Murph's Models Vans RV-6 Build

[mbauer]

When I started the paint project for my RV-6 at the "Other Things We Do & Make" had no idea that would soon be doing a build thread for one of Aaron Murphy's models.

This is where it all started: Using Model Design Skills For Airplane Paint Job

Aaron saw what I was up to and decided to create a new model. His design skills far surpass mine! After he was done he shared a link to download the model. So here is the build thread....

But first lets talk about what a Vans RV-6 is:

Homebuilt aircraft kit designed by Richard VanGrunsven. Mass produced as a kit, there are more "Vans" kit planes flying than any other homebuilt or amateur built airplanes. Last count was over 10,000! The RV-6 kit is no longer in production, it was replaced by the RV-7 kit.

To date there are more RV-6 airplanes flying than his other designs, over 2600+.

Mine was finished in 1998 by a fellow that was an AP/IA. AP is a rating for an airplane mechanic, that allows him to work on Airframes & Power plants. The IA allows him to inspect said work, and the work of other mechanics with the AP rating.

I remember reading about Vans first designs in a magazine that is long gone now; Homebuilt Airplanes , it was soon replaced by a still published magazine called, Kitplanes.

Vans started selling a single seat called the RV3. STOL performance and fully acrobatic. His next design was the RV-4, a two seat version of the RV-3, STOL performance and aerobatic qualified!

Customers began asking for a side by side, instead of the tandem RV-4, where the pilot sits up front and the passenger reclines behind him.

Vans came up with the side by side RV-6 model. Only 3-mph slower than the RV-4 on the same horse power!

RV-4 & RV-6 Specs:
both have 23 ft wingspan
Rv-4 is 2" longer @ 20ft 4 inch
RV-4-height is also 2" higher @ 5ft 5in
Wing area is the same @ 110 sq ft
Weight of the RV-4 is 913lbs, the RV-6 is 965lbs
Gross Weight for the RV-4: 1500lbs; GW RV-6: 1600lbs (mine is rated for 1800lbs if I maintain proper fuel balance)

Performance 160 HP (HP rating of my Lycoming 0320 engine) :
Max Speed: RV-4 = 205mph; RV-6 = 202mph
Cruise @75% Power @ 8000ft: RV-4 = 193mph RV-6 = 191mph
Stall speed at GW: RV-4 = 54mph; RV-6 = 55mph
Take Off Solo: RV-4 = 300ft; RV-6 = 300ft (a football field)
Landing Distance Solo: RV-4 = 300ft; RV-6 = 300ft
Rate of Climb Solo: RV-4 = 2050 ft/minute; RV-6 = 1900ft/min
Max Ceiling Solo: RV-4 =24,000 ft; RV-6 = 21,500 ft
Range @75% power @ 8000ft altitude: RV-4 = 640 miles; RV-6 = 775 miles (RV-6 carries more fuel 38 gal vs., 32 gallons)

So you can see they are very STOL capable airplanes, great for traveling as well.

Ok enough of the number stuff, here are some build photos:

1st photo is plastic bag for small parts-also shown cutting out various parts:


2nd photo plastic bag filling up and using scissors to cut curved parts:


3rd photo pre-roll forming the canopy, notice the parts laying around, all parts have been cut out at this stage, now pre-forming the parts:


4th photo Canopy glued, working on the engine air cooling intake at this stage also prop spinner parts are glued waiting to be attached to each other:


5th photo prop attached to the spinner, note that the lines Aaron marked for the prop would have it "reverse pitch"-they have been added for a counter-rotating engine like my 0320 does:


6th photo-Lots of parts pre-rolled, the carb intake has been rolled and glued using the wood dowel. I'll add a photo of the tools I use later, for now here is photo 6:


7th photo- construction continues; time for the engine exhaust pipes, very small parts, used a 2mm carbon fiber rod for pre-forming the roll you can see the other and the diagram Aaron provides for instructions-great reference!:


8th photo- finished exhaust pipes and for the really small parts and cutting accurate lines I use this jewelers magnifying head gear, it even has a LED light system, purchased years ago from Harbor Freight for less than $12.:


