1/7th F-14D Scratch build thread

[Thomas_W]

So for today i've gotten the rudders completed. The vertical tails are 99% complete minus 2 fairing panels which i will wait till later (one of them has a naca duct on it) to complete. Tomorrow i'm going to get back to redoing the horizontal stabs. I'll have to order some longer sheets of aluminum to do the leading edges, but other than that i'll be able to do all of the horizontal stabs. Then i'll start work on the flaps and wing panels. I also got the upper speed brake panel glued in place. You will probably notice the center portion of it has a color discoloration, this was from the annealing process (i got it a bit to hot) to get it to form the curves where it goes over the beaver tail. Anyways.. heres some photo's...

[extra330ss]

absolutely amazing, I cant wait to see it fly!

[Thomas_W]

Still laying down some detail plates... And i spent the majority of the morning drawing up some more parts for the main landing gear. I'm going to have to work on the geometry of the gear, as the down lock brace's aren't retracting correctly... Here's some pics for now.

[JeremyHolt]

It is very impressive doing that from scratch.

[bryandraves]

A little action from our 2004 cruise USS George Washington/Persian Gulf VF-11 "Red Rippers"

[Thomas_W]

Slowlllyy getting there.. The horizontal stabs are done minus the leading edges (gotta order bigger sheets of aluminum). The rudders are done, the over wing fairings are done. Panel lines are drawn on the wings and flaps are ready to be litho'd.

[2robinhood]

Wow and all of this work is a plug for the making of a mold, Right?

[Thomas_W]

that'd be correct...

[DEVZAK9]

	Quote:
	Wow and all of this work is a plug for the making of a mold, Right?

If its worth doin do it good and do it the right way first, it wil definately be worth it when he gets done

[Thomas_W]

	Quote: Originally Posted by DEVZAK9
	If its worth doin do it good and do it the right way first, it wil definately be worth it when he gets done

Exactly... Seeing how the two turbine powered RC F-14's that are on the market now aren't even close to being accurate scale wise, my F-14 is filling the gap for those who want a slightly larger tomcat that is more accurate for scale competition (with alot more thought and engineering into the mechanics)...

[Thomas_W]

Overall not alot done today... or atleast stuff that you can tell has been done. I did get the flaps done. The beaver tail area on the top is done minus the edges as i believe i may be able to make these panels a single piece from the top to bottom, so i'll wait. And i got the ventral fin 90% complete as well.. The only part left to do on it is (ya probly can guess) the panel with the naca duct... lol Anyways, here' some photo's.. the blue tape on the leading edges of the flaps is helping hold the leading edge panels on until the glue has fully cured.

[vatechguy3]

looking good!!

tony

[Thomas_W]

I took a bit of time this evening to work on the landing gear drawings a bit more and figured out the issue's with the geometry and have those sorted. So i made a short little animation to show the gear working. Now that i have that issue figured out, i can go on and fine tune all of the dimensions and get the rest of the gear drawn up.

YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.

[Thomas_W]

Here's a shot of the Arresting hook drawing in Cad.. i'm debating on having the hook either be aluminum or a molded fiberglass part... I have not decided yet.. the aluminum hook would definitely last longer for those guys who fly off pavement.. The big issue, is using the lightest aluminum material i could find, the tail hook and mount would be 3/4's of a pound.. and seeing how far back it is, and only able to guess on the equipment placement for CG, it may be to heavy..

[hpapilot]

Thomas, could you build the main hook arm out of aluminum tube to save some weight? It looks like the model shows it as a solid chunk. It's hard to imagine it being so heavy, then again the scale of it is a little hard to picture... snapping some dimensions on the model might help.

Anyway, great work on this project! I've been following for a while and am very impressed.

RJ