FliteMetal

These are drawings made in 1957 with measurements...

Props4ever

Yeah i have seen those before on Mr. Bogash's site!..

Mr. Bogash and i go few years back...

Props4ever

Ed, you got me going on these cowls now.

Cowl foam plug has started to take shape:

I just went and assembled half of the models in my living room, then went on with these 3 views and did some measurements on the fuselage with firewall in place.

First i drew a point on the fuselage where firewall is and then drew 90 degree straight line by use of set square. By looking these drawings length of the cowls would be 6" from firewall to the lip of the cowl.

Then i marked second line at 6" from the first, these are my reference lines only. Once i had marked my reference lines vertically i went on and made couple of base templates for the cowls. These are same size as firewall is as they have to be
mounted but against firewalls. Now i will go and find a usable piece of foam. I will be drawing crosiers on the foam block so my round templates will be squared as i did when Mike and i were making fuselage sections.

More to come shortly.

FliteMetal

Note the back of the cowl on both sides is at an angle to permit the arc of the cowl flap
to open properly. For reference look at the photos I posted

Props4ever

Yes i am aware of it Ed, but since my nacelles are 1" longer then suppose to be, i will try to make the best for this angle and how it curves inside the flap doors.

Maybe some compromise might be in order too.

Props4ever

I am using white foam to make my plug, in the pictures you can see i have already drawn crosiers on the templates and now waiting for the foam block to dry as i had to join up 2 foam pieces to make this block.

For glue i am using GP's Pro Wood glue (Alaphatic resin).

Props4ever

While foam block for the plug is drying, i took this shot of the Connie minus its outer wings to see how it's attitude is with scale size main wheels vs other 2.25" ones i had on for the longest time.

I have to say, it's looking sweet and AOA is RIGHT ON!!!...he he

Props4ever

It's 538Am Saturday morning and i haven't slept yet!, I have been working on this plug all night.

Here is what i have accomplished so far, i divided this plug's build into 2 sections.

1- Make main cowl plug
2- Add upper and lower air intakes to the main cowl plug.

As i mentioned earlier that this cowl will not have functional flap doors initially as this is first experiment. Once if get it glassed then i will see if i could cut out side doors and make them functional with help of bell cranks.

Last night after foam block dried up, i made crosiers on it on both sides, then i lightly glued round templates on these sides and sat it to dry.

It took sometime to dry and then i started to saw of block sides from all sides going in round direction. When i had sawed off enough that just 1/8" of foam was left from the border of both templates i then started to sand it down in circular direction making sure all sides get equally sanded to the edge of templates. This took some extra time and care to do as i didn't wanted to sand off more then required.

After sanding was done, i took the barrel, templates attached and placed it on the IB firewall to see how it looked/felt. It looked good. After this i marked 4 points 1-1/2" in from the front template in curve pattern. These marks were reference marks where front round of the cowl will be made by sanding. I also used another smaller template that i cut it out from original one and placed it on the front center of the plug. This is where main air intake will be and crank shaft will come through to mount the propeller.

Once this smaller template was glued on and dried, i started to sand it in curve pattern to make the front curvature of the cowl. I took sometime and care as again i wanted equal amount of curve all around. This gave me proper front shape of the cowl.
After this was done, i measured the size of the side flap doors and drew them with ball pen as out lines. Then again i took the plug and dry fitted to the both outer and inner nacelles to make sure all looks good. To me it's looking pretty good at this stage. What do you guys think of it. I still have to make inward curves on both sides where flap doors will be then i will make both top and bottom intakes and attach them as well before glassing this foam plug.

Props4ever

More pictures of the plug..

Props4ever

Still going on..

Props4ever

Still some more coming..

Props4ever

I can see that i have to make 2" engine block to secure mounts on them for all 4 engines.

I used old but new ASP 40 core as reference to ST40s that i am trying to get for this model, i have selected to use 4 Evolution PTS 3 blade square tip props on this model, they are 10x6 i believe.

You can see engines will vanish in the cowls!, good for scale appearance but i will open up head's area for cooling purpose.

