Member postings for Chris Barlow

What Meteor?

Anyway, final bits of planking done and the mechanical spaghetti in the tail is hidden and forgotten!

Looks like the hole in a wrecked ship! I simply snapped the planks to rough length in the gap for the wing. This has been trimmed back a bit neater but still overhanging the formers to allow final trimming once I have a wing built.

Although the underside is fairly flat I carried the planking all around. I makes a pretty pattern!

And sanded the nose to shape a little.

More fine sanding is still required a a few tickles with filler in places. I not too keen on the lightweight filler in the nose and will probably use P38 for the final shaping just to get it smoother and harder.

Wing skins have been glued up and for the next couple of days my attention will be draw to another rudder/tail plane challenge, and a bit more planking!

Nice work painting the pilots Pete, they look very cosy in the cockpit!

Can't wait to see it with a canopy over them.

Interesting how the fairing is missing at the leading edge root of the wing, and it's been painted with it missing too. I wonder if it flew without it too?

Good progress David. Another cyano addict?

Very festive Tony.

A few PSS models have benefited from high intensity LED lights in the nose, especially when dropping below the skyline when landing.

I would consider replacing the white nose lights with bigger or brighter LED's if they'll work with the controller? Standard LED's don't seem to stand out very well in daylight.

You're welcome Chris. Happy to share. Are you going for a rudder? Nice to have if you use it all the time when flying but certainly not essential.

Thanks Phil, but why would you mention rivets! Rivets, in the right place, and the right number... Panel detail, weathering detail, cockpit, trinkets... There's another 3 months on the build right there!

Hi Chris.

Yes the bellcrank/ele horn is the same dimensions and angle as on the plan which depicts the Slec part.

The piano wire fits straight into the slots cut in the 2 halves of the elevators. When ready these will be glued in with epoxy.

I should also add the elevator has absolutely no free play in it at all and the elevators halves are rock solid even before being glued. The BAE Hawk I picked up from the nationals had about 1/4" play up and 1/4" down making total "slop" of 1/2". That was modified to around 1/4" total "slop" and flew OK after initial trimming and adjustments.

I'm not sure just how critical this is. Some sources say any free play will cause pitch instability and others say as long as the AFT is balanced it'll center itself. I figure no free play at all is the safe way to go!

More faffing about with the rudder idea! I decided to enlarge the hole through the elevator horn to allow the rudder torque rod to pass through complete with ball joint si I could tighten it properly outside the fuselage after applying threadlock.

the tail linkages have now been connected and a light smearing of silicone grease applied. After planking the underside this will be the last time they'll be seen.

Servos also installed. I used an M2 clevis for the rudder and an M3 clevis for the elevator, as explained previously.

Finally able to start building the tail up and start shaping. I used 1/2" triangular stock to fillet the fin to the fuselage and light weight filler to blend it in. AFT also sanded to shape.

Tailpipe is also getting closer to the final shape. Quite complicated lines and I used several photos from google to get something that worked.

The 10 degree diheadral looks really cool with the fin!

Now back to the last of the planking and sanding the nose.

Just as well, the yellow looks quite garish!

Pete, do you have a photo of the top/bottom of the wing?

Did the clamps beam down from the mothership and start breeding?

Looks tidy John. The snug joints in the parts really do make assembly easier and more accurate.

My nose block is cut the same size as F1 so needed some filler to build it out to match the planking.

Not a problem as I intended to shape the external after gluing to the model but could cause a problem if shaping before fitting.

It does still need to be shaped internally before fitting though.

Naughty is mild Chris, more like rude!

But I doubt they're envious! I have to work extremely hard just to keep up with them in quality!

The rudder linkage took me around 4 hours total so shouldn't add too much time to the build. Not sure it's worth it just to have a rudder but it's fun working through these challenges.

Now, can anybody edit out my Hurricane from the photo please!

Nice photo of Harry praying to the wind gods!

My Hurricane pilots boots even have the treads painted on the soles...

See, any detailing can be painted on!🤣👍

Mass balance can be painted on! 🤣

Tough crowd!🤣

You can just about see the torque rod passing through the brass tube bush at the base of the rudder. Note the rod is inset into the rudder, away from the fin by 5mm.

Robart hinges are also set into the rudder to match the torque rod

Hinge gap looks something like this.

Now all that's left to do is undo everything, including that nut, sand to shape and assemble again!

Chris

I used a 3mm ball link because the M3 threaded connector fits perfectly inside the 3mm bore of the 4mm carbon rod, and 4mm carbon rod doesn't flex much when pushing an elevator. M2 would either have to be packed out to suit a 3mm x 4mm carbon rod or use a 4mm rod with a 2mm bore which is more weight in the tail...

Also, I have them in my box of goodies left over from another model!

So, you wanna see a rudder then huh?

A lot a faffing around tonight figuring out the shape of the torque rod setup and hinge line. The torque rod passes through a brass tube bush in the base of the fin to the inside of the fuselage where it immediately bends a little to the tail. This bend prevents the rod from fouling the elevator horn when applying full up. It then continues into the fuselage about another 20mm and bends 90 degrees to the snake connection which is made with a brass tube flattened at one end with a hole for another ball link, soldered onto the torque rod.

The Robart hinges for the rudder are set back approximately 5mm into slots in the leading edge of the rudder, along with the hole for the brass torque rod bush, to throw the hinge line back 6mm from the fin. (5mm setback plus 1mm surface line gap). This is to clear the pivot in the elevator horn which will always be in the same position. The leading edge of the rudder is rounded to about a 5mm radius to match the hinge setback.

Again, photos probably explain it better!

The hole through the elevator horn, Down elevator with neutral rudder.

Full up elevator, neutral rudder.

Now the movement gets funky! Full up with right rudder. Note the torque rod is over to the right, almost touching the side of F15.

Full up elevator, left rudder. The ball joint has moved up inside the fuselage and is almost touching the upper side stringer, and the other side of F15.

Finally neutral elevator, neutral rudder. Sorry about the dust!

The nut and ball joint were a pain to fit!

From the outside, full up, full right rudder.

Full down, full right rudder

And neutral.

Chris, glad you got the gist of what I mean. Sometimes it's difficult to put into words what is only a vague idea in my head!

Thanks Andy. Plenty more photographs to come for another Meatie photobomb!

Alan, feel free to pinch any ideas from my workshop although be aware, I make a lot of stuff up off the top of my head!

Adding to the AFT post above I have now setup the linkage with a 3mm ball joint and 4mm carbon pushrod. The M3 threaded rod fits perfectly into the carbon rod and is glued in with epoxy. The ball joint is fitted to the horn with a 2mm bolt cut flush with the epoxy glass plate each side and is secured with M2 nuts on the inside, washers act as spacers to reduce the movement of the ball joint.

A photograph probably explains it better?

If you want to experiment you can tape some simple AA size batteries together to see what fits.

Look at that storage and organisation in the window reflection Alan! That should take your mind off the fonts!

Looking very good there Gordon. Those yellow crosses should stand out well.