Hello guys. I been watching Mike at Green Air Design for the last year or so and has been excited about what he has done with Depron. I WAS waiting for his elusive F-22 to be finished. *finger crossed* As his kit have now hit mainstream and are readily available here in the States now, I figured I'd tide myself over with one of his new "Micro Combat Range" kits.

The F-5a looks drew me to it (like Doc's T-38) and it seems like a good candidate for an EDF-40 on Feigao or Medusa after she's sorted out pusher style. Although it is a pusher, with a projected AUW of 7-9 oz's, it fits right in with my parkflyer fetish. Says it can use a GoBrushless motor for 1:1 thrust, I might be bolting my new Medusa 12mm 4000Kv motor to its rear.


Comes in a nice box, with all parts loose. Not a problem as the parts are light pieces of cut Depron. No damage was found on anything.

First on the list is to build the wings. Two halves of bottom and top sheets, with three ribs and some spars. Glue them all to the bottom sheets first, then, well... we'll get to that.

First is a mock up of the parts right out of the box.

I am working with foaming polyurethane Gorilla glue and odorless CA for this build. Instructions call for epoxy, thinned down at times. THere are warnings about how hard it is to sand the epoxy, I can't imagine using it anymore!

First, the bottom halves are glued together. I added tape to contain the expanding glue and for slight strength. Next the inner spars and ribs are glued down. I found that the Glue was great for bonds and gap filling, but too slow for a documented project. I found that glue along the length, and CA at the tips of the ribs/spars makes it easy to have the best of both worlds. Speed in construction, and light weight (sandable) strength when cured.

While waiting for the glue to cure I jumped to the next section of building the fuse.

Now the instructions are typed on one page, and a CAD like diagram (with some part identification) is on the back side of the previous page. This allows picture and description to be open for the project at the same time. I found a couple fo the pictures confusing and had to bust out a micrometer to identify some look alike parts from the pictures.

The fuse was one of those times where I had a description and picture (side views only) and was still scratching my head. The diagram could have the parts labeled with "part A" or "#3" to clear up some of the confusion. Once I trial fitted some parts *BAM* it made sense while the wording in the instruction steps finally became clear.

I left the fuse to dry all pinned and taped. I had to wait for the laminated nose and the wing to finish drying so... I let my wife make me watch "Little Black Book". She would understand if I HAD to step away for my sanity, and it let me do checkups on my work. Plus, the dinner table is now my second workbench and I had to appease the Warden somehow.

Nose with rough sanding to shape, and the second picture is the wing. Well, witht he top sheets taped tot he botom, the ribs just flexed and kinda made it an asymetrical airfoil. So I strapped taht sucker to a flat board, placed some small sand bags on the edges, and added a "little" weight to the top. I knew tax paperwork would come in handy some day!

Well, I wanted to leave this thread tonight on a happy note, but seeing my pile of crap on top of my wing reminded me of something. I forgot to install the aileron linkage under the top sheeting. Here is my beautiful wing with surgery scars. On the bright side- the airfoil is correct again!

Justin

My progress has been slow today. A combination of having to work tonight and babysitting suties until then, not muh has changed compared to the fast paced intial builup.

Couple this with, I believe a missing part, and the wing is almost done.

The wing LE need to be sanded into a nice airfoil shape. I had trouble figuring how to make enough of the top skin overlap the front to make it "sandable" as the diagram showed.

The instructions say that the leading edge strip should be installed with alot of tape. LE strip? Hadn't seen that or caught it in the first picture of all the parts. Luckily I have some 6mm black depron from my stalled French F-22 build about a year ago. Strip cut and istalled with G-glue.

Nose cone has been sanded to rough shape and additional fuse top pieces installed. These "additional" pieces add thickness and allow the fuse to be shaped with sandpaper, making it rounded. Nose then taped onto front for final time.

I hope everybody is enjoying my pictures. They are coming from a Sony Mavica I inherited recently. This is a pre-megapixel specimen that uses a 3.5" flooppy. Sometimes it's age shows in the pictures. OR it could be me!

Always liked this bird..... keep up the good work!

Tommy

Thanks Tommy! I like her looks too, looks fast even standing still.

I've sanded the LE to a nice shape and glued on the ailerons and hinges. Instructions don't say anything, but how do you guys recommend the servo get hooked to the torque rods?

Gotta get ready for work, so thats it for tonight.

Justin

I'm NOT an expert, but could you do something like DuBro offers in their parflyer aileron hinge set? Or perhaps something like the T-IFO I built used. Electrical shrink wrap! Very simple and easy to install. If you check the Ultrafly F-16 build they are addressing something like that on the elevators as we speak.

Keep up the good work the F-5 rocks!

Tommy

Originally Posted by roccobro

Couple this with, I believe a missing part, and the wing is almost done.

The wing LE need to be sanded into a nice airfoil shape. I had trouble figuring how to make enough of the top skin overlap the front to make it "sandable" as the diagram showed.

The instructions say that the leading edge strip should be installed with alot of tape. LE strip? Hadn't seen that or caught it in the first picture of all the parts. Luckily I have some 6mm black depron from my stalled French F-22 build about a year ago. Strip cut and istalled with G-glue.

Hmmmm did you E-Mail Mike to ask him the skinny??

Just watched the video... man it's a nice little flyer!

Can I ask where you bought it from?

I'm hot for the Mig-25 as well!

Tommy

Tommy- Great ideas. I wonder how the shrink would hold up? I don't think there will be much torque/stress on the joint. Looks like the Du-Bros micro aileron parts might be the ticket. Finally glad I have a set laying right here unused...

Dynamoelectrics.com has them in stock now. I love dealing with Randy and he puts up with my cheap butt! Always on the prowl for good deals and I buy from Randy more than often than not. He should have some little screamer motors coming in that I think I might try. No build for the next few hours...must sleep...

Justin

for your viewing pleasure

Now, what color Testors is that? Beeyouteeful! Trying to order/sort my servos and motor stuff since I don't have time to build the next day or two...

Justin