I'm surprised this one hasn't showed in the States yet.
You would think Horizon would carry it.

Received my Seafire today.
Wow, it (she?) is a real beauty.

I still like the fly navy color scheme so much.
During my service time for my country, I was at the Naval Air Station 2 (MFG2) Eggebek from 86 to 94.
And as Gate Guards we had a Fairey Gannet and a SeaHawk with nearly the same colors.
Btw, my spinner is black and it seems as the pilot is now more scale.
I will upload some pictures over the weekend.

Next for me is now the configuration of the electric drive. All I know for sure is, that I will use a Hacker A50 14L with 300k/v, because I have it. Not the best argument, but the cheapest
And I have a Jeti Spin66 which unfortunatly limited to 6s. The motor has torque more than enough, but for the prop speed I have to go for a high pitch.
Have to crunch some numbers...

Cheers,
Capt Flint

Hm,

Have to correct myself.
I cut off the canopy very carefully and it is stil the "Goofy Pilot"
The fare eastern people glued him with tons of what ever. He is still sitting in his cockpit. Have to be carefull not to damage the cockpit floor. "Brute force" is not the right way to kick him out of his working place...
But comparing him to a 1:7 scale pilot, which I ordered in advance, it still does not look "scale ". The 1:7 looks kind of tiny.
I think, I have to build a little headrest first, in order to segregate the big space under the bulky canopy. Maybe after that the scale driver will fit...?

What a nice morning...

Weight [g] of all parts before cuttuing and trimming for electric version:
"Cowling with new Pilot (7g)" 164
Fuselage 570
Elevator 78
Rudder 55
RH Wing 449
LH Wing 446
E-Set 136
Spinner 118
Tires 55
Gear 158
ABS Parts 108
Bomb 34
Alu Wing Tube 47
"Push Rods, Screws RC Parts" 185
Sum 2603

Next it was time for a crew change executed by my good old friend Dremel
It took me 1 hour to remove all the parts of the old pilot.
The remaining big parts of old pilot have a of weight 30gr !!!
And his working place is well behind the CoG.
The new one fits not 100% but much more better than the old one.
Time for the paint shop...

So,

All hinges & servo horns in place.
Done without problems, except for one flap hinge. The slot was not in the right place with the right depth from the factory setting on. Needed some re-work, but was ok than.

Painted the new pilot, I named him Phil. For a 1:7 scale pilot he is a little to tiny, but still looks better as Goofy. As the canopy is not finally installed now, I will look out for a better replacement from time to time.
Fortunately I have not to earn my salary with painting. Otherwise I will stay hungry

Cut out the leading edge line of the cowling (shouldn’t this be done by the supplier?) and pre-installed the electric motor box for motor adjusting purposes.
In order to get a smooth line without a big gap between spinner and cowling, I have to set back the front plate of the motor box to the aft position.

What-ho Cap'n

Looks like yopu're doing a Sterling job there... very nice indeed!

I too ditched the pilot with the oversized cranium in favour of one of these YT 120 size British pilots:

http://www.ytinternational.co.uk/pil...ard_range.html

I damaged the balsa floor getting him out but patched it with PVA and filler and painted the whole thing black to give it the impression of depth... the white cockpit really doesn't look right!

I used a Scorpion 4025-16 and Turnigy Dlux 160A ESC running 8S. I also swapped out the stock mechanical landing gear for servoless LADO-Tech RS333's and oleos.

Only had a small number of flights on her but she flies like a dream. Am just working up the courage to cut a battery hatch into the top of the fuselage. If you decide to do this before I do, I'd be fascinated to see the results! Never done a battery hatch before and just can't bring myself to make the cut!

Cheers

Andy

Hi 43rd Hammer

I was thinking about a hatch, too. But from my point of view, any "damage" to the structure on the top of the fuselage will weaken it. The only part of the fuselage, which is not import in terms of static, is the cowling. But cutting a hatch in the cowling will bring not an access to the battery tray.
I think, this Spitfire has its origin in the "glow" world and the electric conversion kit is only a concession for the growing e-flyers community.
If one has to construct a plane from scratch today for e flyers, it will look totally different inside.

So what was I achieving today? Hmm, not that much…I was lazy

Did the soldering of the servo wire extensions. Whilst doing this, I was looking for the, in the manual promised, string. Ha, but none was found
So I did by myself. After that I glued in the hardwood pieces for the gear. In order to get them in the right place I used the gear which delivers a little pressure to the little bricks. I protected the gear mechanics with some masking tape.

The last task than for today was the “rendezvous” of LH and RH wing.

