Cheers Terry, perhaps I will have to do some thrust testing with my current Wemotec Mini fan and HET 2W-20 in my MPX Twister Jet, which after a battery upgrade from 4s1p 2600 to a 4s1p 3700 now pulls 750W! Perhaps its just hot air!
Will post some more photos tonight of the build, have finished skinning the left half fuse (nightmare) and have started assembling the right half fuse onto the left, as per instructions. Its also a nightmare as its not looking very straight at the moment, but I'm hoping when I eventually join the two halves I will be able to true it all up. Also decided on a fan and ordered it last night. After much searching and umming and erring I went for an HET6904 as it seems to have a bit more thrust (more amps) than the Wemotec mini. I did have my heart set on a DS30 carbon fibre beauty but the small performance increase didn't justify the 5 times increase in cost!!! Still it would have sounded nice and probably has higher effluec speed, but I am more interested in aerobatic ability rather than top end speed. Over specced the ESC as well as I am concerned about cooling as the esc isn't in the duct so its going to get hot. List of bits below.
Tom
1x HET EDF 2W-20 () - HET2W20
1x HET 4 Blade Mini Fan () - HET4BF
1x Tornado U-BEC 4.8 or 6v Switchable () - TORNADOUB01
Why West Wing took that route for building the fuselage is beyond me.
I used carbon paper under the plan with 'carbon face up', and with the use of a french curve I carefully drew in the fuselage spines and all the formers , when the plan is reversed you have your mirror fuselage image, then just build side two. You then have you left and right halves. .
Terry's carbon paper trick is neat! I must remember that for next time!
Still stuck on my Hunter. I'm still planning Wemotec fan with KMSQ380/10 motor and XTRA BL45HV ESC with 3s Lipo. Perhaps a bit old-fashioned nowadays, but I'd already bought the stuff when I got the kit. Now the flying season is effectively over I must get back to building soon!
Tom -- how's the Hawk looking for weight? or is it too soon to tell?
Its still light, but its only 15% built so too early to say . Reading through Gordon Whiteheads build on RCgroups and another one on RCMF, there's came out about 400g over weight at 1600g (target AUW 1200g), they put this down to glassing and spray painting. But I think 1200g might be a little optimistic. I'm still undecided on finishing, iron on film will be lighter and faster but glassing will be tougher and nicer. Got a couple of days booked off work after today so might be able to get the fuse finished and make a start on the wings if I'm lucky
I assembled the RHS frame work using the LHS as a template as per instructions, I had though that this would be difficult, but it turned out better than I thought in the end. Still, we'lll see how straight the fusealage ends up at the final assy stage.
I changed methods for attaching the sheeting on the RHS from alphatic resin (yellow glue) to thin cynao, this sped up the assy, and was marginally easier as I didn't have to use as many pins and weights. I don't know how much weight it has saved, when I weighed the Fuse halves, LHS 100g, RHS 94g the RHS is lighter but the sheeting isn't finished yet as I remembered to leave off some sheeting at the tail end to help install the tail plane joiner and some bottom sheeting to help install the ducting (re-read the instructions - )
Anyway I've got to do wall papering now so I might not get to do anymore today. When I re-read the instructions I suddenly realised that they have changed the location of the ESC to behind the motor in the ducting so that solves my cooling issues. The one that Gordon Whitehead put together had the ESC just behind the canopy at the top, trying to use the tiny airscoops on top tocool it.
Now the only problem I can see will be battery cooling as there is no airflow through the battery bay, but as long as I use a big battery this might not be a problem.
Cheers
Tom
PS - Timbo, whats wrong with Tornado ESC's? The only problems I have had are they are a bit bulky and I get a strange results at low rpm on 4s1p models, the speed does not stay constant. Apart from that they are OK.
Only my experience Tom, but the only ESC that ever let out the smoke was Tornado branded, and the replacement did the exact same thing. Both were being used well within their claimed spec.
( I always use ESC at about 75% maximum of their claimed capability).
Once is unlucky, but twice ..... - no more Tornado branded stuff for me I am afraid.
I had damaged the panopy of my BA Hawk. In the instuctions West Wings state spares can be obtained direct from the manufacturer. I phoned their number and explained my predicament. " No problem sir" came the answer, "What is your address", I gave my address and asked the cost including p&p, the answer was " No cost at all sir, all a part of our service, it's all good PR".
Built a inlet fairing today, still scraping the cynao off my fingers . Can't decide whether to glue it on now or wait until its covered / painted. Oh well better go and build the 2nd one. Hows yours coming together Terry?
It was self inflicted damage, I cut to the wrong line, I was half way round the canopy before I realized , but I thought it a wonderful gesture on the part of West Wings.
I have only just started sheeting, one side complete. The inlet fairings were the first parts built, and as I will be covering in Profilm I can see they will require covering before fitting. The ABS nosecone and the two fuselage shaped parts I have sprayed black with Plasticote, and look quite good, I thought better to spray before fitting. I would like to include a picture or two, but I can't get my head round Photobucket, like they say, you can't teach an old dog new tricks,......Must say your's is coming on just great.
Well, it will be better once i get my hands on some clamps so that I can glue it together true, the sheeting has distorted it slightly. Might try damping all the sheeting down and piling on some weights and let it dry out on a flat surface, might be better than forcing it all together with clamps. No building tonight was out riding my mountain bike with a local MTB club in the Yorkshire Dales, Thistleton Scar beautiful mild weather, although a little damp under foot. Full moon as well!
With regards to submiting photos, just click on the tree icon above "insert image", then select the "your computer" tab, follow the instructions and you should be able to upload the photos directly to this website (no need for photobucket external sites). You might need to create an album first, to do this you need to click on your "my profile" which is at the top of the page in the left hand corner next to your name. Then click on "my gallery" in the menu options and you can add an album. The only other tip is to reduce the size of the photos, I do this in the windows photo viewer and re-size everything I want to upload to 800 x 600, this should drop the file size to below the 250 Kb limit.
Thanks for the advice Tom, and I know you mean well, but I have only used a PC these past 12 months and I find all the jargon a lot of gobbledygook.
I started on the Hawk's wing today. Do not like their method of washout, so for me I will use my tried and trusted system of building in washout at the trailing edge.
Received my new canopy from West Wings yesterday, great service.
30 Nose glued on inlet fairings taped on temperaly.JPG
31 Getting there slowly
Well hope to see some photos one day Terry.
Here is my current progress, joing the fuse halves together was rock solid as it had to be pulled back into alignment also starting to notice a few omissions in the instructions, like the gussets and former joiners, need to follow the plans more closely so as not to miss anything.
Just need to glue the inlet ductings, fit gussets, former joiners, plastic tube to fan, cockpit & latch and finally fan hatch. Then I can start building the wings and tail feathers. Still the sun is shining and no wind so I'm going out to fly the Twister jet so probably no more progress today, but you never know
denotes 
. Reading through Gordon Whiteheads build on RCgroups and another one on RCMF, there's came out about 400g over weight at 1600g (target AUW 1200g), they put this down to glassing and spray painting. But I think 1200g might be a little optimistic. I'm still undecided on finishing, iron on film will be lighter and faster but glassing will be tougher and nicer. Got a couple of days booked off work after today so might be able to get the fuse finished and make a start on the wings if I'm lucky 
, but I thought it a wonderful gesture on the part of West Wings. 