9th photo - glued parts for the engine cowling that lead to the spinner and prop, note: eventually the gray areas will be cut out per the instructions you can see where the combined parts will look like and their location on the diagram provided by Aaron-once again perfect reference:


10th and last photo for this post-more to follow: Cutting off the gray areas per instructions, also of note is the wire shown-it is a thin tungsten wire used for TIG welding that is .040 in dia-stiff and works great for really small tubes!:


Thank you Aaron for creating this model-could not find a Vans RV homebuilt anywhere on the web!

Parts fit is outstanding! I did scale the model for 11x17 size sheet though.

More to follow,
Mike

[mbauer]

Thread two of Murph's RV-6 model.

I don't have the best build skills, the final model is together ,but, if I had gone slower it would look lots better. Rushed to get it done this weekend, still have plenty to do to get ready for winter.

Was an un-expected pleasure to take a break from drawing future city boundaries and paint graphics, also working on a heater for the cabin of my RV-6-plasma cut some pieces of 26-GA stainless steel that originally was designed and fit tested using cardstock-will be a new thread eventually-paper model design skills again!

More photos of the build

Photo 11 is final cutting of the "Gray areas", you can see it held the shape needed for the final fit, once the engine cowling is complete:


12th photo shows the engine cooling inlet getting the glue tabs attached. I did this backwards, lots easier to add the glue tabs when the part is flat before pre-forming, on some of the next photos you will see the difference:
Wrong way to add glue tabs:


13th photo - different view of the hard way to glue them, note that the part is on a sheet with the original part showing before being cut out.


14th photo- complete part with glue tabs attached:


15th photo-once again doing things the hard way-easier to form the parts add the tabs and then glue joining parts together.


16th photo-finished joining the first two fuselage parts, came out ok, but found an easier way to do things:


17th photo notice that the glue tabs have been added? Now easy to glue part and then using the glue tabs fit to the prior combined pieces:


18th photo-attaching the glue tabs to the fuselage piece, this part has two; one in the front and the final one getting Aleenes turbo tacky glue to attach to the back side; Way easier to build and attach the glue tabs, DOH!:


19th photo-complete fuselage part ready to form/glue and then add to the combined parts so far:


20th photo-Last fuselage section ready for attachment:


More to follow. Parts fit is still excellent, however I did not use the internal formers as supplied by Aaron, tried a couple of different places to fit them, but they just didn't seem to work well, so I hand formed the fuselage as I went. Came out ok in the end, but using the formers might have fixed a couple of issues that the final model has!

More photos on the way,
Mike

[mbauer]

For my build threads I like to complete the model, taking photos along the way. So, yes, this model is finished. In the past I would start a build thread and then if things changed or lost interest never finished the models. Now it is easier to finish and add comments/photos as things progress.

More construction photos:

21st photo-Wing spar added to fuselage, tail-feathers in place-just glue and hold them in position. This photo also shows the tools used for construction and cutting.
The embosser is used for scoring fold lines, sometimes called a stylist , hobby knife and a quilting plastic ruler is used-it has a thick edge that helps guide the knife when cutting, helps to keep the cut vertical and not slanted.
Added anti-slip matt to the back of the ruler so it doesn't move around when using as a guide for scoring or cutting.
Also shown is the Monoject dentist tool used for gluing. Bought several on ebay for cheap-dentist's use them for flushing with water. Plastic nozzle is bent and is an easy way to apply glue, control is outstanding: want lots of glue apply pressure, just a little? back off the pressure on the plunger:


22nd photo - Belly photo of fuselage:


23rd photo-Closeup of the embosser I use for scoring, notice has two different sized balls on either end. You can also see the anti-slip matt under the small orange triangle straight edge used for cutting/scoring, it was attached using 3M super 77 spray adhesive-works great doesn't move around when cutting.:


24th photo-time to turn some flat tires into round ones! Note photo shows one completed wheel/tire-while you can see what it looked like before the cutting forming process:


