DH SEA VIXEN for 40 mm EDFs

It is amazing how times have changed.
Despite the dramatic reduction in the RAF post war and the aircraft industry playing 'second fiddle' to the US they still made over 3000 Vampires. An unimaginable level of production today.

The Sea Vixen new nose progresses.

To retain the CofG (thank goodness for the original construction pictures) the battery box has to go partially in the nose cone.
Note the battery box is on the fuselage centre line. It was off set before with a 'coal hole' battery hatch. An offset 'coal hole' hatch will still be used but the 'open' internal structure will allow the battery to be inserted into a centre line battery box.
At the same time I have further reduced the starboard wing incidence as it no longer needs to counter the effect of an offset battery.

looking Good!

Today's picture.

The nose is structurally complete with just the 'coal hole' battery hatch to do and I have checked that the battery can be connected and go in!
Unlike before the canopy will be a built as a separate structure so hopefully will be rather a better scale shape.
Much tidying up of the other repairs still required.

Now structurally complete - well almost and its outside.

Just a little bit more filling and sanding then paint.

I do like the look of this plane. Just went back through the whole build posts. I still find it remarkable how you build them so light, wish I had the patience !

Oooops! I made a boo boo!
The replacement rx arrived from Banggood today.
No problem except it is "de pinned". :woohoo:

Checked the order and it says "de pinned".
Checked the web site it gives a selectable option box "pinned" or "de pinned" and, of coarse, it is set to "de pinned" by default.
My bad should have noticed.
Any thoughts on how I might DIY solder the 24 pins reliably!

Circuit boards are normally flow soldered, the back of board is passed over a solder bath, your going to need a iron with a fine point Simon and a hands free magnifying glass.
Of course you could save a little weight by not using the connector block and soldering your leads direct to the board...

Quorneng wrote: Any thoughts on how I might DIY solder the 24 pins reliably!

They're simple to solder, you just need a fine soldering iron and .5mm solder, i've built a few receiver kits myself.

They're intended for those who demand the ultimate in removing unnecessary weight.
You are supposed to cut the plugs off your servos, and solder them directly to the board, to save a few grammes.
You could make the task a bit easier if you solder a 'bus' to the pos lead at one end, and the neg lead at the other, then the only close-spaced wires are the servo signal leads - sraight to the boad.

Eric wrote: They're intended for those who demand the ultimate in removing unnecessary weight.
You are supposed to cut the plugs off your servos, and solder them directly to the board, to save a few grammes.
You could make the task a bit easier if you solder a 'bus' to the pos lead at one end, and the neg lead at the other, then the only close-spaced wires are the servo signal leads - sraight to the boad.

That'll be Simon then

Thanks for the heads up. I will have a go.
Just in case I have cheated and ordered another slightly better (but cheaper!) 6 ch rx!

If you want to make it really easy cut the block into separate banks of three, start at one end & work your way across. That will give you plenty of room to work with iron.

On the same subject, anybody know if you can still get 'proper fluxed solder ? I am almost out !!!

At last Its finished.
From this

To this

The radome should be painted but the 3D print in black looks neat.
Just in time to hang on the wall for a month - at least!
As before the apparent colour change is entirely 'photographic'. The lower picture is much closer to the actual colour.

crash
My current 50g roll of 0.8 mm solder with 2% flux was made in China & came via Ebay.