Lockheed L-10 Electra by Special Hobby

[rob Lyttle]

7 hours ago, busnproplinerfan said:

It's been retired from flying. I'm told no one is rated on it anymore. So now it'll be sitting in the Royal Air Museum here in Winnipeg.

Isn't that a shame....!? 

There are plenty of enthusiasts maintaining and flying the Beech 18 "twinbeech" type which is a similar size and type - you'd think those guys would walk over burning coals for a chance to train up and fly it! 

[busnproplinerfan]

2 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

Isn't that a shame....!? 

There are plenty of enthusiasts maintaining and flying the Beech 18 "twinbeech" type which is a similar size and type - you'd think those guys would walk over burning coals for a chance to train up and fly it! 

I don't know the whole story. It is or was still owned by AirCanada and maintained by a group from there. Last time I saw them they were up there. Otherwise I don't  know why someone wouldn't want to jump in, must be some reason. At least it's in a flyable condition. If I was in any kind of position there I would be doing something with it. I applied for a job with AC long ago but never got it.

[rob Lyttle]

Now then, just for some light relief and diversion I've been looking at the main gear situation and pondering the assembly to the wings before I attach the nacelle underside pieces. It's all a bit vague. 

So I've been searching through the build done by @billn53 for guidance and ideas.... 😇, and I can see there is some scratch additions to be looked at.

But let me ask you this, Bill.... How did you establish the length of the main legs such that the plane stood correctly "on the ground"?? 

The kit legs look over long especially considering the wheels and tyres need to fit in the opening when retracted and that's with the oleo uncompressed. 

Did you drill a hole in wing structure so that the leg slid up into the wing, and if that's the case, how do you decide how far to push it in? Did you establish that before adding the extra strut support pieces. 

Looks to me that the main legs need to be stiff but adjustable until the airframe can be stood on it's legs and tyres to be "eyeballed" and adjusted accordingly. 

But you built up the u/c assembly in the wings before attaching to the fuselage 😲

Any advice on this little conundrum will be much appreciated. 👍

Can't believe you drilled the forks to take a wire /rod axle.... I'm working on an alternative.... 😎

[billn53]

21 minutes ago, rob Lyttle said:

Now then, just for some light relief and diversion I've been looking at the main gear situation and pondering the assembly to the wings before I attach the nacelle underside pieces. It's all a bit vague. 

So I've been searching through the build done by @billn53 for guidance and ideas.... 😇, and I can see there is some scratch additions to be looked at.

But let me ask you this, Bill.... How did you establish the length of the main legs such that the plane stood correctly "on the ground"?? 

The kit legs look over long especially considering the wheels and tyres need to fit in the opening when retracted and that's with the oleo uncompressed. 

Did you drill a hole in wing structure so that the leg slid up into the wing, and if that's the case, how do you decide how far to push it in? Did you establish that before adding the extra strut support pieces. 

Looks to me that the main legs need to be stiff but adjustable until the airframe can be stood on it's legs and tyres to be "eyeballed" and adjusted accordingly. 

But you built up the u/c assembly in the wings before attaching to the fuselage 😲

Any advice on this little conundrum will be much appreciated. 👍

Can't believe you drilled the forks to take a wire /rod axle.... I'm working on an alternative.... 😎

 

Yes, I drilled holes for the legs, took measurements from drawings as to how far they should protrude from the nacelles, and got lucky 😊

[rob Lyttle]

56 minutes ago, billn53 said:

and got lucky 😊

Right I'll get me some of that..... 👍

[billn53]

1 minute ago, rob Lyttle said:

Right I'll get me some of that..... 👍

 

Get it by the gross if you can. One can never have too much luck.

[rob Lyttle]

The Canopy is on, attached with 5min epoxy 

There is some definition of the window frames but it is very faint. The outlines are being picked out with strips of Ali foil, and the whole thing is in need of settling onto the fuselage. 

 

As for the undercarriage assembly, I have gathered a bit of information from 3 view drawings and so on. 

 

[rob Lyttle]

Sticking with the cockpit roof procedure, I'm inching forward timidly 😇

A tiny bit of a lip was evident behind the transparent part which I tried honing away but there's precious little thickness to the vacform plastic. The difference was made up with a couple of layers of foil applied to the cabin roof just to the rear of the cockpit part, and then the metal roof applied. The compound curve over the front windscreens was "challenging" 😋😜

 

 

But "the Lockheed Look" is starting to manifest itself as I proceed in little steps. Other bits of Ali foil are getting applied on the bodywork by way of breaks in the process 

[busnproplinerfan]

I might have missed it but what foil are you using? BMF or regular kitchen foil?

