1/2020 -Flying Styro Spitfire MK IXc- Bucket Project Put Together

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1/2020 -Flying Styro Spitfire MK IXc- Bucket Project Put Together

Post by Neons »

Here I go again with another Auction give away priced model. As an auction gets ready to finish and clear out there is always someone that will take anything you offer rather than head for the dumpster out back at the building. This is one of those models. From what I can find on the internet the model is one that sold by the defunct old Hobby Lobby made by a Czech company called Flying Styro. An article appeared in RC Groups here 2013. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthr ... ire-MK-IXc

I find it a nice looking model missing plans and some parts, The finish is some kind of vinyl camouflage that looks pretty but not scale. The finish is not ding resistant. I never saw WWII aircraft with shiny camouflage, It is missing the canopy and wing fillets for a starter.

So here I go with my rough and tumble scratch building and fabricating parts to fit and make a decent flyer out of this model. The motor is a decent Cobra that appears to have some decent power.
Click to enlarge photos.
1-16-2020-Spitfre Assembly (1).jpg
From what we see in the photo it looks great. The problem is the fuselage is in halves and would be very weak glued together. I think the best thing is to build a strong bullet proof crash resistor fuselage. At least take a few crashes before a disposal. The way it is now it would compress like an accordion in one crash. There are extras like a tail wheel which is useless in a hand toss plane. The pushrods are very light duty in a power dive, It has some molded radiators and a chin scoop. A spinner that looks good but hard to mount without hardware. The decals are fair condition. The canopy is one i had for years hanging around from GWS. It is slightly off size and has to be forcibly fit. Some light weight balsa sticks and a few fuselage formers. That black rod is a carbon fiber arrow shaft. That is my addition. There is almost virtually no flexing in it. That will run from the motor to the tail in almost the full length.
UPDATE 3-6-2020 Finish picture here, See page #02 also.
3-5-2020 Bottom Done & Clear Coat (0).jpg
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Re: Flying Styro Spitfire MK IXc- Fuselage Assembly My Way - 1-2020

Post by Neons »

1-16-2020-Spitfre Assembly (2).jpg
In this picture I look over the fuse formers and line them up where I believe they go with a best fit. I drilled a center hole in each former to run the arrow shaft down the middle of the fuselage. I also added 2 pink foam formers to keep the rear fuselage straight and rigid, I added an extra motor bulkhead for strength. The balsa stringers also run down the fuse internal sides and keep the internals all in line. I decided to install the rudder/elevator push rods also. The elevator rod will be slightly larger for some rigidity in flight.
1-16-2020-Spitfre Assembly (3).jpg
Here I mount the Cobra motor in the nose. Behind the motor the flat balsa under the CF rod will be for the ESC mount. Above the CF rod there is a large balsa floor. I cut the top of the fuselage out for a 2200mah lipo battery. You can see it in the upper part of the picture. The next flat plate is for the receiver mount. And then I have 2 10gram servos mounted in place, All the formers are all glued in place. The next thing to do is glue the halves together.
1-16-2020-Spitfre Assembly (4).jpg
Here is the top loading battery hatch. I cut it out and put the floor in place. I lined the sides with balsa also. Not shown in this photo.I will come back later to frame the hatch and put in magnets.
1-16-2020-Spitfre Assembly (5).jpg
When I decided to do a look at the elevator the glue was letting go with age. I peeled it apart. It was flexible. I put a carbon rod in it to stiffen it up using some balsa to stiffen out toward the tips also. I replaced the hinges too.
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Re: Flying Styro Spitfire MK IXc- Cockpit & Canopy setup 1-20-2020

Post by Neons »

The GWS canopy did not fit well. I cut the rear off and it gave me some useful adjustments. This was a good time to put some wood in there to make it look a little better, The simulated pilot seat was installed with headrest. I started to raise around the cockpit with foam pieces until the canopy seemed ti fit better.
1-20-2020-Spitfre Cockpit (0).jpg
Here it gets some Lite Spackle and set aside.
1-20-2020-Spitfre Cockpit (1).jpg
Here I sanded and painted the interior zinc chromate. The canopy was fitted and masked off for painting, In order to paint the clear plastic I razor scraped the trim and sanded to give it bond surface. I have to now make a quick pilot first.
1-20-2020-Spitfre Cockpit (2).jpg
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Re: Flying Styro Spitfire MK IXc- Make a Quick Piilot- 1-20-2020

Post by Neons »

Some years ago I bought some vacuum formed pilots.(https://parkflyerplastics.com/cart/) They were supposed to be cut out and glue the halves together sand and finish. I use them for slosh epoxy or fiberglass pilot making tools. What you want is a pretty smooth moving epoxy or polyester glass. First you put in a mold release agent and paint it around and let it dry some. I think Pam cooking spray works also.
1-20-2020-Spitfre Epoxy Pilot (01).jpg
Then you warm the epoxy a little so it flows, Do not heat it hot. I use the microwave at 5 seconds and see what it does. . Mix the parts, Put some inside the pilot mold. Move it around with a stick. Tape the halves together and make sure the are not off center. Tape all around, Pour some more epoxy or glass in the bottom hole. No need to make it a solid fill as it will get heavy. Move the mold around all directions until it sets, Leave it for hours or the next day, Peel it apart slowly. Use a thin plastic shoved in to help release it. You should be able to get a few pilots from one of these molds.
1-20-2020-Spitfre Epoxy Pilot (02).jpg
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Re: Flying Styro Spitfire MK IXc-Wing Mount -1-25-2020

Post by Neons »

