SAAB Viggen 1/8th scale PSS

awesome!

Any progress Andy?

Nothing major to report as yet Mark - 2x servo trays are now in - one for elevons and rudder, another for canards. Lot's of glassing and filling and sanding going on at the moment, and the pine LE's are on the wing. Will get some photos done when there's something interesting to look at

Great, seen on a video of one recently a Viggen approaching Waddington, also about two years ago I sold one at a swapmeet a fully decorated Viggen -profile fuse etc, could have sold it 6 times over because when it was put behind the stand for save keeping.

Well, I was away on holiday for a week in the camper, so missed my sanding block and film iron so much, I decided to use them both all day yesterday, ha.

A quick shot of the Viggen and Phantom, after a quick wet and dry this morning. I stuck to the silver solarfilm / prymol / car primer formula that worked reasonably well on the Me262 on all the ailerons / rudders / elevators / canards / fins, and all over the F4 wing. The Viggen's wing has had a LOT of filling and sanding in progressive stages (a poor glass finish by previous owners unfortunately) but I decided to call it done as is. The Viggen fus is glass, so got a quick rub down then a breath of prymol on it before primer coat.

Time to fit the waggly bits on both airframes, then we are ready for some top coat action.

Nice Andy, what's the scale of both Viggen and Phantom.

Hi Mark,

Viggen should be 1/8th, not sure on the Phantom! Must be 1/13th or thereabouts? I know my Me262 is 1/12th and she looks like she could carry the Phantom off for dinner!

Just checked Wikipedia (1755cm long) and the original HMM site (94cm long)- she should be ~1/18th scale! Cripes, that's small.

Here is a link to the HMM site :

http://www.metcalfehmm.freeserve.co.uk/phantom.htm

Cheers Andy, see you soon.

The Viggen looks superb Andy, the glass fus has captured all the curves and bulk very nicely! Are you blocking the air intakes or planning to let the air flow through the fus?

Hi Phil, and thanks I would like to block the intakes off, but they are so big I'm just not sure as yet. Will make some foam plugs I think, and try her with and without.

All righty then! A few pics form lunch time. These two batteries are going into the nose (2500mah) :

5 cell 6v packs. These were from my glider tug, but she is being changed over to LiFe over the winter, and these have only been cycled 5 or 6 times, so should be fine for this beastie. Will be run into a FRSky D8R-SP Rx, either through an SM services battery backer, or if I get time, a dual diode harness off the switches which are here in the nose :

Oh yes - all servos are now in too, and flight controls tied up. Means she will be a little heavier when the spraying starts tonight, but that shouldn't be a problem. Canard servos :

Elevon servos :

So spraying starts in earnest tonight on the top coat - that should give me most of next week for details and nav lights, and with a bit of luck the decal set from Pyramid might turn up too.

Oh, also had a panic on the wing bolt front. She already has two captive nuts embedded in the fus structure, but I cannot find any bolts that fit in my collection! Just ordered a couple of sets from ebay to retro fit ASAP.

Are we on course for next Saturday maiden? Yes.

Lovely.

Hope the weather has calmed a little before then - was up the summit today - couldn't stand hardly!

sounds about ideal conditions Tim!

Well, here she is in her almost-finished state, snapped by the gaffer Phil Cooke. Not enough wind for her to fly this last weekend, but there's lots of wind about at the moment...!

Still to do : canopy framing, nav light install, weathering, laquer.

I have started masking the canopy off this morning ready for the framing paintwork to go on. Anyone know what colour light should be on an airplane's chuff? I have a read beacon for the top and bottom, a high intensity headlight (that will go underneath and facing forward...somewhere), and then not sure what should go where. Can't do the wing tip beacons as I forgot to run the leads in when I was working on it

Very nice Andy, I wish I could be with you to see it when it fly's next weekend when your back at the Orme.

That's only a maybe at the moment Mark - the wind looks good, but to my mind currently a high risk of rain and a lot of SSE winds too. Lleyn Peninsula looks good however...

And thanks for the kind comments too

Edited By Andy Meade on 13/10/2014 16:57:08

Ok . let's hope......any way it's in the post Andy...

aha, many thanks fella - looking forward to it

Did you go back up to North Wales at the weekend Andy? Any news?