Jerry Bates 1/5.5 - 85" Wingspan - Douglas SBD Dauntless Build

[MikeH]

Details Douglas SBD - 5 Dauntless

Douglas SBD - 5 Dauntless

Just figured out how to post pics 

Background
I was scratching around on the RC Warbirds site and came across the gorgeous model built by Tom Pierce along with his online build and decided I want one of those

Got hold of John Mackie the Jerry Bates Plan supplier here in the UK and ordered up a set of plans.

Let me be clear, I have never built nought from a Plan, I can hardly cut a piece if bread straight let alone Balsa. but hey ho off we go.

I got hold of Leon at Belair Kit to cut the parts for me (remember I can't cut bread straight no way was I going to cut parts) - great guy and highly recommend his services.

Huge package arrives but sad to say the courier must of driven over the package as there was a tread mark over the one corner and some of the bits were broken.  Back on the blower to Leon - no probs he replaced them F.O.C. - sweet

Alas I did find some of the parts did not line with the plan such as the two wing braces. After a few calls with Leon he managed to get it close to the plan - not perfect but close

Lesson 1: Make sure the guy who is cutting the parts also has access to the plan - in Leon's case he is supplied AutoCad files from Jerry but as I understand it no plans. If your Kit Cutter dos not have the plans - one gets into "are the plans printed on a Plotter or photocopied" or are the CAD files wrong 

None the less after several attempts  top marks to Leon for trying

Lesson 2: Like RTFM definitely RTFP and re read it understand how it all goes together, I can't stress this enough. The booklet which comes with the plans assumes you have years of building knowledge and unlike a Kit (which is pretty much build by numbers) a Plan is different ball game - all I can say thank the good Lord for Online Builds

Next step was to make a building board - I tootled off to B&Q and bought a scrap hollow door £5 to build on, I thought I would be clever and use magnets to buid with ratheer than pins - after few blood blisters on my hands caused by the 3" x 1/2 inch Magnets snapping together often with my body parts in between I scrapped that. Back to the softboard and pins for me.

After bottle of Good Seef Afrikan Red Plonk aptly named Fokol (yep you got it in one)  - kicked in -  and off I went
 

Details Fokol

Fokol

When my kids get off the Xbox and give my bandwidth back I wil post pics - probably tomorrow

[andyb]

...Alas I did find some of the parts did not line with the plan such as the two wing braces. After a few calls with Leon he managed to get it close to the plan - not perfect but close...

Looking at the Bob Holman site, it appears that designers often up-issue plans without warning, when Bob finds out he adjusts the CAD files to suit; another relevant question is "are you building from the same version of the plan that was used to generate the CAD files"?

BTW, the trick with cutting bread straight is to position the knife carefully to start the cut, cut about 2 inches and then lean over the bread so that you can see the other side of the loaf and cut down to the bottom on the side away from you first...

HTH

A.

[Russ]

Sack the drawing office manager!

Great stuff Mike, another build thread to look forward to.

Assume you'll be able to get this one in your car, but don't forget to check you can get it out the shed door. 

[MikeH]

Drum roll please - Brrrrrrrrrrrrr - ta da

The fuselage  is almost done - it needs a tail wheel cowl, filleting around the tail feathers and a good rub and buff.

There rear of the fuselage ends abruptly were it joins tothe Tail section. I did consider and in fact tried carving fillets but soone lost patience.

Phil Clark at Fighteraces (good lad and extremely helpful) pointed me down the direction of resin and microballoons to do the filleting. He has built the the A-24 Banshee which is basically the Army version of the Navy Dauntless and has given some excellent advice - top man Phil 

I had read on RCMF Phil stocks an excellent resin which unlike the Ripmax SP XXX gloop Phil's resin differs in that it's alledgegly much easier to work with and sand. I am just waiting on my order of Microballoons and Resin before I confirm that is the case

Details Fuse

Fuse

Stepping back a few months I will briefly run through the building of the fuse

After a few Red Wines - I crack open the crisp new plans I discovered I need a few more parts such as special hinges and bellcranks

Bellcranks  from C.B Associates and a specialized miniture piano type hinge for the flaps and dive brakes from Nelson's Hobbies.
Just when I thought I had done my bit for the American economy I then discovered I also need a FG top gun cover from Jerry Bates.

