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Bates 1/5.5 Sea Fury Build


Nick Somerville
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I have been making orders for the various parts needed for a Jerry Bates 1/5.5 scale Sea Fury and unsurprisingly for a large model the cost has been adding up. There is a very nice commercially available near scale tail retract available but at 5 oz that represents around a pound up front to compensate. With it’s short nose and long tail end keeping the rear end light is going to be a key part of the build. 

I enjoyed making the tail retract for my Brian Tailor P47, especially as his drawings are so explanatory and also because it was made from bits and bobs from the scrap drawer, so something similar  for the Fury ought to work. I perused some drawings for a Brian Taylor P51 (thanks Danny) as that retract also pivots from the rear like the Fury and then penned a few rough sketches before making a mock up with balsa, cardboard and pins to check the mechanics. A bit of ebay shopping for double side pc board and brass sheet and I had something to work on while awaiting my Belair parts set.

so this is where I have got to after some hours tinkering. The lower fork still needs a little more shaping to achieve the correct scale appearance and the pivot axle needs adding at the rear. The soldering of the carriage frame was done with 2% silver solder which isn’t so hot that it fries the epoxy board, though it does look a bit like spot welding. Hopefully should look ok once sprayed with some etch primer.

 

Weight is 2oz so compared to the commercial offerings a big saving. The centre barrel is two short lengths of alloy tube from the local diy with one  fitting inside the other and a 10p compression spring. The carriage is 1.5mm double sided pc board and the upper and lower yokes are a soldered lamination of .5mm brass sheet and pcb board. The actuating locking levers are 1.2 mm brass sheet and the centring springs 22swg piano wire. I will have to build the fuselage before I can fathom a simple way for the mechanism to pull the doors up as it retracts. 

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4 hours ago, Nick Somerville said:

I have been making orders for the various parts needed for a Jerry Bates 1/5.5 scale Sea Fury and unsurprisingly for a large model the cost has been adding up. There is a very nice commercially available near scale tail retract available but at 5 oz that represents around a pound up front to compensate. With it’s short nose and long tail end keeping the rear end light is going to be a key part of the build. 

I enjoyed making the tail retract for my Brian Tailor P47, especially as his drawings are so explanatory and also because it was made from bits and bobs from the scrap drawer, so something similar  for the Fury ought to work. I perused some drawings for a Brian Taylor P51 (thanks Danny) as that retract also pivots from the rear like the Fury and then penned a few rough sketches before making a mock up with balsa, cardboard and pins to check the mechanics. A bit of ebay shopping for double side pc board and brass sheet and I had something to work on while awaiting my Belair parts set.

so this is where I have got to after some hours tinkering. The lower fork still needs a little more shaping to achieve the correct scale appearance and the pivot axle needs adding at the rear. The soldering of the carriage frame was done with 2% silver solder which isn’t so hot that it fries the epoxy board, though it does look a bit like spot welding. Hopefully should look ok once sprayed with some etch primer.

 

Weight is 2oz so compared to the commercial offerings a big saving. The centre barrel is two short lengths of alloy tube from the local diy with one  fitting inside the other and a 10p compression spring. The carriage is 1.5mm double sided pc board and the upper and lower yokes are a soldered lamination of .5mm brass sheet and pcb board. The actuating locking levers are 1.2 mm brass sheet and the centring springs 22swg piano wire. I will have to build the fuselage before I can fathom a simple way for the mechanism to pull the doors up as it retracts. 

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Very impressive, I only sent you the drawing a short while ago!

 

Will be fabulous to follow along ?

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Woo Hoo! My Belair parts pack arrived on the same day as my Slec balsa strip and sheet order it’s time to make a start. BTW top marks to Slec for a pack of great quality balsa that arrived only three days after ordering.


I have started with the tailplane and elevators as its a good way to ease into the build. Pretty straightforward and nice and light. Build two skinned halves and then join together. Add LE and tips and out with the plane and sanding block. I sandwiched a ring of 1/32 ply in the tips and 1/64th ply between two 1/4 sq balsa strips for the leading edge. Easier to sand an accurate line and nice and ding proof. Also the trailing edge of the tailplane has strips of ply let in for the shroud. image.thumb.jpeg.17eb313fb7265f02f01a2b2194fbaeaa.jpeg 

The plan calls for twin elevator servos but as I don’t plan any 3D manoeuvres  and my flying style is more ‘nudging’ the beast around the sky in a scale like manner, I am happy to put in one good servo and save a channel. One less thing to go wrong too. I have used a brass horn bound with thick fuse wire and silver soldered to the elevator joiners and a pair of G10 hinges on the joiner too. I will use a pair of Robart pin hinges on each side as well.

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If you saw my post regards my tail retract I had a thought that I would be interested to know if others think os workable. In order to het the steering hooked up for a tail retract hingeing from the rear wires need taking further to the rear and attached to a bellcrank with springs. This then has to have further wires connected to the ruder or be routed back to the rudder servo up front. Quite a lot of gubbins to have around when also there are the main rudder closed loop wires and substantial carbon pushrods for the elevator and retract. I was rummaging around in my box if odd servos and noticed a spare DLG glider servo I have. Although small it has 2.3kg of torque at 6v. It weighs 8grams and connected directly to the steering bellcrank with springs it will be protected from the inevitable jolts. It will certainly save wiring up the back end like a telephone exchange. I have yet to add the mount to the retract for the servo as I will also need to ensure I have an easy way to remove the whole unit for servicing, so time for that when the fus is up together 

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All very neat and tidy in there Danny!

