How To Build a Composite Warbird Mould Video Series

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OK time to do a 'splainin' - what am I doing!?

There are a few things going on here at once but I'll do my best to take some time and explain my approach. I could lay down 2 layers of 6 Oz cloth, peel ply, blotter, bag it, and be done with it. Does that sound like me?? HECK NO!!

No, I want to capture that late 20th century, industrially manufactured, moulded-in, toy-like, monotonal opaque plastic look that people are drawn to and they don't know why.

The other thing I'm trying to do is make an airframe with a factor of safety of 1.1 - what's that mean? - that means just strong enough and that's it.

The main intent here is to saddle the firewall to the wing. In the following photos you can see where I've added 2 layers of a heavy 9 Oz cloth where the firewall and also the wing mounting blocks at the rear of the cockpit will be installed. Essentially they are 4" wide composite integral bulkheads. They are directly connected again by 9 Oz cloth through the chin plate in the firewall subassembly and also 2 layers of heavy cloth in the aft portion of the wing saddle.

Another concern are tail loads. Pitch loads are handled pretty well by the inherent "egg" cross section of the rear fuselage, but this capacity will be greatly enhanced when the port and starboard subassemblies are joined using 1" stips of 9 Oz cloth.
Yaw loading is transferred down the sides of the fuselage wall through and into the reinforced wing saddle by the 6 Oz tape that I've also overlapped along the centerline to form an integral longeron for additional beam strength.

If you look closely you will notice that there are areas where the fuselage will be only the thickness of the saturated cssv that forms the camouflage surface. Will this be enough?? Honestly, I don't know. That's why I tried it in a couple of small areas that are supported peripherally. I can say this much - I expect it to be as puncture resistant and as strong in tension as any iron on film.

I've also improved the flow through the integral exhaust manifolds.

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moving along...

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...another breadcrumb

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These joins are all prepped with 80 grit and alcohol.

Join Rear Lower Fuselage Seam


Insert Ply Dowel Bulkhead



I was having to wait for the ply bulkhead insert to cure so that I could remove the saddle sections for access when joining the firewall chin subassembly.




Cowl mount blocks held in place temporarily with quick 5 minute epoxy



Next time I will have access to allow attaching the firewall chin in the same operation as the lower rear seam and dowel bulkhead.

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...not a lot of time today, but I did find the hour and a half to assemble the chin to the main fuselage - now we wait.... I know, I know, what else is new

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Canopy Frame Serial 000002

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How do you arrive at a unique airplane?? You nique up on it of course!
Slowly, but rest assured, assuredly, I am moving toward something here. lol
Green leaves a lot to be desired in the way of opacity.

Untrimmed Weight - 820 grams or approx. 1.8lbs

[GULF DRIVER]

That green looks spooky like it needs some skulls in it or something I'd fly it! keep up the good work! I'm learning a lot from your thread.

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Thanks Gulf Driver - I'd fly it too! lol ....but I'm gonna make it a tail and canopy and give it to someone else to crash

I've carved enough hard balsa block and melted enough plastic in my mother's old oven to know that waiting overnight for a canopy frame to set up is almost too good to be true!
Not bad for #2, but canopy #3 will be even better...

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I've got something cooking tonight - wanna take a guess??

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You guessed it - that's a lower cowl section.

The tool in all rights should have been at least a two piece mould with the forward section pulling straight off the nose.
Don't be fooled by the test part, rather let it convince you of the durability of the materials involved. I stood on the mould and pulled and twisted that thing with all my might.
Pile it into the ground, dust it off, pop out the dings and stick it back on.
Lets see you do that with an ABS cowl - NOT!!
We conquered the opaqueness issue with a couple of coats of automotive paint in the mould.
So the next fuselage will get brown camo followed by green paint.

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New shop - new building season

Wing Mould - Section #2
Flooring Laminate
Old Lamp (tubing)
Furniture Sliders
1/4-20 thread inserts
Aluminum T-slot Extrusion
Carnauba Wax

Hold on....here we go again