The Whispering Death

[MThemadhatter]

I Managed to grab an hour of time with the Beu today and got on with the aileron servo mounts. Now I am using HB5485's for the ailerons as I have some and the smaller mini servos are expensive to buy.

 

A bit of a squeeze

 

I attached the RDS shaft to the servo so that I could get it coming square out of the trailing edge before glueing in place.

 

I used my lovely scroll saw to cut the mounting blocks and all the bits, the mitre attachment is very very useful. The blocks are glued to the ribs with a light ply brace across the top.

 

Servo fits in like this. This way it can come out if need be.

 

The hatch also holds the servo down in its mount. I added to screws that go into the servo mount its self after I took this pic. I am looking for some counter sunk screws in my box of bits to hold it down. Next chance I get I will build up an aileron then repeat for the other side. I have also built the other flap servo mount.

 

 

 

 

[MThemadhatter]

Ok since last I posted I have managed to build one aileron and here it is

 

I doubled up the leading edge with blocks of wood behind the first EE between the ribs (easier to look at the picture to understand this). This one done to give me enougth material to round off the LE without increasing the size of the aileron

 

I installed the pocket of the wiper so that it would be sandwiched between the top and the bottom of the aileron

 

And here it is installed

 

I am going to add a shroud top and bottom later on.

 

I then made up the wiper rod

This took a bit of practice with trimmed off peice and a lot of cursing trying to get the temp right of the silver solder. Got there in the end.

And here it is installed

The wiper is a very snug fit in the pocket and is not "floating" quite as it should yet. I might get some emery cloth and make it a tiny bit looser and add some silicon lube to the pocket.

I am liking RDS, it makes for a concealed and slop free linkage

 

Here is a video of it finished.

[MThemadhatter]

Just to cheer myself up I got everything out that has been built so far

 

I am going to carry on building the wing before returning to the fuse. I need to put sheeting on bottom of centre section of wing, Build right aileron, join the wings and attacht the naceles. I will have to hold off putting the rest of the sheeting on the wing as I am waiting for the electric telemetry station and voltage and amp metre to become available for my Hitec radio system. This will give me telemetry on the pack voltages but it would be very difficult to fit these once the wing is fully sheeted.

 

One question I have for you guys is what sort of paper do you use to make the tubes for the servo leads ?

[Danny Fenton]

Really looking great, don't you just love the RDS system Yes, its a bit more to set up but its the bees knees.

I like your method of mounting the servo, using the hatch cover to hold the servo in, much better than the way I do it (sealing the servo in forever is maybe asking for trouble ) And I might have to steal your servo mounting method

For servo lead tubes I use plain old A4 paper rolled into a tube

 

Cheers

Danny

[MThemadhatter]

Thanks Danny, the correct phrase is "bench marking" LOL. It was more by accident than design the servo just happened to be in the right place due to the alignment of the RDS bits. Speaking of which I did not get it quite perfect, the pocket is not perfectly placed on the centre line of the aileron, but the beauty of this system is that it does not matter. Other aileron will be perfect this is why I do them one at a time when doing something new like this so I don't make any mistakes twice.

 

One thing I have noticed is that the hinges need more support on the wing, they are already a bit loose after being put in and taken out again. I might find some harder balsa for the support blocks.

[MThemadhatter]

One step forward , two steps back

 

I glued the bottom sheeting to the centre section using "super phatic" glue and then regretted it fairly shortly afterwards.

 

 

Some water then dripped off the roof onto the sheeting infront of main spa, the sheeting buckled and pulled its self off the ribs. I then tried to iron the sheeting back on, as heating up the glue re-activates it but that did not work. Went on holiday last week and came back to this

 

It had lifted off again

 

And I have found that, super phatic does not soak into the wood or make a stronger bond than CA. I proved this by peeling off the sheeting back to the main spa.

 

Which I will now redo using CA and normal aliphatic glue , which I will stick to in future when it comes to sheeting.

 

Now does anyone know how to remove the rubbery residue of Super Phatic off the ribs ?

At the moment it will stop CA bonding the Sheeting to the ribs.

 

[MThemadhatter]

I have the rest of the week off and as its raining it looks I should be able to make some progress

I joined the wing together today.

 

You can never have to many clamps.

I then did a rescue job on the sheeting on the front underside of the centre section, with CA this time

It does not look to bad ATM, There is a little dip just before the main spa, and I am finding that the 1.5mm balsa the plan uses for sheeting is a little wavy.You can see some filler which is drying, My usual yellow glue and micro balloons mix most of this will be sanded off. We now have something resembling a wing !!

 

I have got some nice counter sunk screws from model fixings for holding the access panels in place

 

And here is the wing again after a bit of sanding and the flaps put back in place

 

Tomorrow I think I will glue the nacelles in place and sheet the top of the outer panels. I will have to leave the centre section top sheeting until J perkins start importing these Electric sensor station

[MThemadhatter]

Got some more done today

 

First off all I in filled between the main spas where the nacelles glue to them. This has more than doubled the size of the glue joint. This is important as my patch can be a bit unforgiving on UC and all the forces from the motors and UC will be transferred through these joints.

