North American P-86B (or a F2J-1 -- depending who gets it)

kitnut617 · January 10, 2016, 08:32:05 AM

After a night's sleep pondering what to do with the bay, I decided to modify the bay so it sloped from the outer side of the fuselage, to the center wing side. I did this by sawing a couple of notches in the wheel bay wall near the wing joint area, then bent it up to an angle that looked about right. I also cut some slots where the u/c hinge would be so I could level out that bit so it was on the same plane as the wing.

Here' you can see what I did,

This shows the difference very well,

and how the wheel bay now looks in the fuselage,

Now onto duplicating everything ---

Captain Canada · January 10, 2016, 09:49:32 AM

Looking good Robert. Nice to see you working ! On models, that is

Tophe · January 13, 2016, 09:56:02 AM

I agree: I am happy the Twin-Sabre/Fury will be finished...

kitnut617 · January 13, 2016, 12:00:55 PM

Thanks guys ----

I was looking at the F-82 cockpits so I can start planning how to install them when I saw they're actually quite plain, and no decals to spruce it up either. I then remember I had a couple of these True Details sets in the stash;

It's for an F-94 really, but it fits in the time period and just what I'm looking for to detail the cockpits. Just got to carefully cut the tub into two bits though $:-\$

I've also decided to use a couple of F-86 nose u/c bays instead of the odd FJ-1 ones, keeps the bay doors more simple too.

Captain Canada · January 13, 2016, 01:13:49 PM

That will defo help dress it up and add realism !

MiB · January 13, 2016, 03:19:44 PM

Like Star Wars

kitnut617 · February 13, 2016, 01:36:37 PM

Haven't had a lot of time for model building lately, had to concentrate on getting my security license and other things at work, but I've manage to get my wing modifications done.

In this pic, the top wing is how it would be in flight, the bottom wing would be for take-offs and landings, all slats & flaps extended and I'm going with the Cutting Edge slats on the outer wings and scratch built slat for the center and Fowler flaps all along the trailing edge. I decided not to go with the drooping ailerons as I can't find any info if they were a technology back in the late 40's/early 50's.

And the decals have been ordered, which will be a variation of these. Just having the serial numbers changed for what I want.

kitnut617 · February 15, 2016, 08:57:01 AM

And I've got the cockpit tubs fitted in, just needs a bit of tidying up before it all gets glued in.

kitnut617 · February 15, 2016, 11:32:41 AM

Couple of pics of how the slats and flaps look from the wing root ends, top pic is the center section, bottom pic one of the outer wings. You can see I've made the flaps have an airfoil section to them.

kitnut617 · February 21, 2016, 12:03:07 PM

One fuselage is now almost completely assembled, made up some better air intakes and exhaust nozzle out of aluminum tubing.

Here's a trial fit up of the center wing section with radar pod (wanted to see it like that for the first time) and also the starboard wing. The wings are held there by the aluminum tube I'm going to use as a spar. This should line up the two fuselages nicely.

Been doing some research into drooped ailerons, seems no one thinks they're a good idea. However, reading the chapter about the Supermarine 322 'Dumbo' in the book British Experimental Combat Aircraft of WW II, it says it was equipped with ""slotted ailerons"" after the normal ailerons were ineffective when the slats and flaps were deployed. Think that answers the question I had whether enhanced ailerons like that were technology back around 1946-49. Anyway, I'm going to go with slotted ailerons on this one ---

Here's a couple of pics of the 'almost' finished fuselage.

kitnut617 · February 21, 2016, 02:19:05 PM

Quote from: kitnut617 on February 21, 2016, 12:03:07 PM
Anyway, I'm going to go with slotted ailerons on this one ---

Change of plan --- again. Had a chat with Evan (our resident aero engineer), and he says just to go the way I have it now -----

kitnut617 · March 02, 2016, 02:33:49 PM

Some progress but I went on vacation for a week or so in between.

Got most of the second fuselage assembled, I just need to modify the wing root on it before I think about gluing the lot together.

In this pic, you can see the wing root fairing in it's original length, this is to match the wing's root leading edge extension, but I have removed that so I can use full span slats.

This pic shows the modification done on the other fuselage already. I carefully cut out half of the wing root, trimmed it to length then repositioned it in the fuselage side. Then added in some card to fill in the hole. The thin strips of styrene is to replace the material that the razor saw cuts out (if you're wondering)

This pic shows I still have to carefully file out the air intake on the second fuselage, I'm making it a bit bigger in diameter than what the FJ-1 has.

I'm going to make the fin/rudder taller, I've already got a plan to increase the tail-plane area but got thinking about the fin. Comparing the P-51H fin/rudder with the F-82 fin/rudder and you can see that the F-82 has quite a bit bigger fin. I'm going with the same line of thought with this Twin Fury but I'll just extend the top of the fin. It will look like the P-51H fin only bigger once I'm done with it.

Lastly, my decals arrived --- now I've no reason why I can't get this project finished ---- hopefully ---- maybe ---- well ------

Oh! and another thing, the very nice Falcon replacement FJ-1 canopies I'm going to use --- do not fit the Siga FJ-1 at all (heck, even the kit canopies don't fit the kit), I'm having to carefully re-shape the cockpit opening to get them to fit, you can just make out what I've had to do to get them to fit if you look at the starboard fuselage carefully

NARSES2 · March 03, 2016, 06:27:24 AM

Coming along nicely

kitnut617 · March 04, 2016, 06:09:04 PM

Thanks Chris

kitnut617 · March 05, 2016, 11:51:50 AM

One of the things that I wanted to do was to make the nose u/c gear 'handed', that's so the wheel faces would point to the outside. Fortunately, the nose gear style made it fairly easy to convert. I carefully cut the leg to the steering mechanism off the main leg, massaged the leg so it bent the other way, drilled out a hole in that and the main leg, then pinned it with a small length of mig welding wire using super-glue. It worked out quite well. The other thing was to sort out some more robust wheels for the main gear as this aircraft would be heavier than an F-82, and found some in the stash which I can't remember for the life of me why I bought them (when Peter Wright of Aeroclub was still alive) which will serve the purpose.