Back to the fuselage to make a wing mounting setup. It may be hard to figure what you are looking at here, It is underside of the fuselage with the pale bottom of the wing balanced on it. The wing shows a bolt on it. It will go in the middle of the fuselage where the hole is in the plywood mount under the fuselage. If you look close at the wing you will see a piece of wood with a dowel tip sticking out. That fits inside the fuselage in a notch to hold the wing solid and centered.
1-24-2020-Spitfre-Wing Mounts.jpg
Next you see the plane put together with the rudder, elevator, canopy, wing, and a pinned spinner in place.
1-25-2020-Spitfre - Stuck together.jpg
Now I have to move on to the next missing part, The wing fillets. I used some card stock for a pattern and kept trimming until I got a pretty good fit, Next I visited my Depron foam collection and transferred the pattern to the 2mm foam, I put some wax paper on the wing and placed a flat Depron 1mm foam sheet over it. I bolted the wing in place. When I cut the Depron I cut it on the perpendicular angle relative to the airplanes fuselage and wings for a better fit and glue area.
1-27-2020-Spitfre-Wing Fillets (0).jpg
After The fillets are tried and close they get glued in place to the fuselage first. With some influence the curve can be coaxed in place. I removed the wing and the 1mm Depron. I ran a bead of hotglue all around the edges to be bonded. Then with a sharp razor I made all the trimming. The inside bottom fuselage is opened and the edges that contact the wing is trimmed and sanded. All the edges and the curves are Lite Spackled and let it dry for finish sanding.
1-27-2020-Spitfre-Wing Fillets (1).jpg
1-27-2020-Spitfre-Wing Fillets (2).jpg
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Re: 1/2020 -Flying Styro Spitfire MK IXc- Bucket Project Put Together

Post by Neons »

Back on the plane after a break to finish the Buzzard Bombshell. I finished laying out the Spitfire aileron servos, It was not simple because I had to add a splitter half way into each side of the wing, This required the use of strings to funnel the servos and servo wires in and then pull the servos out again. I made a raised balsa mount for each servo and secured with a couple screws. There was a piece of plywood for mounting in the wing. I sanded the mount until it all fit in and was flush with the wing to add a cover plate 1/32" plywood. It was all straight forward after that.
2-20-2020-Spitfre - Aileron Servos.jpg
Next is the battery compartment finishing.
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Re: 1/2020 -Flying Styro Spitfire MK IXc- Battery Hatch

Post by Neons »

I am now trying to clean up the edges all around the battery hatch. The molded foam is i very susceptible to bumps and bruises. I used some of the thinnest plywood I ever found on the market in a crafts store. I believe it is 1/64th inch thick, Very easily worked with a knife or scissors. I cut some 1/4 inch strips and glued them along all the edges, The ends got 4 curve shaped pieces, These were all glued to the end faces. I rough trimmed the curved parts above the surfaces, The side edges were block sanded, I next used Lite spackle and filled in all the edges and put the plane aside for a day or so. When I did the sanding I used nail files and block sanding to get all the outside edges smooth. Then I installed a dowel pin in the front and magnets in the rear on balsa triangles.I will place a battery strap later. The whole plane was overall Lite spackled. it had many marks and dings to fill before I paint the plane, I do not care for shiny camouflage
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2-08-2020-Spitfre - Spackle Hatch.jpg
2-10-2020-Spitfire-Battery Hatch (0).jpg
2-10-2020-Spitfire-Battery Hatch (1).jpg
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Re: 1/2020 -Flying Styro Spitfire MK IXc-Spinner and drive

Post by Neons »

The spinner that came with this plane is a thick vacuum formed shape. It is light weight so I prefer to use it. It came with a plywood disc to hold the bottom shape. I cut out carefully the 3 blade propeller notches. The thing I want to do is the have the spinner touch the prop edge when I tighten the screw. This gives support to prevent any wiggle at full speed by edge contact. I tapped the prop shaft but could not find a long screw. So I made a sleeve nut. One end of the sleeve is 5mm tread. The other end is 6x32 US Standard tread. I filed 2 flats for tightening the prop secure with a wrench. A standard screw tightens the spinner in place.
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2-16-2020-Spitfire-Spinner & drive (1).jpg
2-16-2020-Spitfire-Spinner & drive.jpg
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Re: 1/2020 -Flying Styro Spitfire MK IXc-Painting Started

Post by Neons »

All the top of the plane was painted a white Base coat. The main panels were lined and airbrushed black.
2-21-2020-Spitfire-Lines Painting.jpg
The next few painting sessions was masking the 2 colors and shading. It is time consuming. At this point I have to go back and airbrush any bleeding that showed up after peeling all the tape off the plane. This particular paint will be from the invasion of Europe on D-Day 1944. The black and white invasion stripes were on the bottom of the fuselage and under the wings. It also has a better visual when flying this model out in the field.
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2-25-2020-Spitfire-Camo Painting.jpg
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Re: 1/2020 -Flying Styro Spitfire MK IXc-Paint Bottom & Full Satin Clearcoat

Post by Neons »

This has been an extraordinary build with some normally not seen construction techniques included. I got a chance to get a full afternoon to finish the finals up to par. The whole aircraft was painted with a Paasche airbrush. I love airbrushing better than paint brushing. Today I ran the motor and it is a sweet sound and pull on the Cobra motor on a 4S lipo and 8x6- 3 blade Graupner prop. There are no landing gear on the plane. Should perform better without them. Here are 2 more photos. Maybe the last on this build. I will start my next project soon. Plenty more to come at least until flying season.
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3-5-2020 Bottom Done & Clear Coat (4).jpg
3-5-2020 Bottom Done & Clear Coat (2).jpg
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