 

I then carefully tested the fit of the nacelles, did some adjusting here and there and then glued them in place with some epoxy and some BIG clamps.

 

Doing it this way allowed me to double check the alignment of the nacelles.

 

I then fitted the last bits from the laser wood pack , which are the rear formers for the naceelle.

 

And then cut the holes for the routing of the extension leads going to the nacelle. I have made up a list of the extension cables I need. I will make them long enough so that they can be a permanent addition to the wing. I am still trying to find out what sort of lead the telemetry sensor station for my Aurora 9 uses, I might have to leave a bit of string in there.

 

I then started on the outer wing panel sheeting. I like to join several sheets of balsa together and them glue them in place as one peice and then trim off the excess. It works well for me but is a bit waste full of wood and the fumes from the CA is not nice.

 

I will do the other side tommorow. I breiflly toyed with the idea of adding the landing lights on the left wing. However this more money and the ones on the TF Mk X are not very big.

 

Starting to look like something that might fly !!

[MThemadhatter]

Forgot to show the reinforcing on the leading edge , nacelle joint

 

I also managed to find this picture on J perkins web site

 

Which shows the connections for the telemetry unit, and the cables are short. Luckily it looks like a couple of normal servo extension leads will do the job, although I notice the signal wire is in a different place but this should not matter.

 

Now just need to pop to the LHS and get 2x 25cm and 6x 40cm extension leads.

[MThemadhatter]

Had a slow day today, just tidied up a few bits and pieces before finishing off the wing sheeting tomorrow.

 

I am having a debate with myself about which version of a beaufighter I am going to build this as. I don't particularly like the lines of the Beau with the dorsal fin so I think I am going to go for an early production TF Mk X Like this below

 

This still has the thimble nose for the radar, no wing guns and the nice big landing light on the left wing which I am going to make operable. Not sure yet how I am going to make the nose cone for the radar and the front of the torpedo.

[Danny Fenton]

Looking really good, you have all that lovely detailing to look forward to

I would make the bits from blue foam. I have only just started using the stuff and it is wonderful. I light layer of glass cloth and epoxy resin and it is strong yet light. For the nose and torpedo I think I would use two layers. You could also vacform the nose and trpedo cones?

What colours would this version be sea grey upper, sky undersides?

Cheers

Danny

[MThemadhatter]

Thanks, and hopefully with some help from you I don't have that drawing program but really I just need all those round and square accesss panels cut, the larger one off ones I can do by hand. I will sit down later and work out the sizes I need, agian thanks for your help I think I am about 30% through the build now lol

As for colour scheme I am trying to decide between these 3

 

I like the third one X2 and the first one but I would like invasion stripes on it for orientation. With those nose cones I am more concerned about how I am going to get the shape right. Practice I suppose. I am off to get the extension leads now so that I can finish the sheeting on the wing.

[MThemadhatter]

I managed to get the other outer wing panel sheeted and prepared the piece for the centre section.

 

I also made the recess for the landing light on the left wing

 

 

I added to extra peices of balsa behind the leading edge and when the clamps where removed some triangle stock on the other side to keep the strengh.

 

I then sheeted it and cut out the recess for the lights

 

Luckily the servo is right behind the light so getting the wirring installed wont be to difficult.

 

I got all extesion leads today but then realised they where to short to reach the fly leads from the RX and it would be a pain to rig the plane.

 

 

So I am off to get some slightly longer ones tomorrow before sheeting the top of the centre section.

 

 

I also made the first "cuts" on the leading edge shaping it to the top and bottom angles of the wing, I will then finish off profiling it later. You can see the last bit of sheeting in the background, it will go on like so tomorrow.

 

 

Next after this...Strip planking the nacelles

[Danny Fenton]

Looking really good, Its hard to believe that this had such a traumatic start with all the wood bending You are doing a superb job

Cheers

Danny

[MThemadhatter]

I will so be on to planking the nacelles. This will bring me to one of the big hurdles of the build, the UC doors.

 

I have to option here, don't bother and just cut an opening for the UC or build working doors.

 

I would really rather add working doors but there is no info on the plans or the build article about this. Also the wheels will poke out below the nacelles when retracted and the full size has bulges in the UC doors to accommodate this.

 

So if anyone has built a Beaufighter before and has some pics of their UC doors and how they made them please could you give me some pointers

[MThemadhatter]

I have a couple of suggestions on how to do this, both involve doing the strip planking and making the bulges first

Here is the wheel in its well, this is actually smaller than the one suggested on the plan. Right below it is a rib so difficult to make more of a recess for it.

