Warbirds hurricane build review

[RCMF Chatroom]

RCMF Chatroom

No Users in Chat

Hi there
Do you find this message annoying?
Why not make a post and get rid of it?

[Slipstream]

All finished now apart from gound runs and a test flight. Dissapointed that I had to add 2lb of lead to balance it, I wish now I had cut some lightening holes in the tail feathers to save weight at the back. Weighs in at 9 1/2 lb dry. I still have the u/c doors to fit but that's only a couple of ounces more.

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

UP-U V7599 at Croyden late 1940, it's had the sky tail band added by this time.

Warbirds hurricane build review

[Slipstream]

Warbirds hurricane build review

605 ( County of Warwick ) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force received it`s first Hurricane in August 1939 whilst on summer camp at Tangmere. The early Mk1`s had a problem with the gun panels in the upper wing in that the leading edge of the panel pulled away from its fasteners and bent upwards into the airflow. This acted as a spoiler and made the aircraft very unstable when landing. Hawkers were made aware of the problem and devised a solution. They asked a 605 pilot to take the plane up and test the new panels. He came back with them sticking up out of the wing again. When asked at what speed they failed he replied `I don`t know, the airspeed indicator hit the stop at 440mph!. The horrified Hawker representative advised him the maximum speed ( Vne) was 380mph !

   Moving to Wick at the outbreak of war they were tasked with protecting shipping around Scapa Flow. On the 21st May 1940 the squadron was ordered south to Hawkinge to cover the Dunkirk evacuation. The week that followed saw 605 squadron decimated with half its pilots either dead or missing and all the remaining aircraft badly shot up. On the 28th of May the squadron withdrew to Drem to rebuild. Two replacement pilots arrived immediately, PO Jim Humphries, a New Zealander and Sgt Leslie Ralls. Replacement aircraft soon began to arrive and the squadron entered a phase of major rebuilding.

   On the 7th of September 605 moved south to Croydon to join in what would become known as the Battle of Britain. It was a hectic time at Croyden and on one occasion, while flying one of the older Hurricanes, after being involved in a dogfight and out of ammunition Sgt Lesley Ralls climbed to join a formation thinking it was 605 going home. As he closed in he saw a myriad of swastikas on the enemy fighters next to him. Discretion being the better part of valour he rolled over into a near vertical dive and hurtled earthwards at such speed that the airspeed indicator went off the clock and jammed. He landed with all the fabric streaming from the fuselage-the aircraft never flew again !

Warbirds hurricane build review

Sgt Leslie Francis Ralls ( service number 48666 ) survived the war and retired as a Wing Commander in 1972.

[greyfly]

Looks good....how about a couple of close ups so we can see the detail.......2lbs of lead  :(  Its a 60 span isn't it? and what motor?

[Slipstream]

I haven't gone daft with any detail, I just hope it flies.

Warbirds hurricane build review

Cockpit has a 3D instrument panel and a gunsight

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

The cowl has dished in and doesn't quite fit right, just needs a tapered shim inside.

Warbirds hurricane build review

Panel lines were done with a fine lining pen and very lightly shaded.

Warbirds hurricane build review

The thin ABS wing fairings really do need GRP reinforcement as recommended in the instructions.

It is a 61" span with an ASP 0.61 FS.

[PT19]

Good luck with the maiden flight! When are you hoping to fly her?

[Mountie]

How does it fly?


Regards,

Mountie..

Half way through my build..

[Slipstream]

I'm waiting for free time and decent weather to coincide..maybe on Saturday or failing that the end of next week. Having a job again has taken up most of my time  :(

[Mountie]

Goodluck with it... Please let me know what to expect..

regards,

Mountie

[Mountie]

Just wondering if there is any flight news?

Regards,

Mountie

[Slipstream]

It's been a bit wet and windy ...this weekend hopefully. I'll post as soon as it happens.

[Mountie]

Question.. how much would it cost me for you to do me up some of the exhaust pipes? I have tried and just can't get them right.

