1/7th F-14D Scratch build thread

[Thomas_W]

A few more pictures.. after looking at more photo's, im slowly beginning to change the amount of rivet detail thats visible. I"m going to start making it less pronounced in area's that they aren't easily seen in and more visible in the high stress area's...

[Thomas_W]

Since im away for the holidays at the inlaws, i figured it would be a perfect time to draw up the parts for the final decision on the wing box. The center box is 1/4" thick solid carbon fiber w/ the weaves biased during the layup. It should hold approximately 700lbs of force at each mounting position before the part fails. I'm going to try and get the "U" brackets that the wing bolts to and then these bolt to this center box spar. I'm planning for the initial U brackets will be aluminum and possibly become 1/4" thick laminated CF later on. I haven't decided, but i may have the prototype use CF brackets as well.. anyways, here's the CF center box spar photo.

[Thomas_W]

Got the outer pivot brackets drawn up and tested in cad. These are able to withstand 700lbs of force at their mounting point and over 2200lbs of force at the pivot bolt point before they fail. Once the wing bearing inner roller is bolted between the U bracket, its able to withstand 900lbs of force before it fails at the mounting pad. This now makes up only 10 machined parts needed for the entire wing pivot assembly. The entire wing box w/ the aluminum wing bearing holders and sweep mechanism will be a total of 5-8lbs (actuators are 2.5lbs each). A little bit heavier than i wanted them to be, but considering the landing gear mounting will be integrated with the wingbox in some way, the extra strength is worth the extra 2 or 3lbs.

[Flyjunkie]

Really impressive Thomas, i look forward to the next update

[Thomas_W]

So i got bored while at the inlaws and started doing some landing gear drawings in cad. what you see so far is a rough drawing of the upper main landing gear strut. These may or may not make it as the kit landing gear, as their will be ALOT of parts to them, and will utilize a scale retraction and downlock mechanism, which will require the use of a hydraulic system for the landing gear.. And i'm mostly using the LG to help tone my cad skills.

[Thomas_W]

Slowly working away on the landing gear.. unfortunately only 4 of the parts for the main landing gear are able to be used for the left and right sides. The other 4 parts have to be drawn for each side. Anyways, here's the upper strut and its mounting plate (it will be enlarged later) mounted up. I've got to adjust the dimensions on the main upper strut, and then start working on the lower strut and oleo portion... otherwise, its slowly getting there.

[Thomas_W]

I'm trying to get the vertical tails and rudders done this week, since i'm taking off for a month starting on Jan 5th... Hopefully i'll be able to get the rest of the tail done so when i get back all that will be left is the wings and fuselage... anyways, i've got about 90% of the detail plates cut out for the vertical tails. i've got to do the tips and the base fairings and all of the parts will be cut out. Their's about 50 pieces of litho that are just for doublers on the vertical tails which took about 6 hours to cut out by hand.. I also have been less than happy with teh contact adhesive i've been using to attach the plates, as some of the plates on the more curved areas have been lifting around their edges the longer they sit. I purchased a can of 3M 1300L (we use it to attach de-ice boots to our kingairs) to try, and this stuff is AMAZING. It dries in less than 4 minutes and has 100 times better adhesion properties than the other junk i was using. I have put off drawing the rest of the Main landing gear until i go out of town, that way i'll have a something to do during any bad weather days.

Here's some photo's of the verticals, the stack of doublers and a photo of the can of stuff i'm using.

[Thomas_W]

Vertical stabs are now about 90% complete. All thats left to do is the aft portions of the tips, and the root fairings.. The root fairings should take the better part of a day, as i'm going to attempt to make them all 1 piece like the real thing... we will see. I also need to cut out the frames for the nav and anti-collision lights. Then the only thing left for the vertical tail will be to do the rudders, which should be fairly simple.

I'm still on the fence on how i want to do the horizontal stabs since the sheets of litho i have aren't big enough to do the leading edges of the stabs in 1 piece. I can order some aluminum sheets long enough to do the stab LE's which i may end up doing. The wings are another story though. I can not get any material wide and long enough that is the same thickness as what i have now. But we'll get to that avenue later..

Anyways, here's some pics of the vertical tails. Theirs still some cleaning up to do, but you get the idea. You'll also notice the lack of surface detail. The vertical tails had very little visible surface detailing from what i have seen in all of my documentation, so i decided to leave the verticals bare of the majority of the details as well..

[50%plane]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Thomas_W
	Anyways, here's some pics of the vertical tails. Theirs still some cleaning up to do, but you get the idea. You'll also notice the lack of surface detail. The vertical tails had very little visible surface detailing from what i have seen in all of my documentation, so i decided to leave the verticals bare of the majority of the details as well..

Thomas, I don't know if this'll help any, but as far as the detail on the F-14's verts... but the F-15's verts are mainly boron in the center, with the foward and aft torqboxes made with gridlock construction. These are attached with screws, and bolts, but the majority of screws have been covered up with many layers of paint. Obviously two different aircraft, but if you were wondering about a lack of detail, some of this might shed some light....

Anyways, bad a$$ job! I'll go back to lurkin now.....
Chris

[Thomas_W]

Chris,
The F-14 is the same way. The horizontal stabs are made of Boron fiber and the leading edges and tips are aluminum, while the pivot rod and box is titanium/steel. The vertical stabs are all aluminum but the paint over the rivets covers everything up. The only place the rivets are really visible are around access hatch's, landing gear doors, and the arresting hook.. its pretty much invisible everywhere else.

[DEVZAK9]

What turbins are you gonna be runnin in her i didnt see it anywhere

[Thomas_W]

Not 100% sure right now.. but the front runner is the Jet Central Rhino.. After that would be a Jetcat P-160. I'm waiting for the "Black mamba" turbine to get some more info out on that, as the price for a 30lb turbine is really good looking, and this model should fly well on 25+lbs of thrust.

[DEVZAK9]

	Quote:
	Not 100% sure right now.. but the front runner is the Jet Central Rhino.. After that would be a Jetcat P-160. I'm waiting for the "Black mamba" turbine to get some more info out on that, as the price for a 30lb turbine is really good looking, and this model should fly well on 25+lbs of thrust

Your doing one turbine or two?

[Thomas_W]

	Quote: Originally Posted by DEVZAK9
	Your doing one turbine or two?

The only way a tomcat should be done... two

[Thomas_W]

Some more work on the main landing gear. Now that i've been getting alot more of the gear built and the lengths correct, the strut has started to look very anerexic. Sooo i think i'll increase its 5/8" diameter to 3/4 or 7/8" diameter... here's what the Gear looks like in cad so far. With everything shown made from 6061-T6 aluminum, the assembly in the photo's is only 12 ounces pretty amazing considering that strut is 8 1/4" long.