Chad Veich

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I saw it Jerry, thanks! In fact I sent you a thank you email on 11/05. I assume you didn't get it? No matter, I'll just thank you publicly right here!

Chad Veich

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Not a huge update but an update none the less. I've got the main fuselage riveting done as far as the raised rivets are concerned. Still working on the belly pan but not much left to go. To say I will be happy to be done with rivets is an understatement! The finished result is always worth the effort though. As soon as this part is done I will spray on some zinc chromate and burn the flush rivets on the forward fuse and the horizontal stab.



Here is a quick pick of the dress up kit I am working on for the Robart tailwheel unit. This one is just a mock-up as it has a few minor errors. I've already made the changes and cut another one so, hopefully, I will have it installed and working in the near future. Assuming it holds up to the stresses of flying I will make it available to anyone who wants it. Please ignore the rather tatty looking primer overspray on the retract unit!

georgewaldrop

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Looking good Chad! As to the "tatty overspray", I just thought it was some scale dirt/grime/weathering all combined! Looking very nice.

p 40

[sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=eek.gif][sm=eek.gif]

rustypep

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Nicely done [sm=thumbs_up.gif] She is going to look sweet. What size are those rivets? I am getting ready to rivet my TF Spit which is close to the same scale. It is challenge to get it to look right.

Chad Veich

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Thanks George, Gianluca, and Rusty for the kind comments.

Rusty, my vinyl rivets are about .05" in diameter. That is about 60% larger than scale but allows me to use less of them without them looking too sparse. Plus, I'm using a sharpened 1/16" diameter brass tube for the flush rivets which works out to be about the same size inside diameter as the raised rivets. Good enough for a sport scale ship.

Chad Veich

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Robert continues to put flight time on his Hellcat and thank goodness for it or this thread might see even fewer updates than it has lately! Below are some pics by RCU member "UncleJoe" from this past Sunday. Thanks Joe for the great shots as usual. Due to a whole series of unplanned events, including a move into a new home, my build has been stalled for the last couple of weeks. I did get a little bit of time today to work on it and have started the process of masking the canopy so I can apply the base coat of paint to the fuse. With any luck that will happen very soon.

Chad Veich

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Not a big updated but I did get a few minutes in the shop today and shot some paint on the canopy frame. The first layer is "Interior Green" as that is the color that I want to be seen on the inside of the canopy. As canopy frames are built up from multiple sections and not one big stamped part the next item will be to add some panel line detail to the framework. This will be accomplished much the same as the overlapped panel lines were using spot putty and/or high build primer. After that, Zinc base coat on the entire fuselage.

Chad Veich

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Got some Zinc on the fuse and couldn't resist putting it together for a look. Sorry for the poor photos, it was dark and cramped in the shop tonight. As expected the base color revealed a few minor bad spots which I will take care of and then I will burn the flush rivets on the front of the fuse and on the horizontal stab. After that, a dirty wash to bring out the detail as was done on the wing. That is as far as I will go on the finish work until I get the remaining mechanical and detail work done, i.e., gear doors, dummy radial, tailwheel, etc. Basically I want the airplane ready to fly and then I will do the finish painting and weathering. Onward and upward!

Charles, AC6WU

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Nice work Chad,
Haven't you got tired of building Hellcats yet? I haven't been able to get to mine for quite a while but looking forward to getting back at it soon. It's nice to see yours progressing so well.
Charles

Chad Veich

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Not tired of Hellcats yet Charles. In fact just a couple of months ago I picked up an 80" Don Lien Hellcat kit complete with a beautiful set of Earl Aune retracts. Hope to make that one a competition level bird when I get to it. Hope to see some progress on your Hellcat in the coming new year.

Chad Veich

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Finally finished up with all the riveting and have moved on to gear door installation. I mocked it up and have it all worked out, just need to get it done for real now. I have devised a relatively simple method of getting them attached and lined up which I will cover in detail both here and on the web site. Thus far I am very happy with the fit of the doors. I will also be doing the small upper door and making some covers for the retract units to clean up the installation as much as possible.





I had planned on upgrading from the original .61FX powerplant to a .91FX for a bit more power and also to swing a bit larger prop. Plus, my brother took back his .61 for one of his airplanes and I picked up a .91FX for a good price from a friend. It fits on the same mounts, uses the same muffler, etc., so it would be a straight swap without any changes necessary. However, I also just traded into the brand new RCV 90SP seen below. Initial impressions are that it would be a fairly straight forward job to modify the Hellcat to take the RCV and it offers some very interesting advantages. Among them the ability to swing an 18" two blader or 15-16" three blader and a much cleaner dummy radial installation. I plan to break-in the engine on the bench and if all goes well it will most likely end up on the airplane.

mimoore67

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Chad,

Been watching this build a long time and have been a fan of your work for many years. I too have the RCV 90SP, hand have wanting to put it on a warbird. A big 3-blade prop would look awesome spinning around 5,000 rpm, making a low pass!

