FTFC'18 WWII Focke-Wulf FW-42

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
I was in the RC Groups site looking at a 1/7th scale scratch Tomcat F-14D build by HeliFreak and every aluminum panel on the engine and plane (from Aluminum cans maybe) had alllll the rivets. I mean ALL.
Rivets.JPG
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
So I decided to build it old school style - printing the tiled 8.5x11 sheets and taping them together.

Here's the fuselage pages all taped together. Localfiend's CAD template does a nice job putting alignment marks on the plans.

2017-09-17 18.50.52.jpg

Rather than glue or tape the plans to the DTFB, I used T-pins placed at every line crossing and corner. This made it real easy to line up the straight edge for each cut moving from one side of the paper to the other. After a little clean up, out popped the fuselage!

2017-09-17 22.09.38.jpg

Here's the next set of parts being layed out. The corner of the canard is visible in the top of the picture too.

2017-09-18 09.52.32.jpg

Wings next :)
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
I still need to get the new plans printed out. Been stuck working on a reliable Bombay door mechanism that works smoothly but does not interfere with the dropping mechanism. This all has to be a one piece unit so it can be moved to various locations for cg like we spoke of.
 

jpot1

Elite member
So I decided to build it old school style - printing the tiled 8.5x11 sheets and taping them together.

Here's the fuselage pages all taped together. Localfiend's CAD template does a nice job putting alignment marks on the plans.

View attachment 94900

Rather than glue or tape the plans to the DTFB, I used T-pins placed at every line crossing and corner. This made it real easy to line up the straight edge for each cut moving from one side of the paper to the other. After a little clean up, out popped the fuselage!

View attachment 94901

Here's the next set of parts being layed out. The corner of the canard is visible in the top of the picture too.

View attachment 94902

Wings next :)

Nice! I have the plans printed and taped but then saw the x-29 video...torn as to what is next.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
Well, both Jason and I are building away off v2 of the plans. Something plane shaped is occuring, but there are a lot more plans issues that I expected. I'd say v2 is no longer a release candidate... but hey - we're making progress!

2017-09-24 23.15.41.jpg

The top is just flopping around up there till I finish up a servo/canard control setup, and figure out where the battery needs to mount for CG. Not sure if I like this dihedral, but I figured since the first prototype and Jason's current one are going straight wing and large ailerons for aerobatic performance, I'd try one with smaller ailerons and a little dihedral and see if I can get a trainer style flight envelope here.
 

jpot1

Elite member
Rockyboy - nice looking build you have going. Here is a glamour shot of mine. Good progress this weekend with straight wings and a fully moving canard. As you mention, I have the ailerons extending to the wingtips. Just need to button up the front hatch/nose and since I'm running this as a pusher, I may leave the wing pods off.

Jason

fw-42pic.jpg
 

DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
Both builds looking good! @jpot1 - are those full foil canards - any chance you have a side view?

DamoRC
 

jpot1

Elite member
Both builds looking good! @jpot1 - are those full foil canards - any chance you have a side view?

DamoRC

It is just a typical FT style wing, just smaller. Flat bottom, with a double bevel leading edge. I removed some of the paper to get a nice curve and also beveled the top trailing edge. Also cut out a section for the 3/16" dowel to sit which is what provides the movement.

IMG_0604.JPG

showing the trailing edge bevel...

IMG_0605.JPG

side view

IMG_0613.JPG
 

jpot1

Elite member
Nice - How about a close up of the canard/servo linkage. I'd be interested in seeing how that was done.

I took some pictures during the process as I was thinking about doing an article. My goal was to keep it very simple as I had no idea if this would work. Please keep in mind this is not flight tested yet. As shown in the post above, canard is just a typical fold over wing with a cutout for a 3/16" dowel that runs through the fuse and connects each side. To try and provide a little more guidance I found washers that I glued both around the hole in the fuse for support and as well to the edge of the canard.

IMG_0606.JPG IMG_0614.JPG

Second picture above is trying to show the washers together but its hard to see. This way when the canard pivots it is the smooth side of each washer against each other. I then drilled out a servo arm so that it was very difficult to push the servo arm onto the dowel. I added generous amounts of thin CA to keep the servo arm in place on the dowel. Also used a bit of a straw for the dowel to run through in the fuse with a regular servo connection to the arm connected to the dowel.

IMG_0615.JPG
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
Hooray for the maiden of v2! :applause:

After getting my needle cutter sorted out tonight I cut a set of power pods and added those to my v2 build. Next up is sorting out the electronics, battery location, and canard control surfaces. Fingers crossed for a maiden in two weeks :)

2017-09-26 23.21.35.jpg
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
As the Mini FW-42 project is coming along quite nicely, we're getting ready to spin up effort on the monster size 102" wingspan FW-42 for FFE.

Keeping Joshua Orchard's words of wisdom in mind from the Flite Test Community Podcast this week, it's a good idea to only try one new technique per build so you can focus on learning it and have success with the other techniques you already know. Well, I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep it to one new thing for this build. Maybe I can hold it at two or three. So I'm going to be looking for plenty of advice and ideas from the community - especially those who have done monster foam builds like this before.

So my initial question to all is would it be less confusing to break out the Monster FW-42 build into it's own build thread? Or should we keep that discussion in here with the rest of the Mini FW-42 plans, decals, build instructions, and community support - and hopefully community mods - to come?

Thanks!
 
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