84 inch Depron AT6 Texan.

[Electriflier]

Evening,

Not so much an update, more info for Phil really.

We were discussing having seen a Texan with a British Bulldog mascot. Further digging has unearthed these pictures...

Photographs Copyright and Thanks to AIRFIGHTERS.COM

The reason I've not been able to find it is that the T-6, the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) and USAAF designated it as the AT-6, the United States Navy the SNJ, and British Commonwealth air forces, the Harvard.

It appears I had seen the Bulldog on the SNJ-5 variant (WD17 (WAR DOG)). Still a Texan to me!!

Cheers

Roy

[Philip Rawlinson]

Thank goodness, I have spent the last 2 hours trawling the tinterweb with no success apart from the image I have just put on your face book page

Got to say I really like that colour scheme.

Hope the weather gods are kind tomorrow.

[Roy Mundy]

Wow that's really coming along nicely! I love the cockpit.

sorry to hear that you have been unwell Roy I hope that you are now on the up.

where did you get the battery hatch latch? I've been looking for one like that for my Magician build.

any chance you can send me a link 😉

keep up the good work

Roy M

[Martian]

Hi Roy you can get them from Storm Trade unless of course Roy stocks them

[Electriflier]

Evening,

Still cursed with the lurg..... so progress is still sllloooow.
Nonethless, progress it is and here's where we are to date.

Phil has completed the horizontal stab and elevator and I have to say, made a damned good job. He has taken away the two 1:6th scale pilots to paint up in the meantime.
Undecided yet as to whether or not to articulate the heads with the rudder (as per Spitfire). - we'll see.
I've been torn between a single, one-piece wing or to make the wings plug in. After a lot of thought and a discussion with Phil, have decided on plug-in wings. Reason? the main one I think is the ability to stand the fuselage on the wheels when at the field whilst plugging in the wings. Another reason was to do away with the hard mounting fuselage points that a one-piece wing requires. Thirdly and probably as important to Phil, it'll be easier for him to store.

Decision made, I decided that the whole width of the wing centre-section would be constructed in 6mm lightply. I laminated (PU adhesive) 2 x 3mm lightply sheets together (300mm wide) and weighted it down whilst the glue set. The centre section is about 20" across so I cut the lightply sheet to the correct width. Bearing in mind that the lightply sheet is only 12" wide, I needed to add a 5" strip of 6mm depron to the back end of the ply sheet to give me the correct centre section wing chord.
This picture was taken much later in the proceedings but I've used it here to show you the 6mm depron rear section that was added to make up the correct chord.

I cut out two 130mm holes in the ply that will be the wheel wells.The wheels are 100mm but again, from past experience, I find it best to make the recesses a little oversized so as to avoid the wheels catching on the rims of the wells.

My drawings highlighted the fact that I would require a 6 deg rake on the retract legs and blocks would need cutting at an angle to facilitate this. I would also have to remove a section of the lightply between the retract mounting blocks to allow the unit to present itself at the correct level ie, flush with the underside of the wing skin.
The retract mounting blocks are cut from some lovely old pieces of wood that a customer gave me. The wood comes from the old WW1 and 2 Furley stretcher handles, hard yet not too heavy.
I epoxied them into place on the lightlply centre section and test fitted the retract. - Good fit. I pilot-drilled the blocks and used 1/2" screws to secure the retracts.

These mechanical retracts are actuated by a pull-push rod which presents itself to the front (wheel end) of the unit so I had to be a little creative in getting them to work satisfactorily. I considered 90 deg bell cranks but they were difficult to get into the correct position and wold have meant using 4 pieces of piano wire rather than the preferred solution - 2.

The only way I could get them working with short pull/push rods was by installing a servo right next to the retract body

I'll use this picture again to illustrate just how the servos are installed. Installed this way, very little load is placed on the servos because it's a straight 'pull' to get the retract to lift . Only the slightest effort is required from the

servo to start the lowering of the leg. As you can see from the diagram, the servo arm has only to move a short distance to the right to initiate the lowering of the leg. Retraction is a straight, short pull. - Works great!

