Tony H Posted August 28, 2013 Share Posted August 28, 2013 Hi CS,Great work so far on your build. I have been to the Nationals all last weekend (surprised you didn't go) which was really good. Like you I spend sometime talking to Cambrian's new owner and his wife. He is bringing new kits to the range and making lots of good tweaks to the old ones. He mentioned about the fun fighter range being expanded to a full range of electric version's and the kits do look better than they did in the 90s.I decided to buy his first electric converted Funfighter of the Spitfire looks great with a good sized battery hatch for 3s 2200. I had a look in the box and they are much better presented than the original kits with colour pictures etc....A tip for you CS soak the wood bearers for the retracts in thin CA with will make them a lot stronger. This worked so well for me with my Phoenix Spitfire that when I caught the retract on a electric fence on landing the metal leg bent and pulled the fence out of the ground without pulling it out of the plane! Cambrian mentioned including vacuum formed plastic cowls for the fun fighters to save time.....luckily I managed to talk him out of doing this along with others he told me. Edited By Tony H on 28/08/2013 08:35:29Edited By Tony H on 28/08/2013 08:37:55 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Concorde Speedbird Posted August 28, 2013 Author Share Posted August 28, 2013 Thanks all, BEB- Yes I saw the pintle angle theory, I didn't bother with this one but for bigger ones I will. Sean- BEB has explained well. Just don't go too slowly and be gentle with the elevator, especially in turns. Long and smooth! What Mustang is that by the way? Tony- I couldn't go to the Nats, no means of getting there or back. Perhaps next year when I will be driving, whether or not the little Fiat would make it is the question! I'm glad Cambrian are updating the kits and producing more, until fairly recently I didn't know they still existed! I want them to sell the 55" Sport scale Mustang kit again, but my Spitfire certainly could have been a bit better quality generally, and some more guidance on retracts would be helpful. CS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony H Posted August 28, 2013 Share Posted August 28, 2013 CS,I built and still have the original Sport Scale Mustang, not a great kit too many plastic parts and not a very good wing attachment arrangement. The little funfighters are much simpler as long as you keep them light as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Concorde Speedbird Posted August 28, 2013 Author Share Posted August 28, 2013 Have you got any pictures of that Tony? Anyhow... Wheels! Looks great down! And even more exciting! Retracted wheels. Here you can see the slight problem: Not quite flush. 95-96 degree retracts like the full size would have been perfect, but in the air you won't see this, so not a problem really. Without considering Pintle angles it has come out perfect in that area, which is great. The blue bits are dummy oleos to make it look a bit more scale (they'll be sanded and painted) and the area around the retracts still need trimming and more wood put in so then it will look much better. Anyway, I really like the retracts and I am pleased with it, and it will look superb in the air! CS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Bennett Posted August 28, 2013 Share Posted August 28, 2013 can you not build up the wing a little bit in the area round the wheels, might hide them a little bit more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Concorde Speedbird Posted August 28, 2013 Author Share Posted August 28, 2013 Possibly, I don't want to add much weight but it may be possible to put some balsa on and sand it to the contours of the wing. I'll get the rest done on them and have a look. CS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted August 28, 2013 Share Posted August 28, 2013 They look the biz CSB! I'd wait until you have the oleos sorted and the doors fitted - then look at it from 20 feet away and imagine it was doing 40mph - would you still see it then? Remember - retracts are only in the retract position when the plane's in the air! BEB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Concorde Speedbird Posted August 28, 2013 Author Share Posted August 28, 2013 That's what I was thinking, I'll do all that and then look. The retracts themselves work brilliantly, I can't wait to see them go up when in the air! CS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Concorde Speedbird Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 CS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingman Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Bennett Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 nice looking spit cs. nice concorde, i wont sat owt about the plans i got for one. ooooooooooooooops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Concorde Speedbird Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 My 2000th post has to be about Concorde, great pictures (I've seen the others too), good condition apart from the wings where they were sawed. Shame she is stuck in a hangar forever thanks to that. CS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 That's really starting to look like a Spitfire CSB! Nice work. BEB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bott - Moderator Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 It's coming on CSB, good to see it on it's