Topic: VQ Sea Hurricane 60 Build

I have got myself one of these



Which is based on the one the Shuttleworth Collection Fly Z7015

Inside the box



Every thing is nicely packed and organised into separate part bags in a nice logical fashion 

VQ are an unknown quantity to me but I am pretty pleased with the build quality and the covering is not as bad as expected 



The wings are fully sheeted and the rear of the fuse is constructed in scale fashion with stringers.



I am going to be using my Satio 91 to power it. It has scale split flaps, places to fit nav and landing lights on the wing,  and is ready to except retracts but does not come with any. Instead I will be using THESE

I have got a set of lights from Brentford RC that are the correct type and come with as switch that operates off a y lead on the retract channel so they come on and off with the landing gear. I am also going to make a sliding canopy so that I can put all the switches and other ancileries just forward of the pilot in the cockpit so as to not spoil the exterior.

Servos will be Hitec HS485HB for everything except the elevator ( 645MG) and the throttle and air valve (HS322HD)

The standard of the hardware is pretty good the only thing I take issue with are the snakes and the wheels, but more on that later.

So onto construction.

The destruction manual is a little sparse and if you where new to ARTF's you might have a few issues.

The first thing I dd was a little reinforcing and fuel proofing. I have strengthened the firewall/fuse interface with triangle stock where ever I could.

Before



And after



Its a little hard to photograph, even harder to get the fillets in place 

Next thing is to fuel proof it, I did this as much to the inside as possible and along the joins of the covering on the outside. Also any parts of the inside of the wing that might get fuel near them.



Its quite a big model, and I have been forced into the loft to build this one 



I have also reinforced the wing seat with some glass. All my other models have shaped balsa on the wing seat, this on has ply supports with a plastic moulding over it so I decided to give it a little more strengh. While I was at it, I did the same to the elevator servo mount.



Ok there is something missing from these wings.



Here is the real thing



No wing flashes or the red covers for the guns ?? I had some yellow paint to hand so have done the leading edges



Next job preparing the wing panels for joining. This is where the manual could mess you up. I tells you to fit the aileron servos and route the leads through. However this is a three piece wing and you have to route the leads through the centre section. I can see huge potential for excess epoxy to grab hold of a lead and permanently fix it when you join the outer wing panel to the centre section.

Excellent, I've been waiting for someone to build one of these. Where did you get it though, cos I've only been able to find it in the gopping desert scheme?

Are you planning on fitting working landing lights?

I got it from Slough RC, for some reason they only show the desert scheme on the web site but sell both  interestingly the manual has Ripmax written on it ah and who owns Slough 

Landing and nav lights are going in, found this little snippet of info on the web regarding those from someone else who did the same

Thanks for your query regarding our Sea Hurricane Z7015.The lighting configuration is as follows :
1) Standard red/green navigation lights in the wing tips.
2) Tail marker light which is white.
3) Top of fuselage near aerial light which is white.
4) Two landing lights, white, one in each wing.

None of the lights flash or strobe, they are constant.
Whilst there are two landing lights only one can be on at any one time, either port or starboard! Honest, I have spoken to the engineer and the switch in the cockpit has a central, OFF position and can be turned ON to either the left or the right so only one light comes on, please don't ask I've no idea!
The two 'red lights' next to the radiator scoop are in fact the spools for catapult launching.The red part is the roller. The launch strop was attached to these for catapult launches.
This lighting configuration is what Z7015 would have had during wartime. The aircraft was due to go on one of the aircraft carriers for Operation Pedestal, the relief convoy through the Med to supply Malta (the one that involved the tanker Ohio). The aircraft was either damaged or became unserviceable and didn't go. The colour scheme and configuration represents the aircraft at that time.
Hope this is of help to you.

I got the set made up my Brentford RC. There is a switch to turn the whole lot off with the retracts, and I have added a selector switch to choose which landing light to have on.