It's getting a bit late now so will have to sign off. I'll explain the wing-joining tubes in more detail tomorrow. Also, one or two more pictures showing the wings attached to the centre section.
Regards

Roy

 

 

Edited By Electriflier on 08/10/2014 22:49:40

Edited By Electriflier on 08/10/2014 22:51:12

Edited By Electriflier on 08/10/2014 22:52:26

Edited By Electriflier on 08/10/2014 22:53:40

[Tony Bennett]

nice job as usual sir.

[Philip Rawlinson]

Absolutely awesome .

The pilot painting has begun ! The first one was looking very lifelike but apparently Pat Butcher did not serve as an American pilot in World War 2 so I am trying attempt no 2 so don't panic.

Wanted to call in the shop this week but have had late finishes every night at work and we are away until Tuesday so hope to see you then.

Your work is just awesome and greatly appreciated, I will look for a nice bottle of Vin Rouge for you.

[Electriflier]

As mentioned last evening, I had now arrived at a stage where outer wings needed aligning and joining to the wing centre-section. The 6mm carbon tube that is built in to the wings will slide into the 7mm tubing (6mm internal diameter) which will be secured into the centre section. I have worked on a dihedral measurement at the wingtips of 2.5" and so with the centre ply wing section laid perfectly flat and level, test-fitted the wings into their respective positions. Again, referring to my drawings, was able to work out the correct angle that the receiving carbon tubing needed to be set into the wing centre-section, applied PU adhesive to lock them into place. I will beef-up these 'wing-socket' locations once I am happy with correct and equal wing dihedral.

Fortunately for Phil, I had laying around some 30 size helicopter aluminium tail boom tubing which slid perfectly into a slightly larger tail boom. Light yet strong, would make for a perfect additional wing joiner and so was glued into place alongside the 6mm carbon wing tube.
The 18mm aluminium tubing wing joiner glued in place in the wing

Phil's horizontal tail stab and elevator were test-fitted and glued into place, Care taken of course to ensure vertical and horizontal alignment was good as the adhesive hardened. The tail section will be further strengthened with 6mm depron fillets before the fuselage is finally skinned.

The 20mm 'wing-socket' aluminium tubing was tacked into place into a slot which was cut into the centre ply section.PU glue was used which allowed careful checking of the correct dihedral angles whilst the adhesive set.

Further strengthening of the wing socket areas will be done. Pictures to follow.......

The first time the major components have been together. - Starting to see a Texan

Regards

Roy

[Roy Mundy]

Looking lovely ! I'm watching with interest as I'll soon be copying your wing design for my Harvard RCME plan

[Tony Bennett]

looking great gents.

[Monz]

Great looking Harvard guys

[Pilot_Chuckle]

Nice work Roy and Phil.
Looking forward to seeing it in the flesh soon

[Philip Rawlinson]

The truth is its great work Roy, and seeing that picture of all the bits together has made me quite giddy

You really do make it look easy when anyone who has had a go knows it surely is not.

Lookin forward to a visit to the shop next week.

Cheers Phil.

[Philip Rawlinson]

As Electriflier has been galloping along at pace on this fantastic build and I have been basking in the French sunshine , I thought that on my return I had better have an hour in the man shed.

Pilot No 1 is almost done while his albino brother waits in line.

I am really looking forward to checking on progress in the shop on Saturday and possibly being parted from a bit more hard earned cash.

[Colin Leighfield]

Another stunner on the way. This is a level of Depron beyond me at the moment, I'm still nibbling at the edges.

[Electriflier]

Good evening,
Thanks chaps (and Monz) for your kind comments once again.
Tonight, I intended to upload my latest instalment to the build and after uploading my photos to my album, set-to writing up the blog. Normally, I write it up in notepad, check it for typo's etc then copy the text here and insert photo's as required. Tonight, for some reason, I started typing (about an hour ago) straight into the forum window. Almost done, somehow, I caught a combination of keys that opened a new web window and I lost everything!!!!!

So, forgive me but I'm only going to post some photo's with a brief narrative. If my blood pressure returns to normal tomorrow evening, I'll try and fill in the gaps and explain things in more detail.

After test-assembling the model, including motor, prop', battery etc, it appears that it's not radically nose or tail-heavy and so installation of the rudder and elevator servos will be just beneath the cockpit area (just slightly rear of CG) I've decided to mount the servos vertically so that access can be via a panel on the side of the fuselage rather than through the cockpit which will be fixed or from the underside of the centre-section of the wing.

