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Following the success of the Mass build Fw190 , we obviously need to balance the books with an equivalent allied fighter . We are hoping to produce something as friendly and robust as the 190 but with a totally different look . Not super scale but as believable as possible given the simple construction . The aim would be produce something approaching the picture shown .

More breaking news: A dyslexic Devil worshipper has sold his soul to Santa.

Breaking news: A man goes to see a witch and askes if she could remove a curse that a priest had put on him. The witch asks him if he could remember the exact words of the curse. He said, “I now pronounce you man and wife."

I had a transmitter RF module failure with my Spektrum DX8 Tx 10 years ago when it was only a few weeks old (and under warranty). It was extremely lucky that I was using it with my DJI drone with return to home failsafe on it at the time. Having done range checks previously, I took off and flew away a few yards when the drone climbed to around 60ft, hovered and then flew back and landed at the take off point, all without any input from me. Subsequent investigations showed that the RF output from the Tx had gone extremely low power. Had I been flying anything else (i.e. one of my fixed wing planes) at the time, it would have crashed and I wouldn’t have known why. The RF module was confirmed faulty by Horizon and replaced under warranty. It just goes to show that the safety of our aircraft is dependent on every component in the chain working properly all the time.

Following the build of the WR FW190 and the build of the launch dolly for it, I've been asked if I would make some of these for sale, so here it is. The following photos show the prototype for which I used C/F tubes but the production version has plastic (electric conduit) tubes instead. The frame measures approx 600mm x 600mm but the fittings can be positioned to suit the model it will be used for, in fact if you use screws to attach the fittings it can be adjustable to suit a range of models. There are 2 options for purchase, one with wheels and the other without as there are those who may have a stash of old wheels that could be used. If supplied with wheels the fronts are 6" dia and the rear 3". The foam support pads are included and the rear one is left ready for you to form a cut out to suit your model. The 3D printed parts are ASA so they should be OK for all weathers! Note that the following photo doesn't have the front nose support but that is in the kits plus it uses C/F tubes for the frame whereas the kits have white plastic tubes. The 3D printed parts Prices (inc UK P&P) as follows: Kit 1 - £45 Plastic tube 600mm x 2 Front wheels 6" x 2 Rear wheel 3" x 1 Front wheel bracket / wing supports with foam pads x 2 Rear wheel bracket / tail support with foam pad x 1 Front nose support with foam pad x 1 Fittings - nuts and bolts for wheel axles and wheel spacers. Kit 2 - £30 As above less wheels and fittings.

Well this evening I’ve got “Richard” safely ensconced in his rightful place, with just the instrument panel still to install (I printed one out already, but I’ve lost it…). Then I can glue on the canopy (epoxy?) and from there it’s just finishing the painting and weathering to do. I added some extra bits (bullet shield?) after seeing them on the Dave B thread, and thinking they really set it off nicely for not much extra effort. I’m amazed with how good this thing looks and how well it flies - for a relative newcomer to this stuff it’s a testament to the clever design and the learning I’ve got from this forum and Ron’s YouTube videos that I got this as a result. Very chuffed! Highly recommended for anyone reading this who is tempted to give it a go.

What about the dyslexic pimp who got a job managing a warehouse?

Lets have look at the challenges of this particular subject . It is a trickier subject than the teutonic Fw190 , with its very clean straight lines . Typical of British designs , they have lots of ornate shapes and curves which must have made mass production a challenge . The wings are similar to a clipped wing Spitfire although slightly less elliptical . The dihedral is more like a Hurricane in that the outer panels crank up . Wing fairings are too large to be ignored and we must consider the option of fitting a retractable undercarriage at a later date . For strength , simplicity and cost , the core of the wings will be foam veneer as the 190 . However a well thought out and fool proof method of adding balsa leading and trailing edges must produce the distinctive elliptical wing shape . As with the 190 , the battery must be as far forward as possible to avoid ballast and to gain maximum nose weight , be canted to near vertical . There will definitely be more wood so the cost may increase by a few pounds. On the plus side , I have built two similar versions back in 1998 and 2000 . Both were very popular and flew really nicely . The wide stance and nice tail areas bode rather well and the long dorsal fin fillet always endows them with great directional stability . Even though the extra wood will mean a little more weight , this will be offset by the larger wing area afforded by the elliptical wing . I will be using a standard off the peg 3" spinner and will keep a stock of red and yellow options . There will also be a stock of 4250 motors and decal sets including the "sky " fuselage band and squadron codes which can be difficult to replicate . I think you will enjoy the build , especially as if you have already completed the 190 . The extra challenges are dealt with in a novel way that is rather satisfying to carry out and might even inspire one or two of you to try a design of your own .

