the unmagnificent man

Thanks for that David I like to add small details and you haven't even seen the rudder trim tab and light yet but more of those at the end. At the moment I'm waiting for the arrival of the servos and I have now started the loft conversion in the house so although things have slowed down a tad with the build I still do something no matter how small every day. Since the last posting I managed the painting of the roundel on one side along with the squadron lettering. Production serial number to follow soon. I decided on VY which was 85 squadron which were based in France, as am I. That way I get to paint the tailfin with the french flag and give my fellow club members something to talk about. Starting to look a bit more like a Hurricane at last.

Before anyone asks, yes I did cover the screws that secure the retracts and I know it will be a job to do anything with them but the way I see it is that I shouldn't need to remove them to work on them unless there is a problem due to lets say a bad landing. I imagine that the only time I need to remove the retracts it will have probably already been done for me on impact........... oooh doesn't bear thinking about. I built it I can re build it............Simples (meerkat noise) I cant spell that!

So now for the second u/c door. It was a lot quicker to do than the first because I had done all my calculations and trial runs with that one and the second was just a case of copy but in reverse. In these before and after photos I have had to add a little balsa to restore the aerofoil section. Before sanding And after

After all these years and I only just realised that I didn't show the final photos.

Thanks for that john. I too only found out about VQ models when I asked for info on a Hurricane last month. I really do think that they are well put together. This one will be finished soon I'm just waiting for the servos to arrive and finishing the last bits of painting and detailing. I'll keep adding photos as i go along. Al

Mike, I have just been reading your thread and think you are doing a fantastic job. I take my hat off to anyone who builds a plane from kit/plan as I know from experience how difficult and time consuming it is. You are doing a great job and all the major work looks done. I hope you find the time and patience to finish this fantastic model because i for one am looking forward to seeing the finished item. I love warbirds and after reading your thread the P47 has certainly now joined my wishlist. keep us updated. UM

It now looks like this when the door is closed.

Once the brackets had been fitted the door was opened and closed a few times to make sure it didn't collide. Then when I had the correct position 2x 2mm screws were run through the door and the bracket to really strengthen the attachment. Next the wing skin was re strengthened by just glueing balsa onto the inside of the skin and sanding to shape. This photo shows one finished door and one with the original ABS plastic wheel well.

The VQ Hurricane comes with fixed undercarriage but it has everything in place to fit retracts. Again I searched the Internet and found some fantastic electric operated retracts. They have a 5mm hole for the leg and the bracket supplied with the kit allows the door to be attached. I decided that the ABS door supplied was a great shape but a little bit flimsy. I cut the shape of the door out of 4mm balsa and sanded it to the same contour as the underside of the wing. I then glued this to the inside of the ABS door and body filled the edges. Everything was clamped in position until dry. I then removed the clamps and smoothed the edges. next I removed the Abs plastic wheel wells from the underside of the wings, drew round the doors and cut out the shape. A couple of small balsa spacers were made to fit between the door and the leg bracket to make the door sit in the correct flush position when closed Edited By the unmagnificent man on 28/10/2012 18:25:18

Coming very soon...... Fixed undercarraige in the drawer and retracts with flush fitting doors fitted..........

In the manual it gives a measurement from the bulkhead to the prop backplate but that measurement is quite a way out. It says between 140 and 142mm but I calculated it at approximately 135mm. Had i have just gone with the manual there would have been about 6 or 7mm between the spinner and cowl. When the cowl is fitted it is pushed over the fuselage slightly and i think that has not been taken into consideration. If you dont push it over the fuselage there is a slight difference in diameter of the cowl and the fuselage and that results in an unsightly step. Its no big deal, just measure twice drill once.

Hooray my engine arrived. What a good deal. I always fit Super Custom engines to my models. I had the first one, a two stroke, in my trainer. It has never let me down. I then bought an SC 52 for my Me 109 before upgrading it to an SC70. I like to use the same engines because all the parts are interchangeable should i ever need to borrow from a different engine. I know their characteristics and they are very reliable and easy to start. So I looked on the internet and found a second hand but absolutely unused SC70fs still in a box for two thirds of the price of a shop bought equivalent. Not a moment to waste in it went. Starting with a small hole cut into the engine cowl and ending up with a bigger strange shaped hole that is the smallest i could make it whilst still allowing the cowl to be fitted over the engine and then fitting the silencer and allowing space for plug fitting and removal with the cowl in position. well its not such a big hole and they do need some space to allow for airflow and engine cooling.

