Matador build by Big Bandit

[Big Bandit]

Hi All,

That's got the petrol mower fixed, the carb was full of muck and some of the jets were blocked so a strip and clean did the job. Finished just before it started to rain, that makes a refreshing change then . I have managed an hour this evening in the shed and made a bit more progress.

First off the radio switch needed fitting and the RX battery locating so I've used the servo tray to form a radio block. The switch mounted ready for an 18 gauge push rod.

And the battery mounted at the front end on a slab of foam and held on with tiewraps.

All fitted back in and the RX is going onto the cabin floor just aft of the tray so it's easy to get at. It's most likely I'll use the AR500 so it will be easy to check for brown outs through the cabin windows.

Dealing with the exhaust I've used a push on silicone extension which apart from getting as much of the exhaust away from the fus will attenuate the bark a bit. It'll probably throw most of the clag onto the tailplane.

As it is set up now the CG is just where it should be so considering theres only the top of the fus to cover, fit the windows, the prop and spinner should bring it forward a tad, the wings are built and just need joining, sanding and covering so it's all looking good for no ballast, and if I do need any at all it can go in the cowl. When I've done the bit's tomorrow I'll weigh it.

Cheers,

Chris.

Edited By Big Bandit on 07/05/2012 22:22:52

[Big Bandit]

Hi All,

Well ! another wasted day, I'm off at the moment as I've booked a couple of days holiday. So I got a phone call from a contractor saying that there is a meeting this afternoon about the changes in the new regulations. I wanted to go as it has implications to the way the Council operates in some area's with regard to Asbestos, and I needed to clear up some grey area's that the HSE still haven't come up with definitive answers. Guess what, it hasn't rained for the first time in days .

Anyroadup,

After dinner I've just weighed the Matty on the kitchen scales as they are much more accurate than the ones I have in the shed. All the gear in, prop nut and washer under the cowl, windows to glaze, and the wings to sand, join and cover.

26 3/8 oz's, so it's 1lb 10 oz and I recon the rest of the work will be about 4 oz so I'm aiming for 2 lb.

More to follow.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Chris,

Looks like your plane will be lighter than mine, but of course mine currently has an 8 oz battery pack and some spruce in the structure.

As for local authority work, I spent about 35 years working in local authority engineer and architects' sections, and of course we had to be trained on asbestos issues. More recently I was re-trained at a private company on new approaches to asbestos problems. As I mentioned elsewhere I could have done with this training prior to using asbestos paper on Jetex models.---Two of my former work colleagues died from asbestos related illnesses, One chap was extensively exposed in the Royal Navy to asbestos.

Mike

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

Ah... Chris I think I can see what you are doing wrong here......surely the kitchen scales should be in the shed & the shed scales should be in the kitchen.....

Mike touches on an interesting point too.......generally with mid & larger electric models you find there is not much difference between the weights of IC & Electric power but at the lower end you often find the electric version is a tad heavier.....in my recent Sharkface there is no doubt that a Cox 049 is lighter than the outrunner/ESC/1000mAh battery that has replaced it.....

[Big Bandit]

Hi Mike, Steve,

Your right about the weight difference between IC and Electric, Brushless and Lipo's have gone a long way to restore the balance compared with brushed motors and Nicad's not to mention the performance differential with IC. I know a lot has been done to build lighter for Electric power, but I'm a light builder anyway. Steve's right as well about the differences being more noticeable for smaller models than it is with larger models, but with electric there's no trim change as the fuel is used up.

I've had a play with the little glazing frames that I knocked up for try different glues.

First off RC Modellers glue.

Next was Canopy Glue.

Then I tried Foam safe cyano. Zap medium.

And Bob Smith super gold thin.

The obvious difference is speed of drying and ordinary cyano is a no no because the acetate will likely have white blooms to spoil the appearance. I preferred the Formula 560 Canopy glue to RC Modellers glue although I had no problems with drying of the latter both on the painted side and the entreated balsa. The Canopy glue grabbed quicker.

So I've used the Bob Smiths on the windscreen, by tacking the lower corner then pulling tight, wicked some in sparingly to the upright, then pull around the front and do the same the other side. Then around the curved former letting it wick though on it's own, and finally the top under the leading edge of the wing seat. and trim off any excess. Next I've fitted the cowling with the fuel filler fed through an eyelet to tidy up the hole in the cowl. I've also formed a cutout for the needle valve and painted ready for fuel proofing.

