Building the F117 and looking for some mods

[JustPlaneChris]

Excellent! Yes, it definitely stays a bit rubbery. I still use white Gorilla glue where I want a really strong (and gap filling) joint. I found it weird that it smells "chemically" yet doesn't melt the foam. I'm sure it would if you thinned it with acetone though!

Chris

 

[Burnhard]

I used the clear gorilla glue, gave me time to get it positioned right....and lots of blue painters tape

Hi Caroline, another question on the wings. I saw in your question to Matagami that you need to insert an extra piece of paper into the wing which works as hinge. Does that mean you cut the bevels on the upper and lower side of the wing and if yes, do these bevels run parallel to the aileron (starting approx at the cut out)?

 

[CarolineTyler]

Hi Caroline, another question on the wings. I saw in your question to Matagami that you need to insert an extra piece of paper into the wing which works as hinge. Does that mean you cut the bevels on the upper and lower side of the wing and if yes, do these bevels run parallel to the aileron (starting approx at the cut out)?

Yes, that's exactly what is expected. I messed it up so ended up sticking the bottom to the top and just doing a regular type of bevel. It worked fine.

 

[CarolineTyler]

The EDF lives on.....now sitting in the tail of a C1 Chaser wing, balancing out with a 3300mAh 4S lipo. Pretty quick build so far, should hopefully be ready for maiden this weekend weather depending.

 

[Burnhard]

The EDF lives on.....now sitting in the tail of a C1 Chaser wing, balancing out with a 3300mAh 4S lipo. Pretty quick build so far, should hopefully be ready for maiden this weekend weather depending.

All pieces of the F117 are cut out and waiting for assembly. Received more carbon fibre tubes and bands today.

I am rebuilding the Viggen in parallel. Salvaged the EDF from the broken parts yesterday and it looks like new. Was flying the Viggen on 4S 3300. I have two different sets of 3300 lipos and interestingly there is a huge weight difference of about 100g between the two (290g vs . With the Viggen I had the issue that the aircraft was constantly pulling up and even the more heavy lipo far in the front did not help that much. Hope the Viggen v3 will have better capabilities as v2.

 

[CarolineTyler]

The hacked wing, this thing will be awesome...... I hope!

 

[CarolineTyler]

All pieces of the F117 are cut out and waiting for assembly. Received more carbon fibre tubes and bands today.

I am rebuilding the Viggen in parallel. Salvaged the EDF from the broken parts yesterday and it looks like new. Was flying the Viggen on 4S 3300. I have two different sets of 3300 lipos and interestingly there is a huge weight difference of about 100g between the two (290g vs . With the Viggen I had the issue that the aircraft was constantly pulling up and even the more heavy lipo far in the front did not help that much. Hope the Viggen v3 will have better capabilities as v2.

Looking forward to your F117 maiden, hope it is more successful than mine

 

[Burnhard]

The hacked wing, this thing will be awesome...... I hope!
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That looks super fast. I have not dared to build a flying wing yet. Make a video when you launch it ;-)

 

[Burnhard]

Finally some progress today. Fitted the carbon fibre and added these to the spars. The spars now have a carbon tube on the inside and another carbon stripe on the outside. Will also add a stripe of carbon across the main fuselage and added a bit on the rear former. Glued the spars in place today. Will add the first wing tomorrow. Will only glue in the EDF once the wings are attached.

 

[Burnhard]

More progress today. Attached the wings and added the paper for the hinge on the elevons. Did a mistake in already glueing in the back former for the thrust tube had to cut that one open to install the thrust tube. Next stepp will be closing the wings.

 

[The Hangar]

I found another glue made by Beacon (makers of Foam Tac) named "Foam & Poster Board Adhesive) and I found it at the Dollar Tree store! Yep, it's one freaking dollar. I haven't used the Foam Tac to have a comparison, but this stuff works great so far. It stays flexible, which is what we want for foam. I'm already on my 2nd bottle. Big spender, I am.

https://www.dollartree.com/beacon-foam-poster-board-adhesive-175oz-bottles/307640

Chris

I’ve used both and it’s pretty much identical to foamtac - except for the price!

 

[The Hangar]

Excellent! Yes, it definitely stays a bit rubbery. I still use white Gorilla glue where I want a really strong (and gap filling) joint. I found it weird that it smells "chemically" yet doesn't melt the foam. I'm sure it would if you thinned it with acetone though!

