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Rodent

Well, I had this post ready to go last night, then it disappeared into the ether, never to be seen again. Another "What are you swearing at?" moment in the Stoneboat household.

I have the powerplant completed, powerplant as in engine and propeller. The kit prop is a club-like affair that requires work.
001_zpszfqkwfab.jpg


I cut off the prop shaft, cut the thing into two separate blades and rounded off the butts to fit into a short length of 1/8" tube. Much firkytoodling with sandpaper and files and I was able to approximate something from Hamilton Standard.
002_zpsrtcnk0d2.jpg


I made a prop hub and boss from short lengths of 1/8" and 3/32" aluminum tube...
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...And knocked out a set of propeller counterweights from scrap plastic. Some primer, a lick of paint and a couple of decals later and I'm calling it finished. You must squint to see the counterweights because the fershlugginer flash went off and overexposed the pic.
005_zpsemlihuwy.jpg


I always use resin engines from Engines & Things when I build a piston engine model. They require some work, but once cleaned up and the bits and bobs are installed they look pretty good. This one got the full Cleveland, with push rod tubes, an ignition harness, inter cylinder baffles and oil lines, a prop governor oil line and a bit of decal for an engine data plate.
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Viva el Powerplant!
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All fired up and chugging along at 28 and 18*
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I'm gonna do the flaps and flight controls next, before tackling the interior. I shall drop climb flaps which includes a couple of degrees of aileron droop, and cut away and reposition the elevators and rudder.

*Normal cruise power, 28" of manifold pressure and 1800 RPM. :D
 
Thanks for the comments fellas.

Well, as I said last time, the flaps and flight controls would be next. I have cut away the flaps, ailerons, elevators and rudder. In fact I cut the rudder and vertical fin completely off the right hand fuselage half in order to correct the fin/rudder profile. The angles at the top and bottom of the rudder are ninety degrees in reality, but the kit has something different, so after I cut the rudder off I moved stuff around to correct the angles. This will require a small faring at the bottom of the rudder once it's attached during assembly, but that's a mere bagatelle. :D

Here are the flight controls in all their sawed off glory. I always use red and green toothpicks to indicate whether they are for the left or right sides.
001_zpstwvo3who.jpg


The wings do not require red or green toothpicks. ;)
There is however a doubler on the bottom where the strut attaches. I used a bit o' beverage can to replicate it.
003_zpscn9bbxjy.jpg


On to the instrument panel. The panel has a rolled top where it comes up against the bottom of the windshield, not unlike the rolled top of the dash on grandpa's '54 Buick. Using the kit panel as a guide I whittled a piece of cedar shim to the proper contour, then glued a metal panel to it. The center pedestal is another bit of shim, cut to the proper dimensions. The little stalk thing on the right rear corner of the pedestal is the oil tank filler neck, and the three vertical cutouts are for the carb heat control, the manual fuel (wobble) pump, and the emergency fuel and oil shutoff.
004_zpsnxhxggl4.jpg


005_zps2ksxvcah.jpg


I made three sub panels from the afore-mentioned beverage can. The left is for the flight instruments, pretty rudimentary really, an artificial horizon, airspeed indicator, altimeter, rate of climb indicator, directional gyro, and a turn an bank indicator. Unfortunately I no longer have any 1:48 instrument gauges, so I shall pull a Uros and scratch the indications onto the instruments after they have been painted. The center sub panel has the engine instruments, manifold pressure gauge, RPM indicator, cylinder head temp gauge, a tri-gauge for the oil temp, oil pressure and fuel pressure, then another tri-gauge for the three fuel quantity indicators, and below that a carburetor air temperature gauge. The right sub panel is nothing more than a radio panel. I shall stick a couple of pieces of plastic onto it to represent the VHF radio head and the GPS indicator. There are small skirt panels at the bottom of the right and left panels that will be added after painting.
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Both fuselage halves have been cleaned up and had the doors and windows cut out. Two doors a side, and a porthole window behind the main cabin door. The cabin doors are wide enough to roll a 55-gallon barrel of gas onboard without busting your knuckles, if you're really careful. The square hole in the left fuselage half is the battery hatch. I had a fit of insanity and cut it away, when a simple square of beverage can glued to the outside of the fuselage would have sufficed. The cabin floor will sit on the angles you see there immediately below the door sills.
009_zpsvbqryt8h.jpg


I have made the cabin 'tub' from scrap aluminum. Why? Because I like to. Once bent to shape - as in the cockpit footwells - it stays bent. Plus it looks good unpainted. The little bridge thingy between the footwells will be where the pedestal of the instrument panel will sit.
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And here's how it fits:
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I had finished the floats and put them aside for later developments, but there seemed to be something missing on them. Then all of a sudden the answer hit me like a whack upside the head with an oar. No paddles! Large no-no, so with a bit of whittling and firkytootling I made two, varnished them, and attached them using chukw tape and a bit of wire as mounting brackets. One could allegedly paddle the Beaver around if one was into paddling around 5000 pound canoes. I think they'd be more effective fending off angry aquatic mammals or beating a fish into submission for dinner.
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I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas. Health and happiness in the New Year, folks.
 
