The "Grand Illusion"..

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Fantastic art work and modeling work, and glad to hear also that your wife partners with you to make your dream model come true. Just curious, what did you use for the really sleek looking radial cowling?

My love affair with that plane continues!!!!!!

The cowling “just works” with that plane…. Wonderful art work Roddie!!!

Wow,

That is amazing !
This is why I like this forum...
Cox engines on balsa,
And a plastic cowl,
On a plane, Cox,
Did not make...
Respect,
Dave

rdw777 wrote:The cowling “just works” with that plane…. Wonderful art work Roddie!!!

"Glade" air freshener can cap if I recall.

That is a seriously cool Jigger Roddie!!! To be able to build something like that is truly amazing. So many different skills required to build it, and all of the skills need to be top notch to end up with the result you have!

Yabby

GallopingGhostler wrote:Fantastic art work and modeling work, and glad to hear also that your wife partners with you to make your dream model come true. Just curious, what did you use for the really sleek looking radial cowling?

Thanks George. It was a LOT of fun putting that model together. The radial cowling is a "cap" from an aerosol can.



The model was built around the cowling right from the start.




The top/bottom of the profile fuse's nose needed to fair-into the inside diameter of the cap.. and I needed to make four stand-off tabs to prevent any side to side movement of the cowling. There's a full circumferential-ridge just inside the cap which bears on the four tabs and against the top/bottom of the firewall.




I had originally planned for an "upright" engine cylinder orientation but later opted for the horizontal/outboard position.

rsv1cox wrote:My love affair with that plane continues!!!!!!

Thank You Robert.. it continues with me as well!

rdw777 wrote:The cowling “just works” with that plane…. Wonderful art work Roddie!!!

Thank You Robert! Finding this image of a Thunder Tiger model's decal-sheet was definitely key..

HalfaDave wrote:Wow,

That is amazing !
This is why I like this forum...
Cox engines on balsa,
And a plastic cowl,
On a plane, Cox,
Did not make...
Respect,
Dave

Thank You Dave! Balsa flies Better!

Oldenginerod wrote:

rdw777 wrote:The cowling “just works” with that plane…. Wonderful art work Roddie!!!

"Glade" air freshener can cap if I recall.  

Ha Ha! Rodney remembered!

Yabby wrote:That is a seriously cool Jigger Roddie!!!  To be able to build something like that is truly amazing. So many different skills required to build it, and all of the skills need to be top notch to end up with the result you have!  

Yabby

Thank You Yabby! There were (and still are) plenty of challenges associated with the designing/building/finishing and flying of this model.

The latter has yet to happen.. but not for the lack of a couple of launch attempts. Only a couple though. Those launches were plagued by gremlins which prevented the model from becoming airborne.

The cowled-in engine was difficult to prime and start. Once started and running, the model would "nose-over" when released from my launching-stooge.

There are several theories as to why this happens.. and I've heard plenty of suggestions. Being as over-built as this model is; I was concerned about it being "tail-heavy"... which is not conducive to nose-over launches. What "is" conducive to nose-over launches; is gear-mains that are near to the CG/balance point.

I "could" make-up an alternate pair of strut-assemblies which would be slightly longer.. and angled more forward. Doing so would detract from the scale-appearance but may achieve getting the plane in the air.

The propellers tried have both been 2-blade; 4.75" X 4" (RH) and a  5" X 4" (LH). These choices wouldn't ordinarily raise concern.. except that the engine cowling comes to a 2.5"+ diameter at its rearmost point. I suspect that the cowling deflects the thrust outward in such a way as to make any UP-elevator input ineffective at pinning-down the tail under taxi.

The elevator on this model is of scale proportions (huge) and full-span hinged.



I'm tempted to remove the engine cowling and swap-out the high-performance engine for a stock/integrally-tanked (5 or 8cc) "Bee" engine for ease of starting.. if nothing else.

That's a subject for another thread.. and we'll keep this one on the subject of the build.

Thanks again Yabby for your praise.

roddie wrote:

GallopingGhostler wrote:Fantastic art work and modeling work, and glad to hear also that your wife partners with you to make your dream model come true. Just curious, what did you use for the really sleek looking radial cowling?

Thanks George. It was a LOT of fun putting that model together. The radial cowling is a "cap" from an aerosol can.