The other thing that needs changing is the spinner. The one that comes with the kit is yellow, so I have painted it white but I would prefer an alloy one. Finding one the right shape that does not cost £40 is proving difficult though.

Following with interest and looking good so far!!

Thanks for that. I went to Slough and they said they only had the desert ones   I'll try again. Funny I thought Slough was owned by Ripmax, yet Ripmax don't supply VQ to other LHS.

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses. Please keep up with the critique as you go, because VQ are unknown to me as well and I want to know what the quality is really like, especially compared to Seagull, Black Horse etc.

Ok on with wing joining and flaps.

Manual has you put the flap servo and linkages first. Flaps are operated off 2 bell cranks operated by one long rod.



There are two dihedral braces



The keen eyed amongst you will have noticed that the push rod for each flap goes through the smaller dihedral brace. So whilst you must put the long rod in place first you need to attach the short ones after you join the wing panels



The exact length of the servo arm will need a little tweaking to get bind free motion and enough travel. Also DON'T forget the little metal rod the joins the two flap sections when you glue the wing panels. It is possible to put it in afterwards but not easy, guess how I know  

Next after joining the first panel, the lights

Here is the end that goes in the fuse. I have split the cabling and used a multiplex connector for the wiring loom



The wire with the cut off end is for the tail light which I will install later. And the wing section of wiring loom.



The right side is already installed in the wing. I bought 2x cheapo pen lights from the local market to get the relfectors for the landing lights. I used a clunk and some thread to get pull cords through the wing then pulled the lights through to there positions then hot glued them in place.





Here is a quick vid of the flaps and lights as they are now. The flaps need a little tweaking to get right.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyRz8cwTzOE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyRz8cwTzOE</a>

The canopy looks like its missing some glazing bars ?

Yeah the canopy is missing one set of glazing, not a huge problem as its going to be sliding anyway.

The quality of the kit is good, one thing I like is it is fully sheeted on the wings and the tail feathers are built up as opposed to flat balsa like some kits  The covering is a kind of stick on plastic, seems fairly tuff if, very much like the stuff on my Kyosho but not quite the same quality. If you really cared there is nothing stopping you taking it off and glassing the wings and fuse, or building one from scratch 

One thing I want to do with this model is camouflage the control horns, the paint scheme on these is "sky" on the bottom and "Dark sea grey" and "Extra dark sea grey" on the top. Does anyone now the Humbrol or Tamyia equivalents of these ?

Ok before I put the other wing panel on I tweaked the flap linkages. My DX6i only has on/off for the flaps. I can adjust the amount of flap but its all or nothing. So I have set up the flaps with as much travel as I can get.



My first instinct was to have the bell cranks at 90 degrees with flaps down but then the fowl part of the wing structure when retracted so I have them slightly off centre



Next problem is at the servo, if you put the easy link this way round



Its bows the push rod up by about 1cm and puts vertical strain on the bell cranks. so instead I put it on upside down.



This is fun  as you have to turn the servo arm over once you tighten it up and tighten the bell crank ones up. This is easier if you put the hex key through the holes that screw the access plates on.



The amount of travel is limited by how long you can make the servo arm before the rod binds on the structure. If I put 2 small slots in the wing ribs by the servo mount for the push rod to go into I  could increase the flap travel a little more.

The two flap halves are joined by a small metal rod which goes into a brass tube on each half, it works but I wonder how strong it is. Probably a good idea to get the plane slowed down before dropping full flap.

The wing servo mounts come pre assembled but I managed to break off one of the mounting blocks. I have glued it back on with epoxy and am thinking of doing the same for all of them.



One thing was that those covers where stuck down like a very sticky thing and took some persuading to come off. This turned out to be the covering sticking to its self, they should leave them loose in the kit IMHO it would have been easy to damage the sheeting getting them off.

The retracts arrived today  



And inside the Box



And no instructions,    

These do not look  to be the same as the Horizon Hobby web site shows. They have the same product number and are "medium retracts" but they are air not spring air. No great problem there except I could have got a variable rate control valve instead of the air line restricters I have on order.

