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Mighty Mini Master Series Spitfire

BATTLEAXE

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
GremlinRC said:
I finally got around to making some progress on this. Due to 6 weeks of incessant wind here in Ireland, there has been no opportunity to do any flying so lots of building projects are on the go.
View attachment 159712

You might notice the first mistake. The elevator control rod on the underside of the H stab. However as you will see, I worked around that well enough.

View attachment 159713
A bit of judicious trimming and it was all good.


View attachment 159714
All together and plenty of light filler in the gaps.

View attachment 159715
Masking really is a test of patience!

View attachment 159716

But its worth it.

View attachment 159717
Decal application started.

View attachment 159718
Underside with Grifflyers 3d printed parts.

Just as an aside I have another of Grifflyers excellent plans on the bench!

View attachment 159719
Might be a while before I get to maiden any of these, It's just storm after storm here at the moment.
Click to expand...
Sweet lookin Spit. Nice paint scheme!
 
G

GremlinRC

FT_Nut
If anyone needs a decal set for this scale, feel free to use the attached. I also attach an inkscape SVG in case you want to edit. I got the RAF fonts from here

My method is to print them onto water slide paper and then put them over white vinyl backing. The colours just dont work if you apply them direct.
 

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Grifflyer

Grifflyer

WWII fanatic
GremlinRC said:
I finally got around to making some progress on this. Due to 6 weeks of incessant wind here in Ireland, there has been no opportunity to do any flying so lots of building projects are on the go.
View attachment 159712

You might notice the first mistake. The elevator control rod on the underside of the H stab. However as you will see, I worked around that well enough.

View attachment 159713
A bit of judicious trimming and it was all good.


View attachment 159714
All together and plenty of light filler in the gaps.

View attachment 159715
Masking really is a test of patience!

View attachment 159716

But its worth it.

View attachment 159717
Decal application started.

View attachment 159718
Underside with Grifflyers 3d printed parts.

Just as an aside I have another of Grifflyers excellent plans on the bench!

View attachment 159719
Might be a while before I get to maiden any of these, It's just storm after storm here at the moment.
Click to expand...
You did a really, really good job on the build, both of them!! That elevator looks like it'll still work very well!! Good luck with both of your maidens when the time comes!
How did everything fit together?
 
G

GremlinRC

FT_Nut
Grifflyer said:
You did a really, really good job on the build, both of them!! That elevator looks like it'll still work very well!! Good luck with both of your maidens when the time comes!
How did everything fit together?
Click to expand...

Thanks Grifflyer. Yep, everything went together like a dream all thanks to your well thought out plan. If I had one worry it might be the fixing of the firewall. I'm a little worried that gluing onto such a small surface area might result in the motor breaking off on a hard landing. I think I will pull out fusion and draw up something that fixes to the back wall which has much more surface area to glue to. Maybe like a cylinder with the required thrust angle at the front. Have you had an issues with yours?
 
Grifflyer

Grifflyer

WWII fanatic
GremlinRC said:
Thanks Grifflyer. Yep, everything went together like a dream all thanks to your well thought out plan. If I had one worry it might be the fixing of the firewall. I'm a little worried that gluing onto such a small surface area might result in the motor breaking off on a hard landing. I think I will pull out fusion and draw up something that fixes to the back wall which has much more surface area to glue to. Maybe like a cylinder with the required thrust angle at the front. Have you had an issues with yours?
Click to expand...
I haven't had any issues yet. The foam pieces have 2 degrees right and down built in.
 
SlingShot

SlingShot

Maneuvering With Purpose
20200304_221454.jpg


8 sheets of real DTFB, scored and folded in the middle for the suitcase.
SlingShot said:
I tiled the wing page together, and it looks like I can evenly divide a couple of sheets of actual Dollar Tree foamboard and fit it in my suitcase. I'm hoping to do that before I go home this time.
Click to expand...
 
The Hangar

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
GremlinRC said:
I finally got around to making some progress on this. Due to 6 weeks of incessant wind here in Ireland, there has been no opportunity to do any flying so lots of building projects are on the go.
View attachment 159712

You might notice the first mistake. The elevator control rod on the underside of the H stab. However as you will see, I worked around that well enough.

