A while back I started work on a model to replace my Ultra Sport 60. It came to a full and complete stop in a very short distance...very very short.

I wanted something that would fly as well as the Ultra Sport and be as easy to build.  So, I decided on another Ultra Sport.  That being said, and not being willing to leave well enough alone, I decided to jazz up the wing by adding flaps and retracts.  I left the fuse alone...dull.

I took some pictures as I built the wing.  I didn't bother when building the fuse.

Here is a picture of the mods and reinforcement of the ribs in order to accommodate the LADO retracts.  Thanks to Al C for help making the adapter for the Robart struts.

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Here are a few shots of the wing temporarily pinned together with the retracts installed and working.  Love the retract delay.

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I think I need to post smaller pictures :(

Nice! Retracts work well in an Ultra Sport - more speed!! ;)

Geez Mike, you need to post smaller pictures  :-/

Ultra with retracts and flaps - going to be sweet...

No epoxy paint I hope?? >:(

Going to be one great flying smoker plane. One Ultra-sports + retracts = go like hell. :)

I'm hoping that it will look nice and clean with it's gear tucked up...zoom zoom  8-)!  And maybe the reduced drag will somewhat offset the added weight of the fibreglass and paint.  I'm thinking that it will come in at about 9 pounds.  I'll weigh it this evening after the final coat of epoxy cures.  I'll post a few pictures too.

Today I applied a second coat of epoxy to the wing and fuse.  I've attached two pics to show how it looks at this point in the build.

This evening I weighed all the parts and summed everything up; 8 lb 12 oz.  I'll sand off most of the second coat of epoxy, but then I'll end up adding the weight back in paint.  So it will probably come in at 9 pounds +/- just as I figured; a little heavy like all the rest of my planes.  Makes 'em less jittery in flight  :)

Tomorrow I'll put in a few hours sanding.

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.. [smiley=tekst-toppie.gif]

Found this pic from April of last year.  It shows the extent of the mods to the wing. 

Got my thread out of sequence didn't I.  Rats!

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Wow Mike that highly polished finish reminds of my Boot Camp Days , Bees wax and Bumpers... :planecool
How are you going to install the engine... :popcorn

The glossy finish won't last long Jack.  Tomorrow I'll sand the bejeepers  out of it, and at the end of the build I'll matt out the paint scheme. 

It took quite a bit of sanding to get the surfaces anywhere near ready for priming. I'll sand a little more tomorrow (during the storm).  Today, after sanding till my hands got tired I shifted gears and started working on the wing saddle and the wing to fuse seam.  I had to do quite a bit of work to get the wing to sit in properly, and even then I still have work to do.

I've attached a pic of the port side.  The seam between the wing fillet and the top of the wing isn't too bad.  I will tart up the bottom fillet aft of the trailing edge of the wing with epoxy and micro balloons.

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The stbd. side didn't turn out quite as well.  I'll make it look better, just don't know how right now.  The gap between the fillet and the top of the wing is about 2 mm, so it really isn't outrageous, but it bugs me.

I threw in a picture of the fuse and wing bolted together; starting to look like an airplane.

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Looking very good there Mike....

Amazing really - 3 kits on the go here on these very pages - super

Wow Mike, great looking Bird.. :aviater :aviater

JackDD wrote on Jan 31^st, 2016 at 7:27am:

Wow Mike, great looking Bird.. :aviater :aviater

It sure is Jack! Mike had her by the house the other day and I looks like it's doing a hundred miles an hour just sitting there.
It's has all the toys, gear flaps, big  motor. nice! :D

Mike what motor were you putting in?

Jack

I'm going to use the same OS 61 two-stroke that was in my last Ultra Sport.  Al and I put the engine on his test stand and verified that it was still in good shape.  It runs well and has plenty of power for a wannabe warbird.

Wow, nice...I guess I won't be able to chase you round the circuit then ;)

C'mon Jack!!! Slick Kougar can catch a 10 pound ultra sport anytime..... ;D

:popcorn

I couldn't resist the temptation any longer; I had to temporarily install the guns  :D

I mocked up a pair of MG131 13 mm (approximately 50 cal) machine guns on the cowl and a pair of MG 151/20 20 mm cannon in each wing.  The same armament as found on an FW 190 A8.  This Ultra Sport is gonna have an 'attitude'.  >:(

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Totally rocks Mike..... :Fun_bat

Firing through the prop, could be tricky... ;)

Electrically primed ammunition  :)

I didn't know that such ammunition was available during the war.  I just learned that while researching the guns for this model.

