Nick Somerville

My plan had been to build one of these before my Bates Hellcat. However to import a full set of the beautiful articulated scale retracts, tail retract and wheels from US based Sierra Giant was a tad over £1600 and so I shelved the idea and built the Hellcat (Robart retracts £350). Glad I did as it was a most enjoyable build and has proven a superb flier. Now part way through the Hellcat build a comprehensive pack for the Bates 1/5 Bearcat was advertised on BMFA. Laser cut parts, Plans, full set of the Sierra scale retracts, wheels, a host of lovely moulded grp parts from Vic Rc (cowl, belly pan, gear doors, canopy frame and a canopy; all at a great price. So with my diminutive workshop tidied after the maelstrom of finishing the Hellcat, I dug out my Bearcat parts and made an order with Slec for the sheet and strip balsa needed. 24hrs later the doorbell rings and a large 48” long box is delivered. Happy days! Elevator halves connector/torque rod with horn and G10 hinges incorporated. 4mm piano wire with a square brass piece slipped over and silver soldered at the centre and the elevator horn filed square to fit over before soldering again. This combined with the twin horns ensures a large soldered area so I can sleep easy. My usual G10 strip top and bottom at stab trailing edge for the shroud. After slicing the centreline of the leading edge another thin strip of G10 is inserted. Firstly it makes sanding to a straight line easier but really its about ding proofing what is a particularly vulnerably area of a large model.

Lots of terrific work there David. Top drawer as always.

Thanks Chris. Next up when I tidy the workshop (always a disastrous mess at the end of a project) is another Jerry Bates plans model. 1/5 scale Bearcat. Regards completing projects…. I only ever have one build on the go. There is usually enough to do maintaining my finished models to distract from the task and in any case my workshop is diminutive.

Beautiful weather here today so a second and less nervy outing with Minsi 3. Fortunately our club chairman was there with his camera again.

Also posted this on my build notes in the scale section. Jerry Bates Plan F6F 96’”, Saito Fg 90 R3 radial for power. First impressions are of a well behaved warbird. Trainerr’esque wing area and huge tailplane combined with a modest weight (16.4kg).

Due to an unfortunate incident with my Brian Taylor P47 I have available a set of Electron ER40 retracts with Robart struts, Rs-200 sequencer/controller and a data terminal to aid setting up. The retracts were factory set at 85degrees to suit the P46. All in full working order (absolutely no damage from the incident). They were absolutely brilliant in my P47. Cost me £500 for everything in the pictures. Of there is anyone building a P47 or similar get in touch with an offer.

Cold and murky at the patch but a nice breeze in a good direction. Well mannered on the ground and in the air after a short run and still at only half throttle. Four or five clicks of down trim needed and a couple of left aileron and all was good. I probably need to reduce the elevator throw by a fair bit but otherwise I got the sense of a lovely flying warbird. Cloud base was so low I didn’t fancy a loop and was content to do some circuits a roll and a couple of slow 1/2 flap down fly pasts to feel out the approach and landing. The slow speed handling with the huge wing area and tailplane is a new warbird experience for me and she came in like a dream using very little of the patch. Happy days. Credit to our club Chairman Chris for the photography. F6f Hellcat 1/5.3 scale 96” span AUW dry 16.4 kg Engine - Saito Fg 90R3 Jerry Bates plans Slec/Belair laser cut parts Stencils - Flightline Graphics. Cowl & canopy- Fighteraces

Further frustration this week as I couldn’t get my Saito FG 90 to run. Despite several hours of tinkering and excellent telephone support from Morris James the Saito carb wouldn’t draw fuel. It’s actually a beastly bit of engineering as two needles are minuscule and very hard to feel the turns. Finally I decided to remove the new Walbro carb from my other FG90 that I had a full upgrade from Morris including swapping out the carb. This required a few mods to my mounting plate and throttle linkage but not a difficult task. Equipped with the new Walbro I lit the ignition and the engine fired up first flip. I will order another Walbro for the spare engine that awaits my next build.

My well laid plans for a maiden on a perfectly forecast Friday were thwarted by multiple failures when on Tuesday I was doing final tests on the pneumatic system. Firstly I identified an air leak at the UP8 valve when the gear was deployed. This turned out to be a faulty ram that operates the tail retract. With the tail retract Isolated I then found that both main retracts were leaking air when retracted. Not a good day! The mains both responded with a light injection of silicon lubricant and the leaks disappeared. The ram at the rear did not respond to the same treatment and so I can only assume the O ring had perished. This left me two options: remove the ram and replace the actuation of the retract with a pushrod and servo or to buy a replacement ram and try to refit. Both options required working blind with my arm down the rear fuselage or the possibility of having to open up the lower rear of the fuselage a little forward of the retract. After some colourful language and a few days break I have removed the ram and now have a pushrod installed.. This leaves just the engine run checks and the wait for another suitable flying day. For those who have followed my previous builds I had a day out on Friday with my BT P47 and Vailly FW190. I had two fabulous flights with the soo smooth FW 190 and then a more spirted fly with my P47. However during the second flight I rolled inverted at around 300’ and to my horror the wings parted company with the fuselage. Inevitably the model was a complete right off. Inspection showed a failure of the balsa where the small ply doublers are adhered that carry the wing fixings. Not a glue failure but the balsa sheeting itself! If anyone reading this has a BT design with a similar wing fixing I would encourage them to upgrade to a better arrangement.

Commemorative Air Force logo and nomenclature now completed A final top coat of transparent Klasskote has been applied to protect the acrylic markings and dry rub decals. All that remains is to bolt in the engine, programme the radio and pressure check the pneumatics. Next week’s weather looks promising, so if all checks go well we should have a maiden.

2-3hrs placing the masks and protecting surrounding areas and 15 min with the air brush! Nigel, of Flightline Graphics, prepared the masks for me btw.

Insignia and markings now added. Just the nomenclature and a few other details to go.

Klasskote paint and catalyst finally arrived and yesterday was both warm and dry for a change; ideal for cranking up my old dental compressor. Spray gun is a £30 1.00mm nozzle gravity fed job from Amazon. I am told that Hellcats in dark navy blue came out of the factory in a full gloss finish. My Minsi 3 is a restored flying Hellcat and also has an immaculate finish. For the main colour I have used 7:3 parts of gloss and satin catalyst as full gloss is just a bit OTT for me. Looking forward to adding all the insignia which will be sprayed through masks using an airbrush and SMS model acrylic paint.

Love a BT build thread. Will definitely be following along.

Not just a well sorted airframe but a superbly built and finished one too. Steve Ri is an unbelievably fine modeller!. I have closely followed his Bates Hellcat build on RCSB throughout my own build and it’s been invaluable.