Scratch built Scale Icon-A5

[Elexo]

Localfiend inspired me to build a build a sea plane with his PBY-5A Catalina design (http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?25375-Mighty-quot-Mini-quot-PBY-5A-Catalina-WWII-Flying-Boat). I considered a Sea Scout or a Bavar-2, but I have always wanted an Icon-A5, so it was an obvious decision. I started on drawing the plans for the tail

 

[mrwhiskers]

Good to see someone else draws plans for foam board planes on paper like me.

 

[Elexo]

I finished the plans for the tail.

After cutting these out, I traced them onto foam.

and proceeded to cut the pieces out.

I glued the smaller stabilizers into the side of the rudder, and since it is hard to get a knife in place for a bevel cut for a hinge, I ended up using a sanding block instead.


Forgot to grab some pics of the elevator before it was put on, but it has split elevators, to go on either side of the vertical stabilizer. Also, the float part of the tail is creased about halfway down and glued on the bottom. The lower float is made with a B-fold.
I need to increase the size of the float, but other than that, the tail is looking pretty scale!

 

[Elexo]

I finished the main bottom plate, I will upload pictures soon. What are your thoughts on making this swappable with the FT Explorer pusher pod, given that the thrust angle works. Could be pretty economical.

 

[Traveler_67]

I have the larger ParkZone A-5 & the umx A-5 (liked the umx so much I bought a spare LOL). Building one would be great! I love the swappable idea. So far, this looks magnificent! Keep going with it, please?

 

[Elexo]

I have the larger ParkZone A-5 & the umx A-5 (liked the umx so much I bought a spare LOL). Building one would be great! I love the swappable idea. So far, this looks magnificent! Keep going with it, please?

Thanks for the encouragement. I have been hung up with some other things recently, but I certainly haven't forgotten about this. I will be working on it more the next few weeks, and I hope to have it ready by the end of the month. Also, I'm glad to have a second opinion on the swappable concept. That will give me something to build the wing around. I can't upload pictures at the moment, but the front has come along a little more. Look for pictures tomorrow.

 

[Elexo]

Sorry, no pics yet! I'm pretty busy atm, but I was able to build the Ft explorer power pod, and start on the wing.

 

[Elexo]

I just started on the wing design.

Some of the scale lines are complicated, but I plan on using them to ad some flare to the wingtips for a gentle stall. Look for a completed wing in the next couple of days.

 

[Elexo]

I made more progress today. Here is the tops of the wing.

It has 3 breaks, to allow for the scale curves. Using the same build techniques for FT, I built a simple box spar.


And glued it onto the wing.

There was some room left for an under camber in the wingtips.

I went ahead and drew out the bottom wing plate.

Here is how it looks roughly with the bottom plate sitting on the wing spar.

At this point I realized that the aileron servos need to go somewhere, and I planned for them to go on the underside of the wing. After a few access holes and removing paper, The servos had a place to stay.


All of my servos I have at the moment are for the Simple Storch that I recently completed, so I will order a few more.

 

[Elexo]

Good to see someone else draws plans for foam board planes on paper like me.

yup! That's just how it goes when I have a slow computer that can't handle software.