So its been a minute without a meaningful update on the Sweet Pea, but progress is being made again. I had to spend 5 or 6 hours cleaning the shop over the weekend, but it is clean and I'm able to move around again which helps a lot. I also have a little side project for a buddy's build that will hopefully be done in a few days but it isn't taking up too much time.
After mulling over the floor/walls I decided to KISS for now. What I want to avoid is having the white and pink/purple-ish foam visible when you look in the waist gunner windows (or through the other small windows/ports) I'll leave the ultra-detailed aft interiors to the plastic model guys. When I cut the waist gunner windows in I'll add enough detail to catch your eye but what I opted to do now was just make the interior of this section black. I used 2mm foam to make a floor and a forward and aft wall. I tested a few paint options but what I ended up doing was attacking this interior area with giant Sharpie markers. It took 3 passes over the white foam areas to get them really dark, but I think it will work out really well and there was no measurable weight gain from the sharpie. The only light getting in will be from the windows so as long as it stays dark I can hopefully hide the fact that the interior isn't right.
In related news, after conversations with
@willsonman and
@rockyboy I decided I wanted to pick up a Horus 10S and start playing with it and setting up the programming and mixes. I've been a Specktrum guy since I got back into the hobby and I'm always nervous to make a change when something is working, but this bird will need a LOT of channels. I've heard nothing but good things about the reliability and functionality of the Horus so I'm going to give it a shot. As luck would have it
@rockyboy was at the AMA expo over the weekend and found a GREAT deal on one, so he picked it up for me. THANKS SO MUCH! Can't wait to get my hands on it and start playing.
Off the top of my head I think I'll need the following channels for the pilot radio.
1 Elevator 1
2 Elevator 2
3 Rudder
4 Tail retract
5 Tail steering
6 R main retract
7 L main retract
8 R flap
9 L flap
10 R aileron
11 L aileron
12 Engine 1
13 Engine 2
14 Engine 3
15 Engine 4
16 Bomb door
17 Bomb release
18 Sound System (link to throttle but want to be able to shut down in flight or run w/o motors)
19 Lighting on/off
I'd like to be able to do bomb drops with or without a co-pilot on a separate radio. The bomb bay doors and drop may end up on another radio along with turrets, but that is TBD. I'll probably play with running redundant receivers and run inboard motors + 1 elevator & 1 Aileron on one and Outboard motors + 1 elevator & 1 Aileron on the other. That way loss of a single receiver leaves me with flight controls and 2 engines. Electronic setup and config will be a rabbit hole for another day though...