FTFC19 - April Showers by Rockyboy, Italian FT Simple Scout

[rockyboy]

So for last year's April Showers I built a nice little FT Simple Scout with floats and painted her up in Italian colors inspired by Maggiore Francesco Baracca's Spad S.VII.

Credited with an impressive 34 victories, Francesco Baracca was Italys highest scoring ace in WW1 and is shown here in his distinctive Spad S.VII which carried his personal emblem, the Prancing Horse, that paid homage to his cavalry days. Upon his death in this aircraft on 19th June 1918, Baraccas mother donated the emblem to Enzo Ferrari whose cars still carry this badge the world over.

HOWEVER, last year I didn't do a build thread, and I didn't do any waterproofing on the plane - just the floats. But I flew her and loved her and did several streamer combat flights with her until there was a low inside loop that turned into a ground spike

This is what she looks like now.

My plan for the rebuild is to show how I set things up and use the needle cutter to cut out new fuselage and tail parts, show the waterproofing steps, and paint her up like before. Oh yeah - and then fly her off a pond or in the rain

 

[Hai-Lee]

With you rebuild you could consider an different approach to the FB bevel hinges.

Check this out: https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/standard-foamboard-hinge-weakness.57666/

Will handle water ingress much better!

Have fun

 

[Gazoo]

Isn't that a Simple Scout?

Looks really nice!

 

[rockyboy]

With you rebuild you could consider an different approach to the FB bevel hinges.

Check this out: https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/standard-foamboard-hinge-weakness.57666/

Will handle water ingress much better!

Have fun

Interesting approach - I would like to do something to help stiffen the hinges up a bit!

Isn't that a Simple Scout?

Looks really nice!

Kids, this is why we say "go to bed" - there's a point when the brain just doesn't work right anymore!

Thanks for pointing this out - I've fixed the "Simple Cub" to "Simple Scout"

 

[Hai-Lee]

Interesting approach - I would like to do something to help stiffen the hinges up a bit!



Kids, this is why we say "go to bed" - there's a point when the brain just doesn't work right anymore!

Thanks for pointing this out - I've fixed the "Simple Cub" to "Simple Scout"

Find a bit of scrap and try it! it does tighten up stiffen the hinges as well as possibly reduce the need for a supporting spar in long or wide control surfaces. The hinge line is actually self supporting along almost its entire length.

I tried it on scrap first and the hinge was ever so free and yet so firmly attached I was instantly sold!

Have fun![

 

[Michael9865]

Looks fun. You could go the V tail route like jpot1 made, https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/ft-simple-scout-v-tail-edition.56328/. I think it would go nicely with the floats. I already needled out a V tail kit to build shortly.

 

[rockyboy]

Looks fun. You could go the V tail route like jpot1 made, https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/ft-simple-scout-v-tail-edition.56328/. I think it would go nicely with the floats. I already needled out a V tail kit to build shortly.

That looks cool - but I was just starting to learn knife edge flight with my last one! Need a rudder for that!

 

[Michael9865]

Will you be sharing your float plans?

 

[Hai-Lee]

So for last year's April Showers I built a nice little FT Simple Scout with floats and painted her up in Italian colors inspired by Maggiore Francesco Baracca's Spad S.VII.

HOWEVER, last year I didn't do a build thread, and I didn't do any waterproofing on the plane - just the floats. But I flew her and loved her and did several streamer combat flights with her until there was a low inside loop that turned into a ground spike

This is what she looks like now.

View attachment 125933

My plan for the rebuild is to show how I set things up and use the needle cutter to cut out new fuselage and tail parts, show the waterproofing steps, and paint her up like before. Oh yeah - and then fly her off a pond or in the rain

As you are going to be rebuilding anyway you could do a new fuselage and try to make it look a little like the below Pic of a Hansa Brandenburg from WWI.

Just a thought!

Have fun!

 

[Air-headed Aviator]

As you are going to be rebuilding anyway you could do a new fuselage and try to make it look a little like the below Pic of a Hansa Brandenburg from WWI.

View attachment 126067

Just a thought!

Have fun!

The Hansen-Brandenburg series were such cool looking aircraft for the WW1 era

 

[rockyboy]

As you are going to be rebuilding anyway you could do a new fuselage and try to make it look a little like the below Pic of a Hansa Brandenburg from WWI.

View attachment 126067

Just a thought!

Have fun!

That's a beauty!! A little concerned I could lose track of it with that gray / blue color scheme though. Maybe if I swapped the Blue for Yellow and did the same design though...

 

[rockyboy]

So this weekend I fixed up the digital files (will post some pics of those steps tonight) and then fired up the Lowrider needle cutter for the first time in many months. I got the tail pieces cutout fine, and then on the fuse sheet I promptly miss-aligned my Y axis start point, screwed up a couple lines in the gcode file, and ruined my last piece of waterproof foam board.

So I fixed the gcode files and ran a cut of the fuselage on good old Adams white DTFB. Given the number of planes that were destroyed in Saturday's streamer combat, this plane will probably have a severely limited life span anyway

One the fuse was cut out, reassembly started quickly with my normal Gorilla Glue / Hot Glue combo method.

Will probably have her ready for a first coat of Water Based Polyurethane to make her a bit water resistant this afternoon. Gotta be able to handle some April Showers (and mud puddles and dew covered grass)...

 

[kilroy07]

Water Based Polyurethane

Quick question (because I’m still learning) I heard (maybe from a video) that we should use the oil/solvent based stuff.... is that not the best to use? I had used it on my Miss America ‘Stang, and didn’t have any issues (such as it melting the foam.)

 

[rockyboy]

Quick question (because I’m still learning) I heard (maybe from a video) that we should use the oil/solvent based stuff.... is that not the best to use? I had used it on my Miss America ‘Stang, and didn’t have any issues (such as it melting the foam.)

Both water and oil based polyurethane work fine on the foam in my experience - the water based stuff is just a lot easier to clean up and reuse brushes. Light coats is very important so the water doesn't loosen up the paper before it flashes off - or just peel off the paper and use a tape or CA hinge after a couple coats of the WBPU have dried.

 

[rockyboy]

A coat of WBPU applied with a foam sponge to the white DTFB fuselage.

Since I was able to cut the tail pieces out of the water resistant foam board, I sanded them with 320 grit to knock off the waxy finish and hit them with a coat of Ironlak Sugar paint.

I'll do the stripes on the rudder before installing that - less masking work to do that way. Time for a coat of yellow on the fuse when the WBPU dries.

 

[rockyboy]

I spent too much time on the roundels to let them get oversprayed now

 

[CustomRCMods]

Looks Great!

 

[rockyboy]

Looks Great!

Thanks!

Will you be sharing your float plans?

Sorry I missed this earlier - I just used the Flite Test Simple Cub Floats plan with no mods.

I got the speed built kit while at Flite Fest, but the plans links are in the second post of Sponz's thread here: https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/sp0nz-plans-index.17136/

 

[Grifflyer]

Looking good!!

 

[HilldaFlyer]

So for last year's April Showers I built a nice little FT Simple Scout with floats and painted her up in Italian colors inspired by Maggiore Francesco Baracca's Spad S.VII.

I like what I see in the background. Let me know how you formed the leading edge on the green foam.