Murat Kece 1 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Lovely What a handsome colour scheme.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 A few days ago, with the first of those reaching completion I got down the largely repaired fuselage of my Balsacraft Hurricane and set to adding that to the repair tasks. I was going to just keep the Hurricane as original, with the wing for a hatch, but ultimately decided to fabricate a battery hatch, so set to with the scalpel and razor saw to try to create a hatch without unduly interfering with the main crutch assembly, which I have managed to do. My stock of Mega inrunner motors has depleted, to the extent that after using my last 22/30-3 in the Spitfire I've only got a Mega 22/20-3 left, which isn't really suitable for the Hurricane. So I plumped for a 4 Max PP 3660- 1106kV inrunner,- excellent service from George, ordered yesterday, delivered this morning, fitted this afternoon. Easy as its' a drop in replacement for the Magnetic Mayhem and should given ample performance on a 10x5" prop and a 3s1p 3300mah pack. That pack will fit nicely into the large battery bay, well forward and the ESC sits in the upper bay, which is cooled by the functional exhausts that I formed from thick heatshrink many years ago. They kept the Mag Mayhem cool so should be fine for the brushless replacement. If the balancing demands a 3s1p 4200mah pack, there is sufficient room for that instead. To replace the 8x4" prop and ABS spinner I looked through my stocks and found the rear of a nice aluminium Aeronaut spinner which is the perfect size, has an integral 5mm prop adaptor built in and uses a white plastic cone from some packaging to fair in the front of the spinner - I hope that's going to be okay. We'll see when I balance it and the prop assembly. I have the option of 3D printing a spinner cone if that doesn't work. It's not really the right shape for the Hurricane Mk 1. I've taken out the dorky Balsacraft pilot and replaced him with a 3D printed pilot bust - the canopy had yellowed as if the old pilot was a 60 a day man, but I was able to make a plaster of Paris mould that I'll be able to use to form a new canopy. I'll also add a new cockpit floor a little deeper in the fuselage, leaving room for an instrument panel and gunsight. The hatch needs a few magnets to retain, then I need to add some tape strips to simulate the rear fuselage stringers, before I recover the fuselage with 38um laminating film ready for painting. This is going to be a cheap and cheerful hand launch belly land fun fighter in the spirit of Pete Nicholson's original Model Designs plan packs, so I'm not going mad on the scale details, no retracts and no flaps as I already have those on my other Hurricanes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Robson Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 Just as the light nights are close this happens. I've never been happy with this VQ Hurricane it's very heavy 63" span 10.5lb weight originally flew with a 90 fs i converted it to electric. On Saturday after a few nose overs it took off loads of power but way out of trim , got round the first circuit and possibly slowed it up to much as it turned it fell from the sky. If I can loose some weight from the airframe I will rebuild it. I think the sheeting on the wings is oak the outer panel alone weighs a pound . 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extra slim Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 11 minutes ago, Eric Robson said: Just as the light nights are close this happens. I've never been happy with this VQ Hurricane it's very heavy 63" span 10.5lb weight originally flew with a 90 fs i converted it to electric. On Saturday after a few nose overs it took off loads of power but way out of trim , got round the first circuit and possibly slowed it up to much as it turned it fell from the sky. If I can loose some weight from the airframe I will rebuild it. I think the sheeting on the wings is oak the outer panel alone weighs a pound . Must admit, I am slightly disappointed by the lack of scale crash photo's. The very least, I would have expected is the pile of bits to be in a field in the south of England, maybe some scorch marks!, flames etc hahahaha. Building lightness is an art, one which not all can perform well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Robson Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 20 minutes ago, extra slim said: Must admit, I am slightly disappointed by the lack of scale crash photo's. The very least, I would have expected is the pile of bits to be in a field in the south of England, maybe some scorch marks!, flames etc hahahaha. Building lightness is an art, one which not all can perform well. Is this what you're looking for 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 Bad luck Eric, that's not a nice sight. Could you do the same job that you did on your Spitfire, replacing some of that heavy structure with depron? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Davies 3 Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 Blimey Eric, that's a proper job. At 10.5 pounds for 63, I'm not sure I'd bother. As my depron spit is 8.5 for 74, I'd be tempted to start again Graham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Robson Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 46 minutes ago, Graham Davies 3 said: Blimey Eric, that's a proper job. At 10.5 pounds for 63, I'm not sure I'd bother. As my depron spit is 8.5 for 74, I'd be tempted to start again Graham Hi Graham, The problem with the Hurricane is mainly the sheeting on the outer wing panel I removed the underside sheeting and took large sections from the top, this has brought the weight down to half of what it was, if I can save some more weight then I will do the same to the rest of the wing as it is undamaged. The flaps and spars are very heavy which is all behind the c of g. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Robson Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 1 hour ago, leccyflyer said: Bad luck Eric, that's not a nice sight. Could you do the same job that you did on your Spitfire, replacing some of that heavy structure with depron? Hi Brian, The crash scene is my depron Spitfire, it hit the electric cable at the edge of the field. It flew again just over a week later. This is the post crash photo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Davies 3 Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 28 minutes ago, Eric Robson said: Hi Graham, The problem with the Hurricane is mainly the sheeting on the outer wing panel I removed the underside sheeting and took large sections from the top, this has brought the weight down to half of what it was, if I can save some more weight then I will do the same to the rest of the wing as it is undamaged. The flaps and spars are very heavy which is all behind the c of g. There's no substitute for lightness! I'm sure you'll have it back and better than ever Graham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extra slim Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 wow, fantastic and fast repair of the depron spit.. The poor old hurricane I'm sure will rise again, less heftily hopefully. