Ken R, Paul W and I have decided to build three Mosquito's from Brian Taylor plans, highly modified for electric flight. Our goal is to have the three fly in formation next spring/ summer!!
Each plane will have a lot of features the same, but will end up slightly different in colors, noses etc. That will help tell them apart in the air.
I took on the LG and spinner backing plates, as a welder and amatuer machinist.
Ken is handling the custom cowls, made to suit our electric power systems.
Paul has handled the redesign of the fuselage to accomodate 2 pc wings with a wingtube and a top hatch for battery access. He has also made the spinner plug and will make spinners from very light fiberglass.
I spent the last 6 weeks first macining the 6 spinner backplates, then on to the LG. I have about 1 hr remaining to complete the final assly's. Ken has 4 cowls completed, he is getting it down to a science now, and doing a fantastic job. Here's some pic's of my progress to date. Ken and Paul will join in as time and intuition permits.
We decided to split the costs and workloads to the three of us and use each others skills. This is the beginning!! Doug Bartley

I made the LG as light as I thought we can get away with. Wheels are 5" from HK, and weigh 2.6 ozs each. We'll be using 175oz HD Power servos (metal gear) for each retract. All screws are gr 8, most at 3mm.
Spinner backplates weigh 1.55ozs each, are only .045 thick, relying on the outer .3125 flange for strength. I'll get a pic up soon for the backplate.
Ken and I are using HK SK3 5055-320 motors, Paul I beleive is opting for Scorpion 4025-16's. The 5055-320's deliver 1100 watts each on MAS 16/10/ 3blade and 1265w using Graupner 16/12/3 bladers. The Scorp's show 1226w with the MAS 16/10 and slightly over 1300w on the 16/12's.
We will all be using HK Tz85A ESC"S, they have shown to run these motors in my tests very nicely.
All surfaces will be controlled by individual servos, not the central servo system of the drawings.
We are hoping to keep these planes around the original 13lb mark. Doug B

The pics above show the elevator, which at 31 1/2" long just fits inside my 32 1/2" wide trailer!!! Whew, I hate to have to shorten it up to fit. Doug B

Looks like an awesome project! Three large RC Mosquitos in formation is going to look amazing. You know I'm subscribed

Ethan

Thanks WAGliderguy: Its a neat concept, the three of us should have a lot of fun with this. Ken and Paul are both extremely good builders. My skills and acceptance levels may not be up to their standards, but my mechanical skills will help I think.
Having three guys working together makes this a unique experience for us all.
We should all learn from the builds.
Three Mosquitos flying different colors and in formation (with a little practise, I'm sure) should be worth the effort. Doug B

Great thread tital ! Great project. What I love about this is its scale construction - The full size were wood too !

Wow! Those landing gears look fantastic! Looks like a great project - it's so nice to be able to share problems during a build with someone else - makes it all the more pleasurable when you know you'll be flying them together.

Absolutely gorgeous gear Doug!
Looks to me every bit as good as you could buy 'out there'!

I just went a most unattractive shade of green thinking of the struggles I had with my Stirling's undercart and seeing what it could have been with the benefit of your skills applied to it!

Am I right in assuming that that little servo is only for test purposes? Only I see no counterbalancing spring attachment points.

Hi Gforced, Gordon Tarling, eye4wings: The project is just that much more interesting because the three of us are involved. The entire internal structure has been redesigned by Paul to have an open top for a hatch. None of us wanted to have to flip this plane over to change batteries, arm etc. Hatch will allow complete access to radio gear and servos too. It also will allow for a full bombay if desired.
The "little" servo in the pic is actually full sized, and rated at 140oz! It does the job (been up and down at least 100 times),already showing a little wear ( no bearings). Its an HXT metal gear HX12K for $8.
The lifting rod is 3/16 steel for testing! I am going to try 3/16 aluminum before final installs. Servo arms will be aluminum, 4mm ball links. I do not want these to fail.
Its going to fun, thats the whole game here. Seeing 3 Mossy's in the air will be priceless. hehe Doug B

Here is the spinner plug taking shape. Almost ready for final sanding. Also in the photo is the backplate, handiwork of Doug.

That looks like very good work too Paul.

Methinks we are going to see some high quality workmanship as this thread progresses with each of you doing your best work for the others!

Very nice undercarriage
Which version are you modelling? i.e. guns or dome in the nose?

I took on the engine cowls as part of the Mosquito consortium. As a group we discussed and decided that we would make the cowl shorter than the original design which has the cowl go almost to the wing spar. The cowl had fairings into the outboard wing and the inboard radiator housing necessitating a right and a left cowl. Instead we cut the cowl off behind the engine exhaust stack, roughly following a panel line. I built the pattern plug from blue foam glued together with 3M77.

Mold was created using random glass and fiberglass resin. When I tried removing the plug, I drill a hole in the front end and used air pressure to release the plug. Turned out to be too much pressure and the front end blew out. As a note, don't use fiberglass resin in the house. The smell almost drove us out. It took days to get rid of the smell. Even though the fiberglass is cheaper, I switched to West System epoxy for the final cowlings.

The actual cowl layup had its problems, mostly in removal from the mold. I could not get it to release so I cut a slot down the center line of the bottom so I could pry the mold away from the finished part. We plan to glue a plywood ring into the front of the cowl before finishing.