Almost on a whim, I started building a semi-profile Hellcat yesterday. The length is 40 inches (minus motor and about an inch of cowling) with a wingpsan of 55 inches. I was inspired by the 3D F4F Wildcats that were going around a couple years ago. I would say that construction is even simpler on this new Hellcat, but she retains the 'semi-profile' look that somehow satisfies when you are in a hurry.

I feel like there might be one or 2 other people on RCG who might want to try this, but I've never made plans before and I'm not sure how to physically (or digitally I should say) construct them. Anyone willing to walk me through it? I have Adobe reader X FWIW.

I just feel like I might really like the way this one comes out.

What a great technique! Gonna try that someday!

This really seems like one of those things that should have been done thousands of times before! It's freakin' awesome!
I can't walk you through it because 90% of the time I just stumble around until I get lucky, but this link helped me a whole get that 10% where I know what I'm doing.
Ok I can't find it... but if you do a search for "how to make planes" there's this one thread with a video in it and it's AWESOME... I thought I had it booked marked.

Second night of work, and she's almost ready to link the servos to the control surfaces and think about installing the RX.

With all equipment (motor/ESC/3 servos), she weighs in at about 23 ounces. That's well within the capabilities of the Park 450 outrunner which is what I'm using. The full specs are

Park 450 motor
20amp ESC
3 servos (no rudder, this is gonna be a belly lander)
2200mah 3S lipo (It could be powered by a 1300, but I needed the nose weight).

If anyone else wants to try this, perhaps they can think of a way to balance her better. Perhaps by adding a more powerful motor.

Tomorrow I will get to more detailed technical stuff like linking the control horns, access hatch for battery and radio and perhaps finish the paint scheme. Should be no trouble getting this thing in the air by this Saturday.

One more thing- in lieu of plans, given the simple nature of the build, I may just show you guys how it was done exactly. All you really need to build this is a good 3 view and some direction. I'll get to that tomorrow.

Barrett

Awesome

Perhaps I'll try this with motor/ESC from my T28 once I upgrade the motor.

Originally Posted by Razors edge 29

Awesome

Perhaps I'll try this with motor/ESC from my T28 once I upgrade the motor.

You should try it. Maidened it yesterday and got 4 flights in. It was a breezy morning, so I wasn't able to enjoy it fully, but I know it will be even more fun in calm wind. Hand launch was a non event. Just needed some up trim on the elevator. Might have made the horizontal tail just a bit out of line. Rolls are nice even on the 55-inch span with the Park450. I used a 2200 3S lipo mostly for weight balancing reasons. I think I also snuck the wing back a tad from the scale proportions. That always helps with balancing.

The thing I like best is the way it looked in the sky. Unless it's coming right at you or away from you, it looks really scale and full-fuselage. Not bad for a 55-inch warbird that took a couple of nights to build.

Still waiting on the pics and video from my friend.

Still waiting on the video, but here are some pics to at least prove she flies.

Looks great in the air, ya did good!

Congrats man

Thanks! I'm promised the flight video from my friend in a few days. I'll post it when I get it so watch your subscriptions.

OK, so I couldn't resist, it was so much fun.

In this build, I will attempt to explain in exact detail how I built the semi-profile Hellcat.

I started by shopping a side view plan of the fuselage to try and account for the curvature of the panels. Therefore, I stretched the drawing vertically as I have illustrated in the 2 drawings below.

DON'T FORGET-- For some reason, even though the aft fuselage is very narrow, if you stretch the entire side drawing directly, the aft fuselage just ahead of the tail will come out way too narrow on the side. So you NEED TO ADD A LITTLE HEIGHT to the profile of the aft fuselage as shown in the second drawing. The extra height should begin at the aft wall of the cockpit and lead straight all the way to the end of the fuselage.

Barrett

And the pics of my new Hellcat taking shape.

The overall dimensions for this one are smaller.

40 inch wingspan
30 inch length

I plan to use the E-Flite Park 400 outrunner.

Looks great! I like the simple construction. Just a personal opinion, but for me it always ruins a plane if the battery and electronics are just attached to the outside. For that reason I can't get into any of the "Flat" foamies... but this is just the ticket for a really quick and easy semi profile fighter... I like it.

Yeah, you should try it! I was working on the new one today and I realized that you easily forget it is not full-fuselage.

Here by the way are the latest pics of tonight's work. Got the painting all done and most of the detailing. Even used a charcol pastel for the engine exhaust.

Also, here at last is the FLGHT video from the maiden of the last week's 55-inch Hellcat.

*******DISCLAIMER********

It was a breezy morning and it is a very light plane, therefore it visibly has issues at times during the flight and landing. I am still confident in her flying abilities. Also at takeoff, she had too much down trim. Ya know, maiden stuff

Barrett's Hellcat Maiden 4-2-11 (3 min 53 sec)

Nice idea, what I like is you can whip up something different than everbody else and it isn't a big pain. You can experiment to your hearts delight,its almost plans free. What you only need is a simple 3 - view and have at it. The hardest job is picking a cool paint scheme, take Barret's Hellcat, it's a knockout, good work guys.