Tony Nijhuis 45" spitfire build (first for donkys years!)

[mightypeesh]

Hi ladies and gents. I have finally got around to building from a plan again after many many years. I came back to the hobby a couple of years ago, and have been delighted at the development of of lipo's and brushless power. other stuff that has changed is the advances in adhesive tech - wot not 'balsa cement'!

 

I want to use this build as a learning curve to get up to speed on building techniques and to learn more about power systems and finishing. Also scale modelling is where my interests lie, so although this is a 'sport scale' type Spit, I will be practicing my own 'vague scale' detailing. I also want to finish the model in

glass cloth and epoxy, and also add retracts. I am not going to do a blow by blow account of the build as there are others on the web - see the thread by Manaconda69 over on 'radio control model flying' which I found really useful, but I am going to just post where I deviate from the plans. Ok here goes

 

 

I have been collecting the bits for a while and the specs are as follows (at the mo)
E-flite power25 motor
Castle Phoenix ice50 esc
Spektrum AR7000 reciever
Spektrum DS821 servo's for rudder + elevator
Hitech HS81 servo's for the ailerons
E-flite 10-15 size retracts
Turnigy 2200 mAh 4s lipo
11X8 prop

The power set up might be a bit over the top, but it seems from other peoples builds that they have ended up under powered.

Ok
big bit of board - check
selection of glues - check
household chores done - check
wife gone out for the day.......lets go!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited By mightypeesh on 22/09/2011 10:18:43

Edited By mightypeesh on 22/09/2011 10:30:20

Edited By David Ashby - RCME Admin on 31/01/2012 08:03:40

[Trots]

Hi mp good luck with your Spitfire build, I too am building the TN 46" Spit. and adding the same retracts as you . My wing is nearly finished with retracts fitted, my thinking was to deviate from scale position for the undercarriage , I have widened the track a little and positioned the legs further forward and angled them forward , hoping this will give better ground handling and prevent nosing over. Interested to hear your thoughts.......Trevor

[mightypeesh]

 

The first thing I did was to spend a couple of hours to build an Airfix kit of the plane 1/45th? or something. How did I build all those kits in my younger years - maybe my eyes were better and my fingers smaller. And I still get glue all over the glass bits!!! still it was all going grey so no matter!

 

I do this because I find it helps me to have a solid object from which to work and measure (and snap bits off)

 

Before I started I drew out the out line of the retracts with the wheel on, so I could decide on how to go about fitting them. I drew this on tracing film so that I could overlay it on the plan.

 

The angle of the rake was easy, just a case of measuring various drawings and my model. As I wanted to keep the raked u/c it meant that I had to work out what I think is called the 'Pintle angle' which is the weird angle that you have to fit the retract mechanism in the wing so that it A, the wheel sits flat in the wing and B, tracks straight forwards when the gear is down. After lots of trial and error and bits of balsa and tape, I came to a solution which worked. I then found an easy solution to the whole problem after I had worked it out - just look at Tonys 72" spitfire plane from RCME last autumn and use the same angles from the plan!! Simples.

 

as you can see I had to remove quite a lot of the spar for the well. I put extra bits in each side and will re-enforce the well with fibreglass when finishing. I used a bit of 3mm depron to fix 1.5mm balsa lining to for the circle.

And then just boxed around it all as required.

I had to add small packing pieces to tweek the retract angle. All in all this has been a time consuming part of the build, but it has been enjoyable as I love problem solving. the to skin is on and next I will be skinning the bottoms

 

 

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Nice work!

 

BEB

[mightypeesh]

I started this project a month or so ago, and am now well into the airframe. But I am going to post the bits of interest up till the current state and then just carry on till it's finished.

 

Now to the bottom skins. As the whole wing is sheeted I needed to mark the aperture for the retracts to fit. this I did with a piece of artists charcol, (you could use coloured chalk)

rubbed it around the edges of the well and pushed the sheeting against it. The lines transfer and take all of the guess work out of the job.

 

 

Jobs a good'n'

I am jolly pleased with the E-flite retract system, and the way it all fits neatly. I will like I have said line the wells with glass cloth, and will be making some covers from probably the same. the next bit will be the fuse and tail feathers.