Regards,

Mountie

[Slipstream]

Nowt, email me with your address and I'll knock a set up, can't promise overnight delivery though unless you want to paint them yourself.

steve.ralls@nomac.org.uk


PS  there was a thread in the scale section on painting/weathering exhausts, might be of interest.

You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login

[Slipstream]

Well she finally got airborne at 14:30 hrs today. Light 5mph NW wind and dry weather. The take off run was long, I have nearly 200ft of grass runway and used 3/4 of that before lifting off after a very slow accelaration with just a gentle touch of right rudder needed to keep her straight. Lifted off and stayed about 6" off the ground to build up speed and then into a gentle climb. Over the 2 foot high crops and up to about 100' before a gentle left turn down wind and throttling back to 3/4. Straight and level with no trimming required, raised the undercarriage and she started to climb very gently. Flew a few circuits and figure eights, a couple of low passes whilst humming the Battle of Britain tune before entering a downwind leg and dropping the wheels. A slow curved turn onto long finals and throttled back to idle. She came over the threshold at 3' like a rocket. I opened the taps and went around another five times before getting it right. However, she doesn't like going too slow as she becomes very very sensitive to the elevator and wallows around on the verge of a stall. In the end I gave up on three pointers and wheeled her in but at the end off the roll out she nosed over - closer inspection revealed the undercarriage legs had bent back about 30 degrees bringing the wheels some 2" further back.

For a model that weighs some 10lbs wet with a 61 FS she flew very well once off the deck and speed had built up although she takes time on the ground to get up to flying speed. She flew very easily and didn't wander off course and looked very scale like although kid gloves are needed on take off.  Bearing in mind that 2lb of ballast was added to the nose I think that with lighter built up tail surfaces it would reduce the all up weight by at least a pound making the performance even better. I feel confident that with careful energy management loops and rolls would be easy - knife edge ...don't even go there!

This was my first 'scale' WW2 warbird and I am very pleased at the way she flew. 

[Mountie]

That was great! Glad you got her in the air at last. Sounds like she is a bit tricky to land though. Just wondering was your approach low and flat or did you come in steep?

Best regards and congrats again,

Mountie

[Slipstream]

It's not so much tricky as getting to know what's best.    

[PT19]

Congratulations on your successful maiden flight! I shall be paying a great deal of attention to lightening the tail end as much as possible. Many thanks for a very helpful reveiw.

[RICHARD WILLS]

Well done Slipstream. A superb finish I have to say. Did you say your first scale model?
If so, then doubly amazing. Keep up the good work.

[al]

I finished a Warbirds Hurricane this year but have not flown it as wanted to get my landings perfect -so am working on that.. Richard the designer was very helpful and I am sure it will fly perfecty. My only worry was the amount of balast in the nose to get the C OF G
AL Watt

[Slipstream]

With hindsight I wish I had taken more care to keep that back end as light as possibe as I had to use 2lb of lead. There were ideas I had after the event that would have saved weight but as they say, hindsight is a wonderful thing.  Now, as it happens, someone has asked me to finish a warbirds hurricane for them so I may incorporate some of these ideas and see how it goes.

[Fenland Flyer]

Hi all,

You may remember me asking questions about the Warbirds Hurricane, and I was directed to this guide.

Well the guide spurred me on, and I'm now almost finished.  Here's a couple of pictures of it a week or two ago.



Since then, I've finished the wing join, then glassed the wing (will use poly-c next time...), and gone over with some filler and a final sanding.  At present its sitting in a coat of primer.

My intention is to test fly it, and when happy, I'll spend some time on the final coat and add all the scale touches like the aerial mast, exhaust stacks, sliding canopy..the list goes on.

Not weighed it, but I've fitted it with a 61 2-stroke.  Hopefully it will be ok.  Once I'm happy with the flight, I'll change it for probably a 70 4 stroke, get a new cowl to hide it away, and treat myself to some retracts.

