FT Spitfire [UPDATE]

Hi there, this will be a small update on the FT spitfire I build some time ago. It flew great and looks the, it only needed some paint. With that excuse I bought an airbrush and some paint. The airbrush in question is a very cheap generic dual action airbrush. Paints are normal oil based paint, thinned out using white spirit. 

The plane started out like this.

The plane just after its maiden flight nice and white

Although this was never going to be a scale model, it was always in my mind to get close to the livery of the Spitfires that served over my country. After some research I found that due to the type of land here, the hues are different from those of the Spitfires flown in the UK. It was a mix of some sort of grey blue with brown colours. The colours were mixed and I got to work. The base coat is a slightly blueish grey which covers the hole plane. 

plane painted in the base colour

Next came the brown camouflage scheme on top of the grey to do this I used masking tape, using a good blade , line were cut along the tape in random wave patterns. Using these pieces the areas where masked off. 

Masking up

Using the airbrush the outline of the brown areas was first done and then filled in with colour. A small tip which I should have done was to first dirty up the masking tape by sticking it to my clothes which reduces its stickiness, thus not pulling away any paint as it was being removed. The result were quite good though. 

After removing the masking tape

The last thing was to paint some insignia, some RAF roundels and tail markings. 

Finished for now and drying 

As it stand now the plane needs only a canopy, pilot and a red spinner. It will not fly before its ready, you never know what could happen in flight and at I want a picture of the completed aircraft before it loses to gravity some day.

Few things I learnt from this. 

• Mask areas properly otherwise you will have over spray on the unmasked areas. 
• Prepare all stencils beforehand
• If you are mixing any paint , mix a lot of it, you never know how much you need to used before. 
• When using an airbrush start spraying on a scrap piece and ten onto the area.

Until then.

Happy Flying.

Blunt Nose Versa WIng FPV [BUILD]

Hi everyone, I will cover the build of my FPV Versa Wing.  These wings are very popular for FPV and for good reason, they are easy to build, there is a lot of information on the internet and they fly quite well. The excellent Flite Test plans allows for a very easy build. The electronics used are as following:

Motor : Emax GT2215 950KV running a 10x6 prop

ESC: Plush 30A 

Servos : generic 9g servos

Radio system : FRSKY D4R-II receiver

Batteries-  Zippy 2200mah 40c Batteries / Video Battery Turnigy 1300mah 30c

FPV setup:

TS-832 Video Transmitter 600mw 5.8Ghz

Tarot 300 OSD

Eachine 700 camera

Braided/ twisted cables and ferrite rings

The first part was easy, trace out the patterns and cut the parts, I added 4 inches to the bottom part of the wing so as to extend the wing and form the blunt nose part. 

Extended bottom wing panels

This allows a lot of space for the FPV setup as well and space for batteries. Running two 2200mah batteries takes up a lot of space. The wiring setup was than spaced out to keep the Video TX away from other components. As you can see from the next photo you can see how much space this small wing has.

Placement of componenets inside wing

the batteries are placed far forward in later photos you will see the final placement of the batteries. the video signal wire is passing in front of the spar or wing shaper while everything else is spaced out. a simple hatch with magnets is used to cover the components but also allows good access to the inside of the wing. On a later date the batteries were moved far more forward with the video system battery nestled between them like this.  

Battery Positions

This allows for the CG to move forward, reducing the amount of ballast needed to get the CG right. Two wooden spars were glued in , the front one is used to stiffen the middle section of the plane, while the rear one is glued to the top of the wing thus joining the upper parts together increasing the rigidity, and thighs the motor mount to it as well, reducing the twisting from the motor and prop. 

Basic layout and wooden spars

That is basically it, a very simple wing to build, using the FT center section would have been cleaner of course but this allows better access. The wing was painted using oil based paint thinned with spirit to allow better spreading . This allows the surface of the wing to be watertight and a little bit more durable. also it is much easier to spot from the ground. At this point the Wing has been flown for about a minute or two and found it to be just a touch tail heavy, I will perform another flight soon. The FPV system worked quite well without any noticeable issues. For the wing itself it still need to be dialed in, but I think it will be a good flyer. 

Just after paint

After the small flight and landing in wet muddy grass

In the following week I will basically setup the cg again, change the camera angle a bit and try again. Thats it for now and Happy Flying.