Added Balsa "fuel" tank cover that fits with a small peg and braced with the original setup of screws and a rubber band. The ESC will be mounted on under side of the cover:
All the parts combined for a complete view:
Next step on the fuselage will be setting up motor, ESC, routing power wires, transmitter location, and placing the battery for initial balance and weight measurement.
Once the bottom sheeting was dry and sanded down I turned to the internal setup for servos and push-rods. I followed the blueprint for rudder, elevator, and push-rod setup, with the exception of the smaller servos and lighter rods. Elevator and rudder are centered and all rods in place and functional:
Before setting out to build this plane I decided to make some changes and adapt it to the 4-channel plane I want. It is going to be equipped with an electric motor rather than a glow-plug 0.049 engine, and I have some modifications planned for the fuselage. The wings will be equipped with ailerons to make it a true 4-channel model. The original kit had an optional add-on aerobatic aileron-wing with a semi-symmetric profile and no dihedral. The wing I decided to build will have a ~3 degree dihedral and wing-length ailerons. To accommodate the ailerons I made some minor changes to the trailing edge seen in the picture, and printed a rib template from PLA on my 3D printer. The trailing edge spar I used is actually 1/4"x3/8" and not a 1/4"x 3/4" as in the picture. I cut each rib using the template, which was my first mistake. It takes too long, and if you're not careful to check each one they may not match. A better method would be to "sandwich" rough-cut ...
Finally got my covering tools delivered. The covering iron was much easier to use then the household iron I tried before, and the hot-air gun was a huge surprise. I've never used hot air to stretch Monokote (or Monokote-like) covering, but the results I managed to achieve would not have been possible by simply using at iron. After completing both sides of the wing I decided to adorn it with some decorations. The bottom of the wing will get a checker box pattern in red, and the top of the wing will get a few red stripes to break the monotone yellow. I am using the Windex method to activate the glue and fix the red decorations to the yellow covering. I was told that I could do this only with original Monokote covering material, which is what I am using. So far, the Windex method works well, the liquid dries up, and the squares seem to be securely fixed. The fuselage finish has a natural balsa look with only a few coats of varnish. I am using Sanding Sealer for this instead of Dope, w...
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