They do it on porpoise

I must have been short changed, my Warbirds FW190 is 52" span

Why has 'stutter' got all those t's...?

Why is "Dyslexia" so hard to spell?

Yes. . But not motors. Yes, but they were later discovered to be fake Futaba servos. Thank goodness for testing.

Believe it or not I think that this 120" version is basically a scale up of the same plan, Not built by me, it came a a bit of a wreckto be rebuilt. Beautiful steady flier, it perambulates around the sky in a stately manner as befits the real thing

Failed during cycling. . . About 20 minutes into the procedure. They became hot, slowed down and finally stopped.... they had died. If they had been installed in a model, they would worked.... but not for long. They would have cost a model.

I used to do that. Plug in, wiggle for a while, centre, disconnect. Then I got a cheap tester that can centre, and 'exercise' the servo through full movement at a selectable speed. New servos now get exercised in this way, for about 30 mins, before being centred and installed. Came from ebay for a few pounds and has lasted years..... For a while, I had a similar function programmed into my transmitter, but I kept wanting to use the tx for other things!

I remember the days when even a hint of what was to be in the budget speech before the day itself was a big scandal. Most (or certainly a lot) of today's speech has been forecast for a week or two.

More progress this evening. Pilot has been 3d printed and I’ve had a go at painting him - nowhere near the level of the experts on here, but better than you’d find in a typical ARF so well worth the hour it took me. I decided he needed a suitably strong German name to go with the screen-idol looks (!) - so I’ve decided to christen him “Richard” after the famous German composer, Richard Strauss. Obviously. It was either that or “mightypeesh”, and that didn’t sound very German…

Just been checking on the latest threads and no sign of the funnies, although the last posting was 8 hours ago. If I go search I can find them, but not in the normal listings. Has Brian upset someone ? 🤣

I'm unaware of any action but there was a server change earlier - perhaps something to do with that?

Well I'd say it took me about 25% of the time to build it then covering and getting it all working with the push rods took the rest of the time. Well happy with it, just printing some reducers for the holes at the rear where the rods exit as they move around a bit in them and it means the rudder and elevator are not as smooth as I would like.

Everyone knows it's spelt lithp.

And who put the 's' in lisp?

Herman the German? He needs a name!

Great stuff Richard, looking forward to getting my hands on one!

erfolg Its all to do with longitudinal stability and how close the plane is to having neutral longitudinal stability. As you open the throttle there is more thrust so the plane speeds up. Its natural stability will cause the plane to climb to return it to its "natural" stable speed. However if the thrust increase is significant and sudden the plane will climb faster and most likely at an angle greater than that required to achieve the stable speed. The result is the plane slows down too quickly ending in a nose drop which then causes the plane to speed up past the stable speed so it returns to climbing and so on. Longitudinal stability is damped but not by much so any outside inputs can cause an oscillation which may or may not damp down by itself. Throw in some human elevator input and the system can get unstable very quickly. Answer 1. Input any throttle changes gradually so the natural stability has time to return to the plane to its natural flying speed. It also gives the pilot time to retrim as required. 2. Add down thrust. Get the angle right and the nose down element of the thrust will match the tendency of the natural stability to make the plane climb, Note this will only be true once a "steady state" is reached. Until this state is reached the plane will either tend to dive or climb. 3. Fit a gyro system! That will keep the plane at a set attitude regardless of any external input. Human pilot no longer required. A gyro senses change faster than a human so it can even keep an unstable plane level. That's my understanding of the issue.

