The Cyprus peanut scale twin engine F104

Did a little more today

Anyway it's going to look like this lol
Lol

Bloody hell thats impressive! I'd never have thought of using the whole Suzuki as undercarriage!

It looks like one of those rocket cars they run in the Mohave desert! Totally cool plane and totally of the hook transporter!

Today has been spent painting the kitchen, cutting down a palm tree and two plus hours rubbing down the fuselage of the F104 with 240 wet and dry, nearly got half of it done
Hope to get the rest done tomorrow
Now half seven and I'm in bed

Got the rest of it rubbed down ttoday, found a few more places that need filling, seems never ending
Sure there's somebody putting little dings in it after if done it
I I'm put 6 coats of release agent on the canopy plugs for the A10 and the glider, I'll make some moulds in case things go wrong in the vac forming
Also did the nose of the glider to mould it as I may make an interchangeable nose for it with a motor in it

Didn't they turn the F104 into an all weather fighter (at the expense of more German pilots )
Well my F104 has just become all weather plane
Been outside in the most violent thunderstorm and torrential rain, i was in the house sorting the dogs it was outside the shed, i thought about going out in it, then thought bugger it it should be waterproof by now

Iv not been happy with the landing gear legs i did nor the wheels, so i decided ill make some out of carbon fibre, dont know how or if, but lifes a learning curve:whistle:

Ok if got going on the carbon legs
First I made a shuttering roughly the shape I need
When it had cured I stripped away the shutter
Now have to shape it to something0 like the f104s

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The last two pics are after I had shaped it to something like, I had to put a hinge joint in the leg as it will work hopefully like the real one, with the whole leg moving up and down, as you see in the pics I'm using reclaimed air cylinders from the su27 but with springs in to take the compression
I did this with a grinder with it,held in the vice
Problem was the vice is in the shed, carbon dust every where, spent more time cleaning than doing it
I don't like dust
And i dont like this new site and my damn phone, so much trouble posting pictures, they are still not in the right order, ones come up twice and one not at all only thumb nail size

Looks good.
Just out of interest does your retract unit twist the leg through 90 degrees as it retracts? How will the spring unit cope with this motion if it does? Or is there room in the fuselage to accept the wheel "unfolded".

On the full size the 90 degree twist action is performed at the axle end of the leg by a separate linkage so the spring unit is not effected.
It all looks horribly complex and delicate even on the full size!

Interesting that the wheel cover doors do not fully close when the undercarriage is down suggesting the final 'full shut' action is performed in some way by the retraction of the leg itself.

Hi Simon, no they will not twist, hard enough for me to make the legs as is lol, there is acres of room in there to hide the wheels, should be 135mm wheels but im fitting 125mm as that is what i can get at my price, no brakes in them, same as i use on the bucker, im fitting a brake on the nose wheel
Be interesting to see if it all works, just doing it all of the top of my head, the carbon leg seems very strong so hopefully it all works out:unsure:

Been playing with the nose leg to get something that resembles the real one, not to successful
Think I'll struggle to get the main gear door to open via the main legs, the forward one will have there own servosl