Control snakes fitted and glued at every point that passes through Depron. Notice the elevator snake passes through the vertical keel of the model to present itself on the other side where the elevator control horn is.

The wing centre-section needed a fair amount to tidying up and strengthening around the wing socket tubes. The photo above shows the smaller carbon and larger aluminium tubes boxed-in with 6mm depron and flood-filled with PU adhesive before capping off with depron. On the opposite side, where most of the aluminium tubing is visible, I I used 1/16" ply to provide additional strength instead of depron to box in the tubes. Left the adhesive to do it's bit overnight and once the PU had set, solid!

Dense blue foam blocks were PU'd into the fuselage to provide a solid anchor point to secure the wing centre-section. I forgot to take a photograph of the hardwood bearers that I epoxied into place within the foam so I photo-shopped them in like this.

As you can see, hardwood blocks in place and ready to take the centre section of the wing.

Probably the part of the build that I'd been worrying most about, ensuring accurate alignment, levelling and incidence of the wing section. Once I was happy that I really couldn't get it any better, Drilled some 2mm pilot holes into the plywood centre-section and into the hardwood bearers that had been embedded into the blue foam. 4 x 30mm screws later and a final check was made before unscrewing and adding adhesive.

So, the end of another busy day on the build sees a very solid fuselage/wing section coming together.
Again, apologies for the poor write-up but something's better than nothing..........isn't it?

Regards
Roy

[Andrew Price 2]

Yes, it certainly is Roy!!

[Colin Leighfield]

Another lesson in how to do it Roy. Thank you, hope your blood pressure is ok.

[Monz]

Looking great Roy, plus one to the build list...

If you ever lose a window or tab that you were typing in, if you're using Chrome as your browser on a PC, hit Control+Shift+T that'll open the last tab and everything you typed will still be there.

[Philip Rawlinson]

Fantastic progress Roy, will be calling in the shop tomorrow.

[Electriflier]

Another day......... the build continues

Andrew, thanks
Colin, again, thank you for taking the time ....... BP's fine thanks.............ask me in a few weeks time when the maiden is due. (Although.....step up Mr Rawlinson I think )

Saturdays can be busy for me but I still found a bit of time to spend on the Texan.
Great to see Phil today and see his reaction to the progress to date. All good I'm pleased to say.
Any time I managed on the build today has been spent on the mating surfaces of both the plug-in wings and the centre wing section. Rather than leave the wing root ribs simply made from 6mm depron, I thought it better to finish them off with 1/16" ply. Constant on and off of the wings can damage the mating surfaces and lead to a sloppy fitting of the wings in time. I printed out the large wing rib that runs through the wing centre section and cut 4 identical ribs from 1/16" ply. Being 1/16", it was a straight-forward enough job to cut them out with a stanley knife.

I found it best to get the correct angle on the wing end ribs by glueing them whilst they were in-situ, up against the wing centre-section. So as to ensure I didn't contaminate the wing tubes and joiners with PU glue, I smeared them with silicone oil just in case. As most of you who have used PU glue will know, it really does get everywhere and the last thing I wanted was for the wings to become permanantly attached!

Much neater now they're faced-off with ply.

It all worked out well in the end because once everything had dried, the wings removed effortlessly from their sockets. Now, when the wings are being attached, they plug in with a very satisfying 'clunk'. I'll cover-off the wing retaining at a later stage.

Phil and his Texan

I mentioned to Phil that I had been considering building the forward-facing light wells into the wings irrespective of whether or not he intended to install lights. Coincidentally, he too had been giving the wing lights some thought and without hesitation, he asked if we could ntroduce them into the build. My drawings show the light locations and dimensions so it didn't take too long to mark out their position in the wing in readiness.
*Late-breaking news - Just ordered these off the 'net - That's another £12 you owe me Phil!

In the bit of time I had left today, I printed out and cut out, again from 1/16" ply, the wheel spats which I intend to hold in place with saddle-clamps (6 SWG).
The 6SWG saddle clamps will be used to fasten on the wheel spats.

