So I'm finally starting to get a BIT of momentum and I'm hoping sharing some progress shots from the last several months will help keep that spark alive. Work is still absolutely crazy but I really need to make time for this project for my own sanity.
When I looked at my thread on that OTHER forum I realized that I hadn't posted there in exactly 1 year, and that the last post was a response to a friend and mentor who passed away last year. For those that didn't follow John Morgan's builds he was an exceptional craftsman who loved to share everything he knew with others. He was an inspiration to
@willsonman and myself and SO many others. His last comment on that thread was "Slow and steady wins the race
", and he was absolutely right. Even if it is slow I need to keep pressing on.
So for airframe efforts I have started installing the Nacelles. I'm being EXTRA careful with this and I'm starting with just the inboard nacelles to ensure they are perfectly square and symmetrical relative to the centerline. I've also started working on the wing saddle fillet, but I really want to get the leading and trailing edges on the wing before taking that very far.
For other activities over the last few months, I've already posted pictures of the radials. I'm pretty happy with how those and the cowl mounts came out. These should only need some minor tweaks before they are ready for use.
I re-did the rudder pedals to a much more scale version. These probably won't be seen at all with full body pilots in there, but what I had before was clearly wrong. These could be articulated by someone crazier than me (
@willsonman again
) but I won't. I'll eventually update the cockpit files on thingiverse with this version
I also did the O2 bottles. I have the generic bottle that can be scaled as needed, the 3 tank mount, and a smaller mount for a smaller O2 bottle that was in the forward cockpit. These are available at
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4753023
The final thing I've been working on, and I'll admit this is a bit crazy, is a scale and "functional" Sperry top turret. I'm still wrapping up the beta test for that design and will have some adjustments to make, but this would be a REALLY fun detail that you
might be able to see through the cockpit windows. The turret is driven by a continuous rotation servo and a belt drive with pulleys to adjust speed. Wiring passes through a slip ring and runs in aluminum tubes so there will be no binding. I still need to install the elevation servo and the FPV camera and do some coding on the horrus to make it intuitive to drive, but it should be a GREAT view (I hope).
I've got a really short clip of the turret base here: