Another BH Macchi C200 - placemarker

I had to stop in today to wait for the Worcester engineer to come, which was lucky as an hour ago there was a knock on the door. When I opened said door all I could see was a rather large cardboard box. Hidden behind it was a delivery driver waiting for a signature.
You can see what was in the box if you take a peak at Geoff's "Blackhorse Macchi 202" thread 'cos after a quick check of the contents I dragged the inner box and contents upstairs out the way.
The kit came from TJD Models and I've got to compliment them on service and packaging. The kit itself is in a substantial cardboard box, TJD had sent it in another layer of thick card, I'd defy even ParcelFarce to damage that lot!
Quick highlights - the covering is a heavy duty pre-decorated (self adhesive?) film having what could be described as a shiny-satin finish. I doubt abrasive matting would be a good idea as it's likely to remove most of the finer detailing, so a coat of Spectrum satin is in order. Fine black panel lines and rivets are printed along with markings and serials. Surface hinges are ply tabs with a piano wire hingepin running the length of the surface. The fitted pilot is quite good but a midget hiding below the canopy edge. The tailplane halves fit via a 12mm ali tube and two screw tabs a side, driven by two wire pushrods which are linked in the canopy area by a plain soldered joint. The cowling is quite substantial for a far-east kit, a few surface flaws but fine for stand-off scale. A vacum formed radial is supplied, that could take a little paint enhancement but it's a good start. It comes with a full air retract kit and sprung oleos, but cheap wheels and no quick connects to allow for taking the wings off! Inner doors for the UC are fitted and spring loaded open, with an actuating arm that the wheel acts on to close the doors. The tailwheel is a nice sprung articulated unit, except that the mount looks a little frail, an extra bracket or two should fix that. Fittings look quite nice generally, being mouldings with screw pins rather than the usual spring metal or plastic clevises.
So there it is, and there it will stay for a while as I collect hardware for it - unless my Christen Eagle gets stripped of radio and engine! I guess my biggest deciscion is retracts - try the air up - air down units supplied or just fit electrics from the start?

come on Rob make a start

you started yet Rob.

Is it finished yet?

have you started yet?

I've had all the bits out and waved them around making suitable 'vroom' type noises, does that count?
The plan when I ordered it was to put it in the queue after finishing the Frog Mustfire, a PushyCat for the RCM&E joint build and a Jabberwock IV.
Never could stick to plans so I'm acquiring hardware. I'd like to fit something like Hitec 645MGs but that would come to around £150 for a set. MG996Rs have proved ok for me but a bit slow. When I was at the RC Hotel they were using Bluebird servos and reckoned they were reliable so I may just order a few of them unless anyone else has a good suggestion?
Next, retracts. I've never used air retracts, so I'd need to add a suitable pump and gauge plus some sort of quick connects. On the other hand I have used servoless electrics and found that even the cheapo HK units work well in the right sized models. I'd like Lado units, they are really well made but €220 a set against HK all metal at around $90 for 7kg rated units.
Aargh - decisions!

So package #2 arrived, 4 Turnigy 620MG HS 10kg 0.13 secs - they sound good, look very pretty in blue and black and some people seem to rate Turnigy servos so I'll give them a go. I've got a couple of BlueBird servos, I saw they were using them in the large models at the RC Hotel where they have proved reliable, they can go in the mix and I've got a couple of Corona 339MG 5kg midi-servos to fill in any gaps in the setup.
I found some threads for the model on RCU where they've been flying them on 1.20 4 strokes - Laser and OS so I'm still undecided about power. I know I can get my OS 1.20 S-IIIP through our stringent noise test quite easily while my other option, an ASP180FS hasn't come near the required 80dBa at 7 metres yet. I suspect it will fly on the 120 but may be a bit tame, but the 180 will need some serious cannery to get the noise down and I don't feel like chopping the Macchi's nose about to make an exhaust tunnel. I need to work out a way to get a suitable exhaust into the radial cowl if I go for the 180.
One point that was repeated on RCU was that the BlackHorse supplied air retracts are short lived, so in a fit of madness I ordered some 88 degree electrics from Lado. I've used Lados before and they are built to last they need to be for the price they charge!

