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Heston Type 5 Racer...I must be barking!


Courageous

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With the confirmation that the wing sweep is as per kit parts (10 deg), it was time for the next stage.

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Short lengths of brass tubing were fitted into the wing roots and offered up to fuselage where the stubs marked the location for the holes. CA was used to secure the stubs and plastic cement used to adhere the top wing root to fuselage. So, the wings are on, as are the exhaust shrouds.

 

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Once the joint is dry, remedial action will be required to fix those joints. Fillets will be needed at the trailing wing roots and the inboard sections of the wheel wells.

 

Stuart

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9 hours ago, wellsprop said:

I've not looked at those, but it's a good idea to always be skeptical of plans for flying models. They frequently have wing and tail surface areas increased so they fly better (or at all) at the much lower air speeds than their full-size counterparts. It's a Reynolds number thing.

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Thanks for the encouragement and help guys, appreciated.

 

Two steps forward...three steps back!

 

With both wings on, it was time to adjust for near zero dihedral but 'we have a problem Houston'...

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Can you see the problem? Yep, the exhaust shrouds and side blisters are not in the same locations. I had noticed this until now which is a bit of a bug*er really.

 

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The starboard side is correct,

 

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the port side isn't. :rage: The thing is, I have never thrown a failed build into the bin...yet, so I will tackle this; the exhaust shroud will be very carefully removed as will the two blisters and then fix.

On a good note, these goodies arrived recently.

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Yum, yum. These are resin kits produced by Adrien Roy and if you search on BM for that name, you'll find his goodies and you'll find him on Facebook if you wish to purchase. He is working on the Bernard HV41 at the moment with the HV120 and HV40 behind that.

 

Anyway, back to the Heston :cry:

 

Stuart

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Blisters and shroud off.

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I new this was going to happen, so I made the hole larger and borrowing a technique from plaster board repairs, slid in plastic and CA'd it into place and will start the filling/ sanding routine. Shroud came off virtually intact too.

 

Stuart

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Shame about the asymmetric exhausts and blisters, but looks like you are just dealing with it, well done. Those exotic resin kits look great. Early racing aircraft clearly appeal, and I must say they do look as though they would make excellent little replicas.  I have a Racer or two on my wishlist but mine would have to be post WWII like a Sea Fury, Bearcat or Mustang!

 

Terry

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A caveat to my comment about that RC plan site: Those plans cited by wellsprop at https://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/scale-racing-183/9732489-late-30s-early-40s-racers.html#&gid=1&pid=2  appear to be scale drawings of the real things, not plans for flying models (and by one of my favorite drafters, Bjorn Karlstrom, no less). My apologies if I implied they were. But I still stand by my comment about skepticism of flying model plans as references for scale models.

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4 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Drat and double-drat!

Indeed Adrian, it's not going to beat me.

4 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Shame about the asymmetric exhausts and blisters,

These things happen, wonder if you get hardened to these setbacks. Bearcat, Furies, Cobra are already on my shelf...

51 minutes ago, Marklo said:

The new arrival look really interesting.

They do look nice but not sure they'll happen, so many to build...

42 minutes ago, Moa said:

Feisty little thing! kicking and screaming!

I hope I can tame the wee beastie. As for reports on Adrien's kits, time will tell but hopefully next year.

 

Stuart

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry for the lack of updates fellas, it has been a manic few weeks what with work, newborns, lack of mojo but I'm here now. I have found the ocassional bit of umph to tackle some bits.

 

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Blisters added at the correct locations, just need some sprucing up. Also getting some attention are all the joints, most needing filling, sanding...

 

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Found a set of props from the spares bin. Hacked off the blades, shortened them, reorientated them and then fitted the new part to a scratch baseplate.. Cut the corrosponding slots in spinner and fitted all  together. Not strictly correct but with nothing else suitable, it is what it is.

 

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The last parts, the undercarriage doors, were cut from the vac sheet. I was going use brass sheet for these parts but with a liitle more cleaning up, they'll be just fine. The oleos and their mountings will need to be scratched together, so I'll be using Moa's build as a reference here.

 

That's it for now, more soon...hopefully.

Stuart

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Excellent push!

 

5 minutes ago, Courageous said:

I'll be using Moa's build as a reference here.

 

I wouldn't trust Moa as far as I can throw him. You do this at you own peril.

The solution I used at the time is too simplistic. Among your references you may find photos of the legs without the covers, which show the Dowty arrangement. It's not complicated.

 

 

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40 minutes ago, Moa said:

I wouldn't trust Moa as far as I can throw him. You do this at you own peril.

The solution I used at the time is too simplistic. Among your references you may find photos of the legs without the covers, which show the Dowty arrangement. It's not complicated.

That Moa, dodgy bloke...

I have indeed found that image, just racking the 'grey cells' on how to reduce the 1mm oleo to a flat 0.5mm thickness, turn it through approx 315deg before turning it through 90deg to form the stub axle.

 

Stuart

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8 minutes ago, Courageous said:

That Moa, dodgy bloke...

I have indeed found that image, just racking the 'grey cells' on how to reduce the 1mm oleo to a flat 0.5mm thickness, turn it through approx 315deg before turning it through 90deg to form the stub axle.

 

Stuart

Not to mention the hydraulic fluid you will have to inject and those tiny seals.

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Just to show you that things are moving along.

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Undercarriage scratch built. Engine blisters made, not perfect but good enough. I'm pretty sure some observant fellow noticed that the port stabilizer was a little short at the root, I wasn't going to do anything about it but a little time/effort to its lead edge sorted that. Joints have been filled and sanded and everything had a coat of grey primer. Still have areas that need some attention and also the seam joint forward of the cockpit has 'popped', so that'll need be sorted too. The white part on the port wing is the port exhaust shroud that'll get attached once the remedial work is done in that area. Also, I've cut out the canopy and a quick dry fit showed that the 'hole' is too big but will check better later. I think the only thing left to make is the pitot tube but I'll make that later as I'm bound to lose the bloody thing.

It's nearly time to experiment with Alclad as I've never used the stuff before and as the LMS had a limited range in stock, I selected a few bottles including polished aluminium and see what works.

 

Stuart

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