Side windows next, using the Canopy glue.

And weighted to dry over night.

more to follow,

Cheers,

Chris.

[Lee Damms]

Great job there Chris, thats set the benchmark high.

Regards

Lee

[Big Bandit]

Hi Mike,

Great stuff, I usually use a cross mount on the fixed part of the motor and mount that to the bulkhead, and as you say set the side and downthust with washers. Thats normally when the motors mounted to a blind bulkhead, by the sound of it you can get away with out the cross mount as it seems that you are using the type of motor that has a round mounting plate built in like the one Lee's using. Their good little motors and should fly the Matty very well.

Hopefully the weather will up a bit for you, I hope to be at Old Warden for the Mayfly but it may be cancelled as the airfield was waterlogged last weekend.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Big Bandit]

Thanks, Lee,

Yours looks the business, it'll be interesting to see the completed weight considering we are both using the same covering. The main difference will be wood selection and power train.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Lee Damms]

Hi Chris just had the scales out 26.5ozs or 751 gms with just the glazing to add. Battery is a Turnigy 1300mah 3s. I reckon I'll go with glazing frames on the side so a little bit of extra weight there.

Regards

Lee

[Big Bandit]

Hi Lee,

That's pretty good for the lecy version and I recon you'll have a sweet flyer there. I've done a bit more today until the felt blew off the shed roof .

The RX is now bound and fitted, this is on a 1/32 ply plate stuck to the fus floor with a 1/4" foam block for vibration proofing, then the RX mounted with Velcro on the plate. Just need to range check and set the limits on the tranny. The Red Futaba plug is the charging lead and the wire from the switch is the On Off linkage.

The little red thing is the ON Off pull switch running through a small plastic collett All of the glazing finished.

Looks OK and ready for the transfers.1lb 8.6 oz's ready for the wings and wing dowels.

Transfers printed and sprayed, I'd just got the first coat of lacquer on when the felt blew off the roof and after the crawling around clout nailing a new piece of felt on there was the old black dust on the newly sprayed surface , fortunately it had dried enough for the dust to be lightly brushed off. Logo's for the fus and lettering for the wings.

Then another two light coats and leave to dry, should be OK for applying later. Lettering for the fus and some larger spare logo's.

This is the first time I've used this method for waterslide transfers, just have to see how it goes. Some time ago a few forumites were playing with this stuff and achieving good results.

The paper is from Crafty Paper which I didn't realise is a local company so I could have saved the postage, I also brought a can of their lacquer.

Last night I posted another set of vintage logo's on the tread so anyone who wants to have a go at their own transfers it's all there to try. logo's here

Cheers,

Chris.

Edited By Big Bandit on 10/05/2012 18:12:59

Edited By Big Bandit on 10/05/2012 18:15:11

[Lee Damms]

Hi Chris looks great I've a feeling my glazing will look a bit utility compared to yours, what type of paper/lacquer is it that your actually bought for the transfers, I've got some old logos in my photo album.

Regards

Lee

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Chris,

Some years ago I bought some paper from Avicraft to form lettering. God knows what I did with it. Years ago you could of course buy alphabet letter transfers in sheets but they do not seem to be available now. I did buy some lettering from Mick Charles Models which is self adhesive 'stick-on' and have added 'Matador' to the wing.

Your plane looks a real work of art and should receive a prize at Greenacres assuming some have been arranged?

Today I fitted the bulkhead and brush less motor to my Matador. Unfortunately I could not fit the bulkhead far enough back so that the spinner could fair-in with the cowling top, so there is rather large gap between the two. Two redundant bolts that were glued and left in the bearers and the location of the battery straps prevented the bulkhead being located in the right place---I need a longer nose!

As Lee had warned about the potential of motor mounting screws coming loose I carefully drilled the bulkhead with very tiny drills for the mounting screws, and eventually settled for a 1.5mm drill which was OK.

All that's left to do is the soldering of the Deans connectors and the speed controller gold connectors.

Best Wishes,

Mike

[Big Bandit]

Hi Lee,

It's the Ink Jet paper and the laquer they sell to go with it. I'll go down the shed in a bit and try them, recon they'll be dry enough by now.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Big Bandit]

Hi Mike,

I used rub down transfers in the 70's and 80's a lot for artwork and PCB production in the lab, but they stopped production as I've been told some years ago. Theres still some bit's left but nothing I could use for this one.