I knew this would happen, but they are not a straight fit into the wing as it seems to be designed for mechanical retracts. First problem was the airline exciting the side of the cylinder



This would have been an absolute pain in the bottom, but I managed to turn the end of the cylinder so they faced down, but this meant taking the retracts to bits. Instructions would have been a help here me thinks.



Ok a pet hate of mine with ARTFS is the wheel wells pre installed. You almost always have to take them off, and they never come off cleanly



I used a thin piece of plastic to prise them off as cleanly as I could. This revealed why I could not get the retracts in.



You can see that part of the reinforced wing rib is in the way. I had to remove this with a razor saw and then sand it down flat. I also added a bit of epoxy to fill the gaps around the bearers and ribs, and just to reinforce the joints. I might glass the parts of it to further strengthen the mount.



Specifically the rib in the above photo.



Now they fit nicely. I don't know whether to fit them in the middle or at the far end of the bearers for more ground clearance, what do you guys think ??

One slight snafu is the fill valve. On the website it looked like a car valve one, great I thought I can use the shock pump for my mountain bike to pressurise the system, but the one that came with the kit looked like this



The top bit unscrews to reveal a small hole. Does anyone know of an adapter I could use or of a fill valve with a car size fill valve I could get.

Tomorrow I shall finish installing them in the wing and do the plumbing

hi i use a football valve put air tube on one  end of valve  and the other  onto the football valve this valve should fit on a electric car pump

As luck would have it I have found one of those in the garage

All works well and it the system holds pressure. However from 125psi in the tank I only get about 4 cycles of the landing gear, ie up and down 4 times. The tank is only 100cc. Is this par for the course with air retracts ? I can get hold of 120cc and 300cc  tanks from Giant Cod

There is only one really feasible place to put the air tank and that is behind the cockpit



There is plenty of space for the tank, or a bigger one here. This does add weight behind the C of G which is not ideal  

As I had the wheel wells out I gave the inside a good fuel proofing. On my over models fuel residue always seems to end up here



And one of the retracts in place with every thing stuck back



The next problem is how to operate the control valve. I was going to use a spare standard sized servo but this looks like total over kill now. One problem is going to be the travel. I don't think I have any control over the travel on the gear channel of my dx6i. So instead I am thinking of using a smaller servo possibly one of these LINK

What do you do normally with these ? again lack of any instructions with the kit does not help here  

Ok I have had a play with TX and I do have control over the travel on the gear channel. Just need to decide on whether to use a spare standard servo or get that tower pro one.

Hi. In the past I have used cheap 9g micro servos to operate manual retract valves. I do prefer the Jetronic electronic valves though, as they are much less suceptible to leaks.

As for the air tank, I found volume of air is MUCH more important than pressure. I use a max of 100psi for my systems and use the large sized cylinders from Phil at Fighteraces, although my Sea Fury had a pair of smaller ones in parallel.

Ok that last thing I did yesterday was glue on the other wing panel. I had to sand down dihedral braces a bit to get a good fit. I dry fitted it and made a little jig to support the wing while it was drying and make sure the dihedral matched the other side. Joined the Panel on and lined every thing up applied copious amounts of masking tape and a couple of clamps and left it till morning.

Can you see where this is going yet ??

After all that effort at some point it bloody moved.







It has shifted up and the leading edge by about 0.75mm. Now I don't have an incidence meter to check against the other side but from eye balling it, it does not appear to be out. I can't really tell if it is out or the panels just don't match up well together. There is not a lot I can do about this now, the only option is to get another wing  but I think I will see how it flys first 

This sort of thing annoys me greatly 

Well my wing paranoia carries on afresh this morning.

