Hellcat Build Guillows #503

[goose]

I removed the cowl by sanding the inside of the joint,working around the inside several times until the cowl fell off. Then the base was sanded until the fuzzies were removed. The test fit looks OK.

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[goose]

This is also the first nose block that I have built for a Guillows kit. I eye-balled the size, added another piece of balsa to the bulkhead with the grain running at a 90 degree angle to the former for a base. Then four thicknesses of balsa were laminated, with the interior two as squares, and the exterior two as round. After a lot of sanding and test fitting, it looks to fit pretty well.

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[goose]

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[goose]

Sorry I am a little slow at the updating, still on the bench and not flying yet, but getting closer.

First cover the tail surfaces since they are easy. I used Easy Built tissue, medium blue.

[goose]

Then the wing.
One piece of tissue on the bottom.

[goose]

Then the top of the wing was covered in five pieces, starting with the center panel, then the two outside panels, and finally the wingtips were covered with wet tissue.

[goose]

This was my first attempt at wet covering a large surface. I spent a lot of time making sure that the fuselage was smooth and had no sharp points that might poke through the tissue when it was covered wet.

[goose]

I ended up removing a section of the tissue under the wing area, and re-doing it. Looks pretty good

[goose]

Since the wing was assembled as three panels, I shrunk each panel independantly while they were pinned down to the building board to minimize warping. First the center section.

[goose]

And then the outside panels, with a 1/16" washout at the wingtips. To control the water, I used a wide, soft brush and wet the surface carefully.

[goose]

And shrunk and dry.

[goose]

And I just had to get a picture of it all assembled at this point.

[Pauli72]

Good lookin' Hellcat Goose!

When covering the 3 seperate top sections of the wing with the blue tissue, I saw that you used a brush and water. My question is did you add alcohol to the water, or anything to help shrink the tissue? Or just 50/50 water white glue?

Looking forward to hearing how this little guy performs in the air.

[Bill Gaylord]

Looks nice. I remember this kit had some of the best die-cut parts I ever came across. Accurate and well cut. Almost fell out of the parts sheets and fit like laser cut.
I saw a few of these on You Tube last night that flew really well with rubber power. One of these days I'll have to get back on another. I built one with full weight Monokote some years ago and gave it away. About the only issue with this one is tailweight, like all shorter nosed radial jobs.

[goose]

Good lookin' Hellcat Goose!

When covering the 3 seperate top sections of the wing with the blue tissue, I saw that you used a brush and water. My question is did you add alcohol to the water, or anything to help shrink the tissue? Or just 50/50 water white glue?

Looking forward to hearing how this little guy performs in the air.

Pauli72, Just used straight water for the shrink. I did use a little water/glue mix around the wing openings since you have to cut out a section of the tissue for the wings to go through. Flying is still a couple of weeks away, need to get it assembled and ballanced, then the test flights when the wind dies down.