1/7th F-14D Scratch build thread

[Thomas_W]

	Quote: Originally Posted by astrohog
	Great thread, Thomas! It will be fun to watch your progress. If you are truly a F-14 fanatic, check out http://3dfoamy.com/ they have an AWESOME foamy with operational swing-wings!!! Regards, Astrohog

I've been to that site many a times and never have been able to find the F-14.. do you have a direct link to the F-14 page?

2nd update for the night:

Both wings are ready for skinning. The pivot blocks are installed in the wings as well. You have to be carefull when installing these, as the pivot needs to be perfectly vertical in 2 directions, or the wing will swing in an arc and throw off the incidences and screw all sorts of things up when you sweep them. The second picture shows the upper wing skins glued together and ready to glue to the structure. I may get off work early tomorrow and come home to sheet the wings, then come saturday i'll sheet the bottom of the wings and install the 2nd leading edge cap.

And THEN i can get a few pics of the wings mounted to the fuselage bulkheads and the temporary wing box.

[astrohog]

	Quote:
	I've been to that site many a times and never have been able to find the F-14.. do you have a direct link to the F-14 page?

No, I couldn't find a link, either.

I do know JohnVH though, he is the owner, and I will ask him what's up with that. You could probably p.m. him on here, too and ask him what's up. I know his laser was starting to cut slow and that kit is rather laser intensive with alot of plywood parts, so he may have taken it out of the shopping cart until his new laser arrives and is hooked up!

I have had the priviledge to see a couple of them fly, though and they ROCK!! Definately a very cool foamy!!!!

Regards,

Astrohog

[Thomas_W]

	Quote: Originally Posted by astrohog
	No, I couldn't find a link, either. I do know JohnVH though, he is the owner, and I will ask him what's up with that. You could probably p.m. him on here, too and ask him what's up. I know his laser was starting to cut slow and that kit is rather laser intensive with alot of plywood parts, so he may have taken it out of the shopping cart until his new laser arrives and is hooked up! I have had the priviledge to see a couple of them fly, though and they ROCK!! Definately a very cool foamy!!!! Regards, Astrohog

ahh ok... I'll probly end up building a 73% version of the matt halton / JHH F-14 and putting a mega brushless motor and a pusher prop on it... I'll probly buy one of the foamies to, b/c i've got the stuff to get one of them flying as well...

So i might have 3 F-14's by the end of the year... haha.. yea i'm a little obsessed w/ F-14's.

[JohnVH]

Hello, there was a couple reasons to the F14 falling out of the cart,
1) as Jeff said its pretty laser intesive and my old laser tube wasnt up to par, I recently got a new one and am working the bugs out of it, next week it should be working good!
2) I switched server's and the old cart system was lost, and, Im not an expert on shopping carts, Ive had a couple people I know try to make the OSCommerce site work, nobody can do it. If anyone out there will work for airplanes, Id love to make that happen!

Thats pretty much it. Thanks for the interest!

Here is mine, and a buddies doing a top gun fly by!

[Thomas_W]

	Quote: Originally Posted by JohnVH
	Hello, there was a couple reasons to the F14 falling out of the cart, 1) as Jeff said its pretty laser intesive and my old laser tube wasnt up to par, I recently got a new one and am working the bugs out of it, next week it should be working good! 2) I switched server's and the old cart system was lost, and, Im not an expert on shopping carts, Ive had a couple people I know try to make the OSCommerce site work, nobody can do it. If anyone out there will work for airplanes, Id love to make that happen! Thats pretty much it. Thanks for the interest! Here is mine, and a buddies doing a top gun fly by!

John,
thanks for chiming in.. What is the price on your F-14 kit? I'd be interested in picking one up in the coming days. Also, do you have any pics of the kit.

thomas

[JohnVH]

NP Thomas,
I dont have any pics of the kit sorry, but when I get the next one cut I will take one. Last on the site it was $75, but it will probably be closer to $79 with the raise in product costs. I design the parts to all interlock for the most part, formers and all that all have tabs so they are easy to put together.

[Thomas_W]

	Quote: Originally Posted by JohnVH
	NP Thomas, I dont have any pics of the kit sorry, but when I get the next one cut I will take one. Last on the site it was $75, but it will probably be closer to $79 with the raise in product costs. I design the parts to all interlock for the most part, formers and all that all have tabs so they are easy to put together.

alrighty, sounds good to me... I'm assuming yours is roughly a 40" wingspan when the wings are extended and setup for a himax and gearbox style motor? Lemme know when your up and running and ready to sell a kit, and i'll get one from ya.

[JohnVH]

Yep! You got it.
Thanks

[A-Track]

	Quote: Originally Posted by JohnVH
	Hello, there was a couple reasons to the F14 falling out of the cart, 1) as Jeff said its pretty laser intesive and my old laser tube wasnt up to par, I recently got a new one and am working the bugs out of it, next week it should be working good! 2) I switched server's and the old cart system was lost, and, Im not an expert on shopping carts, Ive had a couple people I know try to make the OSCommerce site work, nobody can do it. If anyone out there will work for airplanes, Id love to make that happen! Thats pretty much it. Thanks for the interest! Here is mine, and a buddies doing a top gun fly by!

OMG that thing is awsome, I so want one.

[JohnVH]

[Thomas_W]

The basic wing structure is complete.. The leading edge is ready for final shaping, and the flight controls are ready to be cut out and capped. I'll probably wait to do this until after the basic fuselage is done. Reason being, since this wont be a flying model, i'm not going to spend the time to hinge everything. So with the flaps and all still attached to the wings, it will make for an easier time building the wing glove on the fuselage.. So the next updates should have some progress with the fuselage...

Here's a few pictures..





Now, does everyone think its big enough?

[Thomas_W]

Since the turbine in my eurosport wouldnt start at all this weekend, i decided to give up on attempting to fly (and it would figure its clear blue skies and no wind at all). So after about 4 trips to lowes and home-depot and constantly arguing with those people i finally got some stuff done on the tomcat. The jig setup you see in the photos is probably what i'm going to go with.. It consists of a 1/2" thick piece of ply that runs the length of the fuselage down the center-line, and another that runs down the intake / exhaust centerline. I then have a piece screwed to the end of the table with 2 holes drilled in it (at the center of the intake/exhaust center lines). A 5 foot piece of 1" electrical conduit runs from this to the forward most intake former, where i have another cross piece w/ 3 holes drilled in it. This cross piece receives the intake centerline conduits, then another conduit runs the length of the fuselage (this piece of conduit goes into the center hole) then i have another upright that is attached to the end of the 1/2" ply centerline jig (used for spacing) that receives the end of the fuselage center line conduit. Pictures probably work better, so look below.

Since i got this far, i couldn't help but put the stabs and one wing panel on (the second one wouldn't fit b/c my shop is to small). So here's pictures of that. I've got to adjust the aft wing box bulkhead another inch, so i can get the wings to swing back completely.. Gotta go pickup a better laser level tomorrow, and i should be able to get the fuselage bulkheads attached together w/ 1/4" square balsa pieces, and then i can start the planking.

Lots of pictures today:










So does everyone think its big enough?

[A-Track]

Wow, you are making some serious progress on this in a short amount of time. Looks very nice.

[Thomas_W]

Not much progress today.. But after about 2 hours of aligning the fuselage formers, i finally got started on the planking. took about an hour and a half to get 6 1/2" wide planks on, so its going to be a looonnnggg process. Plus, i have to start back to work tomorrow, so its gonna take a bit longer. Not to mention i have to cut all of those 1/2" wide strips out of the 4" wide sheets i have.

here's a pic:

[extra330ss]

looks awesome