 

[mightypeesh]

I have made the fuselage pretty much to plan, carving the balsa around the motor with the prop and spinner fitted in place. Here are a couple of pics of the tail feathers though. I first made them to plan, but they looked a bit........boring. So I thought I would add some details from scrap. Also I added an upright to the fin turning the grain to make it a bit stronger (I am very good at knocking the tail when wheeling them out of the hanger, down the stairs and through the kitchen).

Hopefully you can see from the pic where i have changed bits. I have added to the top

to make it a bit more 'vague scale' (and have done the same to the elevators). To add the detailing I just sanded a slight profile to the rudder and glued on thin balsa strips. when totally dry I sanded away with fine sand paper until it was nearly gone. I just want enough to show through the 25g glass cloth that I am going to finish her with to add interest, and have done a small test piece which looks good.

I am have had problems deciding on which plane to base her upon though, And this caused the next change.

 

 

[mightypeesh]

Right. I am now going to diverge slightly from the airframe, and get onto the problem of pilots. None of them seem to be of the right scale (about 1/10th going on the wingspan) and the ones that are rightish are so awful that why would you even bother. I have been routing through my nephews toy box, but unless I want Ben 10, Spider Man or a Ravin Rabbid in the office I was out of luck (mind you I already have a Rabbid in my battered super chipmunk !). So it was time to get the sculpy out. he is based upon other pilots that have been made on the net, along with various photos - aint google great!

 

If you have not used super sculpy before it is great stuff. It is a polymer clay which when baked in the oven (or through use of a hot air gun) goes hard.

This is great because when you have spent hours forcing this squidgy stuff into the shape of a face you can harden it and then add bits to it without wrecking it.

please note his slightly burnt nose. that will be the hot gun then.

and some goggles (beer can lenses)

and a body

Sculpy is quite heavy though, so I will make a silicone mold when he is done and cast him in something lighter.

coat of primer to show up bits to work on and finger-prints!!!

And a mask aswell. I have made his body longer than it needs to be for the TN spit, for future projects. I hope you like him.

[mightypeesh]

Now. Back to the airframe. I was Very uncertain about the colour scheme for this. I had a few criteria for choice, one of them being 'invasion stripes' - my eyes aint what they used to be!, and also one that had some up to date pics to study. I have decided on a cobbled version of the 'Grace Spitfire' (I did say it was vague scale), as it has a lovely history to it and lots of internet presence. I am going to keep it as a single seater with a bit of poetic licence, but it is nice to have a reference for detailing. The main problem I have made myself is that I had to change the shape of the tail

So the scaple had to come out, and a dig through the scrap box for some bits to extend the front and top od the tail to create the distinctive tail.

It is ish, but I think it looks ok.

I now have most of the airframe complete and I am very pleased with her so far.

I was ging to make a seperate glass nose cone, but as she is a one off I migh keep it as is. I am concerned about the motor being enclosed though. I will see if I can channel some cooling air from the chin scoop when I build it.

Next thing to do is fit the mounts and hardware for the tail surfaces, lower parts of the fusalage, decide on the best place to cut the access hatch for the battery and to sort out the wing fillets.

Finally for the I have lowered the cockpit floor a little bit as I want the pilot to sit 'in' rather than on the plane.

Well. thats it for now, I am back in real build time, so I will post as and when I get bits done. Cheers!

 

Edited By mightypeesh on 24/09/2011 10:06:44

[Shane Sunday]

Hey there Mighty. The build looks great! Manaconda is me and if you were looking at my build then you can only look at it for my mistakes as there were quite a few. One of the things I did wrong was the retracts. You seem to have them in well enough but make sure they are angled far forward cuz mine kept on nosing over. I can't remember if I posted a pick on how I mounted the cowl but basically I used three screws and made slits for the col to mount onto. Anyway long story short... I am in the process of rebuilding (repairing the wing) Maiden went south and cracked the wing in two. I'm gonna do fixed LG. Looking forward to seeing this one completed.

 

Cheers

 

Shane

[Shane Sunday]

Just wondering there Mighty. That pilot of yours is fantastic looking. Would there be any chance purchasing one off of you for my spit? Ive looked in the local hobby shops around here and it's nigh on impossible to get sculpy not to mention that he is a piece of art.