Every other ARTF I have built has come out perfect in this respect, my last build a Phoenix Tucano needed no triming on its maiden  and I like to get things right 

Here is what it looks like











The right wing panel was a much better fit to the centre section. The left, well you can see and that was after sanding everything so it fitted together as best as I could get it with a dry fit. I have never had a "wonky" wing before so is this as bad as I think it is ? or should I just chill 

Chill. See how it goes in the air. Bet you can't tell any difference.

think I would run a hacksaw blade down the join up to the spar/brace, soak epoxy into the join and get some timber and cramps to force it together. It looks as if it may throw the wing/tail line out if left.

I have thought about doing that, the only problem is there are two dihedral braces, the main one at the spar and a smaller on near the base of the flaps, I would have to cut through the small one. I think I will fly it and if its a major problem either try the surgery or get another wing/kit  the only thing I can think of is one of the clamps moved when the epoxy was curing and that moved it out of alignment 

I had the same issue gluing the wings a CMP Corsair. Made no differance.

Still flying, and been to many a fly in.

Phil

Ok I shall relax until the maiden then 

I have been busy this week so not much done, but today I sorted out the retracts. I have made a little mounting plate for the valve and servo. I am going to fit this under the cockpit floor, but not directly glued on. I am going to put some 5mm foam between it and the fuse to isolate it a bit from vibration.





As you can see in the pic's I have put a couple of robart air restrictors in to slow down the retracts a bit. I also need to trim off that servo arm and linkage 

I am still waiting for the oleo's from unitracts, or rather waiting to order them as they are away from the office at the moment. I am using some piano wire to stand in for them whilst I wait for them.

Here is a short clip of it all working 

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekMvSZbWosM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekMvSZbWosM</a>

hi
back tracking to your wing fit mine was the same made no difference to flight ,on issue i had with mine was the cheap mechanical retracts ,( you ain't got that prob) and the spinner. dis intigrated on its second run just as she was getting close to lifting off ground.

 Andy

That's reassuring. I have painted the spinner flat white as the full size, but I already had my doubts about it and now after what you just said even more so 

Pay day on Monday I think I will get an alloy one from just engines. The Retracts where £75 and a set of mechanicals with a retract servo where £50 so not a lot more expensive.

Finished the wing today  not with out some effort though

First issue is..you guessed it the retracts. Put simply the wheel wells are to shallow.



And because the retracts are at a slight angle the wheels don't sit flat in them



So much so that the retracts are not locking in the up position. This will only get worse with the oleos. So two options, put a shim under the retracts to raise them up, or cut out the bottom of the the wheel wells.

So I did this



Good job I fuel proofed the area underneath, and now



I will start looking for the right size yoghurt pot 

Ailerons next, nothing much to do here except I had to lengthen the slots in the servo mounts for the arms a little. I have used some alloy aileron horns which are longer than the kit ones as you have to use the full length of the arms on the servos  and the standard horns would give to much travel. The alloy ones look nicer to  I have used metal clevises at both ends with a lock nut. One of these comes in very handy for cutting threads on the push rods



I then discovered that the control switch for the lights did not like the travel adjustment I had used to set up the retract valve. Much faffing and changing of linkages has taken place and I have it working now. In short anything under 65% of travel won't turn the lights on. I now have 100% for down and 80% travel for up and it works properly.

Here is a clip of it all working.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keoXv6vmtgE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keoXv6vmtgE</a>


The Nav lights are angled out slightly so don't look so bright in the pic, I also have not charged the RX pack all week 

Final touches will be painting the retract and control horns sky so they match the wing

On to the fuselage next

To get the retracts servo and lights switch to work together on the Y lead I had to set up the linkage like this.

Down



And up



And the aileron linkages

The painting will have to wait to tomorrow I cant find a brush 

The first thing I will do is mount the engine and cut the cowl. I going to do it this way because on all the other builds I have done the tail feathers go on next and they always get in the way when I got to the front of the plane.