 

And here we go for the next week or so lol

 

[MThemadhatter]

Some considerable time later...I gave up for the night

 

And with a little sanding it looks a bit better

 

Hopefully with a lot of sanding and a little filler it will look perfect. The centre section did not quite got to plan but I think I know why and can avoid it on the other side. Should be able to rescue it. So about 2/3 done for one nacelle watch this space lol

 

[MThemadhatter]

Right I have been sat down with the plan and doing measuring and a bit balsa bashing to make mock up the blisters for the wheels on the UC doors.

 

As it is the blisters are going to be stupidly big and are going to just not look right. They will also be a PITA to fabricate.

The only practicable way of doing the retracts that I can see is to have a pair of doors on the forward section to open and let the retract come down and an open hole for the wheel to poke out of. This should look better than cartoon size blisters for the wheel. Also once its up in the air it won't be noticeable.

I hate to make it non scale like this but with out a custom retract system that rotates through 100-120 degrees and puts the wheel up in the wing I see no other way.

I am going to make some FG doors by using the nacelle as a mould, question is what sort of fibre glass and resin ?

[MThemadhatter]

Well it took me a little time but I have finished the planking lol

 

Has it really been 6 months since I paid serious attention to this build ? The wind is now up and winter is here in the south west so building has recommenced.

 

I have finished the planking on the nacelles and given them a rough sanding to show up where filler might er be needed.

 

This is the first time I have planked anything and I am glad its over and I can start picking the glue off my fingers lol.

As you would excpect for a first attempt there is a bit of filler needed here and there

 

I can consul myself with the thought that most of it will be sanded off and that the lower part of the right nacelle with the massive chunk of filler will be removed later. There must

 

Once I have the nacelles sanded down to my satisfaction I will make the UC doors and battery access hatch.

 

As discussed before I am going to do this by making them over the nacelle with a couple of layers of 163g twill weave glass cloth with a final layer of 25g glass on top.

 

Now not having done this before I have a couple of questions.

 

Firstly what should I put other the nacelle to stop the fibre glass sticking to it so that I can remove it after it has set ?

 

Also I presume that you add one layer of cloth let it cure, then add the next layer and not all in one go ?

 

Back to the UC I have pilfered the E flite retracts for this

 

So I am thinking about getting some 95 or 100 degree retracts and then mounting them so that the legs are at 90 degrees when down. This would mean that the wheels would retract further into the wing ?

 

I am looking at these 100 degree Lado retracts

 

What do you guys think of the idea ?

 

[MThemadhatter]

Could I use polyester masking tape ?

Polyester masking tape

In theory I can peel this off the back of the GF after wards as the epoxy should not bond with polyester ?

[MThemadhatter]

Well all my spare time has been wet and windy so far this week so no sanding has been done (If I did it indoors you would never here from me again)

 

Instead I have been revisiting the retracts.

 

I have been working out which of the Lado units would be suitable

 

 

So I got hold of the drawings on thier website and stuck them down over the plan to work out where the wheel would be with 95 and 100 degree retracts. As you can hopefully see at 90 degrees they stick out a fair bit, but not quite as much as this pic would have suggested

 

 

At 95 degrees they are almost all the way into the nacelle, but very close to one of the spars. However the retract wil be mounted at a 5 degree angle and this will lift the centre line up about 2-3mm which should clear that spar. Or I could put and additional spacer under the retract.

 

With the 95 degree retract I could make a bulge for the wheel with out it looking out of scale.

 

I don't know how TN fitted 3.5in wheels in there, mine are 3.25in.

 

There is about £40 difference in price between the Eflite and Lado retracts. Decisions decisions

 

[Andy Gates]

Just read this thread from start to current position.

 

Congratulations on your perseverance. I think I would have given up by now.

 

I love seeing your contemplation as you go along, which is helping to bring this thread alive.

 

Most plans are a bit ambiguous and it is that which makes each and every machine individual because the builders find different solutions.

 

Keep going, you are doing a great job, just keep half an eye on the weight.

[Olly P]

Hatter,

 

I think people use cling film to protect balsa when making resin moulds, but I've never done it either...

[Olly P]

Dbl Post

Edited By Olly P on 30/11/2011 14:15:19

[MThemadhatter]

Thanks for the encouragement Andy, and I thought this would be an easier build than the Lysander

I have had a couple of people suggest cling film to me now and it seems like the easiest option.

I have been doing a couple of small things to keep the build going along one of those concerns the oleos.

 

I have been looking for some commercial oleos similar to these ones

 

 

But they just don't exist so my plan is to get 4x oleo legs and buy some aluminium bar and drill three holes in it for the oleo legs pins and retract pin and then add some grub screws to hold them in place like in the one above. I have found this site that sells the aluminium , I think 12mm square should do the job. The oleos I would like to use are these ones as they work out considerably cheaper than others I have seen. As with the 95 degree retracts I need they are out of stock though which is ok as I am out of money at the moment

 

Hopefully I will make some progress on the wing this weekend.