Jump to content

98" Depron C-130 Hercules Scratchbuild


Recommended Posts

Advert


Well thank you fellas! - your comments really are appreciated.

OK, so I've been quiet over the past few days. That's not to say I haven't been busy on the build, it's just that minor progress was hardly worth letting you know about.
I decided that I wasn't happy with the ailerons and that the only course was to remake them. I cut the hinges and released the old ones from the wing and started again. This time, I wanted to ensure that I could top hinge them rather than mid way which meant I had a rather unsightly gap along the topside of the ailerons. I sort of built them 'upside-down' in that the balsa plate was uppermost and the depron rib-tips were on the underside. This way I could use the mylar hinges but this time, the hinge point would be at the top which meant very little gap along the top of the ailerons. Also, I changed out the control horns for these.....upl1.jpg
The undersides of the ailerons shows the balsa top surface and the more substantial bolt-through control horns.

Much happier with the new ailerons....upl2.jpg

Time now to focus on the wing seating and securing.
Firstly, I introduced a piece of 1" x 1/2" x 6" hardwood whcih I had drilled and fitted out with 6mm captive or blind nuts. This piece was PU'd into the fuselage taking great care that the wing, once bolts were in place, sat squarely in it's seat.upl3.jpg

The hardwood wing retaining block ready for insertion into it's location within the fuselage wing seat area.

Notice too that I lined the wing seat area with depron to provide a good surface for the wing.upl4.jpg
I didn't take any photographs whilst I fitted the hardwood dowels into the leading edge of the wing - sorry but you can see from this picture that the wing seats well and the wing bolts are tightened down. The over-long dowels were trimmed to end flush with the ply plate in front of the wing.upl5.jpg
The wing now needed a fairing to be built to enable the fuselage to 'flow' over the wing. I used depron to make the fairings and blended them into the wing with some lightweight filler.
Looked good once rubbed down and the first coat of paint applied.upl6.jpg

Much rubbing down and a couple of coats of white undercoat later......

I had to wait until I had given the wings a coat of colour before I updated the post so apologies for the delay. Also, added a few more decals.

upl7.jpgupl8.jpgupl9.jpgupl10.jpgupl11.jpg
Nearly there now! - Maybe one week more and a maiden could be on the cards.

Looking like a Herc now don't you think?
Regards

Roy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

blush
Daz, don't quite know what to say......
but thank you....

'If Carlesburg used depron'......... lol
Thank you all.

Two updates in 2 days! - wonders will never cease.
Spent some time today working around the wing. The nacelles were ready for the end pieces that I had removed when I fitted the motors. Hollowed out and painted black internally, the pink foam pieces were PU'd into place and held by the spinner backplates until the glue cured.

friup1.jpg
the nacelle end caps will direct airflow onto the motors at the bottom of the intake and breathe vents have been cut around the back edge of the caps to let some of the air through.
Also, with ventilation in mind, I cut into the leading edge at the centre of the wing (slightly below the ESC. Thank goodness I had taken plenty of photo's to show where wires were placed!) to allow airflow around the ESC. Small vents were also cut into the 3mm depron at the trailing edge behind the ESC to allow airflow. Works well. If you blow on the front of the wing, the draught can quite clearly be felt rear of the ESC.
friup.jpg

The ESC breathe vent at the front ....

Back to the wing.....
I had a bit of trouble trying to fit the 2 1/4" spinner backplates onto the motor shaft with the APCe 10x5 props. As you'll know, the electric blades are shaped quite differently to IC prop's and no matter how I tried, the backplate was not able to seat satisfactorily onto the prop. Solution? - I'm using Master Airscrew IC prop's instead.
The spinner backplates fit perfectly and spin perfectly true. I may choose to go with 10x6 or 7 IC props but need to do some wattmeter checks before any decision is made. I'll keep you posted.
So, today finished with filler havng been applied to the new nacelle end caps and the first coat of paint. Almost forgot, I also covered the motor wires into their respective channels using 3mm Depron as you can just make out in this picture.
friup2.jpg
(motors are covered in plastic bags to keep them clean from dust and paint etc)
For today........
Regards
Roy


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good evening,
Cheers Tony and Colin, me too .........

img_1719[1].jpg
Started with a photo tonight for a change......
I've spent a bit of time with a 4B pencil drawing in some of the panel lines atop the wing. Not every one, just a representative amount to give a reasonable effect. Being that that white paint is currently matt finish, the lead from the soft pencil drags really easily to give a subtle weathered effect to the panel lines.

As usual, I'm tending to concentrate on how the top side of the model looks but close inspection of some walkaround photo's of the Herc' show there's a hell of a lot going on underneath the wings as you can see in this photo.....
img_1720.jpg
So, my attempt to reproduce the exhausts went like this:-

Firstly, I hollowed out the foam on the underside of the nacellles in the relevant areas . Didn't take too much care smoothing out the 'divots' as i had to fit my exhausts which would mean more cutting.tueup.jpg
Exhaust stacks were to be made from slithers of 11/4" plastic waste pipe and the bottom nacelle breathers from pink foam block.tueup1.jpg
The raw materials

I've used aluminum tape before on the Buccaneer build and had sufficient of it left to cover the exhausts so:tueup3.jpg

After burnishing the tape onto the outside of the piping, the inside of the waste pipe was given a coat of matt black acrylic paint and allowed to dry.

Test fitting of the exhausts showed I had very little more digging out to do and so each piece of pipe was epoxied into it's relevant location. Again, one of those pleasing moments when you step back and take in the overall effect.tueup4.jpg
The pink foam pieces were Uhu'd into place beneath the nacelles and given a good hour or so to stick before I set-to with my sanding blocks. Getting each one to be a good representation of the one next to it was challenging but after a couple of hours, I had something that looked presentable. I covered each new inlet with wet-strength heavyweight tissue and three or four coats of Eze-kote to stiffen up the thin sections that were at their leading edge. Pleased with end result, they polished up well and feel quite tough and should resist any minor 'dings' getting the model to the field etc. i gave all the parts I had been working on a first coat of white spray primer ready to be given a final light rub down tomorrow.tueup5.jpgtueup6.jpgtueup7.jpg
So, a bit more done towards getting this build finished. Going to balance the prop's at some stage tomorrow and try fitting the spinner backplates. Until then - regards

Roy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wasn't going to update this evening as I've really only balanced the prop's and done a little more finishing work to the underside of the wing but just had to say "HI" again to Monz - How nice it is to hear from you once again - Welcome Back!

To everyone else, many thanks for the kind words and to Craig and Mowerman, thanks for reading through the blog!

img_1732.jpg
Props balanced and spinners on ready for testing agin on Friday. I've panel-lined the underside of the wing now and finished the section rear of the exhausts in black acrylic paint. Just a bit of red paint to add and I think I can call the wings almost finished.img_1736.jpg

Regards
Roy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...