[mightypeesh]

Hi gents. Been busy with work and other stuff, but I will be back with more development soon. Thanks for the comments on the U/C and Mr Pilot. On the U/C front I am going to have to keep my fingers crossed as to nosing over probs, and put it down to experiance if it does not work. I will just call it a learning curve! Dont knock your build manaconda/shane sunday. It was a very interesting and informative one, and it is not the mistakes, its the getting around them that is important. I would not have started this build without your blog, so it is worth while. The last thing I built was a Extra 300 from blue foam and scrap. It was so heavy it was like lobbing a brick in the air! It flew for many, many seconds before once again returning to its natural habitat - the scrap bin! Note to self - build light.

 

On the pilot front, as soon as I have made the mold and pulled some out i will put a couple on ebay if there is demand, but I will let you know. If you want to model one you do not need to use sculpy, its just something I like. Plastcine will do it, but You need to mold and cast it as it will be very heavy! (see extra300 above)

 

thanks again for the kind comments, Peesh

[Edward smith 2]

Hi, this looks great! I am trying to build a paper model of a spitfire, and want the wings as realistic as possible, can anyone share images of the wing cross-sections or rib shapes? It would be a wonderful help.

[mightypeesh]

Ok and back in the room. They really should make working against the law, how else are we meant to get things built.? Right, as I want to use this to learn loads of new skills, the next one is the fibre-glassing. I had put this off for ages as I had read so mant horror stories about it, and how heavy it is etc. I finnaly bit the bullet after re-reading TN's article 'a touch of glass' from Jan 2011's RCME. All I can say is a big thank you to Tony for his guide. It was the most painless and dare I say it pleasurable experiance and totaly unexpectedly easy. I did have to hand packs of cards to scrape off the excess etc that i had read about, but the technique works so well that you do not put any more than you need on, so do not need to scrape it off again! also I was prepared to make a mess (something that I am good at), but when I had finished I had not spilled a drop, and once you chuck the roller and gloves that was it. For those of you that have not read it the technique runs as follows. 

 

Prepare surfaces as much as possible.

Cut the glass cloth (I used 24g) to size with about a inch spare for all the bits.

Lay and secure the cloth with masking tape to one side of the parts.

Use a small foam gloss roller to apply the Epoxy, spread thin and even ensuring no dry spots.

Let dry overnight, removr overlap with sharp blade or sand edge to remove excess and feather edge.

Repeat on other side. leave to dry.and feather joins.

Apply second coat with another foam roller, spreading out as thinly as possible.

Use wet and dry (wet) to flatten off surface.

Bobs your Aunty!

 

Nicely Wrapped - Take your time.

 

all set to go, Be prepared is the motto here. all cut, latex gloves, tins to balance stuff on, scales for accurate measuring of the epoxy. I invested in a cheap set of jewllers scales off of ebay, about a tennet I think. They measure up to 100gms in 0.1gm increments. they are brilliant for this. I can mix 1gm of epoxy at a time if i need to, with no guess work that is great for those small bits, and no waste! worth every penny.

 

first layer on no sweat.

 

Second coat of epoxy applied, I am sold on this stuff and cannot see me using anything else (open structures aside of course).

 

On the weight issue that I was concerned about I kept tabs on it for future projects. The total for the two coats of epoxy and layer of glass cloth came out out almost exactly 100gms for the whole airframe, I dont think that is a bad weight penalty given the quality of finish - It really comes up silky smooth and super ding proof - fab!

 

 

 

Edited By mightypeesh on 21/01/2012 16:04:15

[Craig Ward]

Weight shouldn't be too bad. When I glass a bird this size i use .5 oz cloth. The amount of mixed resin that I would normally use would fill a 35mm film cannister, with the model getting 2 coats. Looking good.

[mightypeesh]

Ok. I have as usual been wavering over the colour scheme for a bit, and the birthday fairy bought me the new parkzone mk9 spitfire, which now has invasion stripes as I could not see it to well when flying low (who would have thought camoflage would work!). Great flyer by the way, well done PZ. So I already have a spit with stripes that I cannot see, so I kept looking, and fell in love with the Seafire mk xv.

 

Particulaly this French one.

 

Ok so it has a griffon engine with the bulge, different exhausts and other bits and pieces, but I have already re-shaped the tail feathers, and it is a learning curve and it is a sport scale model anyway........so go for it then.

