Colin Leighfield Posted October 23, 2016 Author Share Posted October 23, 2016 It's taken a while to work out the undercarriage so that the wheels will be in the right places up and down, it's been a combination of wire bending and Pintle angle. I've taken the liberty of reducing the wheel diameter from 70 to 62 mm. I think that will be fine and we have hard runways at Fradley. Without the luxury of the long and very effective torsion bar in Peter's fixed undercarriage design, I need to make the wing bay R4/R5 into a strong box, starting with making those ribs from 3mm Liteply. Most of the ribs will be made from 6 mm Depron and I've started cutting them out. Ignore the second photo, it''s not meant to be there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Bennett Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 looking good Colin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted October 23, 2016 Author Share Posted October 23, 2016 Thanks Tony, hopefully it will soon! I've got some pictures of the Ensign showing interior colours. For some reason they won't upload into the albums, I don't know what's going on. I can try and email them to you if you PM me an email address. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted October 25, 2016 Author Share Posted October 25, 2016 Because of work commitments I am only managing to get a few hours in the shed, in the evenings. Even though, progress is being made. The last two evenings were spent doing the laborious job of cutting out wing ribs. Tonight I have cut out the top and bottom wing skins, then marked out on the bottom ones all of the rib and spar positions. Before packing in I glued the bottom spars in place. Tomorrow evening I will pin them down and glue everything together. Apart from the material changes, I am building to Peter's design and the ribs are exactly as drawn. Changes will be evident in the Aero Quality wing skins which are complete top and bottom, so there are no open areas needing covering with film, the whole surface will be covered with 16gm glass cloth. Also I will connect the aileron servo directly to the ailerons with torque rods rather than fit bell-cranks into the wings. More tomorrow night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted October 27, 2016 Author Share Posted October 27, 2016 Most of the time in the last two days has been spent finalising the detail on the retracts, but I'm sufficiently confident now to start sticking the wings together. Most of the top class builders in the forum are streets ahead of me on detail like this, but the problem as I see it is that for any tailwheel plane where the wheels in the down position sit in front of the leading edge, they have to angle back on retraction to sit inside the wing. This is where pintle angle comes in and working out that as well as getting the wire bends right is fiddly. On this wing as drawn the only place the retracted wheel can sit is in the bay between R2 and R3, in front of the spar. It looks about right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 I am so glad that I didn't have to work that angle out!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted October 28, 2016 Author Share Posted October 28, 2016 Before I go any further I'll cut the hole for the wheel to pass through and test it. The worst that can happen is having to scrap the panel, so I'll make sure I've got it right first! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted October 28, 2016 Author Share Posted October 28, 2016 At last a free day at home and I've been able to get some time in the shed this afternoon! The wing is going together well now. The undercarriage is working nicely and I just need to mirror it for the other side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted October 29, 2016 Author Share Posted October 29, 2016 More progress on the wing today, now working on the port side! I need to be careful to match the retracts up. I will web the spars when I have finished the second side, last job before I put the top sheeting on. I look forward to getting on then with shaping the fuselage, there's plenty of Depron inside the corners to allow me to get a good curve on them, Depron's easy to shape and half of it will be gone by the time I've finished with it! Edited By Colin Leighfield on 29/10/2016 18:20:29 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Bennett Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 nice work colin. masterful build as usual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted October 30, 2016 Author Share Posted October 30, 2016 Thank you Tony, but as I've said before, don't look too closely! Compared to what you come up with, it's pretty straightforward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted October 30, 2016 Author Share Posted October 30, 2016 Making good progress now. Two wing halves pushed together to check fit. Some fettling to do around the centre section to make everything snug, then I will reinforce a little more around the undercarriage mountings and put in the webbing. Next will be to add the tips, join the wing halves, add aileron torque rods, the ailerons and finally, sheet the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted October 31, 2016 Author Share Posted October 31, 2016 Wing spar webbing done. I'm paying attention to the servo box in the centre section because I want it to contribute structural strength to the wing join. Therefore I have joined the wing panels and am working around that. This is moving nicely now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Bennett Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 very neat work Colin. looks like it is going to be a lovely model. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 Looking good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted October 31, 2016 Author Share Posted October 31, 2016 Tony, thank you again. I'm looking forward to flying this. Peter, thanks to you also. By the way, the retract layout is pretty much the only way to do it I think, whether building exactly as you intended or with Depron mixed in like this. I thought about doing It Spitfire style, retracting outwards with a sharp pintle angle, but I think there'd be a problem with the position of the spar. Looking promising so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 Outward retraction would really be a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted October 31, 2016 Author Share Posted October 31, 2016 Peter, that's right. The wing would need drastic rare-design, not really practical and not worth it. Doing it inwards this way keeps everything in front of the spar and puts the wheels in the right places up and down. It would be very tight with the 70mm wheels though, 62mm looks about right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 Definitely NOT worth doing. Anyway, I can't think of any recent aircraft where the wheels retract outwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted October 31, 2016 Author Share Posted October 31, 2016 English Electric Lightning? (Well, it's recent to me Peter)! Here's the centre section detail, including the mess-up,where the top spar booms don't quite meet up. I've filled in the gap with epoxy and everything is connected and solidly glued, if the wing ever failed it wouldn't be here. I have to work tomorrow but I've got the evening free to get into the shed and get on with this. When I talk about a composite construction, this is my interpretation of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted November 1, 2016 Share Posted November 1, 2016 Yes, I thought of that but if I remember correctly that retracted more backwards than sideways. I was on Javelins at Wattisham so did not have a lot to do with Lightnings apart from watching their take offs which were always imprassive and seeing a couple of them crash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted November 1, 2016 Author Share Posted November 1, 2016 A bit like a Spitfire? (Outwards and backwards)! I've never forgotten the Javelin FAW9s at ATC summer camp, Waterbeach 1961. Watching those go off was quite a sight and being woken up at 02-00 by one on a night sortie was something else! The Lightning certainly was something else though, the number that were lost in accidents was something else as well! The "Loominus Toob", never to be forgotten. Back in the shed tonight, I can't wait to get the Super Marauder finished and flying. Behind all of this is a Chipmunk lurking and waiting to be finished, I can't keep on putting that off! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted November 1, 2016 Share Posted November 1, 2016 I was on 41 Squadron. Add to that that we moved to a new home under the circuit about 15 miles away from Wattisham. and they and the Lightnings made their circuits over the house and Sudbury. The Javelins made the most horrible groaning noise. When locals now bleat about airliners at about 4000 feet have a few rather sarcastic remarks for them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted November 4, 2016 Author Share Posted November 4, 2016 I haven't managed to do anything in the last two days but got in the shed this afternoon. Sanded the leading edges, fitted the aileron servo and used blue foam for the centre section trailing edge packing. I've decided to use torque rods to the strip ailerons instead of bell-cranks in the wings. I hope to do a bit more tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 Hello Colin, Apologies for disturbing your Marauder build, but I think this could bring you into your following project with a 'tandem prop'... The Northrop XP-56-1... nothing to do with Microsoft, but the plan is available at Aerofred... Couldn't help just thinking about you when I saw it... Hakuna matata Chris BRU - BE / CTR XP Control Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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