[rob Lyttle]

16 hours ago, busnproplinerfan said:

what foil are you using?

It's the sticky backed aluminium foil tape that builders and plumbers use for insulations and all sorts of things, @busnproplinerfan. I'm kind of used to it, much tougher than kitchen foil and being a real-world product, it's ultra cheap. 3 or 4 £or $ will get enough for.... I dunno, 100 kits or more. Takes plenty of buffing, metal polish, paint over etc.

I like it but it's not everyone's cup of tea ☕

[busnproplinerfan]

11 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

It's the sticky backed aluminium foil tape that builders and plumbers use for insulations and all sorts of things, @busnproplinerfan. I'm kind of used to it, much tougher than kitchen foil and being a real-world product, it's ultra cheap. 3 or 4 £or $ will get enough for.... I dunno, 100 kits or more. Takes plenty of buffing, metal polish, paint over etc.

I like it but it's not everyone's cup of tea ☕

I know the stuff, I covered a 1/72 B-36 with it. It's pretty good and very durable compared to BMF.

[rob Lyttle]

I'm assembling the nacelle parts as separate units from the wing, such that they can be fitted after I've worked out the main gear legs attachment. There's a little mod that needs to be done to the shape of the opening that allows for clearance of the lateral support legs each side of the main strut. The 2nd nacelle parts are marked in pencil in the foreground.... 

.... And the end result is showing on the assembled nacelle behind. The white thin strip inside is a piece of Muller Corner yoghurt pot (which is vacform styrene) cut ready-shaped from the side wall corner. There are so many different curves and shapes in these pots, and different thicknesses, they are brilliant. 

Here's the assembly sitting on the starboard wing undersurface, 

The firewall disc is drilled to take some Ali tube and the resin engines will be drilled out to fit onto the tubes. My usual plan is to fit the props on thinner rod or tube that slides into the engine bearing tube when the time comes. And with a bit of luck this procedure should let me have some clearance where the cowlings come back onto the nacelle shapes. 

I'd better get on with No.2......

[AdrianMF]

Nice work blending all the front fuselage sections together with the foil.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[bigbadbadge]

Just caught up Rob,  looking great fella and likectge nacelle work,  interior etc great job . The Beagle Bassett looks good too, just got one of those too.

 

Chris

[rob Lyttle]

On 20/11/2022 at 00:34, bigbadbadge said:

The Beagle Bassett looks good too, just got one of those too.

Nice! These reissued oldies are good value and ideal for a bit of extra input. I'm quite fancying the Whirlwind helicopter and I wouldn't mind another crack at the Scammell Transporter after ALL these years 😍

I think I'm resolving the main gear dilemma. A couple of crossbar strips with holes reamed to make a tight but adjustable fit on the legs. An angle can be built in to keep the legs vertical while the wings have dihedral and they taper. 

I can establish the ride height with them, and then build the lateral support legs to the crossbars and little collars that are added lower down the legs. Rear activation legs can use the same collars. 

Tinkering with other bits, I have 2 cowlings.... 

The one on the left has had the rather thick back edge chamfered to try and get that cooling airgap as it meets the nacelle. 

Resin engine blocks are drilled to take the Ali tube bearing pieces, and they're happy to fit into the cowlings. 

The engines are detailed enough for me - I'm not going to start messing around with wires etc. But the length of the resin stump is pretty critical as it butts against the firewall and defines the fit of the cowling to the nacelle, including that all round cooling gap. 

So, various sub-assemblies are in the process. Just need a game plan to put them together 😋

[rob Lyttle]

To use the legs in position to gauge the length and the stance of the aircraft, I need to fix the wheels and tyres, and those fiddly little mudguards. 

Some delicate honing is required so they don't force the forks out of shape. And I have a method to keep a slight gap between the guards and tyres, and also facilitate the wheel axle attachment. 

Whereas Bill managed to drill the forks to take a wire axle..... 😲 that operation is beyond my tools and skills. Instead, I fitted Ali tube axles - the same diameter as the propeller shafts will be - and removed the bottom pieces of the forks. 

Inside the mudguard above is a tiny strip of styrene (in white) about 0.5mm I guess. The tyre paint is cleaned off where it contacts the strip for a glue job. When that's set, a couple of dabs of epoxy or the dreaded CA will seal the forks to the axle and that SHOULD complete the task. Once we're all good.... 😏 the excess Ali tube can be deftly cut to leave something similar to what I'm seeing in photos of the real plane. 

