Sorry it has been a while since I got to post something here but I have been busy with some flying and building of other models too. I have a lot to share in general and also some new stuff here but first;
@Vimana89 requested that I post all the pictures of the build process even those of the prototypes. So following his request here is a post dedicated to the build process of V2 with pictures of what I have. I'll also try to write a short explaination of what I did but not why I did things a certain way. If anyone wants to know why I did somethig a certain way over others just ask, might even help me get more ideas for better building.
OK let's start.
First thing I tend to build on any model is the wings and so I did with this one as well. I started off with the master series type wing, first laying out all the pieces, then I cleared the cavities and removed the paper from where it was needed. I folded the spars (built two wasn't sure which I'll use), one used a A based fold box spar, the other was using a C fold spar; I eventually used the box based spar. I molded the the top side of the wings like in the masters series to get the FB to curve in a way that will later allow to create an airfoil when press againist the spar. Next I took the bottom havles of the wing and duck taped them together after which I applied glue to glue them together like in a lot of FT models. I glued the spar into place based on the markings that I had, and was ready to glue on the top cover of the wing. I glued one side at a time following this order, first glue the leading edge till about 5cm from the wing tip, then glue the wing tip, then the trailing edge. to make things line up correctly on the ailerons what I do is push the aileron down and using that to line up before applying glue I then applu glue with the wing being close to the edge of the table so that the aileron can keep being push down and help in keeping things lined up. Did the same on both wing sides and then put a line of hot glue on the top wing joint and smeared it in using a scrap piece of foam, once dry I covered with duck tape like in other models for extra strength. I am not happy with the the angle on the linkages to the control surfaces here need to work on them.
Next thing I did was build the second wing set for the V2 it is different from the master series wing because it has and undercamber on the trailing edge of the wing as well as the wing tips. First thing to do was again to lay out the parts and prepare them once that was done I could start building. This wing set is not built in four peices but rather two, and has a fold over wing sytle like in a lot of FT designs including the one I RIPED it from the Spitfire. Firs thing I did here was mold the top part of the wing into shape using the master series tecnique exactly like in the other wing that I had created. I did each side seprately and then proceeded to duck tape them together, on the next version I'll try taping and gluing them together before modelinh them into shape. After I connected the two halves this time including the top cover fold over part I added the spar gluing it on the guide marks (the spar that I didn't use on the other set of wings). Like in the FT Spitfire I add a piece of foam to thw trailing edge to make a better airfoil. It was now time to fold over the wing and glue it in shape I applied glue on the leading edge the spar and folded over holding it in place like in the TT for a good 1.5 mins. Once it was dry I applied a small bead of glue on the trailing edge and held that in place until it dried about another 1.5 mins. That's it the other set of wings was done.
After building both wings I started building the fuselage. This part might seem complicated but I promise you most of it is quite simple. Only a tiny bit of it is actually hard and that part is the front nose section and the canopy window. Again prepared the pieces and started building. First I built main part of the fuselage, folding up the side in a B fold manner, that gives up a sort of boat looking piece. Part of this boat like looking piece is actually the bed on which the wings sit and is indented down by 1 cm the height of the wing core. So next thing to do is connect the back top cover for the rear part of the fuselage (the tail boom), but before you can glue that in place you need to connect the the first back wing supporter on the bottom side of the cover the side that would go into the two side cheeks of the piece we've just created; once that is done glue into place.
Next we create the wing bed, it has two wing supporters one for the front and one for the back; this makes a total of two wing supporters on the back. Though we don't glue the front wing supporter to this piece yet, because that will make it hard to apply preasure to the wing bed when gluing it to the fuselage piece that we already have ready. Once we glued the back supporter to the wing bed piece and glued that to the fuselage we can glue the front wing supporter piece into place. Now it's time to add a down preasure wing supporter and for this we have a weird triangle piece, it used to be a small U like shaped piece but I changed it adding the triangle part to also help support the bend and twist of the front nose section.
Once that was glued into place I fliped the fuselage over and started opening up the former slots from any foam that might have been left inside, including those of the vertical/horizontal stablizers. Next I glued together the rudder and elevator pieces that have a tab/slot configration allowing for simple alignment. Once the glue dried I pushed the piece I just created into the slots on the fuselage until then end checked for 90 degree alignment and glued into place with a smal bead of glue on the top and bottom just to secure it in place, as the tension is pretty strong any how already.
Now it was time to work on the nose section of the fuselage + the canopy window, which is by far the most complicated part of the build. The first thing I did was prepare the front fuselage former which is also the base on which the power pod later rests upon. In V1 this was one single layer of foam but for V2 I doubled it up so that it can take more of a beating. This former connects to the fuselage lining up on tabs and since the former was doubled, the tabs were longer too so I re-enforced them with a short 3 cm piece of a popsticle stick. I then removed the paper from the sides of the fuselage front and started massaging them with my thumbs to easy them up and allow them to mold and twist into place. Once they felt soft I glued the former and then added another drop of glue to the former and glued the side down to the former too.
From here on I pretty much stopped taking pictures properly so unfortunatly I'll stop here and continue with the build description when I build the next version and make sure to take even more pictures or maybe just maybe I'll do a build video.
I have more to update about this project but will save that for a different post later today after I finish editing some flight videos of this model.
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