Hawker Tempest Mk-1 Foamie

I got the airframe cut out this morning, with the exception of the firewall and servo/battery tray...won't take long....but I did something different this time...instead of cutting formers and bending/gluing the slabs onto them, I cut longitudinal sections that are keyed on both ends...then I'll make templates for the taper of both the fore and aft sections of the fuselage, and cut the tapers with a hot wire.

Plans are for a Cobra 2820/14 840 kV motor, 60 Amp ESC 2600mah 60C 4S

Fuselage is 1/2" rigid insulation....Wings and feathers are 3/16" Elmers board

This build is in preparation for a 60" - 66" balsa version with retracts....just want to make sure it'll fly before I start cutting balsa

Assembling the fuselage....with help....lol
I cut the hot wire templates for the hatch and the fore and aft tapers.....

Got the fuse tapered, radiused, and sanded, but I'm concerned about the surface area of the stab and elevator...
and the size of the fin....gonna do a little ciphering on tail volumes...they might end up a bit bigger than scale...

I'm happy with the progress on the brown paper covering.it helps a lot to wet both the paper and the foam....Captain Fantail aggrees

The original stab is on the left, the new one is on the right....roughly 10% bigger with the elevator extended to the ends..the fin was OK,
but I added the reverse curve...I got the tail volumes almost the same as a Ryan Navion.....Vv = 0....Continue Reading

24 in Einzpfeil Maiden (1 min 52 sec)

She's featured in this month's AMA magazine.......which is totally fricking amazing.......

Just finished this one....24" Einzpfeil with a PowerFun 64mm 11 blade fan 3500kv motor on 4S....Nacelle is a 16oz Chinet coffee cup...Holy St. Dilbert.....static thrust is unbelievable..3.2 lbs measured. I've got some 70mm fans that don't produce that much thrust...this thing is gonna be a bullet..... AUW is 30 oz.1.7:1.0 Thrust to Weight

Had a request for info on what I use for the leading edge on my foamies

I use faux Carbon Fiber tape, cut into 2" wide strips...available at most auto parts store (O'Reilly's, AutoZone, Advance)