So far the model weighs 19 kilograms and will need a ford fiesta engine to make it fly....... Just kidding, although there looks to be a lot of filler it is sanded right down and the amount of filler left on the aircraft is just a few grams.

With the left over filler i smoothed in the rear wing root fairings under the fuselage

After the tailwheel assembly was fitted and double checked it wouldn't come loose i fitted the second fairing and blended it in. If I ever need to remove that fairing it will be a bigger job than just unscrewing it but I think that it looks far better blended in and I am willing to do the necessary work if that moment arrises.

You can also see a fifth screw, this screw is to secure the horn to the wire leg and this is where I noticed a slight problem. There is a flat spot on the wire leg so that the screw seats correctly and doesn't spin around the wire leg instead of turning it. Once the tailwheel assembly is fitted and screwed against the frame the horn has very little travel in one direction. it pushes the tailwheel to turn one way but when you try to turn the other the horn just touches the frame and can't travel further. I resolved this matter by simply making a spacer to sit behind the assembly on the frame. Not only does that allow movement in both directions it also pushes the tailwheel back into a more central position between the two fairings.

The second rear tail fairing is supposed to be held in position with six screws. I really dont like that look. Its done so that you can remove it in the event that you should need to re adjust the tailwheel. I decided to make sure that the tailwheel is secure enough so as never to need to remove the fairing. I saw in the build manuel that it says there are four tiny nuts fitted to the last frame and that the tailwheel assembly bolts to them. Unfortunately that is not the case. There are no nuts factory fitted and the tailwheel assembly is supposed to be fitted with self tapping screws. I had to be certain that this will not come loose and so I made a small plate with four 2mm nuts and fitted it to the inside of the last frame. When the tailwheel assembly was fitted it was securely bolted by 4x 2mm screws and threadlocked. You can see in this next photo the four screws just before tightning up.

I decided to search the internet for cheap servos and came across futaba 3003 servos at various shops and sites. prices varied from £5 each to £8.50 each and then I found a place on ebay that does multiple purchases and they work out at just £3 each if you buy 12. Well I will need six and i will be buying another warbird for christmas which will also need six so why not. These are going to take some weeks to arrive but that doesn't matter as i have lots of time for the rest of the build. So back to the build. Next I fitted one of the two rear under fuselage tail fairings. These are supposed to be glued and the other screwed into place but you end up with a step from the fuselage onto the ABS. i decided to blend these steps out with a small amount of filler.

The next thing is to make a stand so that I can work on the aircraft whilst it is upside down. This will also double as a transport stand for carrying in my car and for storing the aircraft on its shelf. An hour some wood some screws and some glue.

More tomorrow.

A quick look at the kit. wow, I cant believe the quality of this kit. It is fantastic. The quality of the covering is superb. As for almost ready to fly well this one almost flew out of the box. I would honestly be able to say that I could have flown this plane the day after recieving it had i just built it according to the build plan and not bothered about things like blending in the fairings, changing the fixed u/c for retracts and re painting the aircraft. I built a Kyosho me 109 a couple of years back and although it was ARTF there was a lot more than this to do. Just as one example (and there are lots) The Hurricane canopy comes trimmed, painted and fitted where as the 109 had to be cut out from a mould and then painted and drilled. To top it all there is even a hand painted pilot and detailed cockpit. (Ok its a clocks sticker) but hey. Fantastic quality. So far so good.

Obviously I couldn't wait to get in it.

I ordered the kit from Hobby stores and after a little hickup with the payment and postage the kit arrived. Postage was taken from me because I live in France, its free delivery to the UK. Unfortunately I ended up paying twice for the kit and twice for postage. The price of the second kit was immediately re funded on the same day but I am still awaiting the second postage refund. They are looking into what went wrong and i am sure they will refund once sorted. More on that later.

I just recieved my VQ Hurricane and decided to review the kit and show my progression as i go along. Thanks to Tinpot pilot I managed to obtain a VQ Hurricane at a very low price. Well I think its a low price, it was £89 in the black and tan colours but strangely it is £129 in the sea gray/blue colours. I decided on the cheaper option as it makes no difference to me as i am going to paint it anyway and may as well save £40. I like to add a little something to all the models i make just to add a little realism so I'll be changing stuff as I go along. At this point I must add that although I try and re create a more realistic looking aircraft I don't try to hard so bear with me. Here we go.

Ah ha success..... off to create a blog..... delete this thread if you wish it was just a test. Thanks. UM. Alan