Scale Wendell Hostetler 30% Piper Cherokee Glass Fuselage Build.

[AKNick]

Slight eek moment for sure!

 

[TonyHallo]

Have the left wing root matched to the fuselage with SuperFil, once cured it will get sanded down to match the airfoil. A piece of plastic wrap and a little Vaseline will hopefully keep the two parts from joining!

 

[TonyHallo]

Along with hinging another one of the tasks that I don't care for is cutting out the air inlets in fiberglass cowls. Always seem to mess it up then try to sand everything flat from the back side. Years ago I seen a wood worker screw a larger piece of Plexiglass to his router base. Not wanting to anything that permanent decided to hot glue a piece of 1/8" plywood to the Dremel router attachment and use a cut off disc to trim to cowl a fixed depth. Came out nice and fast, took longer for the glue to cool than cut both inlets.

Got the idea of using screw head mount knobs for wing bolts from @dhal22, these are normally used for socket head cap screws, they are available from McMaster Carr. Used 4" long steel screws for the front alignment pins, this provided a smooth surface where the pin engages the fuselage and a nice rolled thread. Need some sort of nut for these. Decided to adapt the knobs for nut use. Turned, drilled , tapped and splined the steel insert and pushed it into the knob, then chucked the knob up in the lathe and drilled through the plastic with a no. 7 drill and tapped through the steel and plastic.

 

[dhal22]

Finished product on this?

 

[TonyHallo]

The one on the right is finished.

 

[TonyHallo]

While the SuperFil was curing started working on the interior finishing. Plan to make it like the full scale with a flange around the windows and some depth below. As the vertical strips around the window are added, the remainder of the window openings are cut out. A majority of the windows were left in to prevent the small vertical piece from breaking.

The door needs a little depth as well. Currently is just a waggly flat piece. Glued the door back on the door mold and added 1/4" contest balsa to the top and bottom areas of the door, the top piece was prebent since it curves in two directions, the balsa was soaked with ammonia and placed on the door in the mold and vacuumed bagged. Once this cures will add 1/4" plywood on the vertical pieces, these will be inset into the balsa. There is a 3/16" flange around the perimeter and the window opening. I'm thinking that the wood will get finished off with 1 1/2 ounce cloth. Need to build a door latch. That a future project.

 

[TonyHallo]

Was hoping that the engine and cowl could be mounted to the firewall before it was glued in but that is not the case, even the smallest #0 screws interfered with the cowl so it was epoxied in yesterday, the holes for the nose wheel bearing block were drilled beforehand. Think I will use the small scraps of Kevlar to reinforce the joint, don't think engine vibration will be a problem but a landing or two might! Still working my way around the window openings.

 

[TonyHallo]

Put the corrugations in the aileron and flaps today, there are 72 corrugations for the ailerons and 89 on the flaps. Glued up a fixture to use with the Dremel router attachment, it looks kinda crappy but it worked very well. The fixture has three points of contact had held the router firm. It was made from old foam cutting templates, Aeroworks engine drilling templates, some scrap wood from the vertical reinforcements and a little CA. Took the better part of 4 hours. When the wings were glassed, the second coat of thinned epoxy was not applied. After the corrugations were completed, a coat of epoxy thinned 50% was applied over the ailerons and flaps to seal the corrugations. The epoxy soaked right into the exposed balsa. Might cut the ailerons and flaps free tomorrow.
I thought I was done making mold for this project however I need to make one more for the aileron and flap servo covers, that should be easy.

 

[AKNick]

very nice work, definitely completes the scale look