Lockheed Vega

[Lindsay Todd]

Hi Simon, not finished yet but I am playing catch up with the blog, I have been covering her today in fact, but that's a few updates away yet, she should be finished across the Christmas break. Linds

[Lindsay Todd]

Time to update or at least catch up a bit more of the progress starting with the sheeting to the top trailing edge extending ideally forward to the rear spar. Before we start we need to trim the tabs off the ribs, I found this easiest with a hacksaw blade and then gentle sand. I didn't have quite enough sheet to do this at the time so the photo shows one surface of the wing sheeting slightly short, but this will be rectified before covering. Also note the front spar ply brace added. I also added a 6mm balsa brace to the front of the rear spars making this one really strong wing.

3mm ply strips 6mm wide have also been glued into the rib space flush to the underside edge of the ribs as fixing points for the aileron servo hatches, a little triangular section underneath adds strength.

Also added the 3mm wing bolt plate. This glues across the centre section aft of the rear spars into pre cut slots in the angled ribs. I added 3mm balsa sheet front and back flush to the underside sheeting which has now been added extending out to the second rib on each panel and forward to the rear edge of the main spar.

Could not resist a test fit of everything at this stage. Next job was to sand the leading edge to the profile of the ribs and the add the leading edge sheeting that extends from the rear edge of the main spar all the way forward.

Remaining sheeting can now be added to the centre section, cut outs made around the centre to allow servo leads to come through.

Cut outs for servo leads and wing bolt clearance also lined with 3mm sheet for strength. Cap strips of 1.5 x 6mm also added to the top and bottom rib edges.

Next job is the wing tips, pretty simple stuff. The final outer tip rib that has no slots for spars is now glued to the outer rib, this was design oversized so it aligns with the 1.5mm sheeting and also add some protection to the tips of the ailerons. Next we cut and glue 6mm tip profiles cut to shape to the centre line of the rib butting up against the inside face of the extended leading edge. Wedges of 6mm balsa then extend from the spar locations across the 6mm tips to the edge top and bottom. Further 6mm blocks top and bottom extend the leading edges.

A final sand to shape and profiling of the leading edge, bit of a sand all over and the wing is basically complete and ready for covering. The wing dowel and fixing or locating of the wing bolt can be done a little later.

Next time will be the cockpit and framing I guess. More soon. Linds

[FastFlyer Smyth]

Very nice Linds.

[Ton van Munsteren]

Hi Linds,

Great choice of plane and a vey nice build , love planes with an fat fuselage.

Keep up the good work and more pics please.

Ton

[Lindsay Todd]

Thanks guys, anyway still trying to catch up with were the build is actually at so here is the next instalment.

Ailerons are built around a 6mm balsa leading edge cut to match the internal aileron cut out in the wing. To this a 2mm balsa plan form of the aileron is glued to the centre line, 3mm balsa wedges are then glued top and bottom from the rear of the aileron leading edge to the trailing edge. medium block was then added between the 2nd and 3rd wedges or ribs if you like through which the control horns will be added. These are Slec items with long bolts, of course ply plates could also be added if screw fix horns were to be used.

The next logical job was to fit and install the aileron servos. I have chosen to use 2x Hitec HS85MG units having found these very reliable in the past and well up to a non aerobatic design of this type. The servos are side mounted onto 1.5mm ply plates that align between ribs and screwed to ply plates as shown previously. The servos are mounted to ply blocks with triangular balsa reinforcement. A long servo output arm is used to extend through a slot cut in the ply plate.

As the wing skin and plate are both 1.5 we end up with a nice flush mount, all that remains is to fit the ailerons, horns and linkages later after covering.

Next job is to refit the wing to the fuselage and start with construction of the cockpit area. To start fix the wing located in its correct position and pin to the fuselage. We could even fit the dowel and wing bolt at this point but I left this till later. We start by gluing some 6mm square balsa to the front face of former 3 aligned to the angle of the inside ribs of the wing. It is important that the wing is not glued in place also. Next with some thin card between add the outer sides of the canopy from 3mm medium balsa, these are basically a profile of the angled tip and glued to the outer edge 6mm square we just added. The card is to give some clearance. The parts are best pinned and left to dry.

