Vought V173

Spent far too long on the fins!
Each is cut from 3mm Depron and reinforced with a small strip of CF "tow" on each side.
 
The rudder uses two tiny PLA printed pin hinges. They are 3mm wide & 15mm long. Again many attempts before I got it right!
The second fin with its hinges in place.
 
Fiddly to do but it seems to work.
Fitting the fins is no problem but I will refrain from doing so as I have no idea yet how to connect the rudders to the servo!
Whatever is used has to clear the rear elevator when it is in the "up" position. 
 

Fins now fitted and rudders connected to a servo.
A short "control test" video with everything powered by a Lemon "stab" receiver set to "Delta" configuration
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As expected the elevator and ailerons are set to 50%, the rudder to 70% to keep the movements within reason.
Not shown in the video but even the stab inputs work in the correct sense - I think.
Getting close to fitting the motors and ESCs then it can be tissue covered. 
 

Looking good but I can't help thinking there's way too much control surface movement in all the axis

Klippy
You may well be right but the surfaces are operating at short moments compared to a normal plane and the inertia will be large with the relatively heavy motors and props effectively not only right at the wing tips but a long way forward of the CG.
My guess is for the first hops I will be relying heavily on the abilities of the gyro.  

Slowly moving forward.The RH motor now fitted and working. 
 
Keeping to scale I decided to mimic the engine cooling inlets to cool the ESC which are mounted behind the leading edge in about the same place as each flat 4 was.
 
 The ESC is mounted "on edge" to the airflow.
It follows that when the wing is fully covered the air has to get out so a scale cooling opening.
 
The other advance is the Lemon Stab Rx is now fitted and the servo leads shortened accordingly. Soldering connections in 32 AWG servo wire is fiddly!
 
Now I have just got to do the same thing to the LH motor and ESC - as well complete the repairs to the Swiss Venom. 

At last the electric installation is complete.
Twin ESC and the necessary wiring.
 
Twin intakes for ESC cooling and  those huge props.
 
Next will be the ridiculous stalky undercarriage followed by the cockpit which will be a lightweight "built on" structure.
Only then can the tissue go on.
Not done any tissue for some time!
 

Started thinking about the undercarriage. It will not be true scale but a wire "A" brace so will be pretty flexible to allow for the inevitable non landings that is assuming it will actually get into the air in the first place!
With weight in mind I wondered if it would be possible to print wheels in LW-PLA.
I tried two sizes.
 
Obviously they are not that wear resistant but I very much doubt the V173 will ever do much ground running.
They are indeed light. The smaller ones just over 1.2" diam weigh 1.1g each. The bigger 1.5" diam weigh 1.8g.
Actually massively strong. A single wall and a 15% gyroid infill that looks like this when printing.
 
The 1.5" ones each take 25 minutes to print.  
 

Goodness those props are more like what one expect for a band powered beastie. 

Build a cradle and treat it as a VTOL.... util you figure out it's characteristics

The tall undercarriage added.
 
 
It does just about give prop clearance at a more normal attitude.
The tissue covering can now start.
Exactly were the CG needs to be is anybodies guess! 
 

As it is effectively a lifting-body, I'd start at about 25% on the centreline.

Tissue is done.
Top surface
 
The battery hatch will be made out of the last of my 2mm Depron!
Under surface
 
So far so good but I have run out of Eze Dope!

Anything here to help? -
uk.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=tr...61423&p=depron+sheet

I ordered a 250g bottle of EzeDope at a good price from Ebay. Delivery 2 days.
I then looked through my paint draw to see if I had any bright yellow.
I didn't but there at the bottom was a full bottle of EzeDope! 
So I will soon have 2 full bottles and its not as if I do much tissue covering. The icing on the cake is the V173 used up the last of my Model Span tissue.
​​​

After a light coats of thinned Eze Dope some "Banana Split" yellow courtesy of Dulux watered down by 20%.
 
A pretty thin coat to keep the weight in check but it is still very yellow. 
Possibly also a light spray of acrylic gloss to give it a light "sheen".
 

Although the V173 is now technically complete I am not happy with the precision of the movement of the control surfaces.
First I want to move the tail plane servos out to the body extremity to shorten the lcurrent long carbon torque rod.
Like this:-
 
The tail planes will still operate as elevons.
At the same time the rear elevator surface will be fixed. All the inflight pictures show the full size elevator in the neutral position. It appears it was not used except for the landing flare to allow for the very nose high attitude.
Well that's the plan - at the moment!