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Dom Smith F7F-3 Tigercat


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DSCF8530.thumb.JPG.1724dbfa096be63fec0e670b45f948b9.JPG I am making progress albeit slow . The main retract leg goes up and down with good clearance and ample oleo height for prop clearance from ground. I have also used blue foam for the rear of nacelle all sanded and blended to balsa more fine work will be needed. Gear door aperture is about done just need to fit doors. I have started one cowl the method I am using is first find a suitable jar then laser cut round formers to slip over jar separated by notched balsa spacers first ring is held in place on the lid with blue tack then the other 3 rings slipped into the notches and glued using aliphatic then 4 lengths of balsa and when dry I removed from jar. I inset another ring into the flightline cowl front then this will be glued onto the other section (I think )

 

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Edited by Martian
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  • 3 weeks later...
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must confess I have been sulking ,after lots of measurement and placing lipo on the plan it dawned on me after building the cowl there is no way I can put a lipo in the nacelle so I will revisit the fuselage for a way of fitting lipo in there I,m pretty sure it will be ok ah well at least the main retracts fit ok just the nose gear and lipo to sort out trouble is I was feeling somewhat dejected so embarked on a service of my 3d printer then decided to undertake a mammoth print and build (some parts at 20hrs plus) of a Humvee 600mm long I estimate around 300 hours of printing and now my workshop and bench is covered in parts looking like a destroyed Russian military vehicle ? as soon as I can get reorganised I will crack on with the cat 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Well 1 nacelle is sort of done its been a real pain to get the main retract to sit right then carefully measured for gear doors it took numerous times to get them to sit right and hinge open so fitted gear back in only to find the the door over the wheel would not close so take doors off cut away part of the nacelle sides trim and refit doors its now as near as its going to get. No wonder there are so few builds for the cat having checked the only build log surviving on RCSB by Wingspar and reading the comments without exception they all have same problem. Lets hope nacelle 2 goes better . I've been struggling with this one for over a month obviously not non stop . Still plenty to do .I WILL NOT GIVE UP ! 

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  • 11 months later...

Oh dear last time I posted on the Cat was nearly 12mhts ago, all sorts got in the way and it is so difficult to get back on track it has taken a good few weeks reacquainting myself with what I have done and even how I did it. Anyway some pics to bring it up to date ,

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  • 1 year later...
  • 4 months later...

Oh dear another year has passed 😞 but at least I have finally put other distractions aside and am currently working on the other nacelle which is a real pig I had forgotten the formers do not work out correctly so I am modifying as I build not entirely happy with it however it will be strong enough and once sanded down hopefully will look ok. I will post a pic or 2 some time next week

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  • 3 weeks later...

Right I'm still fighting with nacelle 2 having forgotten how I did nacelle 1. the former plans don't match up but I decided to fit them then make adjustments after (butcher) it's getting there but it does not look pretty I can only hope judicious sanding and careful covering will hide the work 😞 anyway here are some pics to date 

 

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these are pics form an earlier time that I don't think I posted. Also at one stage in the distant past I opted to make the wing as one piece . first 2 pics are of the cowl made as described earlier but now covered in very thin ali sheet which will be painted and maybe distressed a little ,visible is the lipo access hatch that will be on top.

 

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Thanks Martian,

On the plus side

  • Its the right wingspan
  • Wings are foam veneer
  • Have to check the tail feathers for material
  • They quote max weight 55 lbs (25Kg and mine comes in at 21.7 Kg wet)

Where mine differs

  • Fuselage is balsa
  • Nacelles and cowls are balsa

I think you are right and someone has ditched the glass fuselage (I have a Power Max Mossie and its so tail heavy it needs 2.7 Kg of lead to get it to balance!).  So have made the nacelles and cowls while at it. Lets face it if they could knock off a fuselage the cowls and nacelles would be easy! Or perhaps they copied Giant Scale Twin and made it all themselves. 

 

Anyway less of this and more of how you are getting on with your build?

 

 

 

Edited by Chris Walby
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3 hours ago, Chris Walby said:

Thanks Martian,

On the plus side

  • Its the right wingspan
  • Wings are foam veneer
  • Have to check the tail feathers for material
  • They quote max weight 55 lbs (25Kg and mine comes in at 21.7 Kg wet)

Where mine differs

  • Fuselage is balsa
  • Nacelles and cowls are balsa

I think you are right and someone has ditched the glass fuselage (I have a Power Max Mossie and its so tail heavy it needs 2.7 Kg of lead to get it to balance!).  So have made the nacelles and cowls while at it. Lets face it if they could knock off a fuselage the cowls and nacelles would be easy! Or perhaps they copied Giant Scale Twin and made it all themselves. 

 

Anyway less of this and more of how you are getting on with your build?

No No Chris I'm happy to help ,I wonder if the fibre glass parts were ditched to cut down on weight. Are you able to see how the fuselage is constructed I'm thinking is it an amalgamation of Giant scale twins and Don Smith  

I,m going to press on with this build and not think about redesigning the wings and nacelles. 

 

 

 

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Martian,

 

You have got this far and with all your time invested its best to finish it off as I am sure it will fly well in the end. As for mine the fuselage is all wood, perhaps the builder got a good deal on hard balsa as it tough as of boots. I can't get to the fuselage to take the servo cover off the elevator servo and see what the horizontal stabiliser is made of, but non of the tail is detachable. this makes it a right pain to store and transport as it takes up loads of space!

 

I have heard (right or wrongly) that Don Smith are good scale designs, but need a lot of forward planning and head scratching to actually build. I have been holding off on a major repair and complete build of a kit because both have foam veneer wings and I don't know to mate the nacelles or join the wings (in a detachable way). I have only been at this hobby less than 10 years and am surprised with the way some designs get away with minimal construction techniques (ASM Tigercat) or outside toilet for others. I give all those that modify/rescale designs massive credit 

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  • 3 weeks later...

After much fiddling I have more or less got the 2nd nacelle about right ,next thing is battery support and motor mount followed by joining the port side wing sections together .anyway here are a couple of pics. Here's hoping I can make is look halfway decent.

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15 hours ago, Chris Walby said:

Looking really good there. Are you going for key hole retract covers or full doors?

Full doors Chris courtesy of Motion RC Flighjtline Tigercat spares although the hinging is going to be my biggest nightmare, just can't get my head around how to accomplish it 😞  

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

So it continues 🙂 

Port wing almost sheeted nav light completed , landing light completed . Ae servo fitted and one flap servo fitted other flap servo will be fitted after wing joining (no far off) and trailing edge shrouds fitted. Inlet ports on wing completed , these were done by laser cutting several pieces of rectangular balsa then laminating and carving to shape plus filler . I meant to show my little homemade tool for creating a bed for trailing edge bed, this was made using 2 pieces of hardwood  in an l shape with coarse sandpaper .

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