The model was built around the cowling right from the start.

Interesting, Roddie, I would have never guessed. Other containers I have used, the vitamin supplement bottles just didn't have that much of a taper for such streamlining. Similar to you, I did similar construction philosophy when I made my half-A Ringmaster Gee Bee Z variant. The top end has a greater radius on the 2 inch diameter bottle, making for a sleeker semi-streamlined result.


Cowl Front.


Aircraft completed, front view.

GallopingGhostler wrote:
Interesting, Roddie, I would have never guessed. Other containers I have used, the vitamin supplement bottles just didn't have that much of a taper for such streamlining. Similar to you, I did similar construction philosophy when I made my half-A Ringmaster Gee Bee Z variant. The top end has a greater radius on the 2 inch diameter bottle, making for a sleeker semi-streamlined result.


Cowl Front.


Aircraft completed, front view.

I like that George! An advantage to your "zero-taper" cowling is being able to use two screw-mounts top/bottom.. eliminating any side-to-side movement.

Is that a Gilbert engine inside there?

roddie wrote:I like that George! An advantage to your "zero-taper" cowling is being able to use two screw-mounts top/bottom.. eliminating any side-to-side movement. Is that a Gilbert engine inside there?

You're welcome, Roddie. It is an A.C. Gilbert .074 Thunderhead. I have yet to run it, but will one day. I may have to move the tank top just below the venturi. These side port engines using the piston skirt as the valve prefer to suction feed with a lower tank versus gravity feed, and may run into issues of run reliability, but that will be revealed in running it.

Apart from the engine cowling; the main-gear construction, placement and trim contribute to the overall illusion of a scale-model appearance..  to a semi-scale slab-wing/profile-fuselage model.

The two main struts are constructed of .062" music-wire with cherrywood blocks that mount to a hardwood strip-spar built into the wing.





I had the gear-door decals scaled down to fit some pieces that I'd cut from simple thin clear plastic sheet. The doors on the struts simply "slide-on" over the axles.. and the tops of the doors attach to the cherry blocks via 2-sided tape. The wheels you see are one's that I made on a CNC machine. The tires are O-rings. The hubs are bushed with alloy tubing. The wheel-collars are the Goldberg "spring-type" to fit the 1/16" dia. music-wire.



Painting begins. Flat-white primer-coats. Since white is the base color... this works out well. I only need to keep it clean, prior to applying a final clear-gloss.

Notice the smaller pair of doors. They mount to the fuse's belly. I was hesitant to add them.. and didn't until almost finished.

I'm getting ahead of myself with the way I attempted my illusion. The painting has started.. and the white-coats look really sterile... but kinda cool.



Since the trim-color is "gold"... the idea was to apply my gold paint in a pattern that tapered-back from the engine-cowling and faired back into the wing-root top and bottom. The bottom has a staggered pattern which was just something that I tried to give a more curved-look to otherwise flat surfaces having abrupt 90 degree intersections.











and the full scale subject..

current photo.. note: the different wheels and painted canopy.

Funny thing as I know it was a while ago, but I remember when your Rare Bear was born here on CEF.

I remember the Rare Bear from the big speed trials.  Prettiest one of the bunch. https://www.coxengineforum.com/t12305p150-2018-to-2019-cef-run-what-ya-brung-unlimited-speed-contes-closed?highlight=contest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31E2DXEbEdY

Hi roddie,

That plane is awesome, big time.
That tank,
Is another form of art...
Big respect,
Take care,
Have fun,
Dave

roddie wrote:

Not only is the plane an awesome looking Jigger!  But the stooge  with the wheel guide is excellent! I fly on my own. Hate wheels as they slow the plane and as I fly over grass a Half-A landing with wheels is a slow crash every time. So I use a drop off wheel from a stooge on a launch table. Although the stooge, single drop off wheel, and launch table work very well for me. A short wheel guide as you have done will definatley make it all a lot simpler. I will put the guide on a slide, so as that I can adjust as needed.

Thats what I love about the Forum and all of the photos people post showing what they do. The photos pass on so much more knowledge, sometimes the knowledge as in this case is inadvertant, but thats the great thing about the photos.    Thanks Heaps, great idea I would never have thought of and easy to implement.

Yabby