Scale 20cc DHC-2 "Beaver" Kit Build from Moustache Model Works

[AKNick]

Control rod guide tubes installed.

Mine ended up 25mm fwd of the fwd blind nut, and about 7.5mm from the edge of the lower ply skin.

I ended up with a gap in the exit holes and used UV glue to fill it. Set in place with CA as it doesn’t bind to the tube that well.

Elevator and rudder bulkhead holes had to be reamed out as well.

The rods and tubes were filthy. Cleaned the tube by spraying with silicone and a paper towel wadding rammed though.
The rods were cleaned to a mirrored finish with CLP cleaner. Good enough for my guns, good enough for these!

 

[AKNick]

Not too much work done but as everyone knows persistence and momentum wins the race.

Put together the cowl support tabs.




Dremeled the door hinges in place.



Painting a bit more in the interior. Slow tedious process.

 

[dhal22]

I tackled my Cub knowing it would be a 4 yr project, must, must, must take a step regularly or 4 years will slip to 5 or 6.
My Blue Angel took 4 so been there, done that.

 

[AKNick]

Some pics of my brush on interior paint job.
Fitted the windshield and glued it in place with formula 560.

A little disappointed there were imperfections in the molded windshield to what appears to be bagging marks and the rectangular vacuum plug port area. It’s not as bad as I make it sound, but it’s there.


Something in me couldn’t paint over the moustache.



Final shaping of the balsa around the canopy. Note, do with with the wings and the canopy installed.


You can see the molding marks here.


Trimming away.


Enough tape don’t ya think!?!??!!!!


Sanding a contour per the manual to pluck the windshield forward with your fingers to remove the canopy with ease. It works. I actually ended up using the sand paper around my finger because well that’s the perfect contour ha ha

 

[David Eichstedt]

Gluing the canopy to the hatch frame is the step that made me decide all the hassle of drawing in 3D CAD was worth it.

 

[AKNick]

Put the cowling tabs on the cowl. First off this meant grinding the blind nuts to fit the engine... this would have been easier without the rails glued in. Too late!


Fitting the cowl wasn’t an easy task for me. I didn’t realize that the engine can only fit so far in the engine box and the precut holes give you a great fit for the engine against the firewall... however the spinner backplate is going to be just over 3/4” in front of the cowl. Hmmm looks not so scale/good to me. Disappoints me to be honest, but I’m going to roll with it.

Glueing the mount tabs in place. Would have been nice if this were adjustable. In hindsight, I should have tacked it down and checked the fit before glueing it in permanently.


Here is fitting the cowl process:


Angles are off.


As a visual aid, the manual tells you this bulkhead is about 2-2.5 degrees different. So I used that as a guide as well as the hatch bulkhead.


Also note I used some balsa blocks to help keep it in place for alignment.

Tabs in place.


I didn’t have milled fiber. So this will suffice to help bind the epoxy from the cowl to the mounts.

 

[AKNick]

Took some time to mount the servo hatches in the wings now that I settled on using standard servos instead of minis.

One thing I wish I did during the wing assembly is dry fit the hatches... it would have saved some grief trimming and setting in place correctly. I even had to remake some shims and strengthen the servo screw areas. I’m loosing faith in my handiwork. Once you get the hatches to fit and aligned. It’s marked which way is forward, but the left and right is covered up when there is a servo in place and I had to look at the plans to double check everything. As much as I love laser cut parts, it may have been easier if these hatch servo mounts didn’t interlock to allow for movement and maybe just have etched guides instead.

Overall I’m not impressed with how my flap servos turned out. Really wish I didn’t cut the hole in the wing for the linkage until this step was completed.

 

[AKNick]

Accessory Boot Cowl or as the manual calls them “cowl cheek formers” are a nice scale surprise. On the full scale plane these come off with Dzus or camlock fasteners so you can access all the accessory gearbox components ie: mags, prop gov, fuel pump, alternator, starter, ect. It would go over the top of the motor mount as well and is hinged at the top. So imagine the cheek formers being on a hinge at the top horizontal location to flip up for quick access. The top left of it has an alternator air cooling inlet and louvers at the top center - this is the top of the plastic cowl for the model.
So these little cheeks are designed to allow hot air to escape.

 

[AKNick]

Cut out the molded plastic parts. The kit includes optional parts to retrofit what scheme you’d like to model after. Easy for me I don’t need an upper or lower intake because Alaska Seaplanes made a field approval (I think) to remove those and have a direct air intake on the lower cowl... which will probably be near the spark plug lead, so yeah.

The oil cooler front scoop was hard for me to cut. It did not turn out very well at all. But it’ll work.

Two things I was surprised not to see is a cowl lip with a dummy exhaust stack and a fuel sump/transducer panel on the belly.
I may design and 3D Print them.

I’ll also add that there is no dummy radial included. I’ve been looking to source one for the R985 if someone has a lead please let me know.



I originally marked the seat cushions and started cutting.... um no. Just cut them, you can trim a lot away and be ok. You need to get rid of the radius in the molding.


The manual has you add trim to the seat backrest cushions... not sure why I don’t just slap them together and glue them.


The seats in all the DHC-2’s that I’ve worked on have a bench seat in the back and articulating bucket seats in the front. Kinda wish there was just a bench seat in the back... maybe I’ll modify or make my own.

 

[BalsaDust]

Try out DAG’s website. He has free STL files for the 985

http://atwoodaviation.net/dags-impossibly-free-3d-engine-designs-stls/