wheels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Hargreaves - Moderator Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Gardiner Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 Hi CS. I have just picked up one of these at the Southern Model Airshow today so will be following your thread with interest. I just wondered what retracts you have - are they the eflite 15-25 90 degree ones? I will be building mine electric, when I get around to it (I am a very slow builder). I am off to open the box and see what is inside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Concorde Speedbird Posted September 14, 2013 Author Share Posted September 14, 2013 Good, it will be nice to see another. Yes, those are the retracts, they are excellent but like shown it is difficult to get the wheels to retract fully, but at this size it will not be noticeable in the air. Keep it light, it is built like a house-brick as standard. I've been carrying on with mine and it is a great kit, not the greatest in terms of cutting accuracy but good fun. CS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 Any update news CSB? BEB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Concorde Speedbird Posted September 14, 2013 Author Share Posted September 14, 2013 Just retract reinforcements and fuselage sheeting, all going smoothly. CS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 Fuselage sheeting is always a lengthy and painstaking job! Its worth it though, in terms of the both the strength it imparts and the quality of finish you can create on it. BEB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Gardiner Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 Having never played with retracts before, this may be a stupid question but...... If the body of the retract unit is mounted flush and parallel with the wing surface, will it not then fully retract? Hope that made sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 Sadly there is a bit more to it than that Geoff! If you have a tricycle undercart so that the U/C, when retracted, sit aligned exactly along the span line of the wing and when deployed take up a "straight down" position, then yes it is straight forward and with 90 degree units you will be able to get everything lined up just dandy! But,...once you move away from that ideal it all gets very complicated. Firstly on the Spit the wheels when retracted don't line up with the span line - they sit angled backwards. As you can see in this photo,... Second when deployed (as the Spit is a tail dragger) they can't go straight down from the wing - they are actually angled forwards, as you can see here,... Finally, the wings themselves are not at right-angles to the fuselage because of the dihedral - which is shown in CSB picture above and also here,... Sadly, for many models, the two critical angles, the sweep back when retracted and the rake forward when deployed, are not the same! So the mountings in the wings have to canted over and rotated about two axes - one to get the wheels to sit backof the span line when retracted and another rotation to make them rake forwards when deployed! Add in the fact that because of the dihedral the rotation of the legs may well be over 90 degrees and you begin to see the problems! In practice, without introducing a small, but very accurately defined, "kink" or bend in the leg it is often not possible to get this perfect in both the retracted and deployed positions. It tends to be the case that you can get one right at the expense of the other, or both out by a little bit! But not both spot on without the "kink"! I think CSB has done a great job here - he has "distributed" the inevitable small error he is stuck with (through no fault of his) brilliantly so as to create the best overall solution within the resources available to him. BEB PS - without wanting to drag you away from this excellent Spitfire blog if you want to see the calculations that lie behind trying to get this as right as we can then have a look at my Typhoon blog here and for the next page or two. And reflect on the fact that for all those calculations I probably won't end up with a set up that's much different than CSB has achived here by "eyeing it up"! Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 15/09/2013 17:10:19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Gardiner Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 Wow, that does sound complicated (and a little scary). I will indeed have a look at the Tiffie blog. Many thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Concorde Speedbird Posted September 19, 2013 Author Share Posted September 19, 2013 Don't be scared, you can always simply just put them in like I did! Some more stuff. Sorry for the blur, is this looking right to you? This below goes on the back of the fuselage (on top). This is important- it is the tailplane mount. So first it needs to be carved for the snakes... And then glued on. I used Epoxy- this has to be strong. Fast model = large load on tailplane! This picture is actually just of a dry fit, but it is glued on now. Just needs some mild sanding And off topic a little, a mild sniff of an idea... What do you think viewers. CS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 Neat work round the tail CSB - that looks the business to me! At the other end - other model - looks a definite possibility. BEB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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