Cracked on and made the built up tail feathers and covered them in light Solartex (to help me when it comes to detailing) as per the full size Dauntless having a canvas covering on the Tail arae and Ailerons - I exposed the the Trim Tabs on the elevator and Rudder - pretty straight forward in that dept.

One little trick I stole from another online build was to run a thin strip of balsa around the T.E of the Elevators and Rudder to allow the Solartex to grab onto - as you probably know and as I found out when building the Harvard, Solartex does not grab onto ply very well. If you put Balsaloc on that area the finish looks odd, with the thin Balsa strip the TE of the surfaces look more built up and better finish when using the Solartex

Did a dry run on framing up the fuselage and found the cut parts did not match the plan - basically the cut formers were a tad too small  when lined them up with the crutch. I read somewhere to always build from the centre line - so after finding the centre on all the formers and ensuring they lined up with centre line on the plan - off I went

Once that was all done I then fitted the tail section.

I chose not to to the servo in the Stab to drive the Rudder thang but preferred the Pull -Pulll closed loop approach. To me it looked much neater

Details CB

CB

Top Sheeting was pretty straight forward until I came to the rear under belly - lots of compound curves - not going to happen with sheeting - so with a steer from Dave and a blow by blow on planking from Mr Scale himself Dave Platt DVD - I went ahead and planked.

I was quite pleased with the result.

Moving down to the business end I added the air vents on the sides that was a bit tricky getting the curvature right

I then had to make two gun barrel covers out of very thin balsa. This achieved by cutting to length soaking the balsa in my "muti" of 50/50 water and Ammonia to get the balsa to flex, which with in turn wrapped around a dowel to get the right diameter and all held together with tape until dry.

The Ammonia gives one quite a nice buzz almost as good as the wine

Once dry I thinned some epoxy with alcohol  and coated the barrell covers with the thinned epoxy to make the them a lot more ridged.

I have ordered a Dummy Radial and two Pilots from Frank Tiano and will pick it at Top Gun, much cheaper than buying it here

Details guns

guns

I mentioned earlier the FG Top Gun cover was like rocking horse poop so beinga right Planker I decided to plank instead - hmmmmm
Not easy, if you look carefully at the pic you will see the two guns which has two bumps which run almost all the way back to the cockpit, navigatiing around those was a bit of swine.

With some sanding and Squaron Green Putty I think I have almost got it.

I must say I am very impressed with Squadron Green Putty it smells like Wigley's Juicey Fruit Gum and sands beautifully only down side is the dust from the sanding tends to stain the surrounding Balsa

I have built the centre section of the wing.

The Plan calls for Bellcranks to drive everything - but with my bad experince with my first Harvard ending up as a Lawn Dart on it's Maiden I have decide to go for 6Kg 6v servo's of which there are 7 in the wing to drive the indivual surfaces. I will need a JR Matchbox to do the servo reversing of the Flaps and to get them to deploy evenly

2x Ailerons 2x Dive Brakes & 3x for the Flaps oh yes and one small one to drive the air valves for the retracts.

Yep it will add al ittel extra weight but remeber this is warbird not a air chewing aerobatic model , they flew very slowly, climbed to height then dropped a whacking great 1000Lb bomb on the un-suspecting Jap then tootled off into the sunset muttering something about Pearl Harbour.

I have completed the centre section of the wing - pics to follow. I must say I am now a Superphatic convert.

Apart from the no smell and all the Museli muching, Jesus sandal wearing, knitted jumper, girly stuff unlike Cyno, if you make a cock up you can get it off. 