I was hoping to foil the guards but my 1st effort was a fail so I'll try to do it in situ when all is set 

[rob Lyttle]

@billn53I hope you don't mind me linking your photo ref material to this thread. There's an excellent pic on your WIP that I'd like here for my reference....

If not OK let me know 😊

[billn53]

1 hour ago, rob Lyttle said:

@billn53I hope you don't mind me linking your photo ref material to this thread. There's an excellent pic on your WIP that I'd like here for my reference....

 

 

That's why we're here! To share what we can with other builders.

[rob Lyttle]

I've got the little rascal to stand for a portrait, and everything is still adjustable (except the tailwheel...) 

 

Closer up, the main gear is like this... 

There's a slight discrepancy between set of the two legs and they can be matched with each other later. 

It's the leg length I'm after right now. 

Kinda looks right-ish to me at the minute, any other opinions are very welcome. 

I'll put a flatspot on each tyre which will probably account for 1-2mm of height. 

Other Lockheed activities have taken place in the meantime. 

The big 1.48 PV1 Ventura has undergone a fair bit of assembly. Finally got around to fitting the big Fowler flaps underwing with a load of deployment, and then fitted the wings to the fuselage permanently. And the whole tailplane got fixed on, elevators, rudders, trim tabs, the lot. The rudders are attached with strips of thin styrene slotted in the gaps between left and right sides of the fins and rudder pieces. 

After all this time with the various parts lying around in a disorderly shambles, it was only to be expected that a piece or two had gone missing. Sure enough I had to scratch a rudder trim tab and a rudder lower section for the port side. The good thing about Lockheed's twin-tail design is that I had another one handy to copy! 😇

So this old stager is making her way towards the finish line.

You can get a fair idea of the slimness of the tailplane blades that Revell have managed to achieve in moulding in this scale (with a little bit of extra input from me). Just mentioned in contrast to the thickness of things in 1.72 with the little L10, which was discussed, and remedied, in Bill's build. In retrospect I think I should have applied more effort to reduce the chunkiness of these tailplane pieces at the outset for the Electra. It was a finely made airframe. 

 

So, progress of the slow and steady kind, and I'm glad to get the big one moving along 😇👍

[billn53]

They’re both looking mighty fine!

[rob Lyttle]

I ought to mention, I guess, that the big Ventura civil build is a bit of a Make-believe styling. The livery is based on a Curtiss C46 Bolivian sky truck of Transportes Aereos Bolivar. 

The "notion" is that TAB picks up a couple of Venturas post war and converts them to passenger transport to compete with Lloyd Aereo Boliviano who were flying new Lodestars. 

 

I've always liked the "Swords into Ploughshares" theme, and I had the homemade decals spare and available for the Ventura. And the scale difference worked out quite well between the C46 in 1.72 and the Ventura in 1.48. 

Love the styling and the can-do attitude of the South American aviation world and Bolivia excelled at it! 

So that's the story of the Ventura, parked in the baking sun at la Paz, 10000 ft before even taking off, doors open and escape hatches pulled out for ventilation, and getting ready for another run out into the wilds. 🇧🇴

[rob Lyttle]

Progress is inching forward on the Electra. I started getting hesitant with committing to the main gear legs and then started fiddling with other things..... Always dangerous!! 

But progressive little steps are producing an end result. 

 

 

Lateral supports, plus foil on the mudguard and oleo. So that is the leg length defined. 

 

So then it's on to rear supports or operating arms 

By this stage, I'm onto the other leg, and other fiddly working has produced a mudguard stay arrangement and a brake pipe flexible section 

Holes were drilled at a rakish angle in the wing surface to take the operating arms so that they meet behind the leg at the collar I made. Adjusted to give the right stance to the main gear, as best as I can assertain. 

So, glue has been committed along the way and this is how she's going to be. 

I've left out all the prevarication and anxiety - just giving you the highlights......🙄 😊🤭

[billn53]

Good work on the landing gear. Looking at them tells me they must have been nerve racking!

[AdrianMF]

Looks like a fiddly job done well! Now all you have to do is not knock it off during the rest of the build…

 

Regards,

Adrian

[rob Lyttle]

Another step forward with this one. Both main gears are finalised, and the nacelle sections foiled and fixed, ready for the engines and cowlings. 

 

This is the underside view....

And the standing pose.... 

 

On 20/12/2022 at 02:10, billn53 said:

Looking at them tells me they must have been nerve racking!

Well Bill, it's like you convince yourself that there are issues to be resolved and in fact it's not that big a deal when you get down to it 😎

Too much prevarication and not enough glueing