Building up the gear covers.

After a bit of time away from the build, I took some time to start the build up of the inside of this gear door cover. A bit of plywood and balsa seemed to do the trick.

The trick was gently forming all the edges to match the gentle curve of the fiberglass doors. Using a bit of c/a to tack it in positions, I’m using the Hysol to bond it all together.

Should do the trick. I’ll wait a day until it all has a time to cure and give it strength test to see if it all sticks.

Main gear geometry.

After doing several tests with the Hysol, it was time to put it all to work. I’ve built two of these little clamps out of circuit-board material, some K&S tubing and a rod. They grip to the strut using the screw you see in the photo.

Then came the hard part – figuring out the geometry of all this so it actually worked. Here’s a shot of what I ended up with:

Quite a bit of trial and error, but this strut works like a dream. I still have to build up the inside of the doors to a scale thickness, but that’s the easy part and I’ll work on that once the other gear is finished.

Here’s a Quicktime movie of how it all works.

Landing light installed and ready.

The landing light is all installed, working, painted and ready to go.

Click here for a Quicktime movie of it in action.

Everything you see was molded from clear plastic I’ve collected from various packaging and heat-formed over various object from around the house. The “reflector” was formed over a door knob to the workshop. The back of the light was formed over a tube with a superball on top of it. Lots of fun when it all comes together.

Hey, it’s here!

The wonder glue has arrived from Dreamworks! Time for a few tests to make sure it’s what I need. (I sure hope so for the cost!)

While waiting for the Hysol…

I decided to dive into the Easytiger P-47 ARF. Mostly finished, but will have to wait a bit because I was sent the wrong retracts (too big to fit).
Decided to use the same Saito 1.25 that was in the Cub for power. With the exception of the retracts, I think everything else is just about flight ready.

Here’s a comparison shot of 2 fuselages side-by-side. The back side of the vertical fins are lined up so you see the difference. Also, note that the Yellow fuselage does not have the cowl attached. that would add another 8 inches or so.

Here’s a comparison of the 2 wings.