The Plans have the wing braces in the wrong way which  I only discovered after I happened to be browsing the Online build. Fortunately SuperPhatic does not dry as quickly as Cyno - I think you have 20 minute window and then good night Vienna.

The Building shed had a blue mist descend as I quickly swopped them the right way around. Delighted with myself I sat back and let everything cure. The next morning I discovered the one wing brace was not properly seated and was sitting a bit proud.

I discovered if you are gentle with the scalpel it is relatively easy to remove the offending part and re glue. SuperPhatic tends to have rubbery consistency when dry as opposed to Cyno which is rock hard. I have seen the light, praise the Lord just kidding

In keeping with the scale look -  The Dauntless features Freis ailerons, hinged at the bottom, and with a curved aileron (apart from yet more grey hairs) trying to think how to get the hinges at the right point to allow the aileron to swing up and down.

I also had a chat with Mick Reeves regarding the Pro Skin to sheet the wings - on reflection I think I will stick with what I know.
Pro Skin is great stuff but when it comes to compound curves and joints na - balsa is much better.

Anyway World of Warcraft is sucking up my bandwidth making posting a pain - I will continue my build in more detail tomorrow

[MikeH]

Moving on

I havew completed the centre section of the wing

Details Wing Centre Section

Wing Centre Section

As I mentioned earlier - JB calls for a set of  6 Servo's driving bellcranks for all the surfaces in the wing, based on my reading this system does not work well in that it flexes and the surfaces especially the Flaps push back relatively easily  - so I am doing the dedicated Servo per surface thang.

I have attached the Servo on its side to a piece of Ply and fixed the servo using ard balsa. inserted the screws romoved them then put thin cyno in the scrw hols to give the thread something to bite on to.

The challenge is once the top the wing is sheeted and the fact the servo is on its side - getting the servo out will be a problem. To navigate around that I have placed two pieces of hardwood along the ribs with some epoxy , drilled 4 hole through the servo plate and the hard wood and inserted captive nuts underneath which I also epoxy'ed in place. The servo plate will be attached with 4 small cheesehead bolts which will be fixed with Loctite.

The purpose being I can now have an inspection hatch for the servo and if there is  problem be able to remove the servo if need be

Details Underside

Underside

While waiting for the epoxy to dry - I opened my prezzie from Unitracts - first thought was wow, I even said it backwards wow - these are huge retracts. They are a copy of the Century Retracts.

I was pretty impresed that not only did Unitracts manufacture the retracts they gave me all the bits as well -air bottle - airlines, control valve etc - sweeet

Details Retracts

Retracts

Here comes more gray hairs - I read about fitting the retracts on the online builds - in that they are a bu%%$gger to install. Even thought JB talks about using Robart or Century the plan is not designed for them.

Details Retract Line up

Retract Line up

Notice I have lined the retract on the plan using the 5" Wheel as the centre for the Oleo - if you put the Retract where JB says it should go then you have the situation of the wheels over lapping into the centre section of the wing.

The retract hinge point  is almost on the Dihedral joint of the wing. the pressure cylinder backs right into the left or right wing. There is not much room to fudge things.

I will have to manufacture another rib to support the rest of retract mount

All this is going to require more work with Dremmel than Michael Jackson's face they say he donated his face to Tupperware.

PLUS one has to constantly ensure the retracts are straight on 3 planes both in the open and closed position AND  bury the retract sufficently into the Ribs to ensure they close properly into the wing. Dave Platt has a great DVD called "Scratch This" where he covers fitting of Retracts on scratch builds - maybe worth digging that one out

That's it  - I am now depressed opening another bottle of Red 

L8r





 

[MikeH]

Hmm - got a bit distracted this weekend - refitting the engine to the YT International  Adrenaline and rethinking the battery placement etc.

