Broken ebay S/W SB-X

Congrats Robert! It's a cool looking piece.. especially with that patina.. IMHO Our member 1975CLG will no doubt chime-in... but he mentioned a weak-spot in the nose-gear mount. He noticed on his model; stress-marks in the plastic.. on the topside. He reinforced the area.. but I'm not sure how. I can see how a "less than graceful" nose-in landing might do that. Cox used some heavy gage music-wire on all the struts... and the nose-gear strut could have probably been made from a lighter gage wire.. and/or "raked back" a few degrees to better absorb the shock if highly-stressed. Having a "coil" in a strut that heavy.. in a model that lightweight.. can't do much to dampen shock. I'm wondering if Cox may have added the coil to the nose-gear.. to add needed weight to the nose?

I may have actually used "too light" of a gage wire (.062" dia.) on my current N-1R project.

Thanks Robert and roddie.

Yeah, Cox production engineers must have been a bunch of kids.  I think of the character in Tom Hanks "BIG" being paid money to play, evaluate, and develop toys.  

roddie, you being the king of coils with your nicely rendered coil springed landing gears should have been one of them.  

My first plastic plane rebuild in a long time.  I'm trying hard to ween myself off of them.    Really looking forward to tearing down that Babe Bee and building a new elevator thingy.  

Can't stand it roddie............it get's a bath, although I have several left "as found."

I thought of tagging this behind either cmulder's or CLG's thread. But I stepped on both of them enough.

getback wrote:Nice well going to bee when your done sprucing it up You abought got a Star wars fleet by now ? Ma y have to start a new room for them hanging like there fling around

Bath time, removing some of that Florida caked on sand.  Palmolive, Dawn eats up my tender hands.  







Engine, tis a beautiful thing.  Free to a point, there must be a mass of goo at the top of the cylinder.  No matter, into the Berrymans it goes.




The front landing gear is coiled. I note no stress marks on this model.

Curious engine, perhaps the whole thing.

Nasty engine on the outside (see pictures above) but clean on the inside.  No sign of fuel residue in the tank or crankcase.  Mylar reed turns freely yet the elevator is broken off evidence of a crash.  I think the model got stepped on or broken while being played with.  Alright with me.

I think if I square off the dowel and control arm and epoxy together, it will hold.  I hardened the control arm with CA, paint to match, matte black ought to work.

Engine got Berrymans dip, disassembled and final clean with alcohol.  Rusty landing gear and pod clips will get a soak in some of this stuff



Much safer than using a wire wheel and works better.  Ron Cribbs recomended it years ago.  ebay - 32 oz about the same price as 12 oz.  Go figure.  



First needle I have seen with a spring restraint.  You can't separate the two.. Might be common-place but a first for me?  




Yeah I know, couldn't pass it up.  NIB in the wrap.  Half the price of all the others that I have looked at with free shipping.  Free shipping.......really with a box that size.  



Live for only a couple of hours before I jumped on it.

rdw777 wrote:That Land Speeder is pretty cool Bob!…,Late tech RC Cox prop rod…. I bet it all still works….Ought to work good on your drive way

I hope so because I'm probably going to rip into it despite being NIB.

I like this seller.  Free priority shipping and they have already turned it over to USPS.  Not to far away from me either.  




TV channel checking this noon I found "Star Wars behind closed doors" on REELZ a channel promoted on this forum.  I learned more about the movie and it's origins in a half hour than I did in the previous 60 years.  Thirty billion in sales of SW related stuff.  Cox a part of that.  I'm late to the party but beginning to do my share.  

Hi Robert, (rsv1) You're the best thing that ever happened to that poor SB-X....  It looks like it was left outdoors for a while; looking at the rusted metal-wire parts and the chalked finish. Probably got tossed-around.. and never got the chance to really shine... Nice that you're showing it some love!

That "V" pushrod system for the foreplane/control-canards doesn't look like it would drive them equally.. but it is controllable. What I'm currently working on might not be...  