I primed the model today.  Its in my garage trying to dry; its too stinky to put in my basement workshop right now.  I'll take some pictures and post them tomorrow.

The plane is going to need a Revi 3d gunsight.  I'll start on that tomorrow.

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The humble switch...

I'm looking for suggestions for a 'reliable' on-off switch for this model.  Of course I could always use a simple Futaba switch but I'm thinking that something a little more robust might be in order.  Any comments?  ::)

I should have added that it will be powered by a glow engine.                     

you could make up one of the plug switches.....run the power thru a deans plug and use the male side to make the contact.............. :huhsign

That would definitely work, and it would have gobs of current handling capability, but it may be a bit unsightly.

Are you aware of a pin and flag arrangement that is nice and simple?

www.smart-fly.com

they kind if set the standard for pin switches

My Luftwaffe pilot will need a German gunsight so I built a small model of a Revi 12C.  I've attached a picture of the real thing and one of my replica.  I made it from sheet plastic and brass tubing.  The lens is made of epoxy in a brass tube.

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That's really cool Mike! Great job!

Aw man!!! that's super mike.

Now i have to say this, and i mean it with all respect for your abilities and knowledge....who, who but Mike, would research mg131's, and mg 151's, AND a Revi 12c sight, and make them for an Ultra Sport fun plane.

My hat is off to you for the dedication and effort you put into your projects. you make this stuff fun!!

Thanks Sandy....fun is what it is all about.  Fussing over details keeps my head in the game, and helps to make building and flying a sport flyer a lot more fun  :)

I'll post a picture of the completed cockpit shortly.

Thanks Al...I put  a lot more time into the gunsight than I was planning, but at the end of the day I was happy with the way it looks. 

MkIX wrote on Feb 18^th, 2016 at 9:35am:

Thanks Al...I put  a lot more time into the gunsight than I was planning, but at the end of the day I was happy with the way it looks.

you can build me a 1/5 scale sight for the Hurri any time   [smiley=tekst-toppie.gif]

If I build you a gunsight you may shoot me down with it  :-/

Only if you also make me 8 Browning mg's or maybe a couple of "BIG GUNS, since I'm leaning towards a MKIV with the 40mm cannons  :Thanks :Fun_bat

A tank buster...cool.

I've more or less finished working on the cockpit.  I couldn't do much about the shape and size of the instrument panel (translate to read 'I was too lazy to make it any better') so I settled on putting as much Me 109 character in there as I could.  The nice thing about the fact that the model isn't a scale model of anything is the fact that anything goes  :)  So I used a mixture of Me 109 and FW 190.  At a minimum it correctly represents what was in my mind at the time.

Here are a few pics of my model and a pic of an Me 109 instrument panel.

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that's pretty neat Mike. Keep 'em coming

Nice Mike!   That's looks great! :D

Wow Mike, I'd forgotten about the nose bumper...nice job :aviater

So now I'm turning my mind to the colour scheme.  Right now I'm thinking late 1944 to early 1945; defence of the Reich.  The Luftwaffe added some nifty colours to their camo patterns at that time.

:popcorn

. :popcorn :shots

My project has slowed down a bit so I'm feeling a little guilty; especially after visiting Al C and seeing the progress that he is making on his new jet.  So, I stopped fussing over preparing the surface for paint, and got busy and glued on the canopy.

Now that RC 56 (AKA Formula 560) is no longer available I consulted with Al and bought some E6000 at Michael's.  It worked like a treat!  I think that using it properly is an acquired skill, I'll get better with time.

I've also painted a sheet of plastic with the colours that I'll be using.  I'll go to the Benjamin Moore store this week to have the first colour (RLM 76) mixed. 

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way to go Mike, looking super

Excellent clamps Mike, I'm going to have to make a few for myself.

Looks GREAT Mike!  I also really like the clamps!  What a simple but great idea. That should get you Model Airplane News for a year. In the tricks and tip section. [smiley=thumbup.gif]

Thanks guys.  I came up with the idea for the clamps while building my Spitfire.  They seem to work well, and they certainly are affordable  :)

Nice job with the clamps, Mike...reminds me of my Spanish Windlass days... ::)

Spent a little time today working on my fighter.  I masked off the canopy adding a mock frame.  Hopefully it will look more in keeping with my theme than the full bubble.  I've sprayed it a dark grey so that the inside will show that colour as opposed to the dark green that will eventually be applied to the outside of the frame.  Here's a picture of today's results.

