Tony Major DH Mosquito

[Craig Spence]

Hi all,

 

after a long time searching many sites I have finally decided to build a Mosquito.

I havent decided If im going to get the lazer cut kit yet with plan or just buy the plan and cut the parts myself.

 

Its a Tony Major DH Mosquito and has a 76" wingspan and two 40 two strokes, I was wondering if anyone has built one and if they have, have they got photos or any tips for the build?.

 

Any feedback really.

 

Cheers all.

[bert baker]

I have a small selection of full size photos and some of a 96" mossi

 

I got the mossi bug and ended up getting a mega models 96" semi kit, glass fuz foam wings

 

Put in shed and thats as far as project went,One day I will have to decide to build her or sell her on

 

Bert

[Craig Spence]

Hi Bert,

 

Many thanks for the reply and sorry im so late in getting back to you.

I have managed to get alot of pictures of the mosis but more are more than welcome, in particular the night fighter version with four guns.

The night fighters I have pictures of are varients I think, some with eight guns, some with cannons as well. Im looking for the one with four guns only.

 

The plan im building is all built up and a hefty project lol!, cant wait though.

[Craig Spence]

Hi all,

 

so I have went against my original plan and chosen the Brian Taylor plan and wood pack from traplet.

I bought them today over the phone and should have them soon hopefully, cant wait as soon as I get it, it will be getting built on the board.

 

I will open a new thread once I do.

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Very exciting! I like the Mossie. I'll be following with interest! Good luck with the build

 

BEB

[Craig Spence]

Cheers Biggles' Elder Brother.

 

Hope the kit comes soon, they 7 to 10 days, thats too long for an excited man lol!.

[Craig Spence]

Cheers Biggles' Elder Brother.

 

Hope the kit comes soon, they 7 to 10 days, thats too long for an excited man lol!.

[Craig Spence]

Well the kit is here and it looks fantastic,

 

Im off to the model shop tomorow to pick up some supplies. The plan does look very complicated and it doesent look like its changed from when it was first made.

On the plan there are only a few servo's, probably because of the weight back then, the undercarriage is operated by one servo and there are bell cranks going everwhere to minimise servo use.

 

So I will be going for more servos to simplify things and also to have a bit more confidence in the model, One servo for the retracts on my patch just wont cut it lol!.

 

I have been tapping into alot of build blogs of the same and similar model's and they have all put more servo's in.

 

Ill keep a little blog on here but not a great deal, more for reference for me to look back on and for people if they wish to comment and help out.

 

So if you feel you could help please do. I will be opening a new thread and will let you know. Cheers for the help so far.

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Oh - it really exciting! Looking forward to this - as I say I really like this prototype, but I've never had the time (read "guts"!) to try it - keep us up to date Craig.

 

BEB

Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother on 10/08/2010 14:45:47

[Craig Spence]

Hi Biggles' Elder Brother,

 

good to see other people get as excited over a project as much as me.

Well I built the fin last night and sanded it down, the sheeting has set a little low on one bit so it will need to be filled but its not a problem the fin itself is in good shape.

I couldent sand anymore (which I tried) as its verging on paper thin in some places, this doesent bother me as I will be useing glass cloth and epoxy finishing resin to finish off the model when built.

 

The rudder is the only part of the model which will be covered differently, This will be covered in tissue for scale effect.

I will post a picture of the fin later today, its in perfect shape and cant wait to do the rudder. 

[Craig Spence]

So heres the pics so far (Non of the actual build though).

Basically the fin is built in two halfs, four riblets each half, leading and trailing edge sheet. Build Port and Startboard fins and sheet, then glue together and sand to shape.

 

There is scrap wood inside to hinge to the rudder.

 

Dont know if you can see it here but a little of the sheeting set in the wrong place, easily solved with some filler though.

 

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Always nice to feel you've "made a start" - its onward and upward from here! Looking forward to seeing that distinctive pointed DH tailshape emerge.

 

BEB

[Craig Spence]

Yeah I wanted to start the fuselage first but the plan recomends that you make the tailplane before the fuselage.

The stabilizer only sits on two peices of balsa sheet glued together and about an inch either side glued to the fuselage lol!, I think its obviously strong enough I just find it a strange technique and the fin is just glued straight onto the fuselage as well, no slot or anything but I can make a balsa fairing, the plan has an alloy one.

 

At the moment im contenplateing the finishing of the tail plane. Im not sure what to do really.