 

First thing make some exhaust stacks. I have been concerned about the motor overheating under the cowl, so i wanted to use the exhausts to act as vents. on the seafire the ports have round exit ports rather than the oval fish tails on the mk IX, they are meant to taper a bit, but on this scale straight tubing will be fine. I used 8mm tubeing and made a jig to assemble the bits. I have tacked them together with cyano, but when they are fitted into the slots in the airframe I will use a more suitable adhesive to lock it all togther.

 

should look allright when painted up. each weighs in at 7gms by the way.

 

into the slots cut in the side, looking good! now to add some 'bonnet bulges'.

 

 

 

[Vecchio Austriaco]

Nice build! Like especially the idea with the double function exhaust (double function - A - looks good, B - works as a venturi vent...)

Cheers VA

[mightypeesh]

used scraps to build up the shapes, not perfect, but it does the job.

 

you can see the slots for the stacks underneath.

 

a bit out of sync this one as it shows the chin scoop and intakes under the wings which are coming next.,

[mightypeesh]

Onto the scoops. I wanted to add a bit of detail to the under wing ones, so decided to build them from scrap rather than carving from solid, also keeps them a bit lighter. also the chin scoop i wanted to once again get some cooling ventilation into the electronics.

 

I carved the chin scoop from solid.........

 

.....Ran a bead of Cyano around the lip and allowed to dry to harden the area....

 

...then used my trusty dremel to hollow out the scoop. I will make a corrosponding hole in the fuse for air flow.

 

looks good - even if I say so myself

 

bit of filling, and more rubbing down to come. I have also added a couple of bulges on top of the wings and the wing fillets and epoxy coated the extra bits.

 

Quick coat of primer to show up dodgy spots. (11gms if you are interested) not looking too bad at all, tail looking good aswell (only used one coat of epoxy on the tail so that the weave shows through)

 

Thats it for a bit. Now I am going on to the TN school of panel lines and riviting. Very exciting! Thanks for reading.

 

 

Edited By mightypeesh on 22/01/2012 10:14:25

[mightypeesh]

Hi again chaps. I have had a couple of questions as to regards the making of the wing fairings, so I will try to explain as best I can the way that I made them. I am afraid I did not take any pics of the process, but I have dug through for some that are relevant..

 

The first step was to ensure the wing-fixings are in place, so the wing can be securely attached to give you a true indication of how the 0.8mm fairing base plates sit. I cut the ply according to plan, loosly fitted the wing and slid the plates in place under the wing seat of the fuse. When they were correctly positioned I wicked some cyano to tack it in place on the fuse and then removed the wing again. I then used some 'superphatic' to bond it solidly in place. I had also drawn onto the fuse where the fairing runs behind the wing, the pic above shows the result after doubling up with some soft balsa at the rear. please note the piece of blue foam that I have fitted fot the wing to bolt up against to tke out strain on the bit of ply with the retained nut inside the fuse.

 

 

The next stage was to use some 1.5mm soft sheet, and cut the fairing shapes. Now it does take a bit of head scratching at first, but I started by making some thin card templates on the model, using the top fairing shape as indicted on the plan as the starting point. Leave a bit of overlap on the bottom and on the length and cut two off. mark on the sides of the fuse where the top line is.

Now, in order for balsa to bend in all different directions at once you need to steam the wood. I found a shallow lidded pan in which the bits would fit, raised them above the water level with a couple of pairs of tongs and boiled half-inch of water underneath them with the lid on fo about the time it takes to have a cup of tea and a biccy.

when the balsa is nice and steamed take it out and blot the excess water off. Now to get bending. I use a bit of broom handle sized dowl to roll the wood, like you would with a rolling pin on pastry. the side that you roll it is the side it will curve up. once you have that roll the actual balsa around the dowl to curve it more. if it snaps you have not steamed it enough.

 

(sorry if this is turning into a monologue)

 

Next to offer the wood up to the fuse. Push the middle of the fairing so that it sits flat against the fuse in the middle of the top line, and tack in place with cyano. Because of the moisture you should not need kicker. work away each direction curving the balsa to your will as you go, until it is all in place. Repeat on the bottom plate, trim the excess, feather and fill when dry and admire your curve. Because I had glassed the fuse before fitting the fairings I could feather them out without cutting into the fusalage. Another plus for glassing! I re-fitted the wing after and used some scrap to double up areas to match the wing.