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 This weekend saw completion to active service of two of my Dark Nights Fix Up projects and I couldn't be more pleased with how they turned out. The Balsacraft Spitfire refinish as a Spitfire PRXIX has been covered earlier and had her maiden flight on Saturday, which was perfect - the model is wonderfully stable, has a decent turn of speed and good vertical performance and looks smashing in the air. Flying pals Derek and Steve captured some lovely images on Saturday and Sunday, as seen below - thanks gents. 👍😎 The Durafly Spitfire Mk 24 to Seafire Mk XVII conversion hasn't had any in progress pictures included in the thread, so I'll put some in here. The swapmeet bargain was a bit beaten up, I don't particularly like the latest Mk of Spitfire but was somewhat surprised how well she flew, as quite an early Durafly model. I had to do something with the finish though and get rid of that horrid FMS pilot. I much prefer how these late mark Spits look in FAA colours and set to to make it a little more like a Seafire. That involved removing two of the cannons and cannon blisters, then 3D printing an arrestor hook and adding a fairing around that from litho plate. I wasn't keen to split the rudder, so plead artistic licence on that. New cockpit interior and 3D printed pilot figure and eventually decided to replace the Durafly servos and do away with the flaps. After some deliberation I patched up the worst of the dings in the foam and then covered the model with EzeTissue and water based EzeDope, before painting with appropriately thinned B & Q acrylic emulsion paint, Cut vinyl national markings and serials done with my Silhouette Cameo, prior to adding some relief to the canyon-esque panel lines with a light grey water soluble pencil and a final blow over with satin WBPU applied by airbrush. I think the Seafire XVII looks so much better than the Spitfire Mk 24 and yes, I know the wing is more like a Seafire Mk47, but there's no massive five bladed prop or contra rotating set up here. Remaiden of the Seafire was unfortunately cut short on Saturday by tipping up in the moss and breaking a blade off the four bladed prop. However on Sunday a drama free handlaunch was followed by a very comfortable flight and again the model looked lovely in the air, admirably captured by Steve. I'm really pleased with how both of these have turned out and added another couple of Spitfires to active service - you can never have too many Spitfires! 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 (edited) Yesterday I broke out the home made vac-former and made a new canopy for the BC Hurricane, as the old one suggested the pilot was an 80 Capstan Full Strength a day man. First pull didn't work as the slightly thick PETG never really got hot enough with my covering heat gun. Second pull used some slightly thinner 0.5mm PETG and the extra heat from the Black and Decker heat gun was much better, the vacuum caught straight away and dragged the floppy plastic down really nicely onto the Plaster of Paris mould for a perfect canopy. Today I finally got the simulated rear fuselage stringers onto the Balsacraft Hurricane refurb. It's only been about fifteen years since I added that to my to do list. Fineline masking tape proved too thin to make an impression, since my intention is to cover over the fuselage with tissue prior to painting. Some experimentation suggested that duct tape left a tangible ridge and we'll see how that goes. The silver duct tape is probably a bit thinner and more subtle, but I'm hoping that the olive drab tape will create more of an effect. I put the correct number of stringers in for a Hurricane Mk 1, but I'm starting to think that maybe less would have been more, in terms of the overall effect. We'll see how it turns out. Edited February 28 by leccyflyer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 Got the base colours applied to the Hurricane fix up and I'm happy with how it has turned out with EzeTissue applied over the tape stringers. Paints are brush applied B & Q sample pots, well thinned and the Dark Green has come out a nice satin, whilst the Dark Earth -which I'd used on a previous Hurricane - turned out to be matt. I'll be masking to apply some painted roundels and squadron codes, plus a few wee waterslide decals, so, once the minor weathering is completed, the model will receive a dust coat of WBPU to equalise the finish. I was partly diverted by making a replacement wing for my pal Bob's wee 16" span VMC Hurricane, kitted out with Volantex gear, which had an unfortunate meeting with the windsock a few weeks ago, and which he'd very kindly passed on to me. Luckily he'd retained the scrap balsa from which the wing ribs had been laser cut, so I was able to quickly knock up a replacement wing, cover it with 38um laminating film and use the original paints to restore the wee Hurricane to flying condition. I just need to replace the markings, which I'll do with some laser printed waterslides. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 Well the Hurricane fix up is finally completed. Applying the markings by airbrush and CNC cut vinyl masks took forever, with six colours and three mist coats of each, cleaning the brush between each coat. I'm quite pleased with the results, which worked fine with just a few wee glitches. With that done I set to with adding some panel lines, using my favoured method of HB pencil, accentuated with light grey water soluble artist's pencil prior to a little light weathering with pencil dust applied with the fingers and some localised aluminium dry brushing. Finally locked all that in place with a mist coat of matt WBPU varnish applied with the airbrush. Got the model all dialled into the transmitter today, added the radio antenna wire, set the control throws and sorted the velcro seatbelt for the 3s1p 3200mah pack. Add the prop and spinner for a final check of CG and with the battery in place and secured that is spot on, as per the plan, with no additional ballast needed. Just need the weather for a maiden flight now -and the bench is clear. 😎 8 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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