F-A-P

Now I send a picture of my 3D-model - it contains more than 40000 ! coordinates, all I found in the manuals.

Sammy, I will send you some details of the cowls by e-mail. I hope they will be helpfull for you.

Props4ever

I guess your manual must have some different information then what i have, no coordinates are in my manual cds... Your 3D drawing looks great, i wouldn't mind framing it on my hanger's wall.
Yeah that would be great, let see how i did compared to what you will send me. What do you think of my cowl effort so far?

F-A-P

Sammy, I think you are on the right way. The basic contur of your cowls looks like the original!
Below you can see one of a table with coordinates of the fuselage I used for my model. I found it in the StructuralRepairManual.

F-A-P

Sammy,

I just checked the drawings I send to you, the quality is awful :-(
I will clear the problem with my e-mail and will try it again

Frank

Props4ever

I just came in from almost finishing my foam plug for the cowl, I still have to bit of research too how these exhaust ports are located, that is why i have made 4 openings to decide at later date which one to close.

It was few hours process to do this plug but i turned out very very nice. I will post most of the pictures i took step by step when i was cutting, carving and sanding the parts of the plug separately.

So here it goes, i did fast tracked on couple of steps by not taking there carving pictures but end result is in front of you all.

Props4ever

You can see in the above picture set, i have started to make vertical insertions all around the template to make the main air intake lip. In this second set i am carving the foam out carefully so the side wall can't get damaged. Once i had enough material carved out, it was easy to sand the dept and center foam island as it will be cut off after glassing is done for each cowl. You must be thinking what is that vertical piece standing besides the cowl, well its the top air intake fairing. In this set it's being glued on top of the cowl. I also made lower air intake fairing separately, it took some time to adjust its size according to the resources and cowl plug. Once it was all trimmed out, sanded and looked good, i glued it to the cowl also.

Props4ever

Here you can see the lower air intake for the oil cooler that i made on fast track and attached to the main cowl plug, this is attach temporally as i will mould this piece seprately.

This piece took bit or adjustment that including checking over my resources few times and making sure it fit on the lower part of the cowl perfectly. This required resizing and sanding to adjust it properly.

Props4ever

Last batch for now.

At this stage i took the whole plug and dry fitted on the model, first i tried it on #3 nacelle and it looked perfect, then i did same with #4 nacelle and it again looked great, took it outside and trimmed its edges and made angles where needed to be on both top and lower intake fairings, last but not least, i applied some spackle to it, now it should be dry to sand it and finish it off as foam plug.

Props4ever

Waiting anxiously for your replies guys, what is your honest opinion about this plug?...

ByLoudDesign

Are the cowlings location specific or are they all the same. This is the case on the Orion, the engine portion of the nacelle fits all postions, port or starboard, inboard or outboard. To answer your question, *** looks like a good start. Have you ever used ShureForm files. When i was building a 65' foam sandwich fishing boat we used them a lot to shape the foam. They had to be new out of the box though, or the tore the foam!

Props4ever

On Connies cowls are the same on all 4 engines, except for location of exhaust manifolds outlet locations, this also affects cut outs on the side door flaps.

Since there are 3 exhaust outlet nozzles, 2 on outer side and one on lower inner side, this is why i said that i will have to change flap door configuration with one cowl plug.

Thanks for liking it Charles, i hope others would too.

Inner exhaust outlets on star board side:

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviatio.../0/0943006.jpg

HARS Connie with 2 outer exhaust ports

Props4ever

Charles, this exhaust port exact location on all S Connie seems to be bit of gray area for me at this time, i will get back to you soon as i find if all aircrafts had same exhaust outlet locations or they differed due airline specifications.

FliteMetal

I have placed your foam behind the 1:1 and drew datum lines to line it all up.
The top needs to be lowered a wee bit the your bottom scoop needs to be
deeper. I tried to load it larger but its not working,

I have an online larger image at:
http://004edc4.netsolhost.com/FliteM...one_connie.htm