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     F4U - 70 Series, Version 1 - Coming soon!!  The Original 70% Design!

75% F4U Project 
Blurry Photos taken with an 3G Apple iPhone

Jul-10-2010     75% F4U Project

Jul-09-2010     75% F4U Project

Jul-06-2010     75% F4U Project The first three pictures show the skin after it has been laminated into place.  I worked on the tail fin and added the first layers of resin onto the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer.

Jul-05-2010     75% F4U Project Here you can see the foam has been sanded to the Rib. The second photo shows the surface skin cut and I verified that it fits correctly.

Jul-03-2010     75% F4U Project I added another layer to the top of the tail fin.  I can see that after I get finished sanding it down, the depression will still be there, so I will have to repeat the process again later.   I hot wired the blocks off the Horizontal Stabilizer and sanded the foam down to the ribs.  I'll fill in the gaps and call it a night.

Jul-2-2010     75% F4U Project The bottom of the Horizontal Stabilizer is complete, so I turned it over and added more foam blocks where needed. We will hotwire all the blocks tomorrow.

Jun-30-2010     75% F4U Project Lots of ground covered today.  The tailfin was glazed and checked for issues.  Another portion of skin was added to one side of the HStab and I glazed the tail and checked for distortion in the shinny surface.

Jun-23-2010     75% F4U Project Filling in the depression with foam left over from the opposite side.  I filled in the gaps where the foam did not adhere. Photo 2 shows the tail fin getting the first layer of fiber glass.

Jun-18-2010     75% F4U Project The tail fin is looking really looking good. I smoothed it out with 120gt and its smooooth! I can see a slight depression in the lower leading edge the will need to be sanded out tomorrow. Tonight I will add more glaze to the very tip to fill in 2 malformed areas you won't easily see in the photos. With any luck, I will fiberglass the Tail fin tomorrow while I work on the stabilizer.

Jun-15-2010     75% F4U Project Yesterday, I glazed the entire Tail Fin in order to add one of the final build-up layers. I smoothed it out and could not resist putting into place to see how it looks.   The leading edge still isn't perfect enough, so I will glaze it again tonight before I leave.

Jun-12-2010     75% F4U Project Losts to show today! This time I foamed only between ribs I thought I needed to had the surface layer (skin) ad hear to. I put a layer of resin on to build up the leading edge.  The Second Photo show an additional build-up layer needed to transition the surface to the wooden area.   Later I will glaze the entire part. The tail section has a strange depression in it that the real corsair didn't have.   To save time I will laminate a .5" sheet of foam into place and hotwire it flat.  Well it worked and probably saved me a lot of weight and resin, but in the end, it was more of a headache than it was worth.    While waiting for everything else to cure, I started working on filling in the dip along the bottom of the top half of the plug.   That only took a few minutes to smooth out so I sanded the area where the Cowl meets the body and I found a deep depression were the two meet.   I sanded with my largest sanding beam and when I was satisfied, I glazed the lowest area with a giant home-made spatula.  Worked good!   These two images show the newly designed end ribs.  Because the previous designs where not even close to the original Corsair's shape, this was the primary reason I started completely over with a new Horizontal Stabilizer design.   The transition in the shape of the ribs is near perfect this time.

Jun-11-2010     75% F4U Project Tail fin development today.

Jun-07-2010     75% F4U Project The skin for the tail fin was cut and put into place.  Everything looked good so I glued it into place and used sanding beams to hold the skin to the inner foam and ribs.

Jun-06-2010     75% F4U Project Dry fitting took longer than it should because of the extreme tight fit of the ribs to the rear spar.   The alignment is perfect and the leading edge alignment spar fit perfect the first time. The last photo shows the new rib 1 being fit into place.  Rib one is on an angle and I've never re-figured out how to have the software cut ribs on an angle so a projected the shape the old fashioned way and it worked fine.

Jun-05-2010     75% F4U Project Laying out the new version of the ribs, sanding the edges and looking for issues and any improvements.

May-31-2010     75% F4U Project VERSION 9 - Horizontal Stabilizer I was able to figure out why the elevators looked so strange when trying to finish the last 3 end ribs.   I needed to change how the rib was lofted.  Also, I was using the wrong airfoil and I managed to figure out the right one to use.  While inserting the new ribs into the master drawing, I found roughly 5 to 6 more improvements including a changed to the Bearing Assembly.   Basically, I just started over from scratch and incorporated improvements I learned from re-designing the Tail Fin and Rudder. So during this 3 day holiday weekend, I spent 22+ hours re-designing and only 8 hours in the shop.  This collection of pictures shows the new version 9 ribs and the trim tab from the rudder being getting ready for skinning. br /> It's late so we'll knock-off for now and try to get the remaining ribs and support pieces cut tomorrow after we cut the improved spar design.

May-21-2010     75% F4U Project The new Tail fin is dry-fit together and put into position. Picture 2 has Dan holding the newest versionof the rudder in place.

May-16-2010     75% F4U Project The changes made in Version 3 of the Rudder and Tail fin are suttle, but the fit is much better. The second picture shows the last piece of the crutch being added.   We are almost ready to start froming some of the bottom panels.  Version 1 of the tail tin can still be seen but will be removed soon. The thire picture show that the rear cockpit is now layered in resin and ready for the seat assembly.