So, that's yer lot for today!
Regards
Roy

[Electriflier]

Hi again
Well, the new led winglights arrived. They are BRIGHT!.... more on them later.
I have had loads of fiddly little jobs to do and so decided that I would write them all down and work through the list one by one.
The lower 6mm Depron wing ribs needed glueing in place so this was one f the first jobs.
Not only had the ribs to be affixed but I had to make the bays for the newly aquired wing lights. Simple job to cut the nose from some duplicate wing ribs on either side of the light locations and then remove the flat wing plate between the two. To add to the effect of the LED lighting, I lined the light-wells with aluminium tape which I hope will reflect the light even more.
The new wing lights were fixed in place and the lead from the lights (+ and -) were soldered to a servo extension lead which presents itself at the root rib.
With the lights in place, wired and tested, I addressed the area at the root of the wing where the aileron servo lead and the lighting lead come through. I cut a small oblong section of the ply root wing rib away and formed a 'pocket' area from depron on the other side of the rib (inside the wing).

The wires in the 'pocket'

This will enable the servo and lighting lead plugs to sit within the 'pocket' once the wing is attached to the fuselage.
The servo and lighting leads were routed through the wing ribs to present at the newly formed 'pocket'

The wheels on the Texan stow inward and slightly forward of the leading edge of the wing. The only reference I had to the location of the wheel wells was the ply wing plate that made up the wing centre-section. This area needed building up in blue foam. I used blue foam because of the complexity of the shapes both above the wheel well and on the underside of the wing. To use Depron in this area would have not only been nigh on impossible, but the results would not have been strong enough in my opinion. So, I scratched around for a suitable piece of foam and glued an oversized block into place within the wing. Also, adding another block of foam on the top side of the wheel well area too. Both blocks of foam, once the glue had set, were attacked with my orbital sander until a reasonable shape was achieved.Doesn't have to be bang on as the majority of the blue foam will be skinned in 3mm depron eventually.
I used a compass to roughly mark out where the foam needed cutting to form the recesses for the wheels and used a fine hacksaw blade to cut the circles out.

Probably the job I dislike the most when building for some reason or other - control surfaces, hinging and servo installation. The aileron servos, I'm using 9g metal-geared servos secured within the wing with trusty old servo mounting plates. Again, blue foam blocks were used to create a solid base for the site of the servos. On top of the blue foam, I cut ply plates which will eventually take the servo mounting plate screws) and glued these to the foam blocks and PU's the whole assembly into place in the wing close to the centre of the ailerons. Care has to be taken at this stage to allow for the thickness of the wing skin (3mm) once the servo mounting plates were installed as I want them to be flush with the underside of the wing.
To be continued...............

[Electriflier]

Part 2......

The ailerons were cut from the wing panel and their leading-edge was made from 3/8" balsa sheet with 3/4" balsa traingular balsa stock glued onto the front to create the 45 degree hinge point. I inlaid some small 1/8th ply panels into the flat depron section of the aileron to form a solid base plate for my control horns.

Skinning of the wing was going to be my next job. As is usually the case, I prefer to skin the underside of the wing first. Usually because the airfoil sections are not symmetrical and tend to be reasonably flat (ish), making life a whole lot easier with regards to keeping the wing flat whilst the skin goes on.
I always use UHU Por contact adhesive for the skinning as by the tme you've applied adhesive to both the 3mm depron skin and the 6mm depron wing ribs (both wings) the first wing is ready for the skin to be applied.

The underside of the wings have now been skinned.

Back to the lights..

Off.

ON!
They're going to look great!
Rather a long update I know and not highly detailed but I hope it gives one or two pointers as to how Phil's Texan is progressing.

Latest update. Wings are now totally skinned and hopefully, skinning of the fuselage should be on the go soon.

Regards

Roy

[Philip Rawlinson]

I am getting so giddy, and the progress since I saw you Saturday is amazing. I have ordered a darker set of sunglasses so I can call in and check out the wing lights at the weekend.

Again many thanks for your great work, I've been giving a great deal of thought to what you could build next for me

Just kidding,

Phil.

[Electriflier]

Just to keep the log up to date, here's some photo's of progress to date.

Got to run a few more extension leads in the wing centre-section before I start to skin this area. I've run out of 3mm depron at home so an early finish today.
Roy