Monster sized Fock-Wulf FW-42
- Thread starter rockyboy
- Start date
New setup to hold the foam in place while I cut...
Better, but still a rough bump in the leading edge. I think I can sand and spackle that over though.
Ahh... that's looking better!
And here's the bottom. This will work
Yes - much nicer!
Time to lay out the spars. There will be tubes inserted into the fuselage nose that the canard spars will slide into.
All taped up and ready for gorilla glue - but my regular gorilla glue bottle's empty and I just found out this clear stuff doesn't foam up at all
Time to call it a night, and pickup supplies in the morning.
Better, but still a rough bump in the leading edge. I think I can sand and spackle that over though.
Ahh... that's looking better!
And here's the bottom. This will work
Yes - much nicer!
Time to lay out the spars. There will be tubes inserted into the fuselage nose that the canard spars will slide into.
All taped up and ready for gorilla glue - but my regular gorilla glue bottle's empty and I just found out this clear stuff doesn't foam up at all
Time to call it a night, and pickup supplies in the morning.
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Got the gorilla glue - original foaming formula. Spritzed with water, squirted in some glue, put a little tape over the top to encourage things to stay in the channel.
Both canards with glue in the spars. Notice how I didn't put the spars directly in line with each other so they all go deeper across the fuselage? Clever, isn't it
I put some wax paper in between the two canards and put them flat sides together under a little weight to cure.
And it mostly worked! After a little sanding 3 out of 4 are pretty good. Didn't seem to get as much glue in one of them.
And with more water and glue applied, just that section is back under the weight to dry. Bigger weight this time too. Hopefully less squeeze out and sanding this way.
Both canards with glue in the spars. Notice how I didn't put the spars directly in line with each other so they all go deeper across the fuselage? Clever, isn't it
I put some wax paper in between the two canards and put them flat sides together under a little weight to cure.
And it mostly worked! After a little sanding 3 out of 4 are pretty good. Didn't seem to get as much glue in one of them.
And with more water and glue applied, just that section is back under the weight to dry. Bigger weight this time too. Hopefully less squeeze out and sanding this way.
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Beautiful...
Time to measure out how much to cut off for the control surface
Yep - looks good and square
And we now have a clean trim on the canard and new balsa control surfaces.
The spar sleeves arrived - funny how these eflite tubes were the cheapest way I could find to get 6mm interior diameter tube on short notice.
Next up, glue the sleeves into the fuselage. Install plugs for the hinges. Cut hinge holes. Hidden servo control rods? Spackle the canards. Fiberglass over the spackle. Then make a big wing.
Time to measure out how much to cut off for the control surface
Yep - looks good and square
And we now have a clean trim on the canard and new balsa control surfaces.
The spar sleeves arrived - funny how these eflite tubes were the cheapest way I could find to get 6mm interior diameter tube on short notice.
Next up, glue the sleeves into the fuselage. Install plugs for the hinges. Cut hinge holes. Hidden servo control rods? Spackle the canards. Fiberglass over the spackle. Then make a big wing.
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Full scale is an 82' wingspan. I'm currently building towards a 100" wingspan. Don't remember why I went with that rather than the 109...
Anyway, math says a 1/10 scale would be 98.4" so yeah, that's the right ballpark. What's a couple inches among friends anyways?
Anyway, math says a 1/10 scale would be 98.4" so yeah, that's the right ballpark. What's a couple inches among friends anyways?
I'd say follow Josh's footsteps and others who actually made a big one fly first. No guarantee this things is going to work yet...
I've got a couple more pics to post of the hinging process for the canard control surfaces, but I've also been thinking a lot about the main wing spars.
At this point I want to do the main wing in three sections - a 30" ish one in the middle that's permanently installed in the fuselage, and two 35" ish outer panels that are removable. I'm thinking of using sizeable carbon fiber tubes for the main connecting spars, and custom build sleeves from fiberglass that will sit in the main main panel for the tubes to slide into. This way I could also build some i-beam type spars that are permanently installed in the main wing panel that incorporate the sleeves into one long structural element.
I'm roughly thinking of a 36" tube in each of the wingtip panels that's about 21" in the 35" wing panel and 14" sticking out and into the sleeve. Then the two spars can be in line with each other and when fully inserted into the sleeves would only have about a 2" gap between them which would be easy to bridge with an i-beam type structural support.
Thoughts from the hive-mind? Things to beware of? Any thoughts on how big these tubes ought to be? I'm thinking in the 1.5 to 2" size range, but am just basing that on looking at some of the 100" sized Ziroli plans.
Thanks,
I've got a couple more pics to post of the hinging process for the canard control surfaces, but I've also been thinking a lot about the main wing spars.
At this point I want to do the main wing in three sections - a 30" ish one in the middle that's permanently installed in the fuselage, and two 35" ish outer panels that are removable. I'm thinking of using sizeable carbon fiber tubes for the main connecting spars, and custom build sleeves from fiberglass that will sit in the main main panel for the tubes to slide into. This way I could also build some i-beam type spars that are permanently installed in the main wing panel that incorporate the sleeves into one long structural element.
I'm roughly thinking of a 36" tube in each of the wingtip panels that's about 21" in the 35" wing panel and 14" sticking out and into the sleeve. Then the two spars can be in line with each other and when fully inserted into the sleeves would only have about a 2" gap between them which would be easy to bridge with an i-beam type structural support.
Thoughts from the hive-mind? Things to beware of? Any thoughts on how big these tubes ought to be? I'm thinking in the 1.5 to 2" size range, but am just basing that on looking at some of the 100" sized Ziroli plans.
Thanks,
Time for some hinge point reinforcements... little balsa triangles seem easy enough to install, once I fiberglass over the canard I'm sure they will be strong enough too.
Gluing and clamping with some wax paper to keep the White Gorilla Glue foam under control.
More of the same...
And the second canard...
New skill for me - spackling a foam plane part. I'm using pre-mixed lightweight spackle from the big box hardware store. I kept trying to add some water so it would loosen up and smear on better, but it's an old tub and it went on ugly. But that's OK - it sands down really fast, and it's better to have a little extra than not enough when using this on drywall. Probably the same principle here.
Gluing and clamping with some wax paper to keep the White Gorilla Glue foam under control.
More of the same...
And the second canard...
New skill for me - spackling a foam plane part. I'm using pre-mixed lightweight spackle from the big box hardware store. I kept trying to add some water so it would loosen up and smear on better, but it's an old tub and it went on ugly. But that's OK - it sands down really fast, and it's better to have a little extra than not enough when using this on drywall. Probably the same principle here.
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Lol! Yeah - I hear that every time my wife tells me to put frosting on cupcakes for a birthday party. I should show her this part so she knows it's not just me being an ahole to get out of frosting cupcakes. :black_eyed:
A lot of the newer spackles are including a vinyl binder. It makes it go bad faster and gums up sandpaper. If you can avoid this spackle+primer type, it helps a lot. I've moved from the DAP stuff to 3M.
