Build Log Top Flite P-40E Warhawk Gold Edition kit

[rcdude07]

After grabbing 2 flights on my mCPx v2 and the motor mount on my UMX 300 3D finally giving away beyond repair, I grabbed the sand paper and horizontal stab. After about 30 minutes of sanding yesterday trued up the TE, sheeting ends, and started the curve on the LE. Then glued on the stab tip blocks. Next step will be sanding down the tip blocks to shape, probably working on the LE curve some more. That'll complete the horizontal stab build. The stab finally looks like a flying surface.

 

[rcdude07]

I was able to get back to the building table this weekend for a total of about 4 hours of work. I was able to finish the horizontal stab, build the vertical fin, and sheet the vertical fin. Nothing fancy with this work, sanding on the stab and the typical building of ribs on the fin.

 

[gyro]

I was able to get back to the building table this weekend for a total of about 4 hours of work. I was able to finish the horizontal stab, build the vertical fin, and sheet the vertical fin. Nothing fancy with this work, sanding on the stab and the typical building of ribs on the fin.

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Progress is still progress! Looks like its coming along nicely.

 

[3DNinja]

Looking good!

 

[rcdude07]

Was able to get the vertical fin finished up on Saturday. Hopefully I didn't sand too much off the top as it's supposed to be final shaped with the rudder in place. Also got started on the elevators. The elevators are built up from the die cut elevator base. I got as far as gluing the LE on and getting all of the ribs cut. The ribs are cut from a stick of balsa and I'll be sanding them down to get the correct angle. There's a cross section shown on the plans, so I will probably make a template, draw lines on the ribs for the correct angle, and sand down to the line when the time comes.

 

[SnowDog]

good to see the progress...tried to view larger pictures, but there does not appear to be a larger version...?

 

[rcdude07]

good to see the progress...tried to view larger pictures, but there does not appear to be a larger version...?

Fixed. I was referencing the thumbnails of the pictures on another forum where I uploaded the images. Now I'm referencing the larger images.

 

[rcdude07]

Got the elevator ribs and root blocks glued on over the weekend. Before I glued the LE on both die cut elevator bases I failed to read the "on both sides of the EB mark the rib locations." So I had to eyeball the markings on the bottom side of both elevators. But while gluing them on I eyeballed the placement to get them as parallel as possible to the tops. Next step is to sand them all down to the proper angle. The plans have a nice cross-section so I'll make a template and mark each rib so I don't sand down too much.

 

[SnowDog]

don't you love it when you read the directions like that....after the fact!... :facepalm:

glad to hear you found a good workaround.

 

[rcdude07]

After 2 weeks of not being able to touch any balsa, I was back at it for 2.5 hours yesterday. My work included making the template to attempt to get the correct slope on the elevator ribs, using a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel to get close, and lots of sanding with 220 grit paper to get really close. I also taped the elevators to the stab and sanded down the stab tip blocks to match/be even with the elevators. Later I was able to glue the torque rod doublers in, these are used to create a thicker section of wood for installing the copper tube that connects the elevators together, much later in the build (after covering) the torque rod will be epoxied in.