Roddie,

Spot on. The elevators are set unevenly, the inboard elevator has more up so as to push the plane outward. Regardless the elevators even at bell crank neutral have some up to them. That is how that plane flies it's either up or lookout below.

Well that might become a problem.  With nothing to referance it by I set the replacement elevator about like the other one.







I filed a square on the dowel and a duplicate on the control arm, tapped in with a tapping hammer and will secure with CA after i'm sure everything is aligned.





There is a stop on the pod that will not let the elevator go beyound a certain point.

WOW...  That CRC stuff works great!

getback wrote:Coming right along Bob , You run the SW Land Speeder have Mark make a video and put it on YT there currently is not one out there I could find ? That rust remover does the trick!

I don't know about that Land Speeder Eric.  It doesn't make sense.  A radio controlled Prop Rod?  

Well, this is different.  I thought the elevator control rod was two separate pieces, not!  It's a single rod passed straight through the bell crank's hole then bent to shape.  Only way that it could be done.  I may try to jimmy it out again but the angles bind.  Labor intensive for this product.




Elevator assembly needs several dips in sanding sealer then paint to match. Fuel tubing gets heated and connected to the nipple, then hold it while it cools maintaining shape, otherwise it puts to much strain on the nipple eventually breaking it off.  Been there many times with these.

I have to do some landing gear bending.






"Jimmy" highly technical term used only in the best of circles.

You did a nice job replicating that starboard elevator/canard. I think that it would have been easier for Cox to connect both canards with a rod from one side to the other with a "single horn".. rather than with those two independent horns requiring the "V-rod" arrangement.

Something like my sketch below..

I would agree, much simpler solution, probably less time in assembly too.

Florida climate took it's toll on the topside so I gave it the Howard's Wax cure. I can't bring myself to uncork the SnowSpeeders packages.  I wonder how much Cox/Estes paid Lucas in royalities.  




Has anyone ever seen the Vader Tie Fighter?



I'm not fussy with this stuff.  Let it soak for a few seconds, brush off the excess, let it dry.  Sand, do it a gain.  Enough gives a smooth surface for paint.  

Finished as far as I'm taking it.  The replacement elevator may be a couple of degrees off either in the good direction or the bad.  I won't be sure until it's flown.  Fun project but not a serious flyer. It however, looks better in real life than in pictures.  Howards wax buffed out made a big difference.  I may rob the decal sheet of it's "No Step" decals for the replacement.

 




Looks to be more "kick out" than "kick in."

Control lines installed.  Last piece of the puzzle.  

 

Leader of the pack.  Rev up those super fusions......

https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?pglt=299&q=leader+of+the+pack+youtube&cvid=153e700c37c948ec87ac52e4ede575ca&gs_lcrp=EgRlZGdlKgYIABBFGDkyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQABhAMgYIAhAAGEAyBggDEAAYQDIGCAQQABhA0gEIOTA0NmowajGoAgiwAgE&PC=HCTS&ru=%2fsearch%3fpglt%3d299%26q%3dleader%2bof%2bthe%2bpack%2byoutube%26cvid%3d153e700c37c948ec87ac52e4ede575ca%26gs_lcrp%3dEgRlZGdlKgYIABBFGDkyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQABhAMgYIAhAAGEAyBggDEAAYQDIGCAQQABhA0gEIOTA0NmowajGoAgiwAgE%26FORM%3dANSPA1%26PC%3dHCTS&mmscn=vwrc&mid=56E05B20B306DDD77AB056E05B20B306DDD77AB0&FORM=WRVORC

1975 control line guy wrote:RSV,

Great restoration and squadron collection.

I can guarantee you a better than most rock on a string experiences with the SB-X, especially if you put a polycarbonate 5 x 4 x 3 quad racing drone prop on it.

1975 CLG

Thanks, the problem is - you have to buy 16 of them at $31.00 +