Chris

White gorilla glue is one of my go-to’s as well, it’s so handy for so many applications.

 

[Burnhard]

White gorilla glue is one of my go-to’s as well, it’s so handy for so many applications.

Fitted the servos today. For closing the wing I plan to use hotglue on the spar and another thin beat on the outer sides of the elevons. The paper hinge was glued in with Ponal water-resistant white glue. I plan to use more Ponal on the larger surfaces of the elevons when joining these together.

 

[Matagami Designs]

Fitted the servos today. For closing the wing I plan to use hotglue on the spar and another thin beat on the outer sides of the elevons. The paper hinge was glued in with Ponal water-resistant white glue. I plan to use more Ponal on the larger surfaces of the elevons when joining these together.

I used hot glue on the foam spar and gorilla glue in the leading edge and 3m77 for hinge and trailing edges.

 

[Burnhard]

Did some repairs on the Bushwacker and painted the Viggen B03 over the weekend. I am running out of excuses to work on the F117.

Closed the front today and made my battle plan on closing the wings. A challenge I see is that I will need quite a bit of hotglue and my gluegun is rather tiny. Will start with the white glue on the larger surfaces and only apply the hot glue in the last moment. More to follow.

 

[Burnhard]

More progress today. I closed both wings! As expected applying the hotglue was not that easy as there were many surfaces to be covered.

Started with applying whiteglue to the surfaces where the paper hinge sits. Then applied hotglue first on the most center side of the leading edge, followed by the spar and then the rest of the leading edge. After that I closed the wing and applied some reasonable pressure for about a minute or so. Once that part was dry, I added a beat of glue around the trailing edge. The exercise went without crinkles (other tan one little on on the inner side on the trailing edge).

Made another mistake by gluing the inner parts of the trailing edge to the fuselage bottom too quickly. Now I cannot properly access the ailerons to close the gap of the two halfs, though I am not too concerned about that.

To make things look nicer, I applied some Wonderfill filler around the trailing edge as well as on the bottom where the wings join together with the fuselage. Will sand that tomorrow and than apply Foam Armour to make the edges more rigid.

 

[Matagami Designs]

More progress today. I closed both wings! As expected applying the hotglue was not that easy as there were many surfaces to be covered.

Started with applying whiteglue to the surfaces where the paper hinge sits. Then applied hotglue first on the most center side of the leading edge, followed by the spar and then the rest of the leading edge. After that I closed the wing and applied some reasonable pressure for about a minute or so. Once that part was dry, I added a beat of glue around the trailing edge. The exercise went without crinkles (other tan one little on on the inner side on the trailing edge).

Made another mistake by gluing the inner parts of the trailing edge to the fuselage bottom too quickly. Now I cannot properly access the ailerons to close the gap of the two halfs, though I am not too concerned about that.

To make things look nicer, I applied some Wonderfill filler around the trailing edge as well as on the bottom where the wings join together with the fuselage. Will sand that tomorrow and than apply Foam Armour to make the edges more rigid.

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Looking good in the pictures. Starting to look like a stealth fighter!

 

[Burnhard]

Looking good in the pictures. Starting to look like a stealth fighter!

Indeed it does ;-). Is there any particular order in which to put together the main fuselage? My next step would be to put in place the front canopy. After that I would start looking at the tail section and think about on how to add the vtail.

 

[Burnhard]

Glued in place the canopy today and Also did a bit of a paint job on the front intake. Started with the v-tail as well. I am wondering whether I should do the angles once its glued in the back or as long as its still outside. On Matagamis pics it looks like this can be done upfront.

Finally decided to ditch the idea with the retracts. Those would need to go right where the front former is. This would mean some serious re arranging of the carbon fibre (the only thing that can remain is the carbon tube at the front spar). Further, as my home flying place is a grass field, I would need fairly large wheels (at least 6 cm) which adds to the fiddling.

I do have some orange leds lying around. Considering adding these in the rear if the thrust tube. However those seem to require 12v while the bec just gives about 5-6v. Any thoughts on what to do about that?

 

[Matagami Designs]

Indeed it does ;-). Is there any particular order in which to put together the main fuselage? My next step would be to put in place the front canopy. After that I would start looking at the tail section and think about on how to add the vtail.

Yep this is the process I used. Set the angle with the gauge then the top and sides can be installed.