RE: Platt FW-190
 

The bones are just about done, so I thought I'd prop it up on it's legs for the first time and post a couple pix. I have to work on the wing innards and sheet the bottom. I'm thinking of holding off on the cockpit until I get a flight on it. Then again, I don't know, it may be my only chance to get a pic of it in one piece :eek:

RE: Platt FW-190
 

Flaps are installed. They are set up for 60 degrees, which sounds like a lot, but from the drawings I've seen, I think that's the spec.

Does anyone have a feel for how much flap I should set up for while I can still get to the linkage?

RE: Platt FW-190
 

Been a while since my last update. She's finally standing on her own three legs and I'm working on the ailerons now. The canopy is working and most of the servos are in and working. Almost ready to sheet the bottom of the wing, I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

She is looking good.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

great craftsmanship ampeater! still eagerly following your thread as i'm getting a little closer to starting mine.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

Thanks Tubig, I've been following your BT ME 109 too.

I'm at the point where I'm doing the final shimming of the retracts to dial in the correct angles. Does anyone know how far ahead of the leading edge the axle shoud be? Right now, built per plan with Shindins with the 2 degree forward sweep, the axles are even with the leading edge when the fuse is level. But looking at 3-views, it looks like the axles would have to be about an inch forward of the LE. That seems to be a lot of shimming, especially since I'm dead on to the plans already. Can anyone tell me how far ahead of the leading edge they have theirs set up?

RE: Platt FW-190
 

on the 80" Holman, when the gear are down, it's directed that there be--I think--18" from the trailing edge measured forward to the wheel axle...Maybe that helps for reference. Looking at it from the profile shot, I think you're probably good where you're at. I'll check my Holman manual and see, but pretty sure that was the number...probably the same pretty much on the Platt.

Mike

RE: Platt FW-190
 

Nice job!

The 190 is my favorite bird to fly. I just got my Vailly last year.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

Thanks, caliber, that Vailly is really nice, but just a little too big for electric, maybe I can move up to one in a couple more years :D

I made up the basic parts of the instrument panel and installed the bigger cockpit pieces since it was easier to get them in before I sheeted the fuse side. I can finish it up once I get closer to being done. Now that the bigger pieces are in I'm ready to finish the sheeting.

I finally got the motor wired up and firewall gusseted and should be able to run it this weekend and get my power numbers. Try running a gas engine in the plane when it's at this point.....[8D]

RE: Platt FW-190
 

I'm new to this forum, and rc models. My aircraft of choice is the FW190 and I've been able to locate a great number of drawings and german maintenance manuals, on the internet. has a model been built and flown, that follows the true airframe details of the 190.forward and aft sections, double wingspar ,front wing apar with correct dihedral and taper, as per the original.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

cuoremia, there are plenty of 190 plans and kits out there that have all those features and fly great. American Eagle, SisT, Platt, Jack Devine come to mind. If you do a search here, or on the rcscalebuilder site, you can find a lot of info if you'd like to build one.

I got the wing bottom sheeted. I tried out the method where you iron the aliphatic glue, and it was the easiest skinning job I've ever done. I brushed the spars and ribs with aliphatic glue, placed the wing sheet over it to get the glue cross-hatch on the sheet, then removed the sheet and let it sit for about 45 minutes, until the glue looked almost dry. Then I placed the skin back over the wing, and used a clothes iron set on max to slowly go over the skin. The aliphatic acts almost like a contact cement. The only thing was that I had glued the sheets together with CA, and as I ironed, the CA joints split, the heat from the iron must have wanted to shrink th ewood and stressed the CA joints. I had to run back over the seams with some more CA.

I set up the motor and battteries to test out the power system. AXI 5330-F3A, 10S2P A123, 20X10 prop, Jeti Spin 99 ESC. Looks like a bowl of spaghetti, but it's OK for the test. Spun the eprop at a little less than 6000 rpm, 1450 watts. I have some higher pitch props on order to experiment with and get the power and pitch speed up.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

I'm a retired aeronautical engineer. I would like to build a large scale mini-fw190 as per the orignal design and asembly, that's why I asked my question.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

