TN Vampire

Going to be a slow build as I'm building from scratch. So far,

Plans - Christmas present from the wife
Turbine - Wren 80 kero start (sitting in its box for the foreseeable)
Retracts - ordered from Kingfisher aviation (4 weeks lead time)
Wing tubes - ordered from Phil at fighteraces (these work out quite expensive!!!)

No sure about servos and stuff yet, had loads of emails from people building or finished models to think about during my build. This will be my first scratch build jet and I'm quite excited about it. Got a load of wood already, so need to have a good look through and see what else I need to order. Going to start with the tail and the booms.

Simon

oooh will be watching this one, i like the vampire.

but turbines are way out of my price range.

By the time you have bought the wing tubes.....the turbine doesn't seem so bad!!

All my turbine stuff is used pretty much, but I really want to build my jets. The Vampire is first, then a Ziroli Panther and TN turbine Vulcan is on its way. I still want to build a Hunter like BB's on here.

Simon

Nice one Simon, i have a English friend here that's just built one ( but he cannot fly it now ) do watch the Cof G very critical on this, do you have the build article from the Jet International Mag

Yep, read pretty much everything I can on the model, including that one. Been talking to a chap who has recently got his going, and flying really well.



I will make sure mine balances at the same point !! I think I'm going to go for the same paint scheme as Tony did on his original model.



Cheers,
Simon

These arrived today. Look good but not a lot for 80 quid



I thought scratch building was supposed to keep the cost down? Not even cut any wood yet.

B and Q for ali tube. hell of a lot cheaper than phenolic tubes.

Bit of engineering porn for a Friday afternoon. These are bigger than they look and the retracts are really nice quality.



Got the tailpipe from Wren and the servos I'm going to use. Once the Grumpy Tigercat is finished, it's time to make a start me thinks

Simon

After some initial issues with scaling and splines disappearing, I finally got my 3D CAD models converted into .DXF and onto the laser cutter at school.



Got to say, I'm really excited about finally starting my build and having a new toy to play with. Used to teach CAD design before I left to go into teaching. It's been fun doing the CAD work, even though the time invested in converting from the paper plan far exceeds the time it would take just to trace and cut out by hand.

Needed two of each as they need to be 6mm lite ply and I've only got 3mm.

Simon

lovely work sir.

how hard is it to convert cad into cam for cutting as i want to head that way myself in the near future.

Hi Simon I though you had buggered off not heard from you in a while, pleased your still with us, look forward to seeing this one built, the main thing with this model is to keep the rear end as light as possible because it will need all of the church roof in the front if you don't, I mean 3 kg
You saw the one built in the jet mag by a very experienced builder and it went in on its maiden, totalled
It was only 2/3 mm behind the recommended C/G but was unflyable

Most of the CAM software works from .dxf files. Never heard of the software which the laser cutter uses at school but as soon as my files were imported the tool paths were ready to go.

I have read a few build reviews on this including the ill fated one in the magazine. I'm going with a single elevator servo and closed loop rudders to keep as much weight as I can off the back. I have been warned about not going behind the stated c of g.

Going to model the rest of the formers tonight and then see if I can get the plan scanned in to convert the wing ribs into 2d tool paths so I can cut out using the laser cutter.

Will post as I go along.

Simon

interesting but it all goes over my head

The Beard wrote: interesting but it all goes over my head

If it does that and you are flying it Stephen , you are usually heading for a crash

Garry

Bit of time this evening redrawing the tail ribs. Got the plan copied and scanned at the same time so I'm cropping the tiff file down and then bringing that into my cad. Had a play using some software to convert the drawings into vector format, but it's generally crap and easier just to redraw.

Need to keep the weight to a minimum at the back, so I've found my lightest piece of 3mm balsa to take to school tomorrow to try out on the laser cutter. Will post some pictures tomorrow.

Still got my Grumpy Tiger Cub to finish off but might build the tail plane to practise my technique with glassing. Lots of new skills.

Simon