The kit comes with engine mount and a template. I don't like the look of the engine mount so instead have got an adjustable one from Giant Cod which looks and feels much stronger. The instructions have you mounting the engine side ways, I don't like the look of this and with the Saito there would be a dirty great hole in the side of the cowl. The down/side thrust are built into the engine box and there are markings for the correct placement of the engine mount. There are markings on the GC engine mount for alignment so getting this right was nice and straight forward. Once I drilled the holes I fuel proofed them then fitted the blind nuts.

The mount that came with the kit


Engine box



The GC engine mount



My Saito91 in place, the distance from the back of the mount to prop thrust washer is 142mm so a nice roomy fit for once



Here is the cowl in the background for an idea of how much of the engine will be showing. This should work quite well as about 1/2 the head will be exposed which create a good intake for cooling air. I will cut a hole 2-3 times bigger for the exit at the back of the cowl.



I now have to decide whether to use the standard muffler manifold and have it coming out the side of the cowl, or to use a 90 degree manifold and keep the muffler inside the cowl like I did below on my FW190



I wont really know until I get the cowl on and see how much room I have to play with.

As luck would have it the bolts that come with the engine mount are almost exactly the right length



Almost.. The top (well bottom) ones might rub on the fuel tank so I need to take about 3mm off them and I might put some silicone or foam between them and tank when I install it



All so once I have done all this I am going to cover over the holes in the engine box a these would otherwise let fuel/exhaust into the air frame 

Next is to drill holes in the mount for fixing the engine on then.....cutting the cowl 

Greetings from across the pond.  Your build looks good!   

I'm still pondering which engine to run.  I have a RCV 90 SP or a Magnum/ASP 91 four stroke.  I would like to use some Lado-Tech retracts, but there seems to be issue with the company being able to keep up with demand.  Probably go with Spring Air Retracts with 3/8" Oleo Struts!

Michael

  For my heritage!

I think the RCV would be better as it should fit inside the cowl nicely. The retracts I am using almost force me to use sprung oleos as they take 6g/5mm wire and at 95mm length there is no give in them what so ever.

On with the cowl fitting.

I use the card method of marking out he holes, always works for me  and a dremel and key hole saw.



I cut away as much as I can with the saw and do the rest with the dremel.



And "just like that"



Ah 



Either the destructions are wrong or my cowl is shorter, because I have more gap at the front than I would like and that is with the cowel as far forward as it will go. With it fitted nicely on the fuse it looks like this



So the engine needs to come back 3-4mm which means a new mount, bugger. Oh well they are only £2.95 from Giant cod. So if your building one I would say try to cut the cowl before drilling the mounting holes in the engine mount  which might be tricky but would have saved me the cost of an engine mount 

As for the muffler. If I put a 90 degree adapter on I would have to trim out the side of the cowl a little for it. Having it come out the side would need minimal triming but with the muffler visible  what do you guys think ?

I'd have it coming out the side. After all the engine sticks out the bottom anyway.

Yeah I have come to that conclusion to.

 Looking at my FW190 in comparison I would have to cut away quite a bit from the side and behind the engine to get the muffler inside the cowl, and most of it would be showing so not much point. 2 second job to cut the hole to have it come out sideways. Does mean the muffler will have to come off to get the cowl off though 

Just wish I could get a shorter manifold pipe as the one that came with the engine will have it poking out quite a bit. Anyone know where to get one, JE don't seem to do anything like that ?

have a look on RC universe in the buy & sell area, there are turbo mufflers sold there with 90' swivel manifolds . these are all alloy and you can get them to suit all satio engines & some other brands as well.
cheers

sorry to barge in guys but you should be able to get a 90 degree adapter from John Haytree (01626 852330) he deals with saito bits,he's never let me down.
The link shows the type of adapters available if that's what your looking for.RCS12X1/90

Hope this helps

Sorry bit of a miss understanding here   I can get hold of a 90 degree adapter no problem, I have one from JE on my FW-190 and as mentioned Mr Haytree sells them as well.

