Back in January of 2011, I read an article in MAN (pg 138) about Rich Uravitch's T-28 Trojan short kit and realized I had to build this plane.

It wasn't too soon afterwards that I had made the purchase and received one. Well, it sat in kit form in my closet since then and so this October, I decided to dust it off and begin the build. I realised that after finishing building my first scale-like kit, the G-B Sportster "D" (also by Rich), I now wanted to try my hand at building a plane with working retracts.

Now, if one queries RCGroups, they will find this same build in at least one other place - but this build was before Rich made many updates and changes to his kit that were based upon modeler's input about his T-28 kit.

At present day (12/15/12) I am all the way through building the wings and just have started building the fuse today but will post the pictures as thread posts based upon the part of the plane that's being built (tail feathers, wings, fuse, etc).

The build has been quite enjoyable and has come along much faster than I thought. If any of you are like me, you'll take one look at this kit and "need" one for Christmas too!

Post any questions you wish..thanks!

The tail feathers are a very straight forward build. One simply pins the balsa on the plans, glues and then sheets over them with balsa.

Wings are also a very easy build too. Remember that this is a short kit and to make a list of all the spar, triangle leading edge, trangle trailing edge, and building material stock you need in advance. Also, test fit and pin all your parts down before glueing and to remember to measure twice (when making cuts).

I'm watching davinci7, great looking build. The Trojan is a personal favorite and I'd like to do a large one eventually.

On the bell crank mounts, I actually cut into the 2 ribs that will hold the mounting assembly - using the ply-wood mounting as a guide. You can see what I mean from the pics below. Then, I cut small triangles and reinforced the bell-crank mounts for support.

Creating the necessary dihedral in the wings is stright forward since Rich has included 2 plywood braces - one that fits in front of the spar and one behind. Both of these are at the correct angle and can easily fit in place. The only thing I did was rest the tips of the wing on some books while the braces dried.

Note the binder clip that I used to hold the front and rear brace to the spar...

-Robert

In the past, the gang at Graves RC has been of great assistance to me and they have a great selection of parts plus their prices are just great. So, I decided to go with the e-flight electric retracts. These are great because you don't need extra servos and you don't have to worry about remembering to fill tan air tank like spring-air retracts.

See here:

http://www.gravesrc.com/EFLITE_15_25..._p/eflg230.htm

In the pics below, you can see how well they fit. I decided to not add the 4 birch (2 per landing gear) rectangular gear support pieces until later. Basically, one epoxy's 2 of these inside of the wing and the gear fits snugly between and is screwed into them (from the bottom).

-Robert

Once again, the process of balsa sheeting the wings is easy. My process involves laying the entire uncut sheet along the inside of the leading and measuring where the edges of the wing tips are.

Next, after the balsa is cut at the end, I lay the balsa in the same way, starting at the leading edge (just inside) and pressing it with one hand so that it forms along the top of the ribs

After this, I then take a push pin and, from underneath the wing, stick the pin up just on the aft side of the top spar (so that it sticks out of the top of the balsa sheeting). I then repeat this procedure about three times along the length of the spar.

When finished, I take the piece of balsa off the plane, lay it on my cutting board and place a ruler along the pins that are sticking up out of the balsa and draw my lines with a pencil on the balsa.

Finally, I remove the pins (that are sticking out of the balsa) and then cut along the line I made.

I have realised that many times the sheeting dimensions on the plans don't always allign with my work or build (mistakes I make with the rib placement, etc).

But, the top sheeting always fits when I do it this way!

-Robert

These pics show me building the fuse.

I always use medium CA to bind the birch plywood during this phas in case I make a mistake. If I don't make a mistake I then go over the joints with this Alpha-phatic glue that my father-in-law gave me which is literally like cement. The only problem is that once the alpha-phatic glue sets, there is NO debonder.

What I don't show is me using a 90 degree triange and making the formers allign at 90 degrees. During the process I saw that my F2 former got glued and wasn't exactly 90 degrees but, because they are so large, one can easily bend it back with the top 1/4x1/4x1/4 balsa strip that goes on the top of the fuselage in a later step.

Most people would agree that when building the fuse, one should build all formers and stringers first and then glue the balsa fuse sheeting last.

If one decides to go this route, simply glue the 2 parts of the left and right fuse sheeting together on a flat surface, let it dry and then finish building out the remainder of the formers.

I decided to opt into building front half of the fuse sides and then adding the second half after I finished the rear formers. The only reason why I did this was that it was much easier to handle the fuse sides when working with only half at a time.

See pics below.

-Robert

You'll love it, its a great flying plane

Merry Christmas to everyone watching this thread. I was able to do more work on it today.

You will have to really think about how to position the nose-gear landing gear (retractable) if you want to continue to have plenty of support and bracing for touch downs.

What I decided to do was drill a hole into the F1 so that the rounded part of the retract can fit within it..and then I added 2 balsa 1/2x1/2 inch pieces to fit snugly around it as well as to bolt the gear to. Rich Uravitch has done a great job of already pre-cutting the firewall and marking the place on F1 where your 1/2x1/2 inch pieces should go.

You may want to use spruce but balsa was all I had..but I plan to harden it with CA later on.

I left these pieces out (not glued in) for now since still will need to sheet the bottom but the pics below show you what I did.

looking good !!!
Also love the look of the lasor cut parts !

I did a really good thorough sanding over the whole thing this morning...see pics below.

My next step will be adding the F5a and F5b portions which the canopy will attach too.

-Robert

Well, I made a mistake somewhere in my build and I am thinking it was the placement of F5 and F6, whatever the case, F5a and F5b do not fit perfectly in place (see pics).

So, I modified them so that they fit as they should based upon the plans.

I also somehow failed to install the stabilizer platform so I traced the triangular piece onto the top of the stringers and then wittled away, bit by bit, the stringer so that the triangle fit snugly in place...I then clamped it.

Now, I plan to go over all the joints and such with this Super Phatic glue my father-in-law bought me for Christmas. This glue is VERY strong and cannot be unbound once it sets...my father-in-law tells me that it is like cement and can wick inside of the blasa like CA but hardens like epoxy.

I think he bought it at Hobby Lobby International.