The poor weather the past few week prompted me to start my 'winter' build early.
I wanted sonething a little different but a kit build so I settled on the Hawk 75 / p36. I picked up the top flight p40, ordered decals from Callie. Retracts and dle20 should be here soon.
I chose the scheme from the cover of one of my books. Should be easy to see.

---

That will be a neat kit bash Marc...looking forward to it..

Hi Marc:  It's a beauty.  Hope you post pictures of the build. It's an interesting subject and I'm sure lots od guys would like to follow it.

Bruce

Before packing up my shop for the shop 2.0 upgrade 😃  I did get the tail framed and lightened. Carved out the fuse formers as well.
Currently the project is in mothballs untill the TV room and shop are completed.

---

Good start..

Building season is here so I started back on this project.
I sheeted the top of the wing. I read that there were some issues with tip stalling so I ensured there was 2° of washout at the tips.

I cut the front fuselage formers to where i wanted the firewall to be and made a new firewall . I built up the sides for the start of the transition to the radial cowl.

---

I like it! Keep it going man.

Nice subject Marc! Building different models is what keeps the interest alive!

Starting to look like a plane now. Basically stock kit build at this point.
Haven't decided on how i am doing the nose. Thinking of two piece cowl for easy access to the engine, but single piece would be easier. Leaving this decision until later.

---

looking good Marc

Finished sheeting the fuse and made the wing fillets. Rough sanded the cowl. Went with the two piece for engine access.
Time for the boring stuff. Cutting hatches, installing hinges and controls, setup the retracts.
.

---

Engine access

---

Cowl

---

Well done Marc
[smiley=tekst-toppie.gif]

That's one cool plane you have there!  Nice job!
Looking forward to seeing it.

Great job Marc!!! Your going to glass it an paint?

Bruce

I am going to glass with water based polyurethane, then paint.

Discovered that I was out of glass cloth and fabric, so placed an order for some. Now to putter around until it gets here.

Started on the retracts. The new e-flite 95° 60-120 retract footprint is a little longer than the air retracts they were designed for. I moved the retract mount position forward and cut a relief hole for the endplate wires into the spare shear web. Moving forward will help with nose over's and the end caps still fit over the units.
I added some cross grain balsa to beef up the wheel well edges so they can take some ware n tear.

---

Wheel well cross grain.

---

looking good Marc  [smiley=tekst-toppie.gif]

Glassed the plane with wpu. I experimented with a slurry of DAP lightweight filler and wpu to fill the weave. It was easy to sand, seems to work but time will tell if it holds up the the vibrations
I covered and hinged the controls.

---

sounds like a good idea Marc. In the "old days" we sometimes put the .75oz cloth on with primer...saved weight and worked fine...

maybe not quite as strong, but philosophy was - if not strong enough, nothing was going to be anyway..

Haven't done much the past few weeks as life has been busy. I spent some time centering the engine in the cowl and making the standoffs.
I installed the control horns and aileron servos. I added covering over the control surface gaps. No air bleed through here.
I picked up a partially completed TopFlight P40. Haven't decided if I will make it into another variant of the p36, or keep it as a p40.

---

Cowl gun covers

---

Need some advise from the gas guys.

I was planning on using 3s lipo battery with a voltage regulator for ignition and rx. The only suitable place for the battery will be above the gas tank. I don't want to have to remove the tank every day to charge/replace the battery.

I am thinking of making 2200mah 6v NiHd battery pack and mount into the plane. Would this be enough to power the rx and ignition for a day of flying? I would like to have 2-3 hrs of flight time on a pack.

Marc

Call me old fashioned, but I still use separate batteries for each Marc.
If you're really determined to only have one pack, go with the lipo/regulator simply for the fact that it will have more power than the same size nicad/nimh pack.

I used to use two packs until my rx power failed and my plane powered into the ground. If i am going to loose rx, I want the engine to quit too.

I am trying to keep as much weight up front and the only real room left is above the gastank so i don't want to bury a lipo there.

M

Well Marc, I'd probably bolt my motor down and run a full tank out using whatever battery you choose, then you'll know how much juice it uses. I've read that some of the smaller engines use as much and more battery power than some of the larger ones, so its worth knowing.

That is a good idea to run a tank and measure the pack.
I figured with a lower voltage pack I may need more capacity, just not sure how much.
Thought about doing two 6volt packs in parallel or making one higher voltage pack with a regulater but didn't want to add too many heavy batteries.
Guess I still think of weight in terms of small foamies.

Marc

I finished installing the servos and mounted the engine. Just need to figure out the battery and a few more things.
Started prepping for painting but I end up knocking a steel plate off the workbench and onto the wingtip >:(  waiting on the patch to dry now. Gotta say I was lucky there was not a lot of damage as it landed on the wingtip spar.

OOps ;)
any pics

No pics of the damage. I see nothing  :-X
Most thing done were internal. Only external thing is the exhaust pipes.  I tried to make some plastic ones from a mold. That failed miserably so I went old school. Now have hollowed out balsa. This gives less exit air than I wanted  but every little bit should help.
Last summer I bought a cheap paint gun from Princess Auto, so I thought it was time to give it a try. Picked up some house paint in quart cans and managed to apply the underside paint.

M

Marc - FWIW. I've been flying my IMAC planes now for 6 or 7 years with only 1 2s pack...2200 LIFE. Newer Rx and servos can handle that voltage, as can the newer ignitions. You absolutely don't need 3s.

This arrangement did save my plane once. I was flying in a contest when the engine quit. I dead stuck (sticked) (stacken) in no problem. then the engine didn't want to restart. Later found out the pack was failing, and since the ignition needed more voltage than the flight pack, IT quit first. FWIW

I like the idea of the Life pack. I plan on making 'shelf' above the engine for lead, ignition box, and if room for a battery.

I painted the plane using house paint and spraygun. I really like this method. Low odour and dries fast.
Did a bit of weathering, didn't want to over do it. I was not able to find good pics of weathering.
I couldn't resist adding the Callie graphics. I really like the look so far.

---

superb...

Very impressive paint job!

I took Sandy's advice and bought a Lifo 2s 2100mah battery and a charger. Wrapped the battery in bubble wrap and installed it above the gas tank. The battery has two built in power leads so I can plug right into the ignition and the rx.
I wanted to balance the plane so I can figure out how much lead I need in the nose. Put everything in position to discover my wheel hubs are too wide for my axles. At least I was able to balance. Will need less lead than expected :-)
Now to get it securly mounted.

I'm in trouble now.... :D

Well, it's ready for a maiden. I had been waiting on struts but they are still on backorder so I used the eflite struts.
Came in at 10.1 pounds so I am happy with that.

Marc

---

Very nice Marc

That's a pretty plane Mark.  Looking forward to seeing it soon.
You should bring that to the meeting coming up.  :D :D

What a great looking plane.  I especially like the paint scheme; something different.  In an earlier post you mentioned painting it with house paint; I'm assuming that means latex.  How did you fuelproof the paint

I look forward to seeing it at the field.

Mike, latex doesn't require proofing against gasoline, just nitro

One more thing in favour of gas.  At some point I gotta get with the program  :-/

http://vaillyaviation.com/Intro.html



try here, great 2 piece article

great job, Mark...we should have a Maiden day at the club this spring,, 8-)