Ron Gray Posted October 19 Share Posted October 19 That's a lot of masks Nick - looking rather good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Somerville Posted October 19 Author Share Posted October 19 4 minutes ago, Ron Gray said: That's a lot of masks 2-3hrs placing the masks and protecting surrounding areas and 15 min with the air brush! Nigel, of Flightline Graphics, prepared the masks for me btw. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Somerville Posted October 26 Author Share Posted October 26 Commemorative Air Force logo and nomenclature now completed A final top coat of transparent Klasskote has been applied to protect the acrylic markings and dry rub decals. All that remains is to bolt in the engine, programme the radio and pressure check the pneumatics. Next week’s weather looks promising, so if all checks go well we should have a maiden. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Stunning! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimi Prekop Posted November 2 Share Posted November 2 Hi Nick! Your Hellcat looks fantastic!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Somerville Posted November 3 Author Share Posted November 3 My well laid plans for a maiden on a perfectly forecast Friday were thwarted by multiple failures when on Tuesday I was doing final tests on the pneumatic system. Firstly I identified an air leak at the UP8 valve when the gear was deployed. This turned out to be a faulty ram that operates the tail retract. With the tail retract Isolated I then found that both main retracts were leaking air when retracted. Not a good day! The mains both responded with a light injection of silicon lubricant and the leaks disappeared. The ram at the rear did not respond to the same treatment and so I can only assume the O ring had perished. This left me two options: remove the ram and replace the actuation of the retract with a pushrod and servo or to buy a replacement ram and try to refit. Both options required working blind with my arm down the rear fuselage or the possibility of having to open up the lower rear of the fuselage a little forward of the retract. After some colourful language and a few days break I have removed the ram and now have a pushrod installed.. This leaves just the engine run checks and the wait for another suitable flying day. For those who have followed my previous builds I had a day out on Friday with my BT P47 and Vailly FW190. I had two fabulous flights with the soo smooth FW 190 and then a more spirted fly with my P47. However during the second flight I rolled inverted at around 300’ and to my horror the wings parted company with the fuselage. Inevitably the model was a complete right off. Inspection showed a failure of the balsa where the small ply doublers are adhered that carry the wing fixings. Not a glue failure but the balsa sheeting itself! If anyone reading this has a BT design with a similar wing fixing I would encourage them to upgrade to a better arrangement. 1 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Somerville Posted November 7 Author Share Posted November 7 Further frustration this week as I couldn’t get my Saito FG 90 to run. Despite several hours of tinkering and excellent telephone support from Morris James the Saito carb wouldn’t draw fuel. It’s actually a beastly bit of engineering as two needles are minuscule and very hard to feel the turns. Finally I decided to remove the new Walbro carb from my other FG90 that I had a full upgrade from Morris including swapping out the carb. This required a few mods to my mounting plate and throttle linkage but not a difficult task. Equipped with the new Walbro I lit the ignition and the engine fired up first flip. I will order another Walbro for the spare engine that awaits my next build. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted November 7 Share Posted November 7 that is a beautiful work of art ,a credit to your hard work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Flyer Posted November 7 Share Posted November 7 (edited) Sorry to hear that about your P47 it really looked the part and it’s very sad loosing such a nice build. I hope the engine survived . The Laser 180 is a tough beast and I’m sure in the future will grace another one of your excellent models. Your new Hellcat looks really brilliant . I would love to try building one sometime… possibly a bit smaller in 1:6 but unfortunately am currently engrossed in a DIY renovations which might go on for a while! Edited November 7 by Tim Flyer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel R Posted November 8 Share Posted November 8 Hellcat looks brilliant Nick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Freeman 3 Posted November 8 Share Posted November 8 Very Nice Nick, good luck with the test flight. Sorry about the P47 as they are just such nice flying aircraft and yours looked so good. Can be a tough hobby this! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Somerville Posted November 8 Author Share Posted November 8 Cold and murky at the patch but a nice breeze in a good direction. Well mannered on the ground and in the air after a short run and still at only half throttle. Four or five clicks of down trim needed and a couple of left aileron and all was good. I probably need to reduce the elevator throw by a fair bit but otherwise I got the sense of a lovely flying warbird. Cloud base was so low I didn’t fancy a loop and was content to do some circuits a roll and a couple of slow 1/2 flap down fly pasts to feel out the approach and landing. The slow speed handling with the huge wing area and tailplane is a new warbird experience for me and she came in like a dream using very little of the patch. Happy days. Credit to our club Chairman Chris for the photography. F6f Hellcat 1/5.3 scale 96” span AUW dry 16.4 kg Engine - Saito Fg 90R3 Jerry Bates plans Slec/Belair laser cut parts Stencils - Flightline Graphics. Cowl & canopy- Fighteraces 14 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted November 8 Share Posted November 8 Well done Nick, a lovely model. Look forward to some vids of it (when the weather is better). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Posted November 8 Share Posted November 8 Congratulations Nick! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted November 8 Share Posted November 8 congratulations Nick 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan p Posted November 8 Share Posted November 8 One to be proud of🤩 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted November 8 Share Posted November 8 A credit to you. The flying shots look totally realistic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Futura57 Posted November 8 Share Posted November 8 That's one hell of a Hellcat. I love the sound of that motor. She looks great in the air. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyGnome Posted November 9 Share Posted November 9 Smashing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimi Prekop Posted November 10 Share Posted November 10 Congratulations Nick! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel R Posted November 11 Share Posted November 11 Love the centre shot. Superb job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Somerville Posted November 13 Author Share Posted November 13 Beautiful weather here today so a second and less nervy outing with Minsi 3. Fortunately our club chairman was there with his camera again. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Freeman 3 Posted November 14 Share Posted November 14 Stunning, makes all the hard work worth it! Byron and I need to get our act together and finish the Byron one! Too many projects and not enough time. What is your next build Nick? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Somerville Posted November 14 Author Share Posted November 14 1 hour ago, Chris Freeman 3 said: Stunning, makes all the hard work worth it! Thanks Chris. Next up when I tidy the workshop (always a disastrous mess at the end of a project) is another Jerry Bates plans model. 1/5 scale Bearcat. Regards completing projects…. I only ever have one build on the go. There is usually enough to do maintaining my finished models to distract from the task and in any case my workshop is diminutive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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