Brian Taylor Mk 9 Spitfire 83"

[Mike71]

Hi folks,
I prefer building to typing but here are some pics of the (slow) progress of my Spit. I got the traplet plan pack, which was excellent. I've just got the unitract retracts, which seem very good also. I intend to get a Laser 150 as per the plan.The ailerons and flaps were very fiddly and have no external horns so took a long time but the very clever BT aileron levers work very well. I've used bellcranks and a single aileron servo as per the plan. The retract bottle will also be mounted on the centre section of the wing for ease. At 83" it's some wingspan so I've tried to do as much work as I can before joining the sections purely because as you can see my building board is not that big and I don't have a lot of storage space. I've been progressing reasonably quickly recently, but I tend to work in fits and starts. I started about 4 months ago, I reckon a first flight is at least a year away. Next is to get the right wing panel to where the left is, and then install the retracts.

Mike

[Sheraz]

Hey mike,
Good start, seems like it will be a big model, can't wait to see it at the patch (be it a year... worth the wait!), about time we had more warbirds around!. And so glad its IC   

I would love to build a kit (hopefully some day!) but barley have enough time for an artf...
please do keep the thread going, rgardless of the time frame, it nice to see the thread board buliding up 

good luck.

sheraz,

[Russ]

A proper model. 

Looks like you are well underway with the build. Please keep us updated whenever you get chance.

[Russ]

Mike,

Have you ever checked out http://www.rcscalebuilder.com/ ?

Think you probably have to register before you can access the forum, but there's a lot Brian Taylor builds documented there.

[Mike71]

Russ,
Yeah I go on rcscalebuilder quite a lot. It's a great source.
Mike

[Gareth]

Mike,

Those flaps look great, how have you joined the middle section with the outer section so they move at the same time? If its any use to you i have a selection of books on the Spitfires including images of all the colours that they flew in. I could bring them down for you to take a look at.

Let me know when you are going to be down the patch again and il bring them down.

Gareth

[Mike71]

Hi Gareth,
Good question. The answer is a bit crude. As per the BT plan a piece of tube is put on either side and a piece of bowden cable is placed between the 2 so the pushrod drives the outer part and the bowden cable pulls the inner part round. The piece of tubing can just been seen on the inner flap in photo 1. I haven't put the tube on the outer flaps yet and I just placed the flaps in position for the photo. A bit crude and non scale but better than multiple servos or some sort of torque rod which would be the alternative.
Incidentally in the same photo you can see the flap pushrod and clevis poking out of the top of the wing. When I got the plans I thought this was a bit rubbish and spent many hours trying to devise a system where the pushrod remains in the wing, to no avail. Cut to a few months ago and I was at the Goodwood Revival where one of the Duxford Spitfires was in the aeroplane park with unusually, no ropes round it. In the course of spending about 1.5 hours examining in in detail I realised why Brian Taylor had the flap pushrods poking through the top of the wing. 'Cos it does on the real thing! The flaps on the Spit were very crude pneumatically actuated single position flaps, blowing straight down to 85 degrees on selection of a valve in the cockpit. Obviously with split flaps you can't see the flaps physically move from the cockpit,
and with the prospect of one side deploying and one not likely to end in a life ending rapid roll close to the ground, Mitchell obviously decided that it was a good idea if pilots could visually check flap deployment in their pre take off checks. I was just annoyed that despite being mad about spits since I was a kid, I had not noticed this!
I have also got lots if Spitfire books but I would definitely be interested in seeing yours. I'll try to let you know next time I'm due at the patch.
Mike

[Mike71]

S*d this modelling lark I've taken up surfing.

Spitfire wing, more or less complete, just glassed it in the vain hope that it will protect against hangar rash while i'm building the fus.

Started on the fus which looks pretty straightforward and should go together quickly.

Mike

[phild]

Hi Mike ,
Thats very impressive whats it going to weigh all up, any idea?
Phil

[Mike71]

The plan says the prototype weighed 6.6 kgs. I'm using the same engine (my Laser 150) and keeping it as close as I can so I'm hoping for something similiar. I've seen others on Scale Builder forums come up much heavier but they've gone to town on the scale details. The wing will definitely take extra weight, but the power will be marginal anyway with the 150 so I'm trying to keep it down. I've gone for the Mk 9 not the Mk8, thus omitting the retractable tailwheel. By my calculations just putting this on means another 500g weight in the nose just to balance it out, so I'll save that at least.

[Swale]

can't wait to see this one

[andyb]

can't wait to see this one

I'm quite looking forward to it as well...

A.

[Mike71]

Don't hold your breath chaps!

[Swale]

  spend some time on this one looks like it has the makings of a stunning model

[Russ]

Looks good Mike.

6.6kg for a model of this size would be impressive.