luke strawwalker
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Well, while waiting for the ground to dry this week, I've been working on the TLP Maverick I picked up at Red Arrow Hobbies last month when I was in Indiana. It's a pretty neat kit, so far, and very simple, for the most part.
I've been working on it off and on all week, among other things, and I've got it just about done construction wise.
To start off, you build the motor mount. Standard fare-- two BT-80 centering rings, a BT-50 motor tube for 24mm motors, a standard "D" engine hook (which you should trim the upper end shorter if you want to fly reloads at some point, so it will clear the ejection cap of the reload) Tape the hook to the tube, and glue the centering rings on. Voila.
Next, we cut the fin templates out and trace the outlines onto the balsa sheet, and cut the fins out. The rectangular rear fins get notched for short bits of balsa dowel to be glued in to simulate the steering pins the fins rotate on in the real missile. These bits of dowel are cut from a ~1 inch piece of dowel included in the kit. Cutting such a short piece is fun, but is done fairly quickly. The four main delta fins/wings of the missile are cut out of the balsa sheet. I left the edges square for simplicity and to make it look more 'missile-ish' and papered all the fins with white glue and printer paper. They turned out pretty well, but the leading edges weren't quite as smooth as they usually end up when papering over rounded leading edges... there was a little trapped glue in places and the paper didn't lay down REAL tight on the leading edges in some places. That's my fault. Those BIG delta fins/wings have a LOOOONNNNGGGG leading edge! Live and learn... The paper makes them all a LOT stronger, though. I've heard iffy things about TLP's balsa sometimes being VERY soft, but the stuff I had seemed to be VERY good quality.
The forward delta wing fins also have strips of balsa glued onto their sides at the root edge. The kit comes with 8 LONG strips of balsa for the task. I decided to paper these too, to simplify finishing more than for strength. I applied glue to one side of each one individually and applied them at a slant on a sheet of printer paper, placing the rest of them parallel across the sheet. Once dry, I cut them out and trimmed the paper down to the edges of the balsa strips. These were then glued paper side out to the finished and trimmed delta wing fins along the sides next to the root edge with wood glue, and then trimmed down flush with the fin outlines after they dried. A bit of finish sanding and fins were all ready to go. I applied the first coat of glue to the root edges for a double glue joint and set all the fins aside to dry. I then marked the tube for the fin placement according to the instructions and lightly scarred the tube with 220 grit sandpaper to promote adhesion, and applied a thin layer of wood glue to establish a base for the double glue joint, and set the tube aside to dry.
The kit also includes some thicker strips of balsa for "launch rails" used to attach the missile to aircraft launchers. I papered the thick "rail bases" to cover their grain, and then cut them to shape. I then glued the much thinner (stir stick size) balsa strips to the inside top edge of the rail bases to make the launch rail "slides". I didn't bother papering those, because they were very small and I figured would give a lot of trouble trying to paper them.
The motor mount gets glued in, recessed about 1.5 inches up into the BT-80 to help shift the CG forward. A tube coupler is included and was glued in next to help stiffen the rear of the body tube and help prevent tube erosion from hot gases recirculating back there in flight. I also coated the rear face of the centering ring and the inner surface of the coupler with wood glue to help protect against heat.
More to come! OL JR
I've been working on it off and on all week, among other things, and I've got it just about done construction wise.
To start off, you build the motor mount. Standard fare-- two BT-80 centering rings, a BT-50 motor tube for 24mm motors, a standard "D" engine hook (which you should trim the upper end shorter if you want to fly reloads at some point, so it will clear the ejection cap of the reload) Tape the hook to the tube, and glue the centering rings on. Voila.
Next, we cut the fin templates out and trace the outlines onto the balsa sheet, and cut the fins out. The rectangular rear fins get notched for short bits of balsa dowel to be glued in to simulate the steering pins the fins rotate on in the real missile. These bits of dowel are cut from a ~1 inch piece of dowel included in the kit. Cutting such a short piece is fun, but is done fairly quickly. The four main delta fins/wings of the missile are cut out of the balsa sheet. I left the edges square for simplicity and to make it look more 'missile-ish' and papered all the fins with white glue and printer paper. They turned out pretty well, but the leading edges weren't quite as smooth as they usually end up when papering over rounded leading edges... there was a little trapped glue in places and the paper didn't lay down REAL tight on the leading edges in some places. That's my fault. Those BIG delta fins/wings have a LOOOONNNNGGGG leading edge! Live and learn... The paper makes them all a LOT stronger, though. I've heard iffy things about TLP's balsa sometimes being VERY soft, but the stuff I had seemed to be VERY good quality.
The forward delta wing fins also have strips of balsa glued onto their sides at the root edge. The kit comes with 8 LONG strips of balsa for the task. I decided to paper these too, to simplify finishing more than for strength. I applied glue to one side of each one individually and applied them at a slant on a sheet of printer paper, placing the rest of them parallel across the sheet. Once dry, I cut them out and trimmed the paper down to the edges of the balsa strips. These were then glued paper side out to the finished and trimmed delta wing fins along the sides next to the root edge with wood glue, and then trimmed down flush with the fin outlines after they dried. A bit of finish sanding and fins were all ready to go. I applied the first coat of glue to the root edges for a double glue joint and set all the fins aside to dry. I then marked the tube for the fin placement according to the instructions and lightly scarred the tube with 220 grit sandpaper to promote adhesion, and applied a thin layer of wood glue to establish a base for the double glue joint, and set the tube aside to dry.
The kit also includes some thicker strips of balsa for "launch rails" used to attach the missile to aircraft launchers. I papered the thick "rail bases" to cover their grain, and then cut them to shape. I then glued the much thinner (stir stick size) balsa strips to the inside top edge of the rail bases to make the launch rail "slides". I didn't bother papering those, because they were very small and I figured would give a lot of trouble trying to paper them.
The motor mount gets glued in, recessed about 1.5 inches up into the BT-80 to help shift the CG forward. A tube coupler is included and was glued in next to help stiffen the rear of the body tube and help prevent tube erosion from hot gases recirculating back there in flight. I also coated the rear face of the centering ring and the inner surface of the coupler with wood glue to help protect against heat.
More to come! OL JR
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