Antonov AN 124 Rusian

I imagine a pulse jet is horrendous to start (compared to leccy!) and I have nowhere to fly such a thing, even if I wanted too.
I would like to get the V-1 flying again simply because it was my first true EDF, the previous two 'jets' had been ducted props, and it flew really well.

The more or less complete bew forward fuselage.

And the hole in the nose for the 10BA bolt that holds it on!

Cockpit window bars & surround still to paint then the final tricky bit, fixing the whole forward fuselage onto the rest of it.

Sorry I know it's drifting off topic but have you never been tempted to start that pulse jet? I couldn't resist, I'm far to inquisitive... Antonov looking good btw..

These pictures are really for my own record but here they are anyway.
To join the two parts of the fuselage first the former on one face is removed. The former was required purely for construction.

One of the benefits of POR is that even after a couple of weeks it is still fairly easy to pull apart particularly as the former is scrap.
A 3 mm square Depron 'bead' is then added around the other face to give a reasonable glue area, with part in shear, rather than rely purely on butt joint.

A simple 'skin to skin' butt joint would probably be adequate as the joint is ahead of the wing so carries little structural load although I am not sure what its flying characteristics would be if the whole nose came off in flight!

The fuselage repaired and all back together.

Still a bit of painting touch up to do but until a suitable weather day arrives it will just have to go back to cluttering up the room!

Raining outside so it has to be squeezed indoors. Almost finished.

It is hard to image holding it in one hand, with the Tx in the other, and launching it overhead but then it is only 1/3 the weight Crash's Jekyll or Hyde!

Looking very nice indeed Q. It probably weighs about the same as the battery on mine !

Over the last 4 years unflown my AN124 has acquired some "hanger" damage mainly to the inboard nacelles so I thought it was about time I repaired them.
This is what an undamaged full nacelle looks like.
 
It is all single wall PLA with a limited infill so it rather easy to damage almost simply by touching it! 
And this is what one of the inboard nacelles looks like after the damaged area has been cut away.
 
The front 46mm will have to be reprinted and glued on.
As a test I will print the new bit in single wall LW-PLA. Although not as strong as PLA the single LW wall is 0.8 mm thick rather than 0.4 and has better filament adhesion so is less less likely to split.
The first LW-PLA nacelle repair.
 
It certainly feels stiffer.

This is picture shows just how large it is compared to my Clio Estate!
 
With the removable nose detached it does just fit in with the front passenger seat back as low as possible and the rear seats folded down..
There is just about room for the 3 pieces of the wing too. 
    
 
 

That front tyre looks a bit flat