Corsair Racer Design & Alpha Build - Page 2

**Willja67** · #11 01-27-2008, 06:10 PM

Looks good Ron! Boy I'm getting a two for one deal here:D

**member_3** · #12 01-28-2008, 08:45 AM

Piece "D4" has some extraneous bits at the forward upper corner that are not needed on the new design - see before and after photos below.

I started skinning with piece D2 (not the recommended sequence) and had no problems (I thought). Next was D4 and the effect of an earlier assembly error came to light. Piece B16 (forward cockpit liner) provides a joiner strip and inner cockpit sides between A3 (forward cockpit bulkhead) and A4 (instrument panel). Part of the build thread done by Will on the old forum indicated that the upper ends of B16 should be placed UNDER the tabs of B2 (main cockpit liner). If you glue B16 over the tabs (as I did) this has the effect of slightly increasing the width of the fuselage at the instrument panel. On another model this might not be noticeable but Will's design is so accurate that it becomes significant when joining the next skin (D4) which has to go from cockpit ledge, under the fuselage to opposite cockpit ledge AND match panel lines on D2.

The increased girth caused by my mistake with B16 meant that D4 seemed undersized. MY crude "solution" was to split it at the bottom centerline and put a filler strip to cover the gap. THIS PART DOES NOT NEED REDESIGN - THIS WAS A BUILDER ERROR!

Part D5 does require some changes, though. The top rear corners no longer meet at the centerline because of the new cockpit and turtledeck fairing. My solution was to trim areas indicated in green. Will, this equates to a line from the forward upper corner of D5 to the topmost panel line on D6. I will have an assembled shot of this later today.

I made a joiner strip for the rear of D5 and another for the rear of D6. I am not a fan of the joiner strip on #57 thet is at the forward edge of D6. I think next time I'll make a strip for the rear edge of D5 instead so that the joining of the two segments is less stressful.

**Don Boose** · #13 01-28-2008, 09:32 AM

This is a VERY interesting and informative build thread. You sure are getting a lot of high-quality modeling done lately, Ron -- in between peddling models and patent medicines off the back of a wagon and the occasional patch of creative writing.

Don

**member_3** · #14 01-28-2008, 09:34 AM

OK - it's later today and here is the overall view of things I have been rambling about. In the photo below (sorry about the pink stripe - I was bored...) I have annotated the fuselage skin segments with the equivalent part number from #57. D2 and D3 are OK as is. D4 and D5 need modification as indicated in green. A new joiner strip was added at the rear edge of D5 and another new one at the rear edge and centerline joint of D6.

Back at #57, things are gloomy. I started skinning with D4 (recommended) then assembled D5 + D6 (Will, you might consider putting the join strip at the rear of D5 rather than the front of D6) with a little stress and bungled seams (see arrows). I then added the D5/D6 skin to the fuselage assembly. Bulkhead A6 kept snagging on the D5/D6 join strip inside and that had me sweating a bit. I finally got things in place (more or less) and then it dawned on me that I had made the same error with B16 on this one - D4 was stretched a little which made it impossible to match the white stripe. I glued D5/D6 in as they were and then test fitted D2 - of course it could not fit properly because of B16 so my "solution" here was to cut though the B2/B16 overlap just ahead of A4 (instrument panel) and then shave off the excess thickness on the edge of A4. It looks like D2 will now settle in almost perfectly and fortunately the hack job is not visible through the cockpit opening. Will, I think the B16 thing is important enough to be made a note on the cockpit diagram on Page 3 or as a warning in the assembly instructions. I am afraid very few builders will see your build thread at Zealot (and the photos are all missing anyway.)

The tale of the "wounded" Corsair racers will continue...

**member_3** · #15 01-28-2008, 01:34 PM

OOPS - all references to D2 should have been D1. D2 (R&L) are pieces that join D1 and D3 and provide glue tabs for the wing root. Chalk it up to staying up late...or being an old fart...or not paying attention...or booze.

**Willja67** · #16 01-28-2008, 07:08 PM

I'm impressed by your speed Ron! I'm sorry about the inadequate instructions. Documentation and paper work has always been a weak spot of mine. I'll see what I can do to help others avoid the mistake, thanks for being kind enough to mark the pitfall.

**member_3** · #17 01-28-2008, 10:40 PM

OK - first let me get this out of the way...

"My what a big cowl you have!", said Little Red Riding Hood. "The better to hide my 'motives'.", the Big Bad Wolf replied. Bah-dum-bum.

After the last set of photos I had decided that this would be designated build Alpha-One. There were enough building errors that I was unhappy with the result and did not think it reflected well on the (so far) pretty much flawless design. Having made that decision I charged ahead and did a quick and sloppy on the new nose. No design problems were detected and I will pick up the build thread at the start of the nose construction once build Alpha-Two has reached that stage - hopefully within the week. At any rate here is the new schnozzola and again, all gaps, bumps, wrinkles and dings are the fault of the builder and not the designer. Hopefully they will all be gone on build Alpha-Two.

**Willja67** · #18 01-28-2008, 10:57 PM

Ron I really appreciate this! I just realized I don't like the carb intake. I was looking at a Seafury racer with a R-4360 and the intake is a whole lot narrower so I'm going to redesign it and have it taper from back to front. So you other 2 if you haven't got this far yet don't build the front of the cowl new pieces will be on their way shortly.

**member_3** · #19 01-30-2008, 06:33 PM

Just when you thought it was safe to visit this thread again...ba-dummm, ba-dummm, blood in the water! We're gonna need a bigger hangar!

Look, Ma - the lines match up on BOTH sides and there's no ugly patch on the bottom!

This is the Alpha-two build and it has gone more smoothly than my last botched attempt. One thing different - I used thinner stock for lamination (more like the 1/32" the designer recommends) and that improved fore-and-aft fit. I also was particularly careful about cutting to remove the line on all exterior cuts and all joining slots. That seems to have solved the circumferential fit issues. Since Will is redoing the long snout I did not redo that and instead went ahead and put on the canopy and turtledeck. The fit on it is perfect with only my glue-laden digits mucking things up. Y'all enjoy the photos!

Will, I assume the tail end has no changes from the #57/#74 - if not, I am not going to mess with it. I'll put this build on hold until you have redone the front end and pass on the new parts.

**Willja67** · #20 01-30-2008, 07:25 PM

The tail cone is exactly the same as are the horizontal stabs. The vertical stab is the same except for a fairing on the leading edge. I almost have the rest of the parts ready the wing root intakes are giving me a little grief but will be done tonight or tommorrow and you can have at the rest of it. good job btw

Just one minor comment, I designed the aft and of the canopy (colored blue) to go under the forward portion of the turtle deck. I have one question in my mind, I can't remember if I shaved enough off the former to account for that. Also now that I look at the pics a little more carefully it looks like you have the canopy about 1/8" too far forward if the tab on the canopy was tucked under the turtle deck it would be just right.