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Vailly FW 190 1/4.5 (Nick Somerville)


Nick Somerville
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I have had a break after finishing my Sea Fury, which awaits better weather for its maiden, and am now ready to embark on the next challenge.  I have a short kit for Brian Taylor’s Corsair that was supposed to be next, but I couldn’t resist an offer for a set of almost all the essentials to build a Vailly Fw 190. Although a lot larger than the Corsair, I may as well get on with it first while I have the energy to cope with a heavyweight warbird.

 

Parts I have are 2 sets of plans, a huge glass cowl and gun deck, Sierra mains and tail retracts, laser cut parts plus a big pile of balsa, 3D printed scale wheel hubs and tyres (yes printed rubber tyres!), alloy spinner and 3d printed fan, some vac formed door liners and a full set of highly detailed Bentley drawings. Oh, I nearly forgot an engine too. It’s a Valach 85cc flat twin petrol. Never run a petrol before, only Lasers ?

 

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I have been reading up on some terrific builds of the Butcher Bird on ‘Radio Scale Model Builder’, as I did for my Fury, so much of how I approach this build will be very much informed by those superb builders. I actually don’t think I could manage without that resource.

 

So here we go: stab and elevators first to get a feel for cutting, jigging and gluing again. All laid out and now time for a cuppa.

 

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If only i was allowed to produce my 90cc radial ? 

 

Should be a great project Nick. My understanding of the valach engines is that they seem to be the most sorted out of the walbro carbed engines but do not want to rev much. I suspect the two go hand in hand with conservative figures on a number of components to make the engine easy to use rather than theoretically more powerful. I would be interested in hearing about your experiences with it when the time comes. 

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10 hours ago, Jon - Laser Engines said:

If only i was allowed to produce my 90cc radial ? 

 

1 hour ago, Nick Somerville said:

If you build one and it runs as expected before I have my firewall set, I shall sell the Valach and buy the first one available. ?

 

 

I'd sell my wife.....

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15 hours ago, Nick Somerville said:

If you build one and it runs as expected before I have my firewall set, I shall sell the Valach and buy the first one available. ?

 

 

£1200 for a glow example? The saito 90 petrol is getting on for £1500 so that seems a reasonable price in the current market. 

 

I suspect the 85 twin would have more power overall, but i would need to build and run a radial to be sure as the calculated numbers vary a bit depending on how you plot them. I am also deriving the performance from other engines so its not super accurate. 

 

Anyway, i will keep dreaming. 

 

 

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Stab ready for sheeting. I fitted a 1/8th false leading edge as I prefer to sheet over, sand back and then add the L/E. Hinge blocks as per the scale position and elevator joiner made up with the inner hinges incorporated as well as the actuating horn. The brass horn is silver soldered with a few wraps of thin wire. Tested repeatedly with a hammer and then bound with carbon tows and soaked in CA for good measure. The horn is slightly angled forward to ensure it clears the tail retract when raised.

 

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6 hours ago, Nick Cripps said:

That tailwheel retract is a work of art!

The air pressure holding the retract down should provide some basic springing as well - clever design.

It does on my friends larger one, note when it's retracted it's not possible to turn the wheel. We set my mates up with a separate tailwheel steering servo so the rudder control only works the tailwheel in the extended position.

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That’s really interesting to know as I read earlier today, in the Squadron.Signal Walk Around publication for the FW 190, that the tailwheel was locked for takeoff. Now how would you go about setting up a separate servo to steer when taxying on the rudder stick, lock when taking off and retracting and then returning to taxi mode after the initial landing run in?

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Well the tail steering is a loong way off so plenty if time to ponder. In the meantime the elevators have been made and hinges prepared from pc board and 2mm nuts and bolts. A bit fiddly, but Robart pins are pricey and these look more scale like. Leading edge and tip blocks for the stab to fit and the leading edge needs a double bevel.

 

Here one elevator ready to join. Carbon tow stiffener along TE and Proskin trim tab let in.

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Proskin also used for the stab shroud

 

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Barbs still need filing before the hinges are fitted.

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Tip blocks added from 2x 3/8 light balsa with hollow inside and carbon cloth added at outer edge. Probably only saved a few grams but everything helps on a short nosed warbird. All sanded and Proskin tip tip shrouds fitted. Ready for glass cloth on stab and tex covering on elevators. What are people using instead of Solartex?

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