I like to have a new ship every spring, and it takes me a long time to build one. I've posted a few pictures, questions and ideas in our
"What did you do in your shop" thread, but at my pace those will be too spread out to be good for a build thread with Q&A as I go. I post all of my builds in excessive detail as "RknRusty" on my other favorite forum(see link at the bottom of my sig). But for Stunthangar, I'll keep it simple and just show my work and ask questions.
I am also featuring it in a group Winter Build segment of the Stunthangar Video Hangout on Monday and Friday nights. Reruns are there too. A bunch of us are concurrently building models and discussing and comparing our methods of madness and genius.
So to kick it off, here's the fuselage coming together. The first few steps shown here are in the
..."in your shop" thread with more detailed descriptions. And the last couple are new as of Sunday and today. I'll keep it here from now on.
First step was to stiffen it against lateral tail-wagging with a long 1/16" x 7/16" CF flatbar.
I'd planned on skinning it with something to prevent torsional twist, but the flatbar seems to have stiffened it in that direction too. And that alone cost an ounce, and I think it'll fly just fine without me getting carried away with extra reinforcement all over the place. I'm open to contradictory opinions, I am here to learn.
Next I made a wing root plug to help align the doublers and hold them in place while the epoxy hardens.
Glued the engine beams last night. I also glued a piece of balsa to plug the slot where the LG were to bolt. I used balsa instead of the supplied hardwood block because the gear will be wing-mounted. And I figured the balsa would cause less of a stress riser... and, of course, be lighter.
And the outboard doubler went on today. I painted each surface with epoxy and squeegeed it all off with a card until they were just shiny. Gawd, I hope I used enough glue. It did look good later in the day after hardening under heavy weight. My shop is over 80 degrees, so my 30 minute epoxy works pretty quickly. I usually give it 6 hours before inspecting and fiddling.
After standing back to admire my work, I realized I'd forgotten to add a layer of 3/4 oz. glass between the fuse and doubler. DOH!. I usually don't, but I wanted to this time. I'll still do it on the inboard side. It gets a tripler too. My Twister in fact has triplers on both sides, so I might do that on this plane. I can use a sheet of glass under there if y'all don't think I'm just spending weight for no good reason.
Now is where my first questions will come regarding the nose ring and engine placement. I'm not 100% sure after rereading the instructions and staring at the plans, so stand by for that tomorrow if I'm still not sure. One last detail I did today is made the tail wheel gear, all except for the bends for the axle. I'll epoxy it on with a wrap of glass or veil around it.
Hey, how do y'all like my cool portable fuselage building glass... It was a 48"x 8" window shelf in my MIL's kitchen window before she moved away and we family dutifully
raided collected items we saw as valuable. The whole 4x8 table has a large 3/8" glass under the sheet-rock surface too.
Good night for now,
Rusty