Scorpion Racing

A little slow on the front lines this week, but I did get the horizontal stab in primer. I am currently sanding and filling it and getting it ready for paint. I decided to finish shape each wing panel prior to joining them and adding the tips, so that I can use my templates at the root and tip to insure accuracy in the airfoil shape. I feel this is worth a couple days now, so that I can save a lot more time later.

Hosting a race this weekend, so work will be pretty much on hold till Monday night! [&o] But really, isn't that why we do this anyways!

EXPRESSO PYLON RACER

Hey there Granpa Scott. To busy changing diapers .Have fun at your race this weekend , say Hi to all my fla buds for me .

Scorpion Racing

OK guys, recovered from the race but I have been a little tied up trying to get some stuff ready for the race next month. I decided to go ahead and cut out two full sized wing templates (root & tip) and shape the main wing panels prior to joining them and adding the tips. This will cost me a little time before I can finish the fillets on the fuselage plugs, but I feel I will have a better end product by not rushing the main wing shaping. I will get some pictures up once I begin joining the wing panels and adding the wingtips. It's killing me not to rush it now to get it in the air, but I am more interested in having a quality plug to mold so I will have a better finished product in the end. The good part about this, is when the main wing is completed, I will have everything I need to build prior to molding.

more to come soon...

Scorpion Racing

Well, I got the horizontal tail modified and re-shaped so I decided to go ahead with the vertical stab, rudder and fillets. You can see in the first picture that I decided to remove the original vertical stab. The profile shape had a little more taper than the full scale plane and my plans, so I decided to cut it off and try again! The airfoil was correct, so I cut it off just above where the fillet will tie it back into the fuselage. The horizontal stab, after being tweaked a little also () was re fitted, aligned, plumbed and squared and a piece of clear packing tape applied to simulate the paint and aid in keeping the fillet from permanently bonding it to the plug. The horizontal stab is ready for final primer, paint and then off to be molded! You can see in the following photos the fillets being formed, the horizontal stab being removed. The rudder is added, followed by the vertical stab blank and then final shaping begins. This was started Monday night, worked on each night after work, and I got to the final picture stage at lunchtime today! (It's good to be off on Fridays! ) As soon as the Spackle set up, I will finish shaping the vertical stab and the fillets.

Off to do some more sanding and shaping...

Scorpion Racing

OK, I am done for tonight! The first shot shows the bottom of the horizontal stab fillets being formed. I used a Mylar strip backed with thin balsa and some wood strips wedged in the stab cavity to hold the shape for the fillets. Since the shape was formed into the plug earlier, this is ample to form the short fillets. I also got the airfoil shaped into the vertical stab and the outline correct this time! The horizontal stab is now in final primer and drying. I also have been working on the cockpit area some. I decided to round the front off some, as I would like to be able to create an optional clear canopy for Invictus and the rounder shape allows for a clearer canopy (not to mention it makes it look more like the real one! ).

She is starting to look more like a racer every day now, and I am getting anxious to get the main wing molded into the fuselage plug and get her all glassed. Still quite a bit of work before that point!! []

sahartman21

Looking Great!

I really appreciate you taking the time to show us how the process is going.

Scorpion Racing

Thanks Scott, I feel a little bad because it is still in the "ugly" stages! In the next few weeks it should make the transition to a slick racing machine, and I will feel better about her! I got the horizontal tail fillets filled in and almost completed, so I will get some shots of it up in a day or two. I had an idea for a process to make final shaping the fillets a little easier for a plug, and I will show that in the pictures. A soon as I can get the tail cleaned up, I will get the main wing together and form the main wing fillets. Then, we can make her all pretty for her first close-ups!

Scorpion Racing

A few inspirational pics of the full scale...

Scorpion Racing

Ok, here are a a few shots of the horizontal stab fillets and the rudder push-rod exit bump. What I did to make forming the fillets easier was pretty simple. I formed the fillets using resin, milled glass and fumed silica and let them set up. I then filled the cavity where the horizontal stab will sit with the same mixture, but added some carbon powder as well. This makes the fillet/stab one solid piece of resin/glass, but the exact area the stab will be in is black. You can now do your finish shaping down to the black, and the fillets will match the stab exactly. The rudder push-rod bump was formed using a piece of plastic tubing cut at the angle I determined from where the rudder servo will be located in the finished plane and glued to the plug. My resin/milled glass/fumed silica mixture is applied and the transitional shape to the fuselage is formed. Once all this dries overnight, it will be cleaned up and completed.

Slow progress right now, but it is still progress!

Scorpion Racing

Ok, I have decided to go ahead and start glassing the fuselage plug, since only a little finishing work is needed and I am tired of fixing little dings in the soft foam all the time! [:@] I am having some difficulty in getting the muffler placement correct, and maybe some of you have some ideas. What I need to do is to construct a fixture based on the spinner back-plate to hold the muffler in the correct position. Only problem is, it must do this from the outside of the engine compartment. The reason for this is that I will have a shallow channel that the muffler will sit in, and I need it to be right the first time! If some of you have some ideas, or pictures of how you did it, please help me out!

I am happy with the glass shape on the plug, as I have only found a couple of small areas which need a little tweaking so far. The formers are not poking out beyond the foam, nor is there any low spots in the foam. I think all the time I spent sanding foam will pay off now for me. The horizontal stab is all painted, and as soon as I get the fuselage plug done, we will polish the stab and mold it. I have a new resin that I want to test with the stab before I use it for all the molds.

