MarkShapiro

My Feedback: (52)

As I said, I will be fitting the Bear with a Moki 215 radial. These engines are becoming popular with the larger warbird radial engine models, and it's understandable why. The sweet sound of the radial is like falling in love. This engine has so much power, I wanted to be sure to make the firewall and mounting box as sturdy as possible. The main firewall is 5/8 thick and gets bolted and glued on to the factory installed firewall former shown in the first pic. The face of the engine box that the engine get directly mounted to, is also 5/8 thick, whith the sides of the box slightly thinner. The box has been bloted and glued to the main firewall. The last pic shows the assembly from the back side.

ledd4u

My Feedback: (23)

Very nice work as usual. What the hell is going on?

Scott Prossen

Ditto on the nice work! What the hell is going on[sm=drowning.gif]? Forget the house.......get to building and the thread for goodness sakes. Does anything else really matter[sm=bananahead.gif]? What's happened to you Mark? Gone soft on us:-(

Keep it coming buddy. I could learn enough that even I could build something one day!

All the best,
Scott

MarkShapiro

My Feedback: (52)

I plead guilty! Too much house stuff. Anyway, I have got the cockpit just about completed. I will post pics when I get home later. Funny thing, the 3W Bearcat is quater and a half scale. So, the typical blue box pilot seems too small, and the 1/4 scale pilot I just got from Nick Ziroli is too large. Found a pilot from Action Heros that will have to do. He is a little small, but alot more in scale than the rest. More to follow. Maybe one day I'll learn to build a nice cockpit like Scott's in his Trojan. Thanks alot, Scott! Can't look at my Trojan and its less-than-adequate cockpit any more after seeing yours.

MarkShapiro

My Feedback: (52)

Cockpit is finally completed. Got this one from Dynamic Balsa, which is specifically made for the 3W Bearcat. I stuck pretty close to the instructions and plans provided with the kit and it provides for a more than adequate cockpit, in my opinion. However, the kit provides a nice platform for really going to town if you wanted to. Cockpits have always been my weakness, so I am happy with the result. My only question is, what do you guys think about the size of the pilot. I actually think he is pretty close to scale size and he fits in the space perfectly. Tell me what you think.

Ram-bro

My Feedback: (101)

Mark, the cockpit looks good but the pilot looks to small. I am having the same struggles with my Bearcat. My pilot says he is 1/5th scale but he is just a tad bit large. Your pilot should fill out more...especially around the headrest . The pilots shoulder should come up to the bottom of the canopy...at least in some pics.