Its the 3rd kit I've built (Fly-boy and Magnatilla previous) and while I've struggled a bit, I have thourougly enjoyed it and learnt huge amounts.  My next kit is an Acrowot and my dad said I'll find this to be a doddel after the Hurri    Then an LA-7, then a FW 190 etc etc...  O0

Anyway, thanks Guys.  I'll let you all know how the 1st flight goes and post some pictures when its all done.

[Slipstream]

Looking good Shoddy,  how about some pics when it's finished ?  Let us know how it flies.

[Fenland Flyer]

I dont mean to hijack the thread, but a quick question.

Do you have a recommended C og G measurement ?

I was going to aim for a third of the way back from the wing leading edge, but if you have a measurement which the plane flies well on, I'd love to hear it.

Decided to paint the top coat before its maiden flight, as oil from the engine will fetch off the primer and make it a mess and make it harder to do the top coat at a later date.  Hope I'm not tempting fate  O0

Maiden should be next weekend !

[Slipstream]

Shoddy,

I don't have the figure to hand but I balanced it as per the drawing - I believe Richard recommends moving it a bit further back but I'm not sure how much.  Try it as per the drawing to start, it will change again if you repaint it anyway.

Steve

PS  Don't worry about hijacking - it keeps the thread alive !

[rowdy]

Shoddy,

           What happend to the first flight?

           Hope it went O.K.

Rowdy

[Fenland Flyer]

Hi Rowdy,

You beat me to it.  Test flight was last Tuesday 28th December.  It flew like it was on Rails.  No problems at all.  It was a bit windy, but the hurricane handled it perfectly.  The wind was so strong that the landing was at jogging pace on about 1/4 throttle.

I think the all up weight of mine has finished at 9Ibs with the 6 ounces of lead that I had to add to get the right C of G. Which I think is a bit too much for a model of this size.  But maybe it adds to the presence when in the air.  It certainly helped with the wind 

Motor is an SC 61 2-Stroke, and I'm using a 3 Blade Master Airscrew 13 x 6.  I just had to have a 3 blade.  I thought it might struggle, but instead it gave a very convincing performance.  Here's the finsihed plane after its maiden.  The plane seems so easy to fly.  It was very sensitive on the Elevator, but a bit of fine tuning on the transmitter has sorted that.

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Now I know it flies, the next stage is to fit some Retracts.  Went to Inwoods the other day, and they wanted 80 odd quid for some spring airs    Apparently I need the large set, and now they have new fittigns and so are more expensive.  Think I'll go back to warbirds replica's and get the set from there.  I managed to create a Sliding Canopy, which was also worth it.  I just stick a pin behind it during flight to stop it blowing off in the slipstream.  I saw this project as a start into Scale Modelling, and I've learnt loads.

Its taken me a year to build.  In that time I've had to move house etc, and its been a case of a few hours a week tinkering with it in my dads garage.  But its been worth it.  The guides on this very website are what motiviated me to get it finsihed, and was a priceless tool when I was getting completely stuck, so thank you all.  I'm looking forward to some more flights in calmer conditions.  I can see all those low passes and victory rolls now  O0

The novelty of building something and then watching fly never wears off.  Third time now, here's to a few more !

[rowdy]

Hi Shoddy,

Great to hear of the successsful flight. O0 O0

That is a really nice finish you have on that plane, what paints did you use ? and also are the decals from warbirds or did you mask them up yourself??

Also did you use a sevo for each aileron or did you manage to use the kit method.