A little progress to report.
The Lado retracts dropped straight in, except that they are drilled to use 6mm pins where the supplied oleos use 5mm - a bit of shimming fixed that but to get 3 1/4" low bounce wheels in I need to either mount the retracts about 4-5mm further inboard or leave 4-5mm gap between the top of the oleo and the trunnion. Does it matter if there's a few mm of unsupported pin between oleo and trunnion?
The wing servo mounts are the usual ply cover plate with arms glued on the back to screw the servo to. These arms appear to be hot-glued in place. I experienced one of these BH servo mounts coming apart on the big Gilmore at the RC Hotel so I picked out the hot glue on the ones in this kit and force fed some CA in there. Seems pretty solid now.
The tank bay, retract mounts and all exposed wood that is accessible got slathered in epoxy finishing resin, the intricate structure inside the nose made it hard to reach a lot of areas with a brush so I followed that with a couple of good blasts with a Spectrum gloss clear spray can to reach the parts other paints can't. At least the structural joints got dowsed with resin, though the gluing looks pretty good as it comes. The retract mounting ply plates are braced with triangular fillets and seem robust enough (other than not being birch ply).
I've been playing around holding motors in the 200mm dia cowl, the OS 120 fits easily, the ASP 180 would need an ole for the rocker cover, but the big drawback is how to fit a decent size exhaust can in there and how to get the tank low enough for an inverted motor.
As my overtime has been adding up I decided that I needed a treat, so I've solved the engine problem by ordering a Laser 160v for it That'll take about a week to be made and delivered.
Next I'll follow Geoff's lead and fill in the open areas on the flaps. The flaps are a ply outline with a second layer of ply over the front 1/3 forming the hinge spar, with furry hinges glued firmly in place as part of the manufacturing process. They won't pull out and I don't fancy slotting the ply laminate for conventional hinges so I'll go with the furry fellows.
I'm still looking for something like a nosewheel bracket with a 10mm-ish hole to act as an additional tailwheel bracket. The supplied system is supported by two brackets at the top of the leg bolted onto 3mm liteply with about 3" exposed leg providing leverage for the wheel to act on. I'd like it sturdier for our grass field.

one other point on the wheelie bit - the leg covers. They are an ABS type plastic hot glued to the oleo struts, they've been formed to a nice contour to match the wing surface with the wheels up - but they are wrongly aligned. If the covers line up to lie flat against the wing when retracted, then the wheels have massive toe-in. If the wheels line up correctly when down then the cover doesn't lie flat when retracted. Easily cured with a soldering iron on the hot glue securing them but a nuisance.

they do say that without pictures it doesn't exist so here's a couple.
Stumpy - he couldn't see out of the cockpit so I pulled him out and gave him a 3/4" balsa pillow to sit on.
Retracts in, Dulux sample pot Willow plus a dash of Olive green for the Verde Anticorrosione under the flaps




Coo - it really picked up where the paint was still wet when I took the pic!

The flap pushrod supplied is 55mm, the aileron one 75mm. Odd as the 55mm one was a perfect fit for the aileron, Depending which way round you fit the flap horn you need either a 48ish mm or 63mm pushrod for that and not 55mm, luckily I'd got some 3mm studding handy.



Then this morning the postie knocked the door with another box - luvverly stuff, but the 'silencers' ain't 'alf tichy!

that is a very nice engine sir.
looks smashing and will suit the model perfectly.

Lovely engind Rob.

now listen Eric .....NO!!!
The power companies are coping quite well without me charging megawatthours of LiPos.
Bloody engine cost more than most of the cars I've owned, almost sacrilege to bolt it on an ARTF




Almost