View attachment 159713
A bit of judicious trimming and it was all good.


View attachment 159714
All together and plenty of light filler in the gaps.

View attachment 159715
Masking really is a test of patience!

View attachment 159716

But its worth it.

View attachment 159717
Decal application started.

View attachment 159718
Underside with Grifflyers 3d printed parts.

Just as an aside I have another of Grifflyers excellent plans on the bench!

View attachment 159719
Might be a while before I get to maiden any of these, It's just storm after storm here at the moment.
Click to expand...
Wow, that looks sweeet!!
 
S

Stevi Lewart

New member
Grifflyer said:
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter plane that was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other Allied countries before, during, and after WWII. The Spitfire was designed as a short-range, high-performance interceptor aircraft. The Spitfire features a unique elliptical wing shape which is aerodynamically, the most efficient, because elliptical spanwise lift distribution induces the lowest possible drag.
The elliptical wing on the Spitfire wasn’t originally incorporated into the plane to minimize drag, but rather it was made to house the landing gear along with ammunition and guns inside a wing. The ellipse was the shape that allowed for the thinnest possible wing with the most area inside, giving engineers room inside to hold the necessary things.

When I set out to design the Spitfire, I wanted to expand my horizons with designing FB planes by trying out some of the Master Series techniques developed by John Overstreet. To keep things simple, and easy to build I chose to go for a fuselage that has a frame that gets skinned in foam, rather than taking the "mold together" route that Overstreet uses. I put a lot of work into adding the scale details using just foam. Like the large wing fillets that characterize the Spitfire, and all the radiators under the wing, and even as far as adding little exhaust stacks. I've also designed 3D printed exhaust stacks, and radiators for under the wing, which will be shared on Thingiverse. Because of the small nose and large size of the Mini Power pod, this design won't have a power pod or even a standard FT Mini Firewall, but if you already have one of the Mini Firewalls, you can make a few simple cuts to make it compatible with this plane. I really liked the shape that @nerdnic was able to achieve on his Spitfire canopy, link to his plane so I took his and made a few changes to make it fit onto my bird.

View attachment 155769

View attachment 155770

View attachment 155771

View attachment 155772

View attachment 155773

@BATTLEAXE graciously reached out to me to help put together this nice video for the plane. So go show him a some love, watch some of his vids, and toss him a sub you can find his channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUFM8PpAbZs1F8PEJhgS2EA

Overview-

Speed-
Top speed is very respectable, and while your at speed the plane is very smooth. It slows down very well for landing and remains very stable as your speed decreases.

Handling-
The handling of this plane is very docile, the roll rate is very scale and smooth. The tracking on this plane is outstanding while right side up and inverted!

Stalls-
The stalls on this model are very gentle, and occur at very low speeds. The ailerons aren't the most effective thing at speeds so they can get a little mushy when you are coming in for a landing, but it's not uncontrollable I've landed this bird in a stiff crosswind without any issues.

Aerobatics-
Since the plane lacks a rudder the aerobatic ability is limited to the basics such as, Loops, Rolls, Inverted, Split S's etc.

Take offs-
I like launching this plane by holding it right behind the wing, wrapping my fingers around the wing fillets and giving it a firm toss.

Landing-
Landing this model is like any other FT design all you need to do is lower your airspeed and flare it in. Which I actually found to be a little difficult. Because this plane is quite slippery, I found myself struggling to lower my airspeed enough to land, and I've been starting my glide right before I turn into my final leg for landing when I usually chop the throttle to start the glide once I'm in my final leg.

Skill level-
If you want to put in the time to build this plane, it'd be a great first or second plane that uses ailerons, but since it's a pretty involved build it might not be the best plane for someone who is still expecting to crash.

Plans: Spitfire Plans V1.1
Instructions: Spitfire Instructions
3D Printed Parts: Thingiverse Link

Thanks to @GremlinRC for taking these plans and converting them to a Dxf file format so all of you with laser cutters or CNC machines can cut this plane out: Spitfire Dxf's
Click to expand...
 

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