Monster sized Fock-Wulf FW-42

[rockyboy]

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

That'll be one part "that'll never work" and one part "why would you ever waste your time on it" and one more part "it'll never fly right" - and I couldn't care less cause I hope at least a couple people will be inspired to start something crazy of their own

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 ;-)

That would be pretty whacky alright!

I think the spirit of the fantasy challenge is pretty much going to be "build anything that flies that has no full scale counterpart" - maybe with some sub-categories to organize the entries and provide for more opportunities for 1st place trophies. Categories like space, military, amphibious, racers, animalistic, civilian, jets, weird, etc.

 

[wilmracer]

I think the spirit of the fantasy challenge is pretty much going to be "build anything that flies that has no full scale counterpart" - maybe with some sub-categories to organize the entries and provide for more opportunities for 1st place trophies. Categories like space, military, amphibious, racers, animalistic, civilian, jets, weird, etc.

I like that

 

[rockyboy]

The first fuselage layer being painted into place. Testing covering one side only rather than both. If it works well the rest will go faster.

 

[rockyboy]

Test succesfull! Next two layers painted and clamped....

 

[rockyboy]

And here's the second run at main landing gear - uncompressed....

And fully compressed...

A matching pair...

They look good in place... just need to drill some mounting holes through the brackets

 

[Namactual]

Wow, those look great on there rocky. They look very stout as well.

 

[rockyboy]

Thanks! Psyborg really hooked it up on this one - these shocks work really nicely!

 

[rockyboy]

I also started the last part of the landing gear puzzle last night with mounting the nose gear. It's not going that far up in the nose actually - I don't want the weight that far forward, nor do I want all the additional force that a forward placed gear would put on the fuselage junction where it slims down. I got everything measured out and glued in the mounting plate with Gorilla Glue. Will come back tonight and start reinforcing the area to hopefully hold up for a couple landings.

Here's the nose gear sticking out the bottom. There is enough adjustment room to make sure there is a positive angle of attack on the wing when it's on the gear. That's very important or there will not be a happy takeoff.

 

[wilmracer]

Looking great!

 

[PsyBorg]

Love that dual wheel set up. Sorry I was so confused about how you wanted to mount them. I was under the impression you were doing fuse mounted retractable style gear. Something like the A7 style.

In any case those shocks should serve well to cushion anything rough as they are meant for ~15 lb + Nitro trucks. Hopefully the oil in them is light enough you don't get a lot of rebound. They seem slow to extend on the truck so should be ok. May wanna try a few bounce tests before the maiden with them fully loaded for flight to see if they sponge up or hop after impact.

 

[rockyboy]

Adding some extra support for the nose gear - long bamboo skewers covered in gorilla glue and shoved deep into the fuselage walls. After the first part dries, I'll glue up some additional foam blocks to support the back side of these skewers and fully trap the mounting plate in place.

So with a little tape to keep the wings in place, she's sitting on her wheels finally! I think the angle might be a little too much, but the nose gear can be adjusted more later.

For now I need to stand this part up in the corner so I have room to work on the outer wing sections. It's getting pretty crowded in here...

Started laying out the wing box for the outer sections. This one is double height so I can cut both the right and left side wing panels out of the same box and have identical spar layouts.

 

[foamtest]

Looking good rockyboy!

 

[PsyBorg]

View attachment 108740

Why do I picture Beaky Buzzard painted on this from the blue tape forward now hehe? Must be the angle of the shot that made this pop into my head. Or a deeper dive into dementia perhaps?

 

[rockyboy]

Looks like that buzzard was into the special shrooms

 

[PsyBorg]

Wow I must be older then I thought. you don't remember him? He is nearly as goofy as I am!

 

[DamoRC]

Looking great Rockyboy - it sure is developing some "heft"!

DamoRC

 

[rockyboy]

I never ran across the buzzard before... but then again I grew up in the backwoods of backwards Montana and we didn't have a television in the house until I was in high school - and even then it only got 3 channels when we ran an antenna wire a few hundred yards up the side of the canyon

 

[PsyBorg]

Wow!! You missed out on some of the best parts of life. We needs ta edumacate you and get you up to speed then!

Were you one of those people my grandparents always talked about from back in the day? The ones that walked to school uphill both ways carrying the horse thru the ice and snow with one worn out boot and news paper wrapped on the other foot because they cooked the other boot in the previous nights stew for flavor?

I can not imagine a childhood without Looney Toons. Its bad enough kids were traumatized by shows like Teletubbies and all them other creepy shows since the early 90's that damaged so many young minds.

Its them gov'ment mush brains I tells ya!!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled build thread.

 

[rockyboy]

I do remember seeing Ren and Stimpy when I went off to college... that was enough to traumatize most anyone

 

[rockyboy]

This time I'm trying a little bit different technique with the box - routing a channel for the ribs to sit into. And since it's 28 cuts in all I made up a jig to help measure and keep them straight easier.

Now only 27 more cuts to go...