I want to cover the rudder in tissue for the effect and the rest in glass cloth and finishing resin. Problem is, should I cover them before joing fin to rudder & stab to elevator then join them to the fuselage or glue them to the fuselage and cover later with the whole fuselage.

 

I think what I may do is cover the rudder completely with tissue and dope, allow to dry.

Apply finishing resin to the trailing edge (hingeing surface) of the fin to fuel proof that part, allow to dry.

Once both areas are dry drill and hinge, this way I can get the finish I want when covering the fuselage and tailplane together.

 

As for the stabilizer and elevator I will just apply finishing resin to the hingeing surfaces, allow to dry and hinge.

 

If I do it this way I can cover the whole fuselage and tailplane without worrying about gaps where fuel can get into open areas of balsa.

 

If I covered the tailplane first and then tried glueing it to the fuselage I may need to cut bits back and I think it will just look messy.

 

What do you think?.

[Danny Fenton]

I have the BT plans for the 81" Mossie, but it is a few models down the list at the moment. What size are you doing Craig? Brian did a couple of sizes.

 

A few people leave the hingeing until last, if possible even after painting though that isn't always achievable.

 

I will look forward to seeing how you get on with the laser cut parts, I have not heard good reports so far as to the accuracy of the bits from Traplett. I should try some on the plan to make sure they are exact  Brians drawings are VERY accurate and if you build to his lines stuff fits.

 

Cheers

Danny

[Craig Spence]

Hi Danny,

 

the plans are for a 71" Mossie, I see what you mean about leaveing the hingeing till last (in case paint, epoxy or glue goes in the hinges and of course the over all finish) but I know some parts like the flaps have to be covered when hinged.

 

I dont like the idea personally because when you cover a complete model there are so many issues which could occure, bindind of the surfaces, hinge problems, areas which arnt fuel proofed and bad finishes due to tight spots.

 

If I can get around some things I will.

 

I will take your advice on that though, I could leave the hingeing of the tail plane to the point of where I have to add it to the fuselage but as for the over all finish I will be leaveing it untill the whole fuselage is complete as I will have to cut parts off the stab away and make a fairing for the fin.

 

As for the accuracy of the parts, there pretty bang on at the moment but that said ive only used eight riblets lol!, I have had to cut these a little only due to the angle of the fin and yeah there was a slight gap at the bottom of the ribblets and leading edge. This hasnt been a problem though and im impressed so far.

 

If you have any tips on finishing the model (glass cloth and epoxy resin especially and of course the controll surfaces) I would really appreciate it.

 

Cheers

 

Craig. 

[Craig Spence]

Oh while im here,

 

I was wondering if anyone has any pictures of the Mosquito from the museum off the M25/ or any museum.

 

Interest points are the Fighter/ Bomber varient (to be precise, the one with 4 machine gun's and four erm.. other guns below that which are not visible apart from the ports.)

 

I have looked at pictures on the internet which are great but I need alot more detail, points of interest are, the tail plane & control surfaces, paint schemes - was there ever one in a desert paint scheme?

 

Well anything youve got fellas and any one got any tips for amking rivits?.

 

Cheers all.

[Danny Fenton]

Hi Craig, I can't really advise much on that version as my plans are for the slightly larger one.

As for glassing etc I was a dyed-in-wool dope and tissue person but having tried glass cloth would have to vouch for it. Dope and tissue is very fragile and you really have to decide what the model is to be used for as to what finish is applicable. The Mossie has a very long tail moment and as such any extra weight at the back will really hurt the overall weight as so much will be needed at the front to get the c of g right.

Personally I fly my nice models on special days, and I am very careful how they are stored and transported. I would go for Tissue over any open structures as it is the lightest. I am about to try Skyloft polyester over the open structure on a Brian Taylor Hurricane. Its an iron on, very open weave material, like tissue. The idea is it is much stronger than tissue. The weave is very open however and to fill the weave you then apply a layer of lightweight tissue. I haven't tried it yet but a guy I know in Turkey has great success with it, and has sent me some to try. I will let you know how it goes.

 

The best epoxy resin for covering I have used is LS285 sold by Fighter Aces it sands really nicely, and you really would be amazed at how little goes on the airframe when done right.

 

I don't think there is a right or wrong method, but we all have our tried and tested ways.

 

I look forward to seeing how you get on

Cheers

Danny

[Craig Spence]

Hi Danny,

 

the whole model bar the rudder is being glass clothed and epoxy resin finished, at the moment im quite confident that the tail wont be that heavy as the original model did not have many servo's and used alot of bell cranks, mine will have a few more servo's in the wing bringing the weight forward a bit.

