SHORT SOLENT MARK IV – 2014 WINTER BUILD

[sihinch]

Looks great Colin.  Like a great big fish! 

[wollins]

Thanks guys. This part is always the hardest part for me, seems like you're putting in a tremendous amount of time yet there's little "apparent" result. Best to take your time with this stage through as it sets the stage for the more "fun" stuff later and the eventual result.  This is the reason that I'm being even more careful this time around for alignment etc.

A good example is I remember the CL-415 having a slight misalignment in the fuse which then transferred to the V stab being slightly out of alignment ... which then eventually resulted in the rudder having to be in almost a 1/8" trim position to have neutral flight.  Don't want any of those issues here.  I have to be even more careful with this airframe because its bigger which means it that much easier to go out of true.  To be honest I'm a little nervous about the wing ... a lot can go wrong over 100 inches!

Colin

[wollins]

Slow day today at work so I can put in a few hours.   Well, I've started the painstaking process of trying to make the fuse rounder as per the full size.  Course the plans call for a flat sided plane but this was one of the mods I intended to do. Just as a recap here are the mods I intend:

1. Make the fuse more rounded as per the full size.
2. Ad the chine rails "flare".
3. Add scale "Gouge" flaps.
4. More scale canopy
5. More scale nose
6. Shorten the rudder. (full size's does not extend down to the fuse as per these plans)
7. Make all control linkages internal and thus invisible from the outside.


These are the mods to the actual plans.

Then of course I plan to add as much scale details as possible. (even down to 3D raised window frames!)  My daughter said to me the other day ... "Daddy you're crazy abut planes".  After contemplating what I intend to do with this plane and all the (unnecessary?) work that it entailed, I corrected her by saying "I think I'm just crazy, period".

Anyways, here's some stuff I got going today.  Notice how rounded the full size's tail is ... almost as cylindrical as a cone. The good news though ... is that it then tapers to slab sided by the time you get to the nose. So that's a little less work for me as initially I thought I'd have to round the entire fuse.  The other part is that I'll also have to incorporate the little chine rail flare from the nose right through to just aft of the step. 

So to start the whole process I have to cut and individually measure those side fuse formers so this should take the better part of the day. One thing for sure, at the end of it all, if I succeed to getting this even close to these goals she'll be one curvy girl!

Colin

[sihinch]

It's gonna be WAY better than @piker foamie! 

[wollins]

That's a little better.

[wollins]

Upper deck coming along nicely.  Quite pleased I've been able to maintain a level frame so far, however can anyone spot the GLARING mistake that I've made regarding the rounding of the fuse?  Lets see who's paying attention. 

Colin.

[wollins]

Oh and Rob or Jack are not allowed to answer.  

[wollins]

Ok the answer is that I jumped the gun on the rounding and did it as if the fuse stopped where the upper deck starts! The rounding formers should be from the bottom to the top of the upper deck as shown by the temporary foam former. 

BTW, I'll probably make the H stab removable ... the thing is huge!  I can just see myself breaking it off moving the plane from the basement to upstairs.

Colin

[wollins]

Stab framed up ... definitely have to make this removable. Can you imagine trying to get this monster with a horizontal stab almost three feet wide up the stairs from the basement and around two sharp corners .. without breaking something?!

Colin

[wollins]

Some progress is being made. Stab now made removable.

Colin

[wollins]

Elevators framed up ... check it out relative to the 36" Cosmic Wind! lol!

Colin

[battlestu]

holy smokes... that Cosmic wind looks small

[sihinch]

Looks like you could use it as a Piker legal race wing! 

[wollins]

Just happened to notice that the elevator goes all the way across the stab while the full sized stab does not. Had to make the adjustment.

Colin

[Michael]

Nice touch!