The framing for the canopy is made up from various length of 6mm square medium balsa. we start by adding the top brace between the two 3mm cockpit side walls and then add the angles centre brace which is made up from two lengths with a scarf joint and runs from the forward top deck sheeting to the first upper cross brace. Take care measuring and position these first two elements as everything else is referenced from them and will look odd if not square and central.

We can now add the first two diagonal braces that extend from the side walls to the change in angle on the centre brace, ensure both side are equal in position.

Finally we can add the lower angled braces that extend from the centre of the radius to the forward top deck sheeting. I found it very helpful to draw an arc of were the glazing will be to ensure correct position and measurement. This is one of those parts that needs sanding to fit and expect to make a couple of mistakes because of the tapered angles, I know I did. In fact you almost need to make a badly fitting part to know what the correct one should look like.

That pilot figure seems very popular at the moment, she will get a bit of a re-paint I think though.

More updates / catch up soon with the cowling next. Linds

[Lindsay Todd]

Time to make a cowl. This starts with two 2mm lite-ply rings a front and rear, both having a series of concentric 6mm square slots around the perimeter and the rear having four concentric holes that align with those of the fuselage firewall. We also need to cut a sufficient number of 6mm square balsa lengths 95mm long as accurately as we can.

The next stage is to mark the position that the rear ring needs to sit on each 6mm square length, this being 25 mm from the end. Then with an aid of a set square fit and glue each length flush to the front face of the front ring. When dry slot the rear ring into position against the marks made and glue with some CA.

Next job is to measure the circumference and cut a length of 1.5 ply 95mm x circumference that we will wrap around the ring assembly. I chose to double the width of one of the 6mm square lengths at this stage to make this job easier and give more glue contact area for the start and finish point and this has been amended on the plan. We start by again working on a flat surface and gluing one end of the ply to the balsa double length support at its centre position. I allowed this to dry and then started to wrap and glue the ply around the frame.

When the ply is around put to one side and allow to dry then sand the front face to smooth flat finish.

The front of the cowl is made up of 6mm soft balsa rings, three in total laminated together using the centre hole as a guide to keep things square.

When dry we need to remove the excess balsa square lengths from aft of the rear ring so the cowl will sit back flush against the front of former 1.

The laminated balsa rings are glued onto the front face of the cowl frame and left to dry thoroughly. Then the balsa front can be shaped and sanded to a round profile. A card template is a useful checking gauge to try and keep things consistent.

Final test fit of the cowl mounted by screws using the four concentric holes in the rear former to former 1 on the fuselage.

More updates soon. Linds

[Lindsay Todd]

Well it was time to get some covering done. I have chosen to use glass 50gm glass cloth to the fuselage applied with Delux Materials acrylic finishing resin, and then a final thinned epoxy resin. This gives a light and robust finish and seems to be one of those jobs that gets easier the more often you tackle it. With the fuselage basically ready for paint it was time for some metalwork.

The U/C basically consists of two wire forms that fix with saddle clamps to the underside of the fuselage, meeting at the axel point with the forward wire form incorporating the axels. These are both made from 3mm piano wire. The wires were hand formed in a vice with a 1:1 scale drawing to overlay the wires. A timber block with a few nails to locate the wires into the correct geometry allowed the distances to be set and then the joints at the axel whipped with thin wire (fuse wire). I also made up a couple of P clips from brass sheet and these were added to the forward wire leg pointing outwards, these will form the bolt connection point to the upper wire that will locate into the fuselage side blocks.

The joints were then fixed with silver solder.

The upper wires are a simple shape but have brass tube slid onto the end , flattened and then drilled to match the P Clips on the lower wire. These will simulate the upper oleos and will be clad with balsa.

A balsa template was made and then a further five to laminate around the upper wire. These are added with the legs fitted to the fuselage starting with a laminate that sits behind the wire and needs an angle sanding at the top edge to sit flush to the fuselage.

The next laminates need a 3mm wide strip removed from the centre so that they sit either side of the wire and are then glued either side and to the rear laminate. I used RC Modellers glue to fix to the wire and aliphatic for everything else, and a combination of both, this will help sanding to shape later hopefully. The final laminate then goes on the outer and clamped and left to dry.