 

Retracts arrived from States yesterday and other parts from Phil at Fighter Aces. It’s a crying shame that there is no longer a UK company to purchase from. Unitracts still have a website but every attempt to contact them has failed.

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Am ready to join the elevators and have added some pva soaked carbon  tows to stiffen the trailing edge as well as thin ply internally at the trim tab hinge points. Will ease cutting through the balsa later to make a convincing edge to the trim tabs; without actually going as far as removing them. Did this on my P47 and looked ok

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image.thumb.jpeg.e203feafd996572e7e00292f0dd04f9d.jpegWing centre section coming together. Some cap strips on the spars to add and shape to the airfoil section and then ready to be sheeted. Flap and aileron servo positions shown on plan not being used as I prefer to have servos directly behind the surfaces. They can be fitted once the wing is inverted and prior to bottom sheeting.
 

I haven’t used pneumatic gear before so need to investigate how and where to route the plumbing to the retracts, door operating actuators and the sequencer. I shall most likely use one of these and mount it in the centre of the wing so I only have one pneumatic connection to make when assembling the model. 

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Sheeted top of centre section which used up a substantial amount of 3/32nd 4” sheet. At its widest the cord is almost 55cms! I inlaid some .4mm at the trailing edge as it really does protect and steady final shaping for very little extra weight. 
 

Plenty id sand/gravel bags and anything handy and heavy to weigh it all down.

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Interesting asymmetric step back at the leading edge. 
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Thanks David. Tbh it has been pretty straight forward so far and certainly not as challenging as the BT Razorback. I spend plenty of time looking at other peoples builds which is such a help. 
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Bought one of these today which I will use to drive and sync the four flap servos (HiTech 5245 mg minis) from a single channel. I have a DX9 so channels are limited for a model like this. One of the features I like is that you can connect a dedicated battery and mount it together in the wing centre section so just one flap wire instead of four to the fuselage and no worries that those barn door like flaps are not adequately powered when fully deployed.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Weather has been so good progress has been rather pedestrian. However, the wing is growing gradually. The Sea Fury has a flat centre section and then the outer panels angle up to create a polyhedral type appearance. Once the centre section was completed a 3  3/4”  high block was placed below the outer rib on one side of centre section and then the opposing outer panel built over the plan and sheeted. With that complete I am now ready to do the same on the other side. Once again the trailing edge has 0.4mm ply let in to the 3/32 balsa sheeting to mitigate against hangar rash.

 

In the background of the top picture is my P47 fuselage hanging up. Sadly a hangar queen currently as my new club insists I have my B test before flying her as its a little over 7.5kg. Getting 2 examiners together at the patch on a favourable flying day during a pandemic is proving a considerable challenge. At least I have been able to get out flying my Laser 180 powered Extra 330 to practice for the test,  which by the time I can hustle both examiners together I should to be able to do the routine with my eyes half closed.

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39 minutes ago, Dwain Dibley. said:

The sand bag weights are a damn fine idea Nick, never seen that before but that's life, I suppose everybody else uses them .LOL

Nice neat wood work too. ?

D.D.

I have about 10 of them. In the picture they are just being used to hold the wing down in place, but when gluing sheeting they all come out to play. With a good soft sand you can massage the bags to evenly spread the load over the whole area being adhered. 

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image.thumb.jpeg.0ac5f0c6b34b7af0e2720ae444e5f271.jpegimage.thumb.jpeg.aec7094d9dd46e628347065b6fff923c.jpeg
 

Main wing near complete and all top sheeting added. Also put in shear webs on main spar to aid torsion whilst the underside awaits its turn to be sheeted. 
 

The plan shows for bottom hinged aileron but really this not how the full size ailerons are made so I shall centre hinge with shrouds top and bottom. Will make using RFS actuation possible too. For the hinges I would normally use Robart type pin hinges but this time have made some up from PCB board. 1/2hr to make is almost as long as filling out an order form for a modelshop.

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I have been working on the flaps and in particular the hinge line that like other builders, working from these plans, I discovered that there were some discrepancies. The inner flap hinge line was 1/4” too far back and to fit the outer flap 1/4” square hinge spar correctly the cut outs in ribs 6 and 7 needed adjusting. Altogether not too problematic and with the addition of some gussets and extra 1/4” sq the hinges have a solid seat to be adhered to. 
 

I have stated adding diagonal bracing internally to the wing top sheeting are above the flaps to stiffen the area. Some modellers, particularly when building the larger 1/4 scale Bates Fury sheet this area with Proskin for additional rigidity. 
 

The flaps are 1.5mm ply with a 1/4” sq leading edge notched 1mm deep to take the Dubro flat hinges, prior to gluing in place. Next task is repeat for the other side and make up g10 actuating horns.

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Made up upper aileron shrouds. Rather than extend the top sheeting I prefer to extend with .4mm ply. As the shroud is 27mm tapering to 20mm I backed the overhang with 1/16th balsa. The 10mm step down of the top sheeting was fairly easily achieved using a simple sanding block as seen in photo. The inboard corner area not so easy but nothing a little filler won’t cover. I shall add a 1/4” triangle strip inside as well for added rigidity.

 

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Very nice work.

 

I like the diagonal riblet bracing idea. Neat.

 

Question - flaps are split... if both are down at 90deg, it looks like the outer section will foul the inner section?

 

Or are they sequenced, so the inner flap comes down first, then the outer comes down (but to a lesser angle or something similar)

 

edit - wait, I guess the split is on the dihedral break, so that would mean the flaps are angled away from each other a bit...

Edited by Nigel R
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