Fairey Firefly MK5 from Vance Mosher plan

Both wings are now fully sheeted. Leading edge installed and shaped. With the balsa shortage i'm wondering whether to collect all the shavings and sell them on Ebay!



I'm really pleased with the way the sheeting has gone. When I removed each wing from the templates they sat back in perfectly with no twist or gaps. As I used the same templates for both wings I know the washout is the same on both wings. Did a first pass sanding of the skins. Copied the gear door template from the plans and laid the paper templates onto each wing. Covered the template in polythene and added some release agent to the surface of the polythene. Then laid 3 layers of 200g cloth and a finishing 25g cloth for a fine finish with Easy Composites EL2 epoxy laminating resin. Thats the main gear doors done apart from trimming, fitting and hinging.



For tail gear doors I had to measure the shape and and mark up the fuselage. I did the same glassing process, polythene sheeting, release agent then glassed 2 layers of 100g cloth with a finishing 25 g cloth on the outside for a fine finish. Once this had set I removed the glass section. I check measured several times the gear door using calipers then cut out the balsa section. Not a cut out I want to get wrong.



During the balsa sheeting of this area during the fuselage construction I had wet this whole section inside with thin CA to give it strength, so when I cut it out it held together nicely and didn't spring open. I laid the glass piece over the cutout, marked it up and trimmed it to shape.



I trimmed the balsa section down so that when it was laid into the glass section there was a gap all round, as per the full size doors. Then I epoxied the balsa skin to the glass section for strength and that scale look. Came out quite well. Sounds complicated but it probably took longer to write the process than actually do it.



Now the fun bit, trimming, hinging and making it open. A good bit of progress this weekend. Next up is to skin the wings with glass cloth, cut out the retract area, servo hatches and join the wings together. Should be fun!

Lovely work Ralph! really must have a go at a scale jobby.
what are you using for wheels and tyres?

Thanks Paul. Trying to keep my build quality up to your standard!!

The landing gear are propriety parts, Hobbyking 10 - 12kg retracts ( model should weigh in at 6.5kg), Hobbyking oleo legs and Dubro 127mm wheel. The wheel hub is wrong shape so will 3D print a new hub.

Perfect! I agree about the hubs but I love the way the tyres "show the weight" .

Hi Ralph you will need to reinforce those retracts as they bend and break where the sit on the bearers
I did mine that i had on my own design jet with thin steel, i wrapped it around the main body and underneath the lugs, and that jet had a seriously hard coming together with hard packed sand and the held
On mikes SR71 they broke and it never even left the ground, Chinese type metals a bit like their plywood
Lovely job Sir

I agree BB. But all my landing will be three pointers, with the wheels just kissing the ground before the plane rolls to a stop.

I might do Eric, just for scale purposes of course!

Haven't done much on the Firefly this weekend. Had to upgrade my CNC control system after the only computer I had with a parallel port decided to die. So out with the parallel port, TB6560 stepper motor controllers and in went an Arduino with TB6600 controllers. It does mean I lose the use of Mach3 CNC software but GRBL will be ok for what I need.

Anyway, cut out the retract section of the wing skin, cut out the servo hatch and fitted the internal fixing frame for the hatch.





Made the wing tips from 12mm balsa and hollowed them out to save some weight and also a place fit the nav lights. I will use 5mm LEDs. Quite pleased with the outcome.

Lovely work as normal Ralph, what is the "thing" next to the nav light?
Not sure if it's of interest but there's a article in this month's aeromodeller showing how to mimic metal panels, thought of you when I read it.

thanks Paul. I don't know what it is. I thought it was a shield around the light to make it only visible from directly behind the aircraft. But i'm guessing.

Looks like i'll be buying Aeromodeller this month then!

My own guess is it is some form of the equivalent of narrow angle 'convoy' light to allow station keeping when under combat conditions.

Not a lot to show for the weekends work on the Firefly so no photos. Made the servo hatch covers, tidied up the wing tips, ailerons and flaps with some filler and detail sanding. Then gave the whole wing and parts a fine general sanding. Joined the two wings together with epoxy, and I remembered to fit the spar brace before I joined the wings!! Just let the epoxy go off this week and I will glass the wing next weekend.

The upgrade to the CNC worked first time! Yes i'm surprised as its a completely new system, made for parts from various suppliers including software all cobbled together based on what i've picked up on tinternet. So that's ready to cut the flap system for the Gannet as soon as I prepare the G Code.

Rigging day today. Spent an intensive 4 hours this morning setting the wings, fuselage and tailplane. Measure, adjust, measure, adjust measure then drill wing fixings and dowels. Turned out very well. Horizontal alignment of wings to tailplane is spot on. Wing tip to fuselage triangulation is within 1mm. So I'll accept that.





So, the obligatory trial fit to see what it will look like as everything has been built seperately. Today all the parts come together. 81" wingspan doesn't sound big but by 'eck it fills my workshop.