Yes, Its time for another build!

This time we have the Tomahawk F-86. Master builder Derrick M. will be doing the assembly.

This will be a very straight forward build with mods coming later such as full inlet and bypass as well as functioning speed brakes.

We start with the box...Hrm.. not the best packaging but it arrived without damage, I have talked with Tomahawk, this was a 1 time thing, I have had 6 Tomahawk Planes sent to me and usually they arrive without any issue. Customs may have also messed with the box.

But.. there was some BEER packaging in it so yeah... Anyway in the end all arrived safe so we are good.

Details are good, some few paint runs, but I'm not going to make a big deal about it. This jet will not have paint done to the fuse so the silver will be used as a base. The Scheme that will be used is the Huff F-86 scheme.

We start with hinging the rudder, very straight forward it uses a pin and the hinge blocks are hysolled into place. The rudder is removable as well.

Next we will move to hing the ailerons and flaps.

Pretty nice. I’ll be following your progress!
W

That cockpit is different that what we have. Looks nice

The cockpit is 3d printed and painted. It's also a 1 piece I think it maybe A bit smaller than the first gen. We will see.

Awesome bird! Someday I hope to own one.

Originally Posted by Alkaline

The cockpit is 3d printed and painted. It's also a 1 piece I think it maybe A bit smaller than the first gen. We will see.

It is much nicer looking out of the box.

All control surfaces have been hinged, pictures of those coming soon. For flaps, you will need a 5.5" long rod, the other surfaces are between 3 inch, 4 inch.

Moving on to the cockpit, the lexan was installed, Note: it requires you to cut out the windows from the frames, tedious process

Next, the nose door was cut out and the formers to hold the nose gear were installed.


Moving right along, next will be servos & wire loom/lighting

Working on Wing doors, the nose was cut and then setup with the vaccum formed pieces. Light and strong.

Moving on to the wing doors, for the left side all is good... For the right we have a problem It appears Tomahawk sent to left doors, so the right side wing is no aligning.

I sent an email to Tomahawk and hopefully they will have a replacement sent out soon.

Setup the lights for the landing.

This required making a custom hinge, originally the idea was tossed around to use one of the pre-assembled unilight kits, however, due to the tight tolerances of the intake, this would not be possible. So a custom offset hinge made from 1/8" plywood was used instead.

Each of the lights will be powered by a mini servo.

Front Gear Updates:

Front gear mounted and doors cut out and updated

here is a video of the completed setup; https://photos.app.goo.gl/p9bx6UNAsFHbFTFq5

moving right along! Hs-7955TG for the gear door.

Linkages for rudder/ailerons/flaps

The setup for these is straight forward, the hardwood bock is glued into the plane structure and is secured via pin rod.

The wood blocks are coated in CA after the hysol dries, this makes it easier for the paint to stick to the surface.

NOTE some of the horns required a mix of epoxy and fiberglass filler to make a suitable base for the horn to glue into. This was the case with the rudder.

The Servo arm size that is used for the ailerons and flaps is the swb 3/4" arm (this is the black jet arms) and the rudder uses a 1" standard SWB.

All servos are JR MPT MK2 83T brushless linear hall servos.

The elevator is setup according to the picture guides, However, it appears Tomahawk did not send a tray for the elevator servos, so a tray had to be created to do the job.

This is a bit concerning as this is the 2nd piece of kit that has been missing/incorrect so far.

Other items of interest are the pipe and engine mount. As you can see the P-300 rated pipe has additional reinforcement via coils to handle the higher thrust.

More updates for the day:

Canopy is now working and has the hidden latch system installed. This works by pulling the hatch from inside the fuse. The latch is spring loaded and when tension is applied it releases the g10 horn which allows the canopy to be opened.

Nice, however, due the large size this is a 2 person job.

The slats have been installed onto the wings, they require a good bit of glue and based on all current TH-f86 they are all being perm glued into place.

The wheels were mounted into the wings, due to the design holes must be cut out from outside the wing to bolt the gear in place. Debating on whether to go with wood screws or try to install t-nuts to hold the gear into place.

Elevator servos have bee installed and configured, using 1" Swb arms.

Overall moving right along, most of the assembly should be complete by the end of next week, from then custom fuel tanks, possible intakes and bypass, as well as finishing the lighting will remain.

The turbine was mounted, the rails were modified to allow for a larger turbine and new mounts were added to hold the pipe in place.

The mounts and pipe mount were further reinforced with a coating of CA and additional hysol.

More updates:

The guns were installed, these are carbon fiber tubes that glue into the fuse and are then cut flush.

Tanks are installed, these have a fix point and a tube/socket to hold the tanks in position.

Good thing about the tanks are they are right where the C.g. is and it leaves the possibility of adding full ducting and by-pass later.

Moving right along, it may just be painted next week