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. [smiley=thumbup.gif]


jeez Mike, we're running out of emoticons......... hurry up here

Slow and steady :)

Sprayed on a coat of the lower fuselage colour (RLM 76) on the whole plane today; that took a while.  Fussing with the control surfaces as separate parts is a PITA. I plan on attaching them to the fuse/wing over the weekend.  I'll post some pics after I put the camouflage pattern on the upper surfaces.

:popcorn

I've been putting in a little time on my fighter.....finally!!!  Discovered that making the camouflage look random, especially the mottling, isn't as easy as one would think.  It took a lot of fussing.  Here are a few pics showing where I ended up.  It will become 'louder' once I put on the stencilling.

Today I went to Sojourn Signs  in Burnside.  They agreed to work with me to produce stencils for the crosses, swastikas, numbers, and some of the other misc stencils.  I'll go back tomorrow with specs to discuss with their CAD operator. So now I need to decide what to put on it. And there's another thing...finding solid documentation on German WW2 markings is a bit of a chore.  So I've been relying on pictures of the real thing and trying to determine dimensions as best I can.

Anyway, for now, here are the pictures of where I am...

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Very nice Mike. now that's going to be a treat to see in a gray sky  :shots

As for markings, you didn't think of Callie Graphics eh?

Yup, I thought of Callie graphics, but I think that painted on markings look better than stick ons.  Besides, it's sorta fun to paint them on.

I happen to have a set of 60 size Major Decals for a WW2 german fighter.  I thought of using them as well but decided to go the old fashioned route.

Oh yes...forgot to mention...not being able to see the thing against a grey sky is true enough.  German camo worked well.

I'll resort to flying it on sunny days only  ;)

My stencils for the markings will be ready by Friday.

Just in case you were wondering if I was actually working on my plane, here's a pic, warts and all.  I have some tidying up to do on the paint job.

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I've decided to make my plane represent a spurious member the second Staffel of the second Gruppen of JG11.  Sometime in 1944 when Günther Rall was the Gruppenkommandeur.

Wasn't the pilot of that plane (Red 4)   Leutnant Jocham Beddlemeister? Read about him somewhere  ::) Pretty good guy, 47 1/2 kills :-?

Just ordered up a Smart Fly Pin and Flag switch along wity a Dual Battery Sport Regulator for my fighter.  I've always wanted to have the pin and flag configuration.  Not a scale piece of kit, but then the Ultra Sport isn't scale either :)

Slowly making progress so I thought I'd post a few pics.

I'm still fussing over whether or not to bother putting a Group shield on the port side just fwd of the cockpit.  I kinda like the JG 52 shield....pic included below. 

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Either side it's a nice graphic Mike.
Your scheme shows a lot of attention to precision!

very very nice..

Geez, Mike, that looks nice!

Looks great Mike!   Looks even better in real life!

Thanks guys. 

My next move will be to deal with all of the hinging.  Gotta seal the hinge lines with polyurethane and then attach all of the moving bits to the fuse and wing.  I may re-design the flap hinging; I'm not fully convinced that the flaps will work as I want.

I've started to turn my mind to all of the servo connections that I'll need to make this thing work.  One for each aileron, one for each flap, one for for each of the LADO electric retracts, one for the elevator, one for the rudder, and one for the throttle....a pile of connections.  I'll be using a Futaba SBus receiver which, in turn, drives the need for at least one SBus decoder cable (no SBus servos in my collection yet).  The cable from Futaba is very pricey, and it only has three ports. 

I've never used Hobby King, but I understand that their stuff is generally just fine.  So I'm thinking of using their decoder and programmer; it has four ports and is less than half the price of the Fiutaba (see pic below).  I'm thinking that some of you may have used this product and could offer an opinion. Whadayathink?

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Good idea Mike. I used the HK encoder and programmer in my small hurricane and it worked a treat. I used basic Hitec servos, all worked fine.1 plug on top of the wing into the fuse.

Programmer is so easy even I got it right first try! Push a button, check a light, push again..never indication of any kind of problem. Certainly that wasn't what dumped the plane.

Just checked the HK web site.  The SBD4 S-Bus decoder cable is out of stock :(   Bummer.

I think that it is finally ready to fly :)

Here are a few pics.

I'll post a few videos later this morning.

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Here are a few videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDpsnDbwiPI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7BXQAPT12k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCkK5t6g4nQ

Almost panicked when I saw the video  "Hexacopter"  by MkIX! Then realized it was you on the camera for Jack's machine.....

Flaps work great, Mike.