New project - West Wings Fournier RF4

Michael · April 12, 2020, 12:55:27 PM

... and mistakes are made, and then corrected.

I applied heat to the sticky-back letters on one side, and melted the whole thing. I patched it together and fixed it up. In most situations, people won't notice, but upon a closer look, the repair work is visible.

bweaver · April 12, 2020, 01:52:57 PM

Quote from: Michael on April 12, 2020, 12:55:27 PM
... and mistakes are made, and then corrected.

I applied heat to the sticky-back letters on one side, and melted the whole thing. I patched it together and fixed it up. In most situations, people won't notice, but upon a closer look, the repair work is visible.

Michael, if you had used Frank's camera, no one would have noticed. Still looks great mind you!

Michael · April 12, 2020, 03:19:19 PM

Cowl, cheeks, and 'tail-feathers' glued on. Radio set up.

Total weight including battery is 21.6 oz / 614 grams.

I still need to decorate and attach the canopy, and probably a pilot.

Frank v B · April 12, 2020, 03:47:58 PM

Michael,

Looks great. I love the instrument panel.

Bruce, about your above post:
re:"Michael, if you had used Frank's camera, no one would have noticed."

You are so kind to blame it on the camera. Mr. Hoffer always blamed the photographer.

Frank

Michael · April 12, 2020, 04:23:46 PM

Thanks, Frank.

The instrument panel is from an image I found on the internet, of an actual RF4 instrument panel.

I copied the image, distorted, transformed, saturated the colours, brightened it, and sized it, in Photoshop.

It was printed out, and then glued down with gluestick, and covered with clear Monokote.

Michael · April 12, 2020, 04:57:57 PM

Canopy trimmed, sanded and decorated.

I won't install it until I get (or make) a pilot figure.

I may glue it or screw it on; I'm not sure yet.

piker · April 13, 2020, 04:08:21 PM

Beautifully done, Michael.

Another excellent and fast build from the Pres!

Michael · April 13, 2020, 04:36:56 PM

Thanks Robert.

Done for now; waiting for some lead weight and a pilot figure.

Michael · April 20, 2020, 04:22:19 PM

While I'm waiting for a delivery of balsa wood for my next project, I went back to finish off this model.

I carved a pilot out of styrofoam, and painted it, a bit of an improvement over my previous attempt, I added a little bit of weight to make it a bit nose-heavy, I attached the canopy, and I added some wash-out (rear outer wing tips twisted up) to help prevent stalls.

Fully ready to fly.

piker · April 20, 2020, 04:45:52 PM

Nice pilot. I'm tempted to try carving one myself. I don't feel artistic, but I do need a pilot of the correct size for one of the planes I'm working on, and carving might be a fun experiment. Plus I'll eventually need aircrew for some of my other projects that are not of standard scale of available pilot figures. So I'll need to develop the skill at some point.

Robert

Michael · April 23, 2020, 05:41:45 PM

While I'm waiting (still) for a Canada Post delivery of balsa wood, I decided to add some scale-ish landing gear to this model.

The tail wheel bracket is made of of plywood, aluminum tube and wire and covered in white film. The images are basically self-explanatory.

Michael · April 23, 2020, 05:45:00 PM

The main gear (one wheel) is simply a larger-scale tail wheel unit. It looks right to me.

Wing mounted landing gear is carefully measured and bent wire, braced onto small holes in the hardwood wing spars.

Michael · April 23, 2020, 05:45:42 PM

The finished model. Now it will take off instead of being hand-launched.