 

as you can see, it needed a bit of filler, but not a lot, and when glassed it blends in quite nicely.

 

Another of those jobs that looks complicated, but when you get to it you think 'wow that was alright'

 

you can also see where the exhausts will sit in the pic above.

 

Hope this all made sense to somebody!!!!

 

Cheers, Simon

 

 

[Geoff Smith 1]

Hiya Simon, very informative build and nicely done. Bit off thread here and one for the Mods, for the first time for months part of this thread disappears behind the adverts again.

Cheers.

 

Geoff .....moan dept.

[David Bess]

Great build I hope you will continue the blog to the end and show us your finished job ,I like the paint job on the French Spit too hope to see and read more

Edited By David Bess on 22/01/2012 21:36:22

[JC]

Very good build blog. I have enjoyed reading it very much. I look forward to the rest and seeing the finished job.

 

Nice work

[mightypeesh]

Decided to have a look at the canopy today. It is the only disappointing aspect of the TN spitfire. As you can see from the pic the buck that was used for the form was quite dusty, so it has bumps all over it, also it is not particularly clear, and lacking detail. I thought I would try improving it with some more detail on the front, and to sharpen up what is there already. If it does not work I shall make one up myself.

 

First thing to do was to cuth it to the correct profile of the fusalage. to do this I roughly cut to the right size, and then fixed in place with masking tape.

 

I then used a piece of 3mm depron taped over the fuse to raise up the surface enabling me to scribe on the curve.

 

I then simply cut with some small curved snips to shape.

There we go - nice fit. Also I have started to draw out when the panel / hatch lines will go later in the week (hopefully)

 

next I went around and cut the rest as required, and masked off the areas that i wanted to raise/ sharpen. I then mived up some araldite rapid (20 min) and with a small piece of card pushed it into the gaps in the tape. when it had set i gave it a quick rub with wet and dry, and sprayed a coat of primer. I then scored the edges with a scaple before removing the tape. Voila a bit of detail. I am still not happy about the transparency of it, and it is a bit wibbly in places, but when add some rivets and stuff, and it is painted up I am sure it will look ok.

 

 

 

Edited By mightypeesh on 23/01/2012 17:33:25

[David Bess]

very tidy work ; Questions what is depron tape, and what is the circle drawn on the fuse just forward of the canopy for .I am looking forward to seeing how you do rivets and make access hatches . What is the cost of going electric as opposed to IC ,and do you need a degree in electrical engineering to do it , I know exactly diddly squat about electrics

[mightypeesh]

Hi David, Glad you like it. I will try to answer your questions in order the best I can.

 

1, Depron Tape. Confusion.  What i did was cut a bit of scrap depron which is a type of foam used in under-floor heating, and is great for making quick rc planes out of. I used it by taping it to the curve of the fuse with some masking tape so that I could transfer the line to the canopy.

2, the circle is where I am trying to work out where to put hatches and panel lines, so is nothing to do with construction really, just to remind me to look at that area when i come to it as I think it has a round filler cap.

 

3, The rivets and panel lines are the bit I am loking forwards too as well. I have done some very satisfactory tests and will of course post as it happens.

 

4, Costs of electric V ic. thats tough for me as I cameback to the hobby because of the advances in electrics, so not any IC experiance. I like electric for the following reasons:

 

quiet

clean

you can keep scale lines without having the engine hanging out.

I can keep a plane in the car in case I drive past a perfect spot.

I do not need starters, fuel, etc.

Most of all.....I have a farmers field at the end of the garden and he lets me use it as electric is not intrusive.

 

That is not to say that it is cheap but it works for me. The set up for this is as follws

e-flite power25 @ £60

speed controller @ £60

battery 4c @ £35.00

lipo charger @ £45.00

 

I strapped all this to a work bench and fired it up and it gives me around 450 watts of power with my current prop selection. They reckon about 100 watts a pound, and I am thinking that I will end up as 3.5lb flying weight, so should be ok.

 

A degree in electrics? No not me, Just read lots of forums and comparisons. Make a note of what does not work, and act on it. That said it might take off and drop like a brick.......hey ho!!! I read somewhere that RC stands for 'repair constantly' I cannot disagree!

 

Edited By mightypeesh on 23/01/2012 19:45:35