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Bates 1/5.5 Sea Fury Build


Nick Somerville
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1 hour ago, Martin McIntosh said:

Nick, I believe that you have done yours in a gloss finish.

I have yet to apply the final gloss coat. At present it is a satin finish. Satin is better for the markings to be sprayed on but they need fuel proofing, hence the choice of a final coat of clear Klasskote with a gloss catalyst. Here is a picture of  the full size which is clearly very shiny, unsurprising since it is a modern day renovation. with various bits of fettling I have some colour touch ups still to do, so it’s been good to hold off the final gloss. However with the current warm weather it might be a good time to get on to it.

Btw WJ321 at Yeovilton Air Museum certainly has a glossy finish too.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Following advice from Jon at Laser Engines I have made up a brace for the extra long exhaust extensions. 3mm threaded rod with nuts, pinches up the clamps to firmly  tie the two exhausts. A pair of 3mm rods from said brace are bolted to a small brass plate affixed to lower crankcase bolt making a triangle. The idea is to only have fixings to the engine and not the firewall so that any torque induced movement is isolated from the airframe and hopefully no stress on the exhausts where they exit the cylinders.

With everything now in place up front. mounting the cowl takes some patience to ensure each obstacle is cleared and the little needle extensions find there way through the small holes in the top. It won’t be a field job; more of a long term interim maintenance task. I should be ready to run the engine up soon without the cowl to give the airframe and everything a good shake down. 
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On my slightly smaller version I could cut a hole for finger choking the carb which is fairly close to the cowl side but instead, for now, I have (don`t read this Jon) installed a pressure fitting to the silencer so a finger over the exhaust will choke it. May be helpful since the tank will now not be in the ideal position. Post on my Sea Fury 77 inch thread when I can take more pics.

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Martin, the choke really is a last resort addition as my spinner is carbon fibre and came with a provisor not to use an electric starter. Realistically the plan is no choke but run the engine up on the starter until fuel gets through and  gets going. If I use the choke for any reason then hand starting will be needed at least until she runs for a few seconds.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Also posted on ‘Readers New Models’. 
So after 10 months of happy modelling I have completed my Sea Fury. The Bates plan proved fairly straightforward with any fiddly bits being ironed out courtesy of other builders comments on their build blogs.

Thanks to the many useful comments and advice along the way. Special thanks to Jon at Laser for the engine and installation advice.

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One thing I have a worry about is the left aileron. Somehow the washout didn’t match the wingtip so when the aileron is central at the root the tip is in a slightly lowered position. Now I am sure I built both ailerons with the correct washout as I made a jig to hold it in place when gluing the second skin. However I did have an issue with the wingtips, as I had not extended the cord sufficiently at the tip, so cut them away and modified them before re adhering them. Potentially its the wingtip that is wrong but maybe my jig didn’t work. Guess I will just have to fly it and test the stall at altitude ?

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My SF wing is far from perfect too with one aileron tip a little out. I built it as per plan rather than what my instinct was telling me. I really do not see it being a problem in the air though, perhaps a few clicks of trim. Pretty sure that it is the aileron at fault.

I once had to build an F3A model pronto in time for the Nats (11 days!). I had two wing cores but donated the straight one to a mate, leaving me with a badly warped one. A quick test flight the evening before in near darkness showed that one outboard aileron had to be dropped 1/2" but without any further trimming I still got second place somehow so it goes to show that almost anything will fly.

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Ran the Laser 360V up today. Boy that engine is smooth as silk.

 


Had some issues with my glow plug set up. The expensive RCATS glow driver I purchased from the states wouldn’t drive both glow plugs so ended up using it and a normal stick driver directly in the plugs and then it fired up fine. I obviously need to rethink how best to get sufficient power from the remote connector through my parallel wire set up. 

 

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Jon says to give a new engine a fast, hot run to harden the alloy valve seats.

I still have a couple of South Herts Models twin glow drivers which I shall probably never use again if you are interested. They can be powered from cells in the model and externally and will keep the plugs glowing when they cool. The motor can be started on them too.

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22 minutes ago, Jon - Laser Engines said:

ooo it sounds pretty quiet with those long boi extensions fitted. 

Yes it’s surprising how a few extra cms on the extensions change the sound. Definitely quieter than my 180’s with the standard extensions but to me a lovely whine as it comes up to full power; guess thats what you get with the twins. I suspect it will sound incredible on a full power fly by after coming in from a good dive/decent.

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So I am pretty sure I have finally sorted my dual glow set up, albeit still need to put the model together tomorrow to test it for real. Seems despite rubbing back the anodising around the radial mount, where I had connected one side of the circuit, power just wasn’t getting through. You may think it odd for a modeller, but I didn’t have a multimeter, so had been fiddling in the dark so to speak. A trip down to Screwfix and a few minutes working out how to use one was quite revealing. I had the voltage at the plugs but no current. So I cut the wire from the mount connection and routed it with twin wires terminating at each rocker cover. Result a decent glow with both plugs and 5 amps showing on the driver. The multimeter shows 1.5 v and 2.5 amps per plug. The driver has some soft start circuitry and a 3.7 v 5200ma Liion battery, so it will be interesting to see how it holds out in real use.

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