Wildcat - 28" Span FF Elec Conversion

I've decided to modify my FF rubber Wildcat to electric power for next year's open scale competitions. The model was originally built in 2012 for the USA's Flying Aces Club Nationals at Geneseo. It flew, getting into the second round of a three round competition, but wasn't particularly successful. I modified it for British competition by adding some detail and painting it. Again, she flew, but didn't perform.

So, in order to get a more consistent flying performance and flight pattern and to increase the duration slightly, I've decided to convert her to electric power.

Here's the original model in rubber powered fit photographed in 2013 at the BMFA's FF Nats:





I've cut the top of the cowling off, made up two ply plates to face the join, aded a former to the fuselage and made up a motor mount:



The model's a 1.5 times enlargement of the 1:24th scale FF rubber powered WW II series models published by Model Builder magazine in the early 70s. Mods to the original design have included knock-off wings and tailplane and a change in wing section.

The basic cowl is now complete. Formers have been added, magnets introduced as a fixing device, the upper cowl stripped of tissue and the front end sanded to suit. Second pic show a trial motor/ESC/LiPo/Profiler fit.

The front end needs filling here and there to repair damage, but I'll probably leave that until I've tested her in this new config. I'll just seal the bare balsa with dope which will do for this weekends flying.

Model is now ready for test at the ModelFly meeting at Old Warden over the weekend.






Disappointingly, to get the C of G in the same place as the rubber variant required 5 gm of lead on the tail......which has pushed the weight 1 gm over that for the rubber powered model! Model now weighs 161 gms. I was toying as to whether I should repair and repaint the model in it's current scheme, or strip, recover and repaint it in something different. If she performs satisfactorily over the weekend, then I suspect I'll go for the second option when, at the same time, I can reduce some of the weight up front and put the weight required at the rear to better use. It might also be worth trying to source a smaller/lighter LiPo over the weekend

Had a great weekend at Old Warden testing models. In the Wildcat's case, the model climbed like a home-sick angel on the first flight. Luckily the engine run allowed enough height to be gained for the stall recovery after the power ran out and all turned out well. .......so I turned the power down a bit and after that all was well! Several successful flights were made over the weekend, so the model will now be tidied up for next season's Open Scale comps!

I've always liked the Wildcat, can't wait to add one to my embryonic collection... I really like your grey colour scheme, a nice change from the deep blue in which they are usually schemed.

lovely job

Very nice andy,

Thanks for the kind words chaps, but if you look at the date, the above posts were made some 2 years ago.

The model flew successfully at Barkston in the 2016 BMFA Scale FF Nats fun event when it looked like this:




Unfortunately, it met it's demise at this years BMFA Scale FF Nats, when it ended up looking like this:



..and this is all I retained:



The model was a successful flyer under both rubber and electric power. It was a 150% version of the Wildcat model in this book:




It's available for free download from the RC Library, a book and magazine version of Outerzone. I've already posted a link to it as the trimming and covering articles are excellent, but here it is again:

rclibrary.co.uk/title_details.asp?ID=1119

the contents include plans for 12 WWII flying models and articles by some of the FF greats!:

Foreword by WC Northrop
Grumman F4F Wildcat - Harry A Bagley Jr
Grumman F6F Hellcat - Bill Hannan
Vought F4U Corsair - Frank Scott
Mitsubishi Zero - Bob Peck
Covering and Trimming - Bill Hannan
Hawker Hurricane I - JD McHard
Supermarine Spitfire - JD McHard
Messershmitt Bf 109E - JD McHard
Focke-Wulf TA-192 - Hal Cover
Making it Fly - Bill Warner
Bell P-39 Airacobra - Clarence Mather
Curtiss P-40C - JD McHard
P-47D Thunderbolt - EI Coleman
P-51B Mustang - Clarence Mather
Building and Finishing - JD McHard