A fine lesson in dedication and attention to details. I would have quit a while back. Nice stuff.
 
Thanks for the kind words fellas. I have the aircraft doors finished and am doing more work on the cockpit. Will post something this week.
 
Thank you James.


How to make a door sandwich.

First, cut a piece of .015 scrap aluminum to fit the door opening, in this case the rh cockpit door, and drill and file out the window opening. This will be the door inner panel. Cut an outer panel slightly larger than the inner panel...
001_zpsfzbavlig.jpg


...And drill three locating holes - one of which will become the door handle hole - so's you can mark out the window opening on the outer panel.
002_zpsckoxhajm.jpg


Mark the window opening and rough it out...
003_zps6j1baxcc.jpg


...Then finish it with various shapes of needle files.
004_zpssybwz1st.jpg


Repeat three times.
005_zpshpz9kk4e.jpg


Take a piece of .020 acrylic and cut to the exact size of the inner door panel, then glue it to the outer side of the inner panel. Got that, outer side of inner panel, not like I have done sometimes. :facepalm
007_zps8oxmwzcy.jpg


Once the glue has dried - I use that new Gorilla Glue clear by the way, nearly as good as epoxy without the mixing hassle - using the inner panel as a template, drill out the three locating holes in the clear panel so's the window opening you so painstakingly made in the outer lines up properly with the inner window opening. Glue the outer panel to the clear part and after the glue has dried trim the outer panel so there is a 1/64" overlap. This will keep the door from falling into the cabin when it's in place.
012_zpssgqx2xxp.jpg


Repeat as necessary. I also use a 26ga wire pin in the locating holes to help hold things together, and bits of wire and aluminum as door handles and grab handles.
015_zpseet5qqvy.jpg


Viola! we have doors.
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014_zpsi15m5yq5.jpg


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C'mon baby light my fire.. :D
 
Annndd on to the panel. I primed and painted the panel satin black. I then attached the three little sub panels in place, and scratched the markings on the instrument faces using a straight pin in a pin vice, then filled it with Future to represent the glass. The engine controls on the quadrant are bits of aluminum cut to the proper size, with a drop of glue on the end painted to represent the lever's function - red/mixture, black/throttle and propeller pitch control. The three little levers on the bottom of the pedestal have the same treatment, r to l emergency fuel and oil shutoff, engine wobble pump and carburetor heat control. There are three tiny slices of wire insulation immediately beneath each engine control lever to replicate the friction control lock.
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Dry fitted in his proper place.
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I made a set of rudder pedals from scrap aluminum and glued them in place in the left footwell. The strange shape is to accommodate the toe brakes at the top of the pedal.
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And by Golly, it fits! :blink
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The footwells are enclosed on each side, so I cut a small piece of beverage can to fit between the pedestal and the cabin firewall.
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That strange shaped thingy aft of the cockpit door is the cover for the fuel filler caps. The Beaver's tanks are below the cabin floor and the fuel filler necks are on the left side. This airplane also has wing tip tanks, apparently.
 
Thank you James.


How to make a door sandwich.

First, cut a piece of .015 scrap aluminum to fit the door opening, in this case the rh cockpit door, and drill and file out the window opening. This will be the door inner panel. Cut an outer panel slightly larger than the inner panel...
001_zpsfzbavlig.jpg


...And drill three locating holes - one of which will become the door handle hole - so's you can mark out the window opening on the outer panel.
002_zpsckoxhajm.jpg


Mark the window opening and rough it out...
003_zps6j1baxcc.jpg


...Then finish it with various shapes of needle files.
004_zpssybwz1st.jpg


Repeat three times.
005_zpshpz9kk4e.jpg


Take a piece of .020 acrylic and cut to the exact size of the inner door panel, then glue it to the outer side of the inner panel. Got that, outer side of inner panel, not like I have done sometimes. :facepalm
007_zps8oxmwzcy.jpg


Once the glue has dried - I use that new Gorilla Glue clear by the way, nearly as good as epoxy without the mixing hassle - using the inner panel as a template, drill out the three locating holes in the clear panel so's the window opening you so painstakingly made in the outer lines up properly with the inner window opening. Glue the outer panel to the clear part and after the glue has dried trim the outer panel so there is a 1/64" overlap. This will keep the door from falling into the cabin when it's in place.
012_zpssgqx2xxp.jpg


Repeat as necessary. I also use a 26ga wire pin in the locating holes to help hold things together, and bits of wire and aluminum as door handles and grab handles.
015_zpseet5qqvy.jpg


Viola! we have doors.
013_zps9d7ueijf.jpg


014_zpsi15m5yq5.jpg


017_zpsd5tx4vxl.jpg


C'mon baby light my fire.. :D

Who needs Eduards when you got Canadian beer cans! :good: :drinks
 
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