25th photo shows- Tire pre-rolled and ready for gluing. These go together quick and easy, part fit is outstanding! I did edge color the tires, but not the rest of the model. At issue; let a neighbor kid have my color markers, forgot to buy more...You can see how the wood dowel was used to wrap the tire for pre-forming:


26th photo-Tried to show the edge coloring-can you see on the right side it is black except for the part that turns towards the tire tread piece? Didn't turn out as well as I had hoped:


27th photo -Tire almost done, final glue added just before folding over and holding in place:


28th photo-just happens to be the 100th I took during this build sequence; cutting out the wheel pants and landing gear parts, small items and decided to wait until they were needed so they wouldn't get lost:


29th photo-Wheel pant with tabs and pieces scored for folding-then bent ready for glue:


30th photo shows use of the embosser to score the fold lines, makes it easy to fold the tabs for gluing-big help during construction:


More photos on the next posting. Once again the part fit was outstanding for everything so far!

More photos soon,
Mike

[mbauer]

Final steps of the build. Just need to attach a few items and will be done.

31st photo-Gluing wheel pants:


32nd photo-completed wheel pant and the pieces that it was made from before cutting them out, part is easy to make, looks complicated when it is flat...:


33rd photo-Main gear leg and fairings cut out-looks strange but designed very well to do its job, at first I was going to add a toothpick to help support the model when on the gear, don't need to, Aaron did a great job of designing a heavy duty gear leg!:


34th photo-pre-rolling the gear leg, actually just a really small tube with angled ends to fit properly to the fuselage and wheel pant-gray areas are where the fairings attach for added strength to the landing gear:


35th photo- finished gear leg ready to go:


36th photo-Carb intake inlet glued to fuselage/engine cowling-fit is perfect!!! :


37th photo-final construction of landing gear-only thing to add is the prop and spinner, plus exhaust pipes:


Well construction is complete-next post will have some photos of finished model.

Aaron did a great job of creating the model, part fit is excellent and overall look is a really good rendition of a VANS RV-6.

More photos follow,
Mike

[mbauer]

Murphy's RV-6 was a fun break from what I've been doing lately. Been awhile since I've built a mode at all, did a semi-model to see what my paint graphic would look like, but it was a simple model.

On Murph's website he has a white version of this model so others can paint their own version. I plan to order and download it for myself.

Thank you Aaron! For supplying a model of the proposed paint job for my RV. If everything goes well, you might see me in the Phoenix area next June when I fly down to visit my son! He lives in Glendale, the airport is one I can fly too without much hassle.

Final Photos:

Glue almost dry-first time on the landing gear:


Side view-gear hasn't collapsed yet, must be good to hold the model weight:


Used a flash for this photo-kind'a washed out the detail a little-front view sitting on the carpet, rotated/glued the prop so it is in the actual position all Lycoming normally stop at:


Left side rear photo showing the paint graphic-updated now in progress, this shows a great basic view of what it will look like:


Last photo-shows the belly, engine exhaust pipes as well as the flat overall form of the bottom fuselage:


Thank you Aaron-fantastic design, real fond of the paint scheme!

Attaching a photo that is a photo-shopped pict of my RV and myself parked at the Seward, Alaska airport last summer, Rockwood did an outstanding job!

Mike

[Rata]

Wow Mike! Nice job on this (new to me) aeroplane.

[Knife]

Bring your model along to all your RV fly-ins. Seems to me if you can build an RV, you can handle constructing a Murph’s model. Maybe you can get more people into the hobby, and we can get more repaints out of it. Also let us know how the full size repaint goes.

Hope you have fun with the new airplane. Be sure to post some photos of your adventures. I cleaned out the garage and found a few projects I need to finish up.

[mbauer]

For anyone who wants to try their own re-paint of the RV-6 model shown, scroll down the page until you see the RV-6 listed for $1.50 it is the clean version you can paint using several graphic programs. It is just above the Military models-listed under the Private ones.

https://murphs-models.webs.com/repainter-s-nook

Mike