As such not spent a huge amount of time on the Dauntless

Details Centre Section Sheeted

Centre Section Sheeted

I did however mange to sheet the top of the centre section and made an inspection hatch for the servo

If you are wondering what the hole is for in the front, it is a Bombing Window -  the Pilot looked through when letting loose the 1000 Lb when smokin the Japs

Details Servo Hatch

Servo Hatch

I decided to use a ball link on the servo with M3 rod to drive the Centre Flap - you can just see the clevise peeking out.

I have not as yet sheeted the TE as I want ensure it was long enough to cover the Flap. The sheeting is a two part affair 1/32 Ply and 1/16 Balsa

The Flap will be attached with Nelson Hobbies Miniture piano hinge I have not put a call to Leon at Belair Kits to see if he can indeed cut the Pro Skin (glass fibre sheeting) instead of using the supplied Ply for the flaps.

I have used Ply on my Harvard and sad to say it is susceptible to droop using GF it should resolve that challenge

Details J'TEC WW11 Dials

J'TEC WW11 Dials

My Colour Dials arrived from TowerHobbies which I plan to use in the insrument panel - very nice. Not sure just how accurate they are for a Dauntless but it saves me kicking around with Adobe Illustrator and looks a lot nicer than what I can produce

Also Phil at Fighter Aces sent his goodies over

Details Fighter Aces Goodies

Fighter Aces Goodies

The Mirror Glaze is a Mould Release Wax which I will use when fitting the wing - a liitle trick I saw Mr Scale Dave Platt do on one of his DVD's using Resin & Micro Balloons (Basically makes past up consisting of Resin and Balloons to get a really good finish on the wing fillet)  to get such a good fit you cannot see the join - The release wax is applied to ensure you can get the wing off again when the Resin and Micro Balloons mixture has dried

I will also use it to do the Filleting around the tail section

I am miles away from this but I am think about the colour scheme of the SBD 5 Dauntless - and have decided on three tone Mid War Scheme of:

Klass Kote - Glossy Sea Blue
Klass Kote - Intermediate Blue
Klass Kotes - Insignia White

Details Glossy Sea Blue

Glossy Sea Blue

Details Intermediate Blue

Intermediate Blue

I will be cracking on with the building of the left and right Wing Panels shortly and fitting the servo's which is going to take a while getting them lined up properly, not to mention the Freis Ailerons

Stay Tuned

[MikeH]

Put a call into Leon at Belair Kits who told me - based on his trials of both Pro Skin (Fibre Glass Sheet) & G10 (Fibre Glass Sheet) - it is looking very much like G10 is the way to go.

McGregor's apparently sells G10 but only on large sheets - hmm I wil have to dig around fro anaother source - failing that just use the Ply Flaps

Thinking about the business end - kicking around the idea either going Moki 210, Laser 300v or a Zenoah G45  Petrol I put in a call to Phil  for a bit of sanity check and he told me he has a Zenoah G45 in his Banshee and it works a treat, solid as rock - no dead sticks etc.

I could go IC but then would have to add a ton of lead also the Laser 300v comes in at just under £700 - bit too rich for my type of lousy flying I don't think the Moki 2 Stroke will have much of a difference in sound in comparison with the Zenoah

So the answer for me is the Zenoah G45 2 Stroke Petrol Engine no fancy smancy CDI(too much can go wrong)  just the straight motor.

The good news is with the newer model Zenoah  I would not have to modify the Firewall - it should go in as is.

The spark Plug will stick out very slightly in the Cowl no probs there

Bad news is I can't use the Standard Muffler - having said that Phil knocked up his own which he managed to poke through the scale position on the exhaust.

It will drive a 3 Blade prop no problems to give it that scale look

Details Zenoah G45

Zenoah G45

Here is Phil's setup in his Banshee with the older model Zenoah

Details Phil Clark - Zenoah setup

Phil Clark - Zenoah setup

[Dave]

Mike,
You may wish to consider a chain saw purchase, Poulan saws are very inexpensive & you can procure a remanufactured one at a fraction of the retail cost.
Allot of data out on the WWW & should be able to obtain a conversation kit at a fraction of the cost.