And as a little reward I put together all the parts. And yes, it looks like a warbird.

Cheers,
Capt Flint

Time for an update:
First was the soldering of the servo cables. I put them all together in one connector because, this eliminates the risk of crossing two connectors and subsequently wrong deflecting of the control surfaces.

I have seen it all. The biggest source of errors is still between the ears and all errors are already made. But not yet by everybody…

Second was the mounting of the horizontal stab and the rudder. Right of the box the horizontal stab didn’t fit. A little bit of sanding was necessary to align the stab with the centerline of the fuselage. I glued it the old fashioned style with white wood glue and soft pressure.

During this sanding I discovered a little damage of the fuselage. I already saw some rough spots on the oracover after the arrival of the model, but though this is just a not perfect covering and could be solved with the iron. OK, some drops of epoxy and it was history. What a pity, because this casts a shadow over this nice model.

Following was the adjustment of the pushrods for rudder and elevator. Flawless with one exception: the pushrods for the elevator needed some bending (not mentioned in the manual) as otherwise they will not slide easily in their tubes.

Next will bet he power supply via S-BEC and the ESC for the brushless Hacker A50 14L. The motor will turn a nice 15x10 or 16x8 with the power of a 8s lipo.
Unfortunately for this, I have to wait, because I am going to overseas until mid of July.
And no, these are not holidays …

Cheers, Flint

Hi Capt Flint,

You are doing a fantastic job putting the Seafire together, very fussy which is the best way to have a reliable flyer.

Be prepared to add a lot of weight to the nose to balance, this plane is tail heavy.

Also if you have not already mounted the retract hardware, swap the retract servo rods out with decent brand ones, the ones supplied are made of butter and any resistance they will bend. Also my retract mechanisms were stiff and I had to dismantle them and carefully file and sand them to stop them from binding.

You will be impressed with this model, it really is a treat in the air.

Jaz

Hi Jaz

I have already installed the landing gear. I think the push rods will do their job unless the gear will not stuck during extension. Ok, a few 1/10mm more would be fine.
They gear itself works fine without any friction.

But on the really really worse side are those screws for the landing gear delivered with the kit. I thing they are made out of weak&cheap metal. I tried only one and slipped of the head with the screwdriver whilst putting some pressure on it and made a little whole in the wing.
Of course I did some drilling of the holes before that.
After a few minutes of cursing I went immediately to the local hardware store and bought new ones. No problem with the installation after that change.

Boy, the kit is not on the cheap side for a model plane and those "features" are really annoying

Ah yes, the required length of the pushrods as mentioned in the manual for the landing gear are pure fantasy numbers. Even the delivered pushrods don't have that length before cutting them to the actual required length.

Cheers, Capt Flint

i would get rid of the oleos as well as they are made of butter too.for all its faults(too shinny,crp pilot,retract screws not up to it ect)it does fly great.and looks the nuts when sitting on the patch with the sun glinting on it.flew mine on a 120 fs but wanted a bit more go.so now have a asp 180fs(that should do it) waiting to go in.and now have a red spinner to go on.went with a ali one to start with but its needs to be red.wish somone would come up with a red metal spinner you could make a killing!!!!!!!!have had the privilege to see the real version of this plane fly a few times(duxford flying legends) and always wanted one.love the fairy gannet as well.a big plane for a deck lander.with a very clever wing fold and engine/gearbox.also loved the avro shackleton as well.like listening to four spitfires at once.remember with this seafire nose weight nose weight nose weight!!

Originally Posted by moonpie

wish somone would come up with a red metal spinner you could make a killing!!!!!!!!

This I can help with... Google companies that do "Powder Coating" in your area, call them and explain the spinner situation to them. They should do it relatively cheaply. I've got umpteen glow (and petrol) models with powder coated spinners and they hold up perfectly. I just send them off with a colour sample and they do the rest - all by post.

FS180!!!!!!!!

FS180!!!!!!!! [/QUOTE]

well it needs the nose weight
i have been thinking of the powder coating.there is a place round the corner.i was only worried about the cost on such a small one off job.i will have to get a quote

and one quick bit of powder coating later i now have a red spinner.looks good.glad i went to the effort of getting it done.i should go into business making coloured spinners get rich retire young and spend my days flying!i no its an electric forum but for those interested thats a sc180(30cc) shoe horned under the cowl.happy days!!

Now that looks nice, obviously I will be taking all of the credit for it!

Trust me, they hold up perfectly to electric starters too... this is the best kept secret in RC as far as I'm concerned!