Continued:
With my plans all layed out and covered with clear plastic, I pinned the first piece in place.


Ahh, but I'm getting ahead of myself. How did I get that pattern from paper to wood? first I used my overhead projector (or anything that lights up from below) to trace the original pattern onto a seprate piece of paper. The I made sure to darken the pencil lines very well.

Then I placed the pattern face down on the balsa and rubbed over the lines.Pull the paper away, and theres the pattern right on the wood.

It takes a while when you have a lot of pieces. Here's is the fuse half completed.

And here it is complete.

The wings are the next step, and heres the very beginning.

Well, the fuselage isn't exactly complete. I've been debating on how to do the engine cowling area. First I was going to carve it out of solid balsa because it has such an odd shape that I didn't think I could build a skeleton frame for it. However I couldn't find any large blocks of balsa, so I guess I will build a frame. This is taking a little more time than I expected, which is fine, it will keep me busy, so it will probably be a week or more before part three is up. So I hope you enoyed looking at these as much as I am bulding this thing.

Quote:


First do you know what sized model engine you'll be using?  A .40 ?  Bigger?  Second you can get adjustable engine mounts such like this one: http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXJ772&P=ML

As for the cowling, I have a Ultra Sport .40 fitted with a Super Tigre .65 engine!  The cowling that came with the kit is a 2 piece ABS plastic and is flexiable, yet adjustable by cutting to fit then glueing the halves together overlapping each other (there's an under lap on one side to make overlapping level with the surface) so you might want to look into that.
If your going to make it out of balsa, I wouldn't recommend it since you'll need some room in there for cooling, adjustments, trouble shooting, setting up the throttle linkage to the carb throttle, and attaching the fuel lines.

BTW try to keep the fuel tank at the CG so fuel level won't affect the flight much as it burns up.

And use the Rx battery pack to balance the plane after the wings are done and covered up.

Good luck!

I have had a lot of difficulty building with balsa, so I stick with plastic models.  Still fun nontheless.

Quote:


LOL! from what I saw it looked like you were gonna build a R/C since the balsa structure looks tough for R/C flying.

I had a Hobbico flightstar .40 which was my first plane, I put in a cheap .40 engine and it needed full throttle to keep cruise speed up.  Eventually I put in a .65 SuperTigre engine and after 10 flights, the aluminum spar sandwiched with pine wood snapped in half and the wings folded up and went down like a shark fin and this was after pulling a full throttle hard bank turn!
Too much mini G-force lol.

And I'm on my 2nd Ultra sport 40, the first one crashed from engine failure and couldn't make it back to the strip in time.

The 2nd one I have has laminated sandwich pine wood spar with alot of carbon fiber strips and wrapped in carbon fiber layers and it's still flying today.  I could even launch it vertically, no runway needed for takeoff.  But for landing yeah.

Very Cool!  8)

Quote:
Way into it? My little Air Force would have blown your 8 plane squadron away!
1/32 scale:
P51:            2
1/72nd scale :
Nieuport:    1
Hustler:                1
Spitfire:         (1)
1/48 Scale:
B17:                           1
B24:                           1
B25:                           1
P38:                           3
P39:                           2
P40:                           3
P47:                           5
P51:                           5
F4F:                           2
F6F:                           2
F8F:                           2
F4U:                           2
Avenger:   2
Dauntless: 2
Helldiver*: 1
Hurricane: 3
Spitfire:         3
Typhoon:       1
Me109:          3
Me262:          2
FW190:         2
Ju87:                                2
Frank**:       1
George**:1
Hamp**:       1
Jack**:        1
Oscar**:      1

Tony**:       1
Zero**:        5
*
**
60 listed (assembled -- most, but not all, have been lost or stolen): I may have forgotten a few; listed only planes, not the plastic cars, ships or tanks.

Quote:
Once I got the assembly line-style down (pre-painting, sections, etc.), 20 models was less than a two-month procedure. Most unmodified models were done within a day or two. I progressed to making canopies open/close, working landing gear (a small electric drill and a file came in handy) -- even put some small motors in to spin the prop -- which took a bit longer but nothing killed a week (that's an hour or two per night). The more you do, the faster and more efficient you'll be  .
What Tacit is doing is a little different: traditional wood gluing can be more delicate, takes a bit more setting time and he's form-cutting his own pieces.

What's really time consuming about this is the design work. You're never sure you've designed a part correctly until you fit it in place, and fit all adjoining parts to it. That's part of the fun though.