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.

Air Tank fitted.

Although not permanently installed, the air tank has been fitted. I cut a hole into the former and made another “former” which holds the aft end of the tank. It’s a nice, snug fit.

When the times comes, I’l hold the tank in position with some silicone sealant.

Wheel wells lined

Well, while I’m waiting for the Hysol to arrive, I went ahead and skinned the rest of the main-gear wells.


They’re setting up as I write this, so they’ll need trimming and a bit of filling around the edges to make it all nice and smooth.

You might also see some of the hatches in place. These are cut from .0625 aluminum sheet and will be used for the servo hatches and the 2 gear covers, one of which is in place now.

What does this have to do with this build?

GIVE UP?

Well, actually I’m using this vase to help re-shape the main gear doors to match the wing better, as well as help hide the main gear without major surgery. In looking through the other online builds, most have taken these gear doors (which come perfectly flat), and simply mounted them to the gear. Doing this not only looks a bit weird, but means you must make major modifications to the gear mounting – basically, moving the gear another 1/4″ into the wing. That’s cutting the plywood mounting rails, cutting the formers, dropping the gear well, etc.

WAY TOO MUCH WORK.

Why not shape the gear door to the proper shape and take a lot of the work out of it? Using this vase (with wax paper over it) and my heat gun, I can use this sort of like you’d use an English wheel when forming metal. It takes a bit to get used to it, but I’m very happy with the results so far.

I will need to build up the inside of the gear for for strength and scale realism and that should lock it all in place.

Interior main gear doors.

I’ve finished all installation of the servo extensions and retract hoses. They’re threaded through all the various holes and crevices. I’ve also cut and installed the main gear floors into their wells (cut from 1/64″ birch plywood).

But now the next step has me a bit stumped. As part of Yellow’s retract kit, they supply a small piston to actuate the inner main gear door. The geometry of mounting this is going to be interesting. There’s not enough room to mount it in the center of the door because of the tire interference, so it will have to be mounted either for or aft in the wheel well. Also, the piston is a good quarter inch higher than the depth of the wheel well and will need to be mounted on a pivot. Probably should have done this before installing the gear floor, but we’ll see.

I’ve rarely needed instructions for any of the build so far, but when I could really use some, there’s none. Here’s shot of how the instructions show:

Well, I’ve found a few other on-line builds and it’s time to refer to them. Maybe I won’t have to re-invent the wheel here.