Thanks for the reply

A Happy New Year and enjoyable flying

Rowdy

[Fenland Flyer]

I used Flair Spectrum, Dark Earth, Matt Green and Duck Egg Blue (I think they're the names).  I brush painted them on, and then airbrushed the outlines to soften them up (only got a little airbrush at the moment).  I was a bit dissapointed with the colour, to me they was very toyish, I even started another thread on this forum about darkening the colours.  But after brushing on some Polyurethane Matt Varnish (Wiko's finest) the colours dulled down quite a lot.  I'm now 99% happy with the outcome.  As a note, I glassed the wing, and engine bay.  I then used tissue and sanding sealer for the front end all the way along the cockpit sides to where the stringers start.  I then used solar span covering to cover over the stringers and tail feathers (or rather my Dad did as I was away  8)

The main decals are from warbirds and came with the kit.  However I followed instructions in the kit for applying grey primer, adding the registration letters, doing the camo colours and then removing the registration letters.  This left a nice grey set of registration markings.

The Polish insignia, German Kill marking and the 303 Squadron badge I downloaded as images from the internet.  I then sized these and printed them onto a CD Label.  Cut this out and added it to the plane, then varnished over with polyurethane.  I'm not sure how long they'll last, but it seemed a good idea, and was certainly cheaper than paying £20 for specialist vinyl paper  O0

Yes, I used a servo for each aileron.  I followed the method earlier in this guide.  A lot easier !

Also shopping after a 4 stroke (maybe a 91) so I can hide it away in the cowling.  It'll never end... 

[Walts]

Hi all,
      I didn’t see the point in starting a new thread for another Warbirds Hurricane, So after checking with Slipstream (some time ago) I thought I’d post my efforts here. I don’t intend to do the whole build thing again as it would be pretty pointless, having already been covered by Slip.
So what I was going to do was just show  any different  methods I have used that may be of interest to others.

The first thing I have done differently on reading the advise of others is to  add as many lightening holes to the tail surfaces as possible. Then I built them as per plan but with 1/16th x 1/8th false ribs and 1/8th L.E. sheeting to allow me to try and get a better profile.

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

The tail surfaces where covered with  Sig coverall, applied with Balsaloc, ironed taut then given a couple of coats of dope. This caused me some problems as when I applied the dope it dissolved the Balsaloc and the covering started sagging! I got it taut again and fixed it with cyno around the seams before re-doping………Well it was my first attempt with this stuff.

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Walts 

[Walts]

The three wing panels were assembled as per the instructions, although I opted to prepare the dihedral braces and their  slots in the panels first, so they could be epoxyed into the wing as it was all joined together.

Warbirds hurricane build review

I also opted to use  separate aileron  servos. After marking out and removing the skin i used  a bent piece of 10 gauge wire heated over a small gas soldering iron to first melt nice straight sides down into the wing, then gauge out the middle block. Then lined  the box with 1/16th ply.

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

I used slips (I think)  idea to run the servo leads through the slots intended for the torque rods, just extending them across the centre section.
Holes were melted straight through into the boxes before the aileron  facing was glued to the wing .The extension leads were laid in and the slots filled with ¼” balsa. I know it means they can’t be removed but I didn’t fancy trying to get a tube all the way through the wing, and everything was tested before being sealed in.

Warbirds hurricane build review

Walts   

[Walts]

I bought the mechanical retract set with the model, but noticed that in order to get the retract servo between the wheels the units had been moved well out into the wing panels.
I don’t have a problem with why it was designed this way. It was obviously the easiest way to  present easily installed retracts. But I wanted to fit mine in the scale position, so I phoned Richard at Warbirds with the view to exchanging the mechanical’s for a set of air’s that wouldn’t require the servo to be mounted between the wheels. But during our conversation Richard gave me a very good idea of how to mount the servo inverted  on the top of the wing that would still allow me to fit the wheels in the scale position. He was happy to exchange the set if I wanted but we both felt the mechanical retracts were a better option for this model.
So the first thing I did was to eyeball  the position of the full size retracts  and the shape of the well’s and draw a plan on  tracing paper, also including the position of the retract units  so it could be transferred to the centre section and double checked with the components to make sure it would work before I started cutting. The rest of the installation is pretty much self explanatory from the pic's.

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

Warbirds hurricane build review

I might shorten the Oleo legs and fit larger wheels, not sure yet. Just the door covers to go after this and the wheels to track up and file slots in the pins.

Walts