Monster sized Fock-Wulf FW-42

[rockyboy]

Gluing in the bottom of the nacelle here - several spacer blocks wrapped in plastic are keeping the sides straight while the clamps are on.

And while nacelle bottom plate #2 is clamped up in the background, the first one gets a 3/32 thick plywood doubler installed where the landing gear will mount up. Wrapped up in plastic again so the Gorilla Glue makes less of a mess.

Not sure how far forward I'm going to do the firewalls and motor yet - need to select the motors first - so I'll probably leave the front of this open till I get further along in the build. Once I get a better idea how heavy she's going to be I'll start running motor calculations.

Next couple steps:
- Gluing down the top sheet of fan fold foam onto the center wing section.
- Cut the fuselage saddle for the center wing section connection.
- Glue nacelle bodies to the center wing section.
- Bending and test fitting the landing gear (once the rest of the wheels arrive).
- Make the rest of the interior hollows for fuselage equipment.
- Install fuselage spars and glue the fuselage layers together.
- Make another wing box for the outer wing sections.

 

[rockyboy]

Two nacelle frames roughed in with reinforcement plates for landing gear.

I might be jumping the gun on this step, but tonight I glued the top of the center wing section in place. Lots of improvising on the clamping and weighting and taping to make sure it's all pressed tightly in place for the gorilla glue to dry.

I say I might be jumping the gun on this step because I don't have the holes and supports all figured out for mounting to the fuselage. But I need to get the final profile of the wing figured out so I can make a template from it, and use the template to cut out the fuselage and create the funny shaped piece that will be attached to the top of the wing and complete the fuselage shape. So the mounting reinforcements will also go through that piece.

 

[PsyBorg]

Are you going to glass over the wood for more strength when you get to that part of the build?

On a side note them things are large enough to hang on the wall and mount stuffed animal head trophy's on hehe This thing gets scary big every time I look at the pictures.

 

[rockyboy]

Planning to do a layer of 1.5 oz fiberglass over the whole wing surface, and double it up over the plywood and mounting areas.

And yeah, I usually like to do two projects in parallel but this thing has taken over so much room in my shop I can barely turn around!

 

[rockyboy]

Look at that beautiful wing (section)! The nacelles look all right too - just need some fitting.

Wrapping some sand paper over the leading edge to shape the nacelle to fit tightly... then got called to dinner. More later

 

[PsyBorg]

BUT MOM!!!! all the other boys get to stay out and finish their game before dinner!!!!

That wing section turned out nice. Is that sanded and all or just that the hot wire cut was so perfect?

 

[rockyboy]

That's just the nice smooth fan fold surface over the ribs - I've got some sanding do to at the leading edge still, but it's really nice

Of course after I've put this all together I don't think I properly secured the tubes that will register the back of the wing into alignment... I think I just press fit them in place and didn't glue them up on the inside of the wing.... *sigh*

That's what I get for getting all excited and moving ahead too quickly - rework

 

[PsyBorg]

Ehh.. dig a few small tunnels thru the outer ribs around the tube and give the Gorilla glue a good squirt, Will ooze thru and make something like its own grommet.

 

[Namactual]

Impressive!

It's still hard to get a sense of how big she really is. I can't wait to see this beast together.

 

[rockyboy]

Yep @PsyBorg - that worked out just fine to lock in the smaller tubes toward the rear of the wing profile.

After some sanding to match the curve closely, it's time to glue the nacelles in place. Putting masking tape over the joint to keep the Gorilla Glue from foaming out where it will be in the way.

Both the nacelles in place. You can also see that I spent a while peeling all the brittle plastic covering off the fan fold foam to make sure the glue has a solid joint foam to foam.

While that's drying up, time to prepare the top of the fuselage where I'm going to mount the wing through. First step is gluing together the two pieces of foam that make up one of the layers. This might be overkill, as gluing all the layers together will work just perfect too. But I'll get these all layered up tomorrow.

 

[rockyboy]

Layers painted together with Gliddens Gripper primer and drying up.

 

[rockyboy]

All glued together and ready for cutting out the wing profile...

That turned out pretty good! Needs a little sanding, but I can make this work.

Getting it lined up straight for the next glue-up.

Time to glue up the front section to the wing with gorilla glue and some water to foam up a bit. Once this dries I'll cut the wing free with a couple inch stub up front to register it into place with the part I'll leave on the fuselage.

 

[rockyboy]

So I'm also looking at the size of these two parts sitting together and thinking "maybe I can permanently attach these instead of doing mounting bolts..."

It would simplify the structural attachment quite a bit. So tonight I'm going to duct tape it together and see if I can get it out of the shop and into the back of the car without hangar rash.

If it will pack up OK, I can simply glue the wing onto the fuselage and do some wraps around the wing and fuse with carbon tow under the fiberglass layers to hold it all together. There would be the bomb bay for access to work on stuff under the wing, and then I could have the part of the fuselage in front of the wing section as a hatch to get access to electronics that would be right over the center of gravity - and that would be handy.

Also time to start putting components on a scale and start guessing at the final all-up weight.

 

[wilmracer]

So I'm also looking at the size of these two parts sitting together and thinking "maybe I can permanently attach these instead of doing mounting bolts..."

If you can make it work that will be a great idea, both for ease of construction and for the strength of the fuse. Having a bomb-bay and removable wing in the same area of the fuse can definitely be done, but will require more structural reinforcement than just one or the other. Good luck!

 

[rockyboy]

So I taped it together and was pleasantly surprised how well it moved around - sort of carry it around like a big cross

So yeah, I'm going to go for the permanent center wing section to fuselage connection. So on with the work! Here I'm gluing on the fairing piece on the rear edge of the wing.

 

[PsyBorg]

That's starting to look like something now mate.

 

[wilmracer]

giggity giggity...

Really excited about this one. Really looking forward to this one cruising over Poplar Ford. I hope you bring this to the next club meeting, but unfortunately I'll be out of town for that one. I'd LOVE to see everyone's reactions. This is VERY cool.

 

[PsyBorg]

I think as a side project this can be made again to this point then modded to be a ground effect transport like the Ekranoplan. AKA the Caspian Sea Monster.

 

[rockyboy]

giggity giggity...

Really excited about this one. Really looking forward to this one cruising over Poplar Ford. I hope you bring this to the next club meeting, but unfortunately I'll be out of town for that one. I'd LOVE to see everyone's reactions. This is VERY cool.

Yeah, I'll probably bring it as an 'in progress' show and tell. Should be fun to see the different reactions

I think as a side project this can be made again to this point then modded to be a ground effect transport like the Ekranoplan. AKA the Caspian Sea Monster.

That's pretty cool - but I think next year's challenge is heading down the fantasy aircraft lane so it'll be weird in a different way

 

[wilmracer]

Yeah, I'll probably bring it as an 'in progress' show and tell. Should be fun to see the different reactions

That's pretty cool - but I think next year's challenge is heading down the fantasy aircraft lane so it'll be weird in a different way

Cool! I'd love to see the reactions of the old balsa only crew ;-)

I'm excited to see these annual challenges. I like the fantasy route. Would also love to see "spaceships", Flying animals, fighter jets, and maybe one day a "that will never fly" challenge. A "mashups" contest (parts from different aircraft merged into one) would be fun. Think P-40 fuselage, X-29 wing, a T-tail, and running a big EDF with twin exhaust with the "mouth" as the intake. I suppose that kind of stuff could fit in fantasy... maybe I should keep that one to myself for now ;-)