Alex48

The kit is missing the ventral fins that fit just forward of the wing. Did you guys get these or are they missing too? I only ask as they are not in the 'whats included' section of the instructions If you did do you mind posting a photo of them please?

Cheers, Alex

MNModels

Alex,

The manual was done on the 1st production model. No nose hatch, no speed brake, no sliding slats etc.... The ventral fins however was done and should be in the box. If you require to split the fuselage - the ventral fins should not be glues permanetly...

Busy updating the manual...

Morne

Alex48

Hi Morne

[&o] Just found them.....In fact Ali found them which is embarrassing as he's sat at a computer over 70 miles away telling me where stuff is in my workroom. I suppose this is what happens when the baby decides its more fun to stay awake all night and play.....

Apologies to SM as you did put them in the box but you still didn't paint the gear

Cheers, Alex

Alex48

The horizontal and vertical stabs are now finished. I've etch primed the linkages then used an airbrush to blend it all in. It great to see SM have supplied some tins of paint with this kit as it makes life so much easier, no matter how careful you are there are always going to be paint chips etc. To have the correct paint is a must IMO. I'm not sure if this is something requested with this kit or standard, if not it should be. It just makes for a neater job...

Alex48

Back in post 11 I talked about the damage to the canopy frames. Carbon tow on the inside with an epoxy slurry mix, filled, primed, riveted then resprayed accordingly. The carbon tow and epoxy mix is now a mod I do as standard on these builds as the canopy frames are always on the delicate side. By doing this it makes them incredibly strong and no longer susceptible to damage.

Alex48

Another area of the model that wasn't up to the standard of the rest are the inside of the gear doors. Over-spray, drops of glue and so on was going to spoil the hard work put into painting and weathering the gear so all these bits have been cleaned up and sprayed the same colour as the gear ready for weathering and a clearcoat. Ive resprayed the lips that the gear doors sit on as they had loads of paint chips where the factory had hacked away bits of fiberglass to get the gear to fit. Nothing too noticeable but at least now it will stand up to a closer inspection

Alex48

The broken cockpit tubs have been patched up purely to get them to fit so when the new ones arrive I'll be able to neatly and quickly cut them to shape. I had to cut the main tub in half as I want it removable without taking the canopy frame off. The cockpits look OK but don't go any closer than 6ftn or you will quickly become disappointed. If It were mine I'd remake the whole lot for a bit of scale bling but its not and time is of the essence.... The cockpit is most definitely not worth the full asking price but for $99 when purchased in the combo deal I think it gives a half decent effect for not much work which after all is why we buy these ARF's.... The photos of it on the SM website look loads better but then I suppose they would....

scottkieper

My Feedback: (10)

bad snowstorm today so i did a little work

Alex48

Hi Scott

Looking good......

Have you tried to cycle the gear yet? Before I started to paint it I put a pump on each gear in turn to check the operation. The rams don't unlock unless you put pressure on the ram itself can't see how they are going to work once put back together? All three rams are the same so I'm presuming this s normal and all will become clear once the gear is installed (I hope)

Are yours the same? Can you get them to work without putting any pressure on the ram.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers, Alex

F106A

My Feedback: (2)

Hi,
Can someone give me the diameter of the main and nose wheels.
I'm looking for some 5" main wheels and I'm hoping the A-10 wheels will work.
Thanks,
Jon

Alex48

Hi Jon

I could only measure the uninflated tyres as the wheels are in pieces at the moment. The mains are 5 1/4 inchs and the nose 3 3/4 inchs.

HTH

Alex

F106A

My Feedback: (2)

Hi Alex,
Thanks for the info.
When you get a chance, could you measure the axel diameter.
Thanks again,
Jon

Alex48

Will do...

Likai

Hello Alex:
The retract cylinder is designed to operate with 2-way air-valve. Please connnect two nipples of cylinder to a 2-way valve( electrical or mechanical), it will work fine. The the cylinder in attached pictures is used in A-4 nose gear and same design as the cylinder used in A-10.

Alex48

Hi Likai

Thanks for posting, alls clear now, just one of the niggles that was bugging me, thanks again.

Alex

Alex48

Hi Jon

Cant find my calipers but on the ruler (I think they're metric bearings) the inside diameter on the first stage axel is 10mm and the outer part of the axel 8mm. But they're just bearings so you could buy some that suit your needs...

Alex48

On to the deceleron's now..................what I thought was going to be a pain in the ars* turned out to be relatively easy. I've used 8911's with a heavy duty nylon horn, two ball links either side connected to M3 rods with clevis ends into carbon horns. They're pretty much slop free............I did find I had to adjust the rods to different lengths to get the speed brake to shut in the correct place. The aileron is live hinged along with both the upper and lower parts of the speed brake. The servo for the speed brakes is inside the aileron with the aileron servo moving the whole lot.......the pictures will explain things better. I'm impressed with the ease of operation and installation. The edges needed relieving to allow the correct amount of movement with the deceleron deployed.

Alex48

Forgot to post these pics of the real deceleron for comparison. Although the inside of them are the same color as the airframe I've been asked to paint them red which I think will work well on the model especially at shows as it will make the feature more visible and be perfectly believable as long as your not a scale buff.

pilot tw

Hi, Alex

paint the inside of speed brake ? good idea, red ? white ? gray? or same color as the airframe ?

here are pictures that on future the customers can select which one? if customers want ?

Best regards

Anton

Alex48

That would be good Anton.

We're going to go with red on this one, should look good.....

Couch Potato

Nah, flash some pink !

Alex48

Be entertaining to see his reaction first time he pops the brakes open

WhoDaMan

My Feedback: (164)

CraigG

My Feedback: (40)

Alex,

How are you (or Ali I suppose) setting up the actuation of the speedbrakes? I would suggest something other than just full open/shut unless they are only going to be used after landing. The ones on the full scale were fully porportional and we rarely used them in flight except to "fan" them momentarily during a rejoin to kill a few knots of airspeed.

An interesting characteristic about the A-10 speedbrakes is that when deployed, even just a few degrees, they increase the roll effectiveness dramatically. Never really understood why that was but would sometimes crack them open just a touch if I wanted a fast roll rate for any reason. Never left them open for long since most of the time we were trying to increase or preserve what airspeed we had.

I think a slider would be the ideal control on the r/c version.

Enjoying the build thread and your comments.

Craig

snobird

My Feedback: (36)

Scottkiepe, what did you paint the inside of the 10 with ? looks great