A retired aeronaut from NY, were you with Grumman? I'm with Lockheed. Did you mean you wanted to do a scale model of the entire airframe? That would be an awesome project, don't know that I've heard of anyone doing that. Someone did a Spitfire like that recently, I'd have to find the link to pictures, but the detail was incredible. Usually, though, when you make a scale structure, it's too heavy to fly, so with RC we mostly stick to making the outside appearance of the plane as scale as possible.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

Don't know why it's not letting me post any pics, I'll have to try and post them later. But,

I've started on the part I've been dreading most, the belly. I'm going by a 1/32 Hasegawa model, and the sparse diagram on the plan. So far I've got balsa flares glued to the front of the leading edge, and a plate for the exhaust area glued to the wing sheeting that matches the outline of the wheel opening. Next I'll wrap some 1/16 balsa around the outline of the wheel opening, and use it as a dam for chunks of foam and microballons. But I'm not sure of the contour between the roundness of the cowl and the front flares on the leading edge. I can't find any good pictures of this area.

Does anyone have any belly pics I can take a look at?

RE: Platt FW-190
 

Looks like the pics are working. I had to resize them to about 75K each to work.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

Beautiful work you are doing. can wait to see it finished...

I just flew my electric 109 a couple weeks ago...

ty

RE: Platt FW-190
 

Hiya :D

This FW is looking like a real beauty! I have long been a fan of ANYTHING Dave Platt and the FW is no disappointment to the guru.

Keep us updated and cant wait to see the finished product. :)

Cheers

Alf

RE: Platt FW-190
 

Thanks, guys. Ty, I've been following your 109 on the other site, it's really nice!

After about 4 coats of microballoons the belly is in pretty good shape. It's at a point where I can put some foam in the wheel well and shape it to make a form for glassing up some pants. After that I can cut out the well, give one more coat of microballoons and get the well to its final shape.

I also started blocking out the bottom cowl, feels like a barrell maker cutting a bunch of staves that I can carve to shape. I'm getting close to the end of my block stock, I hope I can squeeze out a bit more.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

I'm trying something new for me. The gear doors pretty much conform to the wing, except toward the bottom front, where they flare out a bit to conform to the belly. I took a couple blocks of styrofoam and glued it inside the well. After shaping it, I filled in the voids with spackle. The spackle should also fill the roughness of the styro. Once that dries, I'll sand everything to its final shape, and lay up some glass pants. Then I can remove the styro/spackle when I cut out the wells. That's the plan anyway.....

RE: Platt FW-190
 

I haven't been posting too much becasue the only way I can get pix to load is resize them to about 75K, and then can do maybe two at a time. Too much tinkering and the pix are too grainy to see anything.

Anyway, I glassed up a set of pants. Traced the pants outling from the plan, used carbon paper to transfer it to the wing, then ironed on some white solite covering which is very transparent to see the lines through. After I layed up the glass, I used the lines on the wing to trace the outline of the pants to the glass, and popped them off. This just about completes the wing, just a few more little pieces. Then its ready for sanding and glass.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

looks like some good glass work ampeater. it's a shame you're photos come out so small as it's hard to see any detail. i resize mine to less than 80k (for posting on another site) but they still come out fairly big when posted here. anyway, keep up the good work.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

I biffed my Kobra out at the field today, guess I should have just stayed in the shop and worked on the FW. Wind was so hard that the flag pole was even wanting to bend over. At least it's not too much damage and will be easy to fix.

I changed the setting on my camera for a smaller file size, and it looks like the uploads are working better now. Now I can make more posts - lol. Glassing the wing bottom now. The glass is only 3 feet wide though, so I have to make seams out near the tips. Should be easy enough to blen in though.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

nice one
I would like to build the Platt as well :)
keep us posted
what camouflage are you goig with?

RE: Platt FW-190
 

I'm still deciding between Red 13 and Black 13. I like the look of Red 13, but also like the exhaust eagle in Black 13, tough decision.

The wing is glassed, all the servos, air tank, and air valves are in. I finished installing the cowl. The cowl is held in place with 4 dowels, and I made a couple magnetic keys to hold the cowl down. The key has a piece of dowel that slips into the cowl and a magnet to hold the key in place. I've done several planes this way now and it makes it really easy to get the cowl off for charging.

Just a little more filling and lot of sanding, then I'll make the wing fillets and the fuse will be ready for glass.

RE: Platt FW-190
 

Looks good Ampeater. I'm curious what the two small "blue" servos control?

Sean