Top Flite Gold Corsair Refurb

[Dale Bradly]

Anyone interested in me posting this endeavour?

 

I have a gap about .60 warbird sized in the flying fleet, and needed a project. It's the middle of winter here, and my cold unlined shed is not particularly inviting at -2°. 

And having done a lot of building in the last year, i felt like something simple. Got plenty of "big projects" out there, at least a dozen in various states of repair/build, but all would involve long periods of outside shedliness sanding, gluing etc which is had to be enthusiastic for at the moment.

In fact, what i felt like was assembling an ARF, which i haven't done for yonks now. Simple easy, I could talk over the spare room in the house, with a manageable amount of mess resulting, and would keep me entertained for a few weeks worth of evenings.

 

I had a look around the "projects", to see what was out there. I don't have any unstarted ARF's sitting NIB, but what i did have was a TF Corsair i had picked up on the interwebs.

Already built, had retracts in, some servos, was covered and seemingly ready to go. No engine, and one had never been mounted (no holes in firewall, cowl unmolested). Haha me thinks to meself. Plenty of info online to help things along, and in fact i have a second one i starting building years ago, still incomplete, but means i have the plan and manual to hand and it all looked familiar. Seemed to be built pretty much as per plan, even had the standard kit markings applied  and yellow wingtips as per box lid. (Sorry no pics of it as delivered)

 

So i pull it down, bring it into the inside mancave, and start compiling a list of what might need to be done.

Engine is first of course, and from the outset i want a 20cc gasser, probably the Stinger 20RE. (I've got two of the SE in other models and love them to bits, the RE here inverted would make things nice and easy.)

A few broken hinges, a bit of glue poured here and there and a few other minor tidy ups seem all thats needed for "issues".

So lets get into it eh?

 

 

 

[Dale Bradly]

I take it back. I do have one photo.

 

If it wasn't obvious, that's her in front. My existing part built behind, and a part built (not by me) Brian Taylor 82" at the rear, so if you ever wanted to know the size difference, there it is.

 

[Jon H]

Always good to see a rebuild but i dont think you need an engine that big. These fly fine on 90 size 4 strokes unless built out of bricks. They can bite in a stall though even at a sensible weight. I flew a club mates example some years ago. It was about 10 lbs and had an ASP 91 fs. It flew fine but needed a propeller change to get the best performance from the engine. Alas he high speed stalled it into the ground later that day so we never got the chance. 

 

Just saw the photo. I thought i was the only one to have multiples of the same model

Edited July 14, 2022 by Jon - Laser Engines

[Dale Bradly]

Jon, not disagreeing with you at all, and in fact i completely agree, however i don't fly glow anymore so thats out, and i keep electrics to the small sizes.

I have another warbird at 72" and 5kg, and it goes well. In fact it is a little overpowered at WOT, but i do use the throttle stick and prefer not to scream around at full throttle anyway. May look at the 15cc. 

 

In part, this model is gonna be pretty rough. Pretty and full of scale details it will not be, so hoping to keep weight down. If i can get it flying at 10lb i'll be happy. 

[Dale Bradly]

So starting with the fuselage. 

Closer inspection revealed a few splits in the underlying sheeting, plenty of covering edges lifting, and something had come adrift in the tailwheel/rudder linkage, these two being joined together buried in the back end as per plan. I also was keen to change the markings, but these are just stickers, so generally peeled off pretty easily. Alas, in doing so, caused a more tears in the covering. Keyhole surgery to access the rear linkage added to the covering woes, so i realised i was best to strip the covering and redo it.

Not what i had initially planned or wanted.

The covering peeled off pretty easily though, but this then showed the entire fuse had a significant layer of what appears to be a highbuild primer over it.

After patching a few holes, wicking CA into some sheeting splits, and the rudder pushrod repair, i began sanding.

At this stage i realised the surface was far from fair, while it appeared to have been initially built well, perhaps years of storage has allowed the balsa to dry out and shrink further, and there are a lot of hollows and flat spots, just like covering does on a wing between ribs. without much effort i even sanded through it in a couple of places, so more repairs needed.

Since i needed to recover, i needed to proceed with this in mind. Glassing was out, and i'm not a fan of "iron-on" model coverings. I thought i'd try laminating film on this. Not the first model i've used it on, but will be the first time i've painted it.

As a trial, I covered the rudder, scratched it up with a steel wool pot scourer, wiped with acetone and then sprayed with a plastic primer.

Primer is well adhered, so this looks like the way forward.

Rudder (primed) and elevator (covered

 

Yes i'm being pretty brutal with weight reduction, as much as i can on a prebuilt model. Rudder has a matching series of holes.

 

Fuse at this point looks like this.