Landing gear sub assembly will be pinned in place. Gear mounts on bottom.
Laminating 1/32 ply doublers to fuseladge sides.
Best investment ever! A vacuum pump. Small, but does the job.
Building from 1/2 size plans printed at work. For free!
Electric conversion consists of adding another firewall in front of slimer firewall. Forward doublers act as locators in the jig.
All laid out. Black on F7 is carbon tow. Just messing around with vacuum.
Rear doublers, bulkhead keys in front and back.
Servo trays will act as horizontal bulkheads.
Servo trays. two layers of 3/32“ balsa bias at 90 degrees, two ounce fiberglasse both sides and Popsickle stick rails.
Dry test fit.
Servo trays dry fit.
Two firewals are better than one.
Imagination
Top Plate made from 1/16“ ply. I find it easiest to use just a knife and radius the corners with a sanding drum.
Layout
Jigged up
Note: shelves where plywood plates begin and end.
Little braces between landing gear formers. Per designers recommendation, landing mounts on the bottom of the box.
Servo Trays epoxied in place. They act as horizontal bulkheads.
Top cap. Note I bought the wrong length 1/16“ ply and had to use two pieces.
E Firewall dry fit. Front doublers where glued in place with ply doublers.
I prefer 1/4“ doublers to triangle stock.
Battery area.
Micro ballon fillets.
1/32“ ply doublers where used instead of 1/8” light ply doublers called for on the plan. Because the doublers where extended into taperd area, another bulkhead was added to tie everything together without bowing.
F11 fit with clearence holes for rudder cables and pushrods.
Scew clamp for landing gear mount.
Bottom view.
AXI 5330
Rudder, Fin and Post.
Rudder, Fin and post, which was cut back to short.
Tail Pushrod exit support
More exit detail
Long bottom
Bottom sheeting
A builders best friend, weight!
More weight
and more weight.
Sheeted Stab and layout.
layout
Two halfs equals a whole.
Bottom of canopy. Shuck was used as a jig while bottom sheeting was applied.
bottom sheeting being applied to canopy.
Stab was joined before cutouts where made. Allows for one continious TE piece.
Hinged
Love it when hinging is done.
Mock up
Another angle.
Stab center section being glassed in vacubag
Glassed over masking tape used to define edge.
Didn't like the foam; so, i built my own fwd section.
Canopy fwd section.
50 cent hobbyking latch. removeable from underneath.
canopy front.
built up fwd fuse to match canopy.
fwd fuse.
Turtle deck being glued
turtle deck. fin was glued on first.
Cut the hole a little to big.
Fin booboo
turtle deck joint.
Hole in the boat.
Cooling and landing gear bolt holes
Zip Bit
Zip Bit equals no more IC firewall.
Lightening with Mr. Zip Bit.
Diet Completed.
I love my Zip Bit.
From the front.
Never again will I do phenolic sleeves... First plug in wing I have ever built!
Radiator.
Roughed in, still need to round it out.
Bottom Front.
Gear screw access and Hot air vent.
Should of cut the slots before it was glued on the airplane.
My Insight
Wow it looks half way straight...
Almost NOT ugly....
Four pounds in Glass
With Ailerons and tail feathers, 4 lbs
Standard issue Navy Tail Hook.
Pattern Bondage. Note rope holding up tail.
Gray Primer Baby
Thinner in jar.
Lots of Primer
Teenager with acne medicine.
Chicken Pox?
After weight loss.
Anything gray, is low.
Boo-Bo on aft turtle deck
Sanding though the glass, sucks....
Sanded White Primer. 2nd primer coat.
Bad light, but its a coat of silver.
More silver pics
Silver (Klass Kote) canopy. the plan is to airbrush it with water based paint.
Bad stuff. I hate it when a airbrush spits.
In the future I will spray the entire airframe silver. Silver shows all.
Making a mess with 400 wet.
I wet sand after taping off the pinstripes. Just a little acne.
There's a radiator in there.
Canopy, Do over! No more spitting.
Looking a lot better.
Fogged with white paint
Middle coat of white.
Wet coat of white and my bedtime.
Painted over pinstripe.
Airbrush practice
Crazy man with an airbrush.
Thanks to a very understanding wife and family. It gets to sit in the warm dinning room over the weekend.
Above upper pinstripe will be red, below lower pinstripe will be dark blue.
Klass Kote paint
4 1/2 pounds
A proper Insight
Airbrush before Clear
B4 Clear
Used distilled water to (over) thin and isopropyl alcohol for cleanup. paasche VL airbrush. No clear yet, I'm trying to get up the you know what's to airbrush rivets.
rivet Practice
After maiden flight smile
ready for takeoff
A bit blurry
Nothing like a safe return
