V-1 Rebuild 2020

I find it hard to believe that she would commit suicide as 'pact' after 37 years of a very successful post war life.
More likely she was advised of her heart condition and realised she would not be able to continue to fly which had been her overriding passion from the age of 17. She died in her flat in Frankfurt.
If it was indeed suicide the death certificate 'heart attack' was to avoid further publicity considering her close past Nazi associations and a public critical attitude to the performance of the democratic German military later in her life.

The start of vertical plank construction of the rear fuselage.

It looks a most unlikely way to do it but it does work - honest.

.....Anyway, looking good Simon, I agree sometimes building in fresh air is the only way, I put the formers on the slicker the same way.

Success!

At this point it is rigid enough to be handled which makes things a bit easier but the down side is each plank now requires more and more 'shaping' to get it to fit neatly.
Next bit. The four formers for the shorter uninterrupted section of the forward fuselage.

The nose and tail beyond these sections will have to be only part built to give access to install the ESC, rx, elevator servo & battery box in the nose and to add the tail plane and fix the elevator pull/pull wires in the tail.
The EDF pulse jet will be added last.
Well that's the plan.

The rear fuselage planking complete.

The first former has been removed, important to do this before the POR get really firm, as it was only required for construction.
The next step is to join it to the centre section.

Pressing on.
The front and rear 'uninterrupted' sections added to the centre.

Next is the tail section. That will have to have an 'access' to be able to fix the elevator pull/pull wires.
The set of tail formers and the tail cone that goes right on the end.

looking good Simon, just found out there is new supplier of rocket motors so my vision of a free flight version ( like the original!!) is a step closer

Free flight V-1?
Hmmm. Of course the original was in effect gyro stabilised. It did not fly straight, or even remain truly stable aerodynamically. It had no dihedral but it did have the advantage of the majority of its weight (fuel + warhead) symmetrical about the fuselage centre line with a low roll inertia (the pulse jet perched on top gave significant 'fin' area but was relatively light) so it managed with a small rudder to provide roll corrections.
Apart from any aerodynamic stability issues a solid rocket in place of the pulse jet, particularly in a free flight version, will put weight where it is not really wanted.
I will follow your project with interest.

The fuselage tail section and tail plane.

Access on the underside to the elevator horn

Nose section next.

IF I do build one it will be from the vmc Richard Crossley kit, its a proven model, helped by a little non-scale dihedral.
Any way yours is coming on a treat Simon.

It now actually looks like an aeroplane.

Although the nose section was planked vertically in one piece like the rest of the fuselage its formers were printed in two halves and were just POR glued together. This allowed the completed nose to be split in half once the planking was complete.

The lower half will be glued to the fuselage to give somewhere for the 'electrics' to be installed. The top half will modified to incorporate the battery hatch and will eventually be glued in place to restore the full strength.

Next step is to build the front support and fin for the EDF 'pulse' jet.

Getting there! The 'pulse jet' glued in place.

It is temporarily braced with masking tape until the glue sets.
The EDF itself is supported by a substantial printed 'strut' that goes right down through the fuselage and transfers the thrust onto the face of a fuselage former. It and the EDF wires will be surrounded by an streamlined cover.

The EDF mounting complete and the 1/2 shell nose section in place.

Working out how to install the 'electrics' in the nose is proving to be quite a challenge as the printed formers are almost impossible to modify in situ. The problem is the battery and the ESC both require a specific size hole to be cut in the skin and the formers get in the way.
The best solution has been to redesign and replace the required formers - thank goodness for the relative ease with which a glued in former can be removed.
Two of the original semi circular nose formers adapted to support the battery box and the ESC.

The elevator servo and rx need no hole in the skin so only require simple supporting in the nose - I hope.

I spent yesterday organising suitable locations for all the battery, ESC, Ele servo and even tested them with a servo tester to make sure they still worked.

I then organised a suitable position for the micro DSMX RM601 rx so its diversity antenna has a chance of reasonable reception.

Before gluing the nose on I decided to connect it all up and.......
the rx doesn't work!
No LED on the rx and just beeps from the motor. this coupled with a slight 'burned' electric smell suggest it is probably 'toast' (pun intended).
I can't remember if it was the original rx in the V-1 but I have a sneaking suspicion that got used a coupe of weeks ago in the Ballerina.
As I had already built a suitable mount for it I ordered another from Banggood as they are about the only supplier who still has any of them, the rest either 'out of stock' or 'discontinued'. I wonder why! Perhaps buying another was not such a good idea but they are cheap for what they are.
There will thus be a bit of a delay.

Looking Good Simon ( still think it would look good as a V1 ).
Not sure you would get a burnt smell from a rx? surely it's solid state and encapsulated ? I'm probably talking sphericals as normal!!

Paul, yes![badass]