I use a Poulan saw for my tree work… very powerful!, I believe my saw is a 42CC.

When you remove all the plastic junk from them there is not much left (light).


http://www.rcfaq.com/ANSWERS/ENGINES/Poulan46/POULAN46.HTM


http://www.rcfaq.com/

Very nice build!

Hope this is helpful
 

[MikeH]

Thanks Dave for the nice words - it had to be done - if AndyB saw another Heli posting he would poke his eye with sharp stick 

You mention the Chainsaw motor in one of your other postings before - as this is my very first Plan build I wanted to stick known entities at this stage

[Dave]

Mike,
A helpful tip for making your fuselage gun reliefs (next go)...
1)  Take a rectangular section of balsa or whatever wood type you are building from & drill a hole thru the long axis of the section (hole sized to you gun relief).

2) Then… saw the rectangular section in half at the proper slope angle.

3) Shape & install.

I was given one of those things that have a rotating wing over the weekend (that Shall Not Be Named) .  $$$$...  not sure what I am going to do with it, my son may enjoy breaking it into little parts





 

[Gareth]

Mike,

Looking very nice, whats the target weight of this model?

Something to think about with petrol, they are heavier for the power output but they run on normal unleaded (cheaper then Nitro) but they do produce a lot less mess, no oil down the model, the only way to get it cleaner is to go with Electric but a petrol 2stroke would sound very nice.

Gareth

[MikeH]

According to the plans 19- 24Lbs in old money  new money 8.5 Kgs - 11Kgs Dry Weight - will need a call into (ATC) Air Traffic Control before Launch last thing we want is an unscheduled buzzing from Northholt Airbase 

With regard to power I agree and that was also yet another consideration _ I was also looking at Saito 220 ZEUS Four Stroke  but I need the weight in the nose, a nice Moki Radial but waaaay to expensive

The Zenoah is tried and tested in this model so I think I will be ok

AndyB keeps bitchin about my IC Fuel stinking - this hopefully this will make a nice change.

Nothing like the sweet smell of two stroke petrol in the morning air - hey Andy

[andyb]

AndyB keeps bitchin about my IC Fuel stinking - this hopefully this will make a nice change.

Nothing like the sweet smell of two stroke petrol in the morning air - hey Andy

I think it must just be that witches brew that you insist on using... 

A.

[MikeH]

Moving on

Details Dihedral

Dihedral

The plan calls for 51/2 " at the wing tips - to achioeve this the centre section neeeds to be raised 41/2" which I did with two steel rulers

Almost finished the left wing panel

Details Left Wing Panel

Left Wing Panel

[MikeH]

Sadly distracted again from the build - it's my eldest son's 21st tomorrow - the "Ball and Chain" insisted I was in the house and not building. She muttered something about my dinner being in the dog should she find me building

Here is me at 21 when  men were men and had serve in the South African Navy on the pride and joy of the Fleet a President Class Frigate - which I am sad to say we had a small accident colliding with a Naval Tanker (SAS Tafelburg) during an excersise at sea (R.A.S.) and it sunk 

Details On Parade

On Parade

Details SAS President Kruger

SAS President Kruger

Jerry Bates drop me line regarding helping me obtain the Fibreglass Top Gun cover which he will personally ship to me - to which I am most grateful

As John Mackey is getting out doing Jerry Bates Plans (now being done by Phil Clark @ Fighteraces) offered me his very last  Scale Prop for the Dauintless for good price 

Details Dauntless Prop

Dauntless Prop

It pretty big - one blade measure 10" in length

Cracked open the sparkly new bit of kit and had it checked out by the Engineer crew who gave it the all clear

Details Zenoah G45

Zenoah G45

Details Side View

Side View