Whilst the U/C was drying I made up some false doors from 1mm ply, these were glued either side of the fuselage, hinges are from short lengths of electrical wire with grooves put into the surface with a scalpel and a door handle added by means of a cut down pin.

Thanks to the greenhouse being empty I though stuff the weather and decided to get some paint on the fuselage so I can keep up the momentum of the build. Basically the model is red all over so it was simply a case of finding a suitable match to the red Solarspan I had picked up, fortunately B&Q came up trumps with a gloss spray tin that looked pretty good so without further excuses the fuselage and cowl have become a nice bright red.

More soon. Linds

[Lindsay Todd]

A busy last few days has seen the U/C balsa laminate sanded and given a coat of glass cloth and is now ready for paint to match the fuselage. I then got stuck into all the surfaces, tail, fin and wing covered with red Solarspan, so in he last few days the model has really started to transform from its bare balsa form.

With the tail surfaces covered; accept for a central area removed to allow a timber to timber joint, they can now be glued into position albeit checked for square first. The assembly needed to be done in the sequence of wire elevator joiner first which is simply a bent length of 2mm piano wire, then the tail slotted into place and fixed with CA. The elevators had been drilled to accept the wire joiner and slots cut for mylar 'fuzzy' strip hinges, all test fitted first. The hinges are glued into the elevator halves first allowed to dry then the elevators slotted onto the wire joiner and slots in the trailing edge, the hinges being fixed with thin CA and the wire joiner with rc modellers glue.

With the tail installed we now need to drill through the fuselage at a position in line with the end of the trailing edge of the fin and install a 2mm internal diameter brass tube that will pass vertically down through the trailing edge of the tail and out through the bottom of the fuselage. It is because this passes through the tail that we cant install this sooner. The method was to dry fit the fin and mark the position so that the end of the tube would be central and outside diameter in contact with the trailing edge, remove the fin and then drill carefully down through the fuselage keeping all square. I have a drill press and just blocked the rear of the model to keep it square and it was quite simple. With tat done the fin can be glued into position followed by a suitable length of tube that is flush to the top and bottom. This is the guide tube for the tail wheel wire. This is just a 2mm control rod, bent to shape at the bottom and bent through 90 degrees at the top, the 90 degree bend is done after the wire is positioned through the tube and needs to be done as close to the brass tube as possible to allow for a reasonably tight bend. Alternatively use two pairs of pliers and some assistance, it is a fiddly job and a little awkward.

With the wire bent the rudder can now be measured against it to mark the correct position for a central hole and recess, then hinge as per elevators and attach and glue with CA and RC modellers glue.

The rudder being closed loop needs two horns so I used the Slec bolt through horns, bit fiddly and should have been done really before I attached the rudder.

The elevator horn also now added and control rod attached

Servo installation is by way of two standard size Futaba servos position just to the rear of former 3 on two ply strips spanning across the fuselage leaving plenty of space left for the rx later.

Final job today and indeed to bring the blog up to the current state of the build was to fix the 6mm dowel to the leading edge and then fit the rear wing bolt. The alignment for the dowel was pre set so just needed gluing in place and just protruding through former 3, the bolt being drilled through from the wing plate into the fuz plate, a captive nut being fitted and glued in place with epoxy and clamped together whilst drying. The ailerons were also fitted to the wing with mylar strip as per other surfaces so the end result is getting pretty close.

I guess I might not get too much done over the next couple of days, but more updates before long. Linds

[Tim Hooper]

That's looking great!

I'm a big fan of ply/balsa radial cowls, but you've taken it to an all-new level.

tim

[Lindsay Todd]

Thanks Tim, your very kind, Its been a really enjoyable design and build this one, I guess a Lockheed Electra would be a logical follow on? perhaps sometime in the future. Linds

[Lindsay Todd]

Just a quick update, time to make a decision on the power plant so had a dig around in the workshop and came up with This Turnigy brushless and 50amp esc so should be good for 350+ watts on 3 cells. It was bought for a project a couple of years ago so I'll have to finalise the power set up later with a few props I guess but as the battery bay is large enough to take my 5000mah I can afford the luxury of more power or duration.