Geoff, I've got a bare Wot 4 balsa fuselage, it is one from a kit build model and looks heavier than the ARTF version. It fits the wing profile of the ARTF version. It came with an item I got on ebay so if you want it you can have it (free....). I'm only a couple of miles from you.

Insufficient pilot skill for the model and/or setup.

My pilot, Hans Free, is about 1/8th scale and could be a tad larger as he really should fill the space a bit more. If you look at any photos or footage of pilots in the FW, there isn't a lot of room in the cockpit!

It may be or if I can find a PAW 19 I will use that then keep the 25a for another model, the larger 40/45 will be for the Sky 40.

I take a sheet of 200-400 grit (whatever is handy) wet/dry paper and fold it in half back to back. I then smear it up with glue and stick it to itself so its gritty on both sides. once dry i cut 'washers' from it and install them between the prop driver and spinner backplate, and between the spinner backplate and prop. I have also used this on smaller engines with plastic spinners and nylon props. Works a treat in all instances.

Blimey, you've been busy!!!

New JE starter arrived and VERY pleased - just the job ergonomically much better than the Sullivan for my hands and a nice light touch switch - thanks to all (incl Just Engines) for your help J

Yes

Too late David, I mentioned it a clubmate who has several diesels and he promptly bought it!

Do you all test/exercise your other new components transmitter,receiver,motor,esc etc for an hour before committing to flight or is it just servos?

That picture is Bach to front.

New ones...

This has been a good week for the FW190. 2nd in the club 'Winter build' concours ( the Sopwith Pup float plane was superb!), and a successful maiden today. The sun even came out. Set the Cg 75-80mm back and she flew great. I cautiously dialled in a touch of up elevator prior to the first hand launch, then ran out of down trim to compensate so took it out again. Hand launching was easy, although my finger grip holes proved to be a bit small. I fitted a 620kv motor turning a 14x8.5 prop and am really pleased with it. Pulls away from a light launch easily, is less buzzy than higher Kv motors and flies at scalish speeds. I was easily getting 9 1/2 min flights using 1800 mA out ouf 2600 4S batteries. I preferred mid rates (about 80% of the plan deflections) but then dropped the elevator further to 60% which helped scale flying. It's a keeper :)

Maiden flight today 6th March 2024 weather fine a bit blustery. The model tracked well a little bit of toe in on the wheels so no problem. flying on low rates but not low enough so a bit skitty on elevator. Second flight with much reduced rate on elevator it was a different model and turns well on rudder doesn’t need ailerons. The Saito 40 FS is well matched in fact flying at half throttle. looking forward to flying the Elf on calm sunny days this summer. Mike

I'd imagine that Phil's point about the absurdity of the nonsense comment that an elevator-less landing is impossible stems from his years of flying single channel models which are not equipped with such luxuries.

Lovely job, very nice looking model 👍👍

Hi folks, thanks for the support. I have thought long and hard about making a batch of pilots to sell but am a bit reticent, as although I have sculpted the body and flying hat etc, the original head sculpt that I used is somebody else's work, downloaded for free. As they were generous enough to share their work I am going to do the same and attach the .stl file for you to print your own free copies. The file is a scan of the original which has the base that I sculpted it on attached to the bottom as a lip. Also it does not quite align with the Z-plane. I killed two birds with one stone and lowered the model in Cura to eliminate the base and give it a flat bottom 🙂. He was printed on the highest resolution with 5% infill and a brim without support. It is a great community on here and I get much enjoyment from reading it on pretty much a daily basis so am more than happy to give a something back.. All I would ask is that you do the same with the file and keep it not for profit if you do pass it on to fellow modelers please. pilot small.stl Looking forwards to seeing clones of 'Piglet' take to the skies. Cheers, Simon

Weather was grim outside so did a spot of weathering inside... Underside Tailplane Rudder Wing Doh, missed printing out the insignia when I did the main number vinyls and am too stingy to use a whole new sheet for just one decal, so out came the paints again This is a cool moment..... I'm sure I'll keep fiddling with some more detail, but we're pretty much done... Thank you Richard and Paul for setting up this project and to all those who sent encouragement along the way - it's been great fun. That was my 2nd scale (ish) build and I'm now hungry for more 😃