The issue here is the way the Saito silencer is shaped. If I put a 90 degree angle on I will have to cut away at the side of the cowl by the engine, quite a lot of it, and another big hole for it to poke out of. A turbo header and muffler would solve that problem but it means ordering from the states.

Just imagine the cowl cut for this



It's a lot simpler to have the stock manifold and silencer, I just wish the stock manifold was shorter. As it is ATM the silencer is hanging right out in the breeze, I only need the the shortest of manifolds to clear the cowl. I think I might give John Haytree a call.

Ok back to some cowl cutting today.

I am going to stick this post in the IC section as well as it's really a cooling question.

Now my question is with the engine poking out of the cowl like this.



How big does the cooling exit hole have to be. I am taking the size of the engine hole as the size as viewed from the front as this is how the "air" will see it. This is 20x45mm so using the 2:1 rule the exit hole needs to be approx 30x60mm. Like below



Thing is of course the engine is in that entry hole so the actual size is about half that, so could I get away with a smaller exit hole ?

That will be fine. Engine is already sticking out so no need to cut too much away. I'd go with a smaller hole but its up to you.

I suppose you can always make a hole bigger, but not smaller 

Other little bits and peices that I am doing between overtime and sleep at the moment.

The sliding canopy. I am using m2 control rod running along the side of the cockpit and expoyed in generously at either end, any load on them will be pulling them outward so they should be strong enough.



Attaching the tubes to the canopy is a little trickier. Experience tells me at these types of plastic do not glue well. So I have roughened up the surfaces then put a generous amount of epoxy around the gluing area. I then layed some glass cloth over the tube and surrounding canopy, and then put some epoxy over the whole lot.



Hopefully this will give a strong enough bond to keep the tubes attached. Last time I had to find a detached canopy it took forever 

I have installed the switch, landing light selector switch (left or right) air fill valve, and when I have extended the cables the remote glow in the cockpit floor. They may look randomly placed, but there are servos and stuff on the other side.



Also this morning these arrived





And very nicely made they are to  they are also lighter than the piano wire/axle legs I had on before



I have also now cut the hole for the exhaust





It's not to obtrusive and I could go for getting it in the cowl later..but that could be quite a hassle.

Now just to cut the cooling hole for the cowl and tidy up the install of the cockpit floor, stick the pilot in and fit the canopy.

Well lots of crimbo overtime has been distracting me from this build lol 

But some more progress has been made today. The air system is installed, I have placed the air tanks behind the cockpit.  I had to move the valve and servo to a different position. I originally intended to place the valve under the cockpit floor, however in this position the pipping would have been a bit close to the control linkages. Instead I have placed it forward of the cockpit under the elevator and throttle servos. This is where the RX goes in the manual so I have put that under the cockpit instead.





The RX position is nice and easy to get to, however I might move it somewhere else for better reception, Failing that a longer lead for the satellite receiver. I can see it taking a bit of patience to get everything neat and tidy.

The tail feathers are in place. The vertical stab just needs the rudder fitting to it, complicated by the need to fit the tail light. The light is not in the "scale" position but doing that would have been a complete nightmare. I considered making a holder for the led but elected to just glue it in place.



You will have noticed the snakes poking out the er snakes that came with the kit. The push rods are rattling fit as the kit comes so i put some m2 snakes inside these for the m2 push rods that came with the kit. A bit puzzling but never mind.



Horizontal stab went in with no issues. The elevators ( ?) are removed and the stab slotted into position, film removed, then glued in place. The elevators are then glued in. I ran some epoxy over the joints to gap fill from inside the rear fuselage.



Next is fitting the control horns and setting up the linkages, which may happen this side of xmas. 12 Hours overtime tomorrow sadly but next week is looking good lol

The sliding canopy idea has been ditched. The rail system worked quite well but I could not get the tubes fixed to the canopy securley. The action of sliding the canopy back and forth made short work of the glue joint and would not have survived long in the air. So I am going to glue it in the open position.