Having made this decision also allows me to define how much offset is required for the motor, in this case 35mm so a 3mm ply box was made up with triangular section on the internals. This was then drilled and captive nuts added for the motor mount, these being epoxied in place. Alignment is maintained by drilling an identical hole on centre as in former 1, slipping a suitable bolt to centre the two together and draw around to mark the position on former 1, the surface was then cleaned of paint and glued in place with 1hr epoxy, fillets of epoxy and micro balloons was also added around the box for added strength.

Whilst leaving to dry I decide to attack some of the registration text and numbers and the Lockheed Logo, all of which were designed in CAD and then printed and cut from black vinyl film. I'll give the motor offset a coat of laminating resin before mounting the motor, any thrust adjustment will be made after initial flights, for now will be set square to the firewall former 1.

more soon. Linds

[Ton van Munsteren]

Nice very nice

Ton

[riverlandgirl.]

Cracking good build, as always!

[Lindsay Todd]

Thanks guys, always nice to get feedback like that. Well I'm keen to take advantage of the lousy weather and get some more work done so here is the latest updates on the build.

A nice simple job was to paint the motor offset box and paint it red, the motor was then mounted with bolts into pre installed captive nuts with a little thread lock to secure. I plan to try and mount the esc to the side of the box and just feed the lead through to the RX. The battery leads should come out at the rear of the cowl on the underside right by the battery bay.

Next was to make a start with the cockpit glazing, this was potentially going to be awkward but actually worked out ok. I started by cutting some thin card templates that would slide on the inside of the side walls and sit flush against former 3 and the bottom edge of the side window opening, this was then extended round to be glued halfway across one of the front diagonal supports. Happy with the template the shape was transferred to 0.5mm clear acetate sheet and glued in place with RC Modellers Glue and pins to support whilst drying. Pins are not an issue as we will add frames later.

With the sides in place and aloud to dry the remaining glazing was added, all pinned and glued as previous. Its a bit scary at this point as the glue seems to go everywhere but it is cleaned up easily and does dry clear.

Once all the glazing was dry I added the frames, these are from white 0.25mm plasticard cut into 6mm wide strips. Plasticard can be scored and bent quite easily so this was done around the angle changes at the front whilst other areas are just simple flat lengths. I also added the rear top and side screen frames that have no structure behind them. All the plasticard is again glued with RC Modellers Glue. As a final touch I added some glue droplet rivets to give it that metal look once painted.

Final part of the cockpit was a coat of matching red enamel paint, when dry this was cut back with some wet and dry to give a more used look. I might add the windscreen wipers later if the urge grabs me but this is very much sport scale so perhaps not.

More soon. Linds

 

Edited By Lindsay Todd on 03/01/2014 23:06:35

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

it looks great Lindsay

she's a good pilot by the way

impressed with your cowl building technique, I shall borrow it if you don't mind

[Lindsay Todd]

Time to get some more paint work out the way today. I was not looking forward to this bit as the original has a gold and black pin stripe detail and a curved design around the nose area. I started with making a paper template over the model and then transferred this onto some masking film. This is the same material as used for paint masks and is available off the roll in metre lengths from most of the vinyl print suppliers. It has a little stretch to it and usually provides no bleeding of the paint underneath and being clear allows some scope with positioning. Once in place and rubbed down the enamel gold paint was applied, two coats giving a pretty good finish.

I never quite know when to remove the mask film but find generally sooner is better so with care the mask was removed and revealed a pretty good finish, the edges of the gold will now be lined with some thin black vinyl film strips.

The black vinyl was simply cut with a rule and scalpel and then applied once the gold paint had dried, the ends being trimmed as accurately as I can with a scalpel blade.

Could not resist fitting the wing for a look, nearly done now, just the spats to make and finish the installation of RX and then check the CG before finally locating the battery. All up weight less battery and spats but with everything else included is standing at 3.7lb at the moment so I'm pretty please with the result so far.

More soon. Linds

[Danny Fenton]

That looks the bees knees Linds soon be bike clip time
Cheers
Danny

[Lindsay Todd]

A couple of weeks yet to test flights I guess, still a few things to do. Spats have been the order so far this week. These are made up from four laminations of 6mm soft balsa cut to outer shape with cut out for the wheel. Two outer 3mm lite ply patterns form the outer skins and offer a little better support for the brackets. The balsa block patterns were cut out on the vibro saw and then glued together with aliphatic glue.