Your right the break-in, is a big factor with these engines. They smooth out with time!

Charles, AC6WU

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Really nice Chad...(up to the nitro installation)...just kidding! Can't wait to get mine to this stage,(electric of course). You really do a great job

Flakbait

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Chad,

Excellent craftsmanship as always.

Regards,

Flakbait

US185Damiani

Chad,
Beautiful build,
just a word of caution Those Robart rotators can be a bit cantankerous, been fighting a pair in my TF P-40 for years.

Chad Veich

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Thanks mimoore67 for the kind comments. It sounds as if you have at least bench run your RCV and are satisfied with it? I was hesitant about obtaining the engine because of some of the bad press I had read regarding them. However, a Google search turned up nothing but good remarks about the 90SP. It seems it was the earlier 60 size engines that had issues and the 90 and 1.20 size have benefitted from the knowledge gained with the smaller one. At least I hope so! If it performs to expectations it will really be a near perfect warbird powerplant.

Thank you Charles and quit playing around with that WW1 stuff and get to work on some "heavy metal"! I think I am just as excited as you are to see you get started as I really think it will be a great candidate for electric conversion.

Thanks for the kudos Flak! I am going to strive dilligently to make it to one of the Chino scale events this year and hope to see you there.

US185, I read all the horror stories regarding the gear and was more than a little concerned that they would cause issues. However, I put about 8 flights on my prototype before pulling it down for finish work and did not run into any problems whatsoever. The black and red Hellcat shown in this thread has also been flown a dozen or so times without any gear issues. I too had a Top Flite P-40 with the Robart gear in it and they functioned flawlessly for the dozen or so flights that I put on that airplane before it met its demise due to a radio issue. I don't know if I've just been lucky thus far or if it has to due with the fact that I only fly from relatively smooth paved surfaces or? Let's hope my luck continues to hold! If not the Sierra Precision retracts are a drop in fit and they are most certainly up to the task.

I got a bit more shop time today and, as I did not have all the necessary items to continue with the installation of the main gear doors, I turned my attention to the tail end of the Hellcat. I banged out version two of the dress up kit that I made for the Robart tail wheel retract. It works and is a better fit than version one but I am going to make a few more minor changes and, hopefully, the third time will be the charm. Only experience will tell if it is going to hold up to operational stresses but I'm confident that it will. I plan to replace the wire strut seen here with a more scale yoke made up from brass sheet and there is also a small fairing that goes in front of the wheel to be added yet. Not perfect but passable and simple to do. As stated previously, and assuming it holds together, I will offer them to other Hellcat builders that are interested.

Chad Veich

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I needed to put the Hellcat together today so that I can set and lock the toe-in on the main wheels. This has to be done prior to installing the main gear doors as any change in the toe will effect the doors which are attached directly to the strut and are not easily adjusted. While I had the wing and fuselage mated I decided to stick the rest of it together for some "motivational" shots. It's been a long time since the airplane sat on all three wheels! The cowl in these pics is the original vac-formed version which will be replaced with a glass one. I have not done that yet which is why the cowl lacks any surface detail. Onward and upward!

georgewaldrop

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Looking good Chad!

mimoore67

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Two words Chad!

Awe-Some!

ampeater

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Awesome Chad! Love the cowl flaps!

Chad Veich

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Thanks guys! The closer this one gets to being done the more excited I get about building the 80" Don Lien kit that I picked up a few months back. I hope to really do that one justice. Of course I need to get about half a dozen other projects out of the way first! The Hellcat really is a near perfect warbird model, IMHO.

MarioJuan

Hello,

Really good looking Hellcat model!

Regards.

raptureboy

Hey Chad, what's happening with this build? I guess it's flying time in Az. Over her in Pa it's skiing time but I'm still building my cat and a P-47 and a Stearman arf soon. Take care.

Chad Veich

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Hi raptureboy,

Been working on it almost every day. Just not a lot of interesting stuff to take pictures of. I did work out the details on the gear doors and have completed them as far as I'm going to prior to painting. (I ended up with all 3 doors per gear despite my intentions to keep it simple!) Right now I'm working on the glass cowl to replace the plastic one that it originally flew with. It's been mounted and the cowl flaps are done and I'm filling and sanding it right now. Once the cowl is done I would like to finish up the modifications to the tail wheel and then on to paint. My plan is to be shooting color on the airplane by the end of next week. Fingers crossed!