Crafty paper do some good stuff and I found out about them on this forum some time ago, but this is the first time I've used them. Later it's down the shed to see how they work and as I'm not very arty these days these things are something different for me.

It sounds like your Matty is about ready to fly again and the weather looks good to go this weekend up here, hope you will post some pici's and let us have a report on how it goes.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Chris,

I will put some new photos on the other forum blog.

I had a few moments this morning to solder the gold connectors to the speed controller. I then did a quick run test on the motor without changing over the battery connectors to the Deans type. The power available is amazing on the battery pack I have reduced to 10.8 volts and must be enough to allow take offs! It must also be possible to use my 9.6 volt battery packs.

I must check out the setting up of the throttle stick movement as again very little movement produced loads of power-----good these brush-less motors!

Mike

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

Can't wait to see the finished Matty Chris.....The Concours d'elegance award will surely be yours.....

Mike, glad to see you're cracking on with the brushless conversion......as you say good aren't they!!! Have you invested in a Wattmeter yet? Very important to make sure everything is working within its limits....doubly so if you are experimenting with battery voltages & prop sizes....

[Big Bandit]

Hi Mike,

Yes they are a massive improvement on the older brushed motors, you may find a further improvement when you fit the deans as there is normally a loss through the Tamya connectors. Sounds like you may transform the Matty.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Good luck with the brushless Mike, it may be worth being careful with the throttle first time out.

I'm with BB on the Tamya connectors - horrible things.

BB matty looks fantsatic, can't wait to see the transfers on her.

[Martyn K]

I agree with you Chris, this and yours are looking fantastic. I can't wait to see them.

Martyn

[Big Bandit]

Hi All,

Well the new bit of felt on the shed roof is holding up and the wind is really giving it some this morning, will have to do the whole lot soon though.

Anyroadup,

The transfers are on and I'm well chuffed with them, I'd recommend anyone who wants to do some authentic looking transfers for vintage models to try them and latter I'll post on the other thread of where to get the stuff and stock order numbers.

The Mercury logo.

Model name.

And obligatory SMAE fin transfer.

Looks fairly smart and I've followed the pici in the 1963 KK handbook.

And the other side.

And to top the morning off the posty just left a new toy for me to play with for the Astro Hog when the new workshop gets done. Brand new old stock and never been run. I won an older version a couple of weeks ago, but let a mate have it for his Hog.

Time to get on with the wings now, they just need sanding and joining, so it's off back down the shed.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

Fantastic Chris....looks really good....

I think a "How To" thread on the transfers would be really interesting.....might I even suggest that you could write an article & submit it to Graham for inclusion in the mag.....

Immortalised in RCM&E your fame would be forever assured.......

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

They do look good don't they!

BB you don't fancy coming up with a price for a set of those ready made do you? Mates rates of course

[Martyn K]

That looks superb Chris.. and I think a write up on making transfers would be great.

Would it be inappropriate to ask how much the Merco cost? or is the price likely to be censored by the mods?

Martyn

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

The odd Merco comes up on ebay.....prices vary depending on demand.....

I can think of no earthly reason why the price should or would be censored......unless I was making a bid of course...

[Big Bandit]

Hi Steve,

Thanks, and yes no problem in doing a thread, they are so easy that it supprised me. I'll do a transfer blog, and of course if Graham is interested I wouldn't mind doing an article.

Hi Chris,

If you PM me I'll lob a set in the post, do you want all of the fuselage ones, there no problem at all to produce.

Hi Martyn,

Thanks, I'll do the blog later, and with the amount of artwork on the web almost anything is possible. The first Merco 61 I got for £21 plus postage and it had only just been ran in and quite clean. An old modelling mate is just building the Sig Astro Hog from a kit and asked me if I could get a Merco for him, I missed a couple on Ebay. Then I won the new one for £35 plus postage so it was a steal really, and I let my mate have the first one for what it cost me. He was well pleased I think the postage was £6 for each. I've also won a few Merco 35's (about 6) lately since I got the one for the Super 60 so I wouldn't mind doing a 35 Sized Hog. let me know if your after one and I'll not bid on it.

Cheers,

Chris.