When dry I then added the ply outer patterns, again with aliphatic glue and just visually aligned and then clamped up to dry.

When dry it was basically out with the course sand paper and attack until producing a generally rounded shape. Note to self should be to replace my old mini palm power sander that broke last year, but it only took ten minutes or so to get the first spat to this level of finish. I'll eventually cut both back reasonably smooth and then add a coat of sealer and then glass cloth and epoxy before working on the fixing brackets.

more soon. Linds

[Tony Bennett]

nice spats, how are you going to fix them to the legs.

[Lindsay Todd]

Excellent question Tony, and one that should have had more thought prior to this but I am thinking of two L shaped brackets fixed to the inside of the spat with a through hole in the stand off that will allow them to be fixed via the connecting bolt that fixes the UC strut to the axel wires, it will need a bit of fiddling but some 1mm aluminium I hope should be up to the job and at least should be reasonably neat and well hidden, the brackets can be bolted and glued for that matter straight to the spats. At least that's the idea at the moment, it may change once I get started on it of course. Linds

[Tony Bennett]

i think i understand, will look forward to the pics so i can understand it better.

[Lindsay Todd]

Yes sorry, I read back through that after posting and thought, I'm not sure I understand that. Basically there is a bolt that connects the dummy oleo from the fuselage struts each side were they join the lower UC at a brass P Clip. The connecting bolt here will be used to locate onto a couple of L shaped brackets attached to the spats, one bracket each side of the connection point. Hope that makes more sense - pics to follow in a few days hopefully. Linds

[Lindsay Todd]

Spent some time glassing the spats so today was time to sort out how to fix the spats onto the undercarriage, fortunately this seemed to have worked out really well. To start with I had some spar 1mm aluminium strip which I bent into L shapes. A couple of holes were drilled along the longer length so that the strip could be screwed to the internal side of the spats. A second hole was then measured and drilled to align with the strut to lower U/C bolt fixing.

Next job was to find some better wheels, a rummage around in the shed produced so old thin r/c car wheels, actually quite light and only about 3mm thinner than the other temporary items I had on but much better diameter wise, a quick coat of silver enamel made them look much better too.

For assembly the bracket is first bolted to the front of the U/C assembly, the spat was then drilled through having sited the centre point of the axel using the wheel as a template giving reasonable ground clearance given that I fly from various sites and often rough grass so a bit of extra clearance is always useful.

I drilled the spat through on a pillar drill, I might yet plug the outer hole but I think once everything is assembled and painted the hole will just get lost in the finish, we'll see I guess. Anyway a dry fit of the spat allows the angle of the bracket to be tweaked so that its sits flush against the inner side of the spat, I visually lined up and then marked the position of the holes. The rear hole is clear of the wheel so can take quite a long screw which is useful the forward needs to be trimmed to make sure it does not foul the wheel, a cutting disc is useful for this.

Repeat the job for the second spat and then trim the axels back to the edge of the spats and we are now ready for more painting tomorrow. I feel the end is in sight.

More soon. Linds.

[Lindsay Todd]

Bit more of an update, starting with the painting of the spats, done in exactly the same way as the fuselage, all that remains is to cut the axel back flush and tighten up the collets.

Time to tidy up the electrics starting with mounting the 50 amp speed controller to the side of the engine box. I found a combination of nylon self adhesive pipe clips and some double sided foam adhesive pads for protection really useful. Once I have checked the rotation of the motor I will tie wrap the motor wires safely out the way also. The wire from the esc to the RX passes through a hole drilled in the firewall. The battery connections come out at the rear of the cowl.

Plenty of room in the battery bay for a 3 cell 5000 mah lipo cell, secured with Velcro straps. The battery can be slipped into position from behind and also through the aperture in the front of the cowl. With the 5000 mah 3cell pack the model balances exactly on my calculated CG position without any requirement for additional ballast.

Final installation job was to mount the receiver on a cross lite ply beam with adhesive foam pads.

So a few more tidy up jobs to do, some clevis clips etc and then a check and set up of the motor to check prop and power and then its time to see if and how she fly's.

Static photos soon. Linds

[Tony Bennett]

the pics explain the spat fixing well sir.

nice model.