Scorpion Racing

Well, just so you guys know, we are still hard at it on INVICTUS! I have spent the last three weekends on the main wing getting it ready. I have been shaping each panel with the templates attached to the root & tips, and filling and sanding checking it at each 10% of the chord. Once that was done on one side of the panel, it was glassed and set overnight to cure. The next morning, the templates were re-attached and the other side shaped and glassed as the first side was. With both sides of the wing panel shaped and glassed, the templates were attached again and the incidence checked to insure no twists were accidentally built in, and then the final sanding and shaping done. I am currently working on the second side of the second wing panel, and it is all looking good! I even got one wing tip on too!!

The fuselage plug has been touched up as needed, and all the final shaping and contouring of the horizontal stab & vertical stab completed. All tail fillets, rudder linkage exit guides and rudder shaping is completed. The nose is almost completed, with just a couple of small fill areas still not up to my expectations yet, but they will be in the next evening or two. The landing gear mounting area on the fuselage is complete, and I can now set it on her gear for the first time! I decided to re think my gear some. I was going to just have my custom gear fit her, but thought that might put some people in a bind looking for replacement gear if needed. What I did was modify my mount and my gear somewhat, so that you could use some readily available replacements, if needed. It will now accept mine, the Polecat gear or one made by Great Planes that most decent hobby shops carry in stock.

If I can get the wing panels glassed and joined next weekend as planned, I can set the main wing incidence, finish the fuselage plug with the main wing fillets as well as finish the canopy. I could show you guys some wing shaping pics, but I think we all know how that goes! [&o] We will get some up when we get the wing mounted and the fillets completed in a couple of weeks.

See you soon...

jorgeneo560

it could be posible to mail me the cad format of your plane?, i want to build a qm 40, the local hobby stores dosent have any plane of this type, i neveer see in real life one of this flying, i had 3 engines, os 40 max, 45 abc super tigre and 55 ax os, i will love to see some action with the 55 ax.
my mail is [email protected] , or if you could link me to any plane of this type of planes i would be very gratefull

Scorpion Racing

Hi Jorgeneo560, thanks for the interest. This plane is currently being molded to be produced as a fully composite racer. I will have some flying this summer, but there are a few vendors who sell Q40 planes out there. look here [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7660237/tm.htm]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7660237/tm.htm[/link] Dave Norman has a very good list with links to people who offer Q 40 planes. You are correct, no hobby shops carry them because most come pre-painted in the molds with the pilots scheme & racing numbers on them. Therefor, they are pretty much custom made. I would go to some of the links he has there, and look at one of them. I still got a testing season and final design approvals to get thru!

Best wishes

jorgeneo560

the problem is that i live in argentina, and the customs here are a very bad service and expensive, and a lot of times brake things and they dindt pay the damage, i wanna a plane for machine it with cnc make a plug in fiberglass and build it.

Scorpion Racing

Happy Labor Day!

Believe it or not, I have been working on Invictus! The final fitting and getting her ready for molding is taking more time than I expected. [&o] I now have the horizontal tail completed, the main wing and most of the fuselage. I am finishing up the canopy fit to the main wing and fuselage, which is proving to be a chore! I have most of it fitting properly now, I just have to tweak the front fairing blending to the wing and fuselage to get it all ready for paint and molding. I get real picky about how everything fits together, so when I am happy, it will get painted and molded!

Here are a few pictures of her today, mainly in primer while I adjust the canopy fit.

Scorpion Racing

I have been doing some work on my 428 plugs also, for the all out pylon assault planned for next year sometime!

The main wing for the composite Scorpion is in final shaping prior to painting for the molding process. I got all my surface coats and resins in shop now, so I am anxious to push these two thru to the molds now. Should be a fun fall/winter for me!

D.E.

Scott,
That looks great, I WANT ONE!

Dave E.

Scorpion Racing

Thanks Dave for the encouragement, it is really beginning to look like my vision of her a few months ago when I started this journey. I can't wait to get the molds done and begin the flight testing phase. I hope they both fly as good as they are looking!

Who knows, maybe I will be able to do a give-a-way plane for a SEMPRA race in the future too!

D.E.

I hope you can too Scott, It only hurts a little but it makes the recipient feel good. The only bad part is I think that is the best one yet I wish it was mine!

Your airplane really does look good!!!

Dave E.

Fly Fast n Left

Any updates? Its looking good!

Scorpion Racing

Ahhh, I just finished hosting and CD'ing the F3D Team Trials and will be back to work on the plugs this weekend. As far as what has to be completed prior to shooting the paint and molding her is the landing gear access cover & the front canopy wing wrap around. I hope to get those done this weekend, so I can have my paint guy do his thing and I can get her polished up for molding.

I have decided to use all Aeropoxy surface coats and resins for the molds, so I hope that was a good call! I have used MGS for some previous molds, but with over $100 haz-mat charges, they can keep it! I think the Aeropoxy will be fine, as I know quite a few guys use it in racing and r/c jets with no problems.

More coming soon...

Kevin Matney

My Feedback: (1)

I thing before you go on with the plug, it need to match the pics you have shown. The cheek cowls need to be more then speed bumps?

garys

The cheek cowls don't look to be any smaller than most of the current approved airplanes.

kane

I concur (they look fine) and plus they actually terminate into the wing like the real airplane. UNLIKE all the Proud Birds out there!!!!!!! (One exception, the one from Adamisin)

DK

diggs_74

Looks like a Polecat nose to me.. I wouldn't sweat it.