Plus you can add balast in the nose which is quite handy.

 

The main wing is all sheeted in peoples build blog forums but I can only see it on the leading edge of the plan, ill have to research that when I get there.

 

The iron on stuff you are talking about sounds good, Ive also heard of something called poly-c and alot of people swear by it, I may look into that as well.

 

Ill get back to you with the name of the resin im working with and you can let me know if its any good.

 

Cheers Danny much appreciated.

[Craig Spence]

Oh I forgot to say as well,

 

I have made my first minor mistake, I copy some parts of the plan onto traceing paper and then photocopy, this way I have paper to work on and dont ruin the plan.

 

The disadvantage of this of course is missing information.

 

The fin and tailplane surfaces are supposed to be sheeted with lite ply, I and the guys at my local model shop agreed it would be better to use thin balsa to the same measurement.

Well the mistake was I was supposed to sheet over the trailing edge of the fin and leave a 3mm overlap, I am happy that I made that mistake now as this is a bit flimsy for the soft balsa, so I will be adding some thin ply at some point as an over lap.

 

Lesson to self, pay attention lol!.

 

It looks great though and I will be working on the rudder tonight.

[Craig Spence]

So here's a few photo's, the rudder was pretty straight forward, however I do have a few concerns.

 

When drilling the wholes for dry fitting the hinges the bit devated a bit because the shell structure and middle sheet in the rudder. Have sorted it with a little extra boreing but its frustrating and also drilling a whole under the rudder tip was tricky.

 

 

Fit without the hinges.

 

Dry hinged and this is where my concerns are, the bottom of the fin trailing edge is quite alot wider than the bottom of the rudder leading edge.

 

It has been built to plan so im confused, is it supposed to be like this?.

It doesent look bad and once I have the shroud or a couple of mm extra sheet on the back of the fin it will look OK.

 

Also I have to sand more back at the top of the rudder so the fin sheet can fit.

Happy so far though.

[Danny Fenton]

Well done Craig, keep at it.

 

One thing I do that might help you is I cover the section of plan I am building on with the backing from Solartex (Cling Film also works but isn't so hard wearing) This allows you to build directly over the plan (more accurate) without wrecking the plan.

 

I don't know this plan so I cannot help with how it goes together. But the thought of lite ply sheeting concerns me. I haven't seen lite ply used on a Taylor design. Nearly all the ones I have are old. But lite ply at the tail of a Mossie, whatch the weight..........

 

I would suggest if you have to fit hinges (Robart type) and the design calls for a central core of 1/16 (Brian often does this) then cut the slot for the hinge in the core sheet first. Better than trying to drill it afterwards.

 

Cheers

Danny

[Craig Spence]

Cheers Danny,

 

yeah ive got the tip with the cling film before but no the solortex, thats good thinking and recyling as well lol!.

I should have covered it with cling film but as the parts were so small I thought id rather preserve the plan. The Stab and Elevator are being built straight onto plan.

 

Belive it or not it actually sais in the plan to sheet the tailplane with lite ply, I have sheeted it with 1/16th" balsa so far but as I say I forgot the shroud at the back of the fin.

The idea of useing ply now is just for strength for rudder movements, if you over cook the rudder when in use you could crack or snap the shroud.

My idea is to do a very small 2/3mm overlap and when the glass cloth and epoxy is on it should look very good, I hope lol!.

 

Thanks for the tip on the hinges Danny I will do that next time, its quite a simple solution and I think it crossed my mind, I think more time less haste is the order of the week lol!.

I do take my time really its just the thought process ill have to work on.

 

Thanks Danny.

[Craig Spence]

I just thought of something,

 

would I be able to tissue the rudder and then glass cloth over the tissue?.

The tissue would maintain the rib lines as glass cloth and epoxy would just sag but you cant sand tissue as well as glass.

So if I covered it with tissue and then glass and epoxy resin I would get the detail and be able to get a good finish as wee.

 

Thoughts please.

[Danny Fenton]

If you are not worried about the weight, which I personally would be, you could use solartex and then give that a couple of coats of non shrinking dope.

Resin over tissue I have never seen done on open structures and it doesn't make much sense, unless anybody knows differently?

 

I wouldn't get bogged down too much with this aspect

 

 

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Craig,

 

regarding the drilling of holes for Robarts type hinges - you can buy a little jig to help with this that more or less gaurentees that the hole is the right size and central. Its not expensive - can get it from SLEC I think. If you can't find it email me and I'll send a link.

 

BEB