gow589

My Feedback: (1)

I've seen people hook pvc to car exhaust to bend it.

mitchilito

My Feedback: (7)

You know when the project gets to the hoist stage you're close to done. I used a $99 electric hoist from Harbor Freight - my second one. An amazing device for the money.


Trying out the sling hardware on my original hoist.

It works

Bolted into the concrete of the foundation!

This is the new hoist location. Looks really happy!

mitchilito

My Feedback: (7)

It's time for the final piece of the puzzle - the cockpit. Scale detailing has never been my focus. As a matter of fact, this will be the first time (in 50 years) I've ever even detailed a cockpit. For the Bear I'm not shooting for maximum scale fidelity. More "sport scale" will be the plan. Plus I intend to have all the cockpit details built into the top hatch so when it comes off so does the pilot, the tub all and all the detailing. Phoenix models employed this process on my Hanger 9 MB339 jet and I just love it. And of course, it has to be light weight.

The rest of this aircraft is completely ready to fly.


I started off by edge gluing 1/16" light sheet balsa then I fiberglassed both sides: one side with 3/4oz cloth and the other side 3.5oz cloth. Just strong enough for the job and fairly light. I'll use this to make the structure of the tub

WarBirds Pilot. Here I'm determining tub depth.

mitchilito

My Feedback: (7)

Making a little progress on the cockpit. It's SLOW going because 1) it's like a jigsaw puzzle but all the pieces are black and 2) this is something I'm not very good at. However I'm kind of happy with the direction it's headed. The plan is for the whole thing to be a sort of "unitized cartridge" that pops in and out. I'm also making most of the components easily removable (mostly) in case I sell this beast (which is quite possible - even likely) in the future and the new owner wants a more traditional scale cockpit.

I had a cockpit kit (for a Gruman Hellcat) from Dynamic Balsa kicking around and I'm using some fun detail parts from that including the seat pan. Remember, the full scale Rare Bare is highly modified so it's cockpit looks pretty much nothing like the warbird's. With that said, I've had no luck finding many good pictures of it so I'm kind of on my own.


This weighs next to nothing!

Warbirds 15" pilot. Poor guy's been through a terrible crash where I lost his oxygen mask and sunshield.

I didn't think John Penny wore a mask but he actually did - so Warbirds is sending me a new setup. Great guys.

Back deck. 1mm balsa with a top laminate of card paper. Super light.


As I said, it will be removable.


Wasn't bad enough he had to suffer through a terrible crash but I chopped his feet off for this install!!