wilmracer

Hello fellow wattheads...

I've been MIA for the past several months and haven't posted much, but I've been trolling and keeping up with things. I lost my digital camera and was too lazy to borrow one to document anything with my current projects, but Santa brought a nice new camera and I'm feeling motivated again.


The last thing I really need right now is ANOTHER project on the workbench, but after the death of the F14 I've really missed having a jet to fly. I think I've been bit by the EDF bug .

I've still got the eflite P47 bubble top conversion with retracts on the bench (just need to reenforce the wing and finish painting) and the giant sailplane is almost done. It would have been done a few months ago but the fuselage came out a lot heavier than I wanted and I got discouraged and have put off rebuilding/redoing it. I'll have it done for the spring flying season though.

To get me motivated to finish the other two projects I figured I needed a Jet to get me back in the airplane room. Almost all of the electronics from the EPF F14 survived... all I have to replace is one fan and rotor... so I have decided to build a Steve Shumate SU-37 Super Flanker for dual 70mm EDF. I'm not going to do a full build log as there are already at least two over at RCGroups, but I thought I might document a bit of the changes I've made for the conversion and see how it goes.

I scaled the plans up to 135%. I'm not going to do the whole thrust vectoring thing and will just keep it as light as possible. Probably Aileron/Elevator and maybe cheat on the rudder and program in differential thrust to avoid another servo and associated hardware. Here are a few pics of the process so far. Nothing is really significantly different at this point. Build material is 1/4 and 1/2 inch bluecore.

See the plans and link to build threads at http://www.parkjets.com/su-37.html

profilefan

Looks great so far, this is my favorite jet and going to attempt to build this also. Can't wait to see the finished product!

wilmracer

Getting closer... another few days and all that will be left with the airgrame is a few decades of sanding...

wilmracer

Getting closer. The airframe is assembled and a rough shapping has been done. I imagine it will take me a week of an hour or so each night sanding to have her ready for filler and primer. At this point the weight is 27oz.
So far so good... I am really impressed with how well this model builds. I suspect I'll have a room full of these Shumate planes in the next year.

I need to decide on a paint scheme. I usually do scale or historically acurate paint jobs, but I am not a huge fan of the actual paint jobs I have seen on the real SU-37s. I haven't decided yet, but I want something flashier and sexier... I'll have to think about it a bit. A friend (who knows nothing about aircraft) suggested I paint it like a blue angel... it seems wrong on so many levels but it made me smile...

RickAvery

Wow, that plane is really looking GOOD!! Nice work. I've built a 133% Shumate F-15 and a scratch built CF-105 of the same size, both pushers. I know what you mean about sanding for hours on end. What batteries are you planning on using? EDFs are such amp hogs. Keep up the nice work.

Rick

wilmracer

I'm going to use a 4 cell battery in the 3000mA range. I have a 4100 mA battery that I used with this same setup in my old F14, but my charger peaks out at 3100 mA and I had to borrow a charger to peak it. I should be able to shave a few ounces over the last system without compromising performance.
I never ran those batteries down more than half way as my flights were almost never more than 8 - 10 minutes. I mostly fly park flyers and smaller aircraft so after a few minutes of nail biting I'm usually ready to wrap it up.

wilmracer

Few more pics from the build process. damn I love the lines of this jet...

My last jet suffered from a lack of response on the elevator and ailerons, so I went a bit overboard with the surfaces on this one. The ailerons are the 1" wide balsa aileron stock available at hobby stores laminated with foam on both sides. I cut several holes in the balsa to help keep weight down. It is overkill but they feel very solid. I've just finished adding a magnetic hold to the rear end of the hatch and it also feels solid.

As she sits now all that remains with the airframe is sanding, filling, and prepping for paint. I think I've settled on a scheme but I don't want to tip my hand just yet as it may be more than I can pull off...

I look horrible in the last pic, but the flanker sure looks purty

profilefan

Awesome, she is huge! Can't wait to see the paint scheme.

Alpea42

That's the next one I want to build Wil. So I will be following this build.Nothin like a 130% Shumate jet to get your juices goin huh. Yours is gonna need some air speed to"spool up the RPMs on the EDFs are you gonna put landing gear on it?

wilmracer

No gear on this one... I typically fly from a less than ideal field and I just build for belly flopping with that in mind.

I'm actually feeling pretty confident that this will slow down nicely... I had the same power system in an EPF F-14 with a smaller wing area. If I can keep the weight close she should fly nicely with the larger lifting area.

I've estimated the wing area of the old EPF F-14 at 317 square inches.

This jet is approximately 528 square inches...

Of course if I just have to have more speed I'll cram some more powerful motors in there

wilmracer

A few more images from the build so far. I've finshed filling, sanding, and put two coats of Polycrylic. I've cut the access hatches into the nacelles and have cut the holds for the servos. Now I need to smooth out the interior of the nacelles and secure the fans.

I've ordered the replacement fan and a BEC from castle creations, as well as two 4 cell 2100s that I'll use together as a 4200. She is going to need the nose weight and it might as well be battery.

wilmracer

A bit more progress. If I had to do the entire project over I would redesign the nacelles rather than just drop the fans into the original design, but it should work out OK. I used the free Cone Layout tool to create the thrust tubes, which have been secured. Exit area is 80% FSA. They stand out a bit right now but will blend in just fine when the exhaust nozzel area is painted.

I went ahead and masked off the upper half and started painting the underside. I usually do all of my painting outside, but the temperatures last weekend dropped into the teens. I threw up a few painters tarps in the airplane room to work as a spray booth area. The underside is now mostly complete, and I hope to start spraying the upper surfaces this weekend.

MTEXX

wilmracer-

Nice build. I'm working on one too.

I too don't care for the typical Su-37 schemes.
I really like the scheme used on the Mig-29 OVT. Google image search will turn up quite a few. Here's one for example:

wilmracer

Nice scheme. Is that what you are using for yours? Have any pictures of your progress?

I'm painting this one with an original scheme that was based on a few other aircraft. I'll post up some pictures tomorrow night after I get a bit more done.

MTEXX

I plan to paint it like the #156, yeah. And if so, I'm sure it will generate an instant auction at the AMA field haha.

Pics are on another camera.

What is a good source for paint?

wilmracer

I left my good camera at the school Friday night so I grabbed a few pictures with the camera phone. Paint added about 2.5 oz bringing the weight without electronics to 36.5 oz.

The camera phone really doesn't do the colors justice. Its not perfect but its good enough for me.

wilmracer

That will look really nice. Feel free to post up some pics in this thread. Are you also doing EDF?

I painted this one with Testors rattle-cans from the LHS. The striping pattern was done by masking and then using a Testors paint pen to carefully fill in the shape, then outline with a white paint pen. I don't have an airbrush and I've had mixed results with masking and spraying on foam when I want clean edges. I enlarged and printed a tiger stipe patern, cut out the stripes to use as templates, and then cut the outline of the stripes from painters tape. Once I had about 10 different shaped I just started repositioning them and adjusting them, so you might notice some shapes repeat.

I have a habit of spending too much time detailing before maiden flights, so with this one I just want something that looks good in the air. She won't win any standoff scale or scale contests, but she should be easy to spot in the air . If I can't keep my orientation with this one I have no business flying RC.

pburt1975

That came out great wilm!! You've got way more confidence in your planes then I do mine, lol, I wont paint until they survive the maiden.
speaking of which, when is the maiden?

profilefan

Looks great, love the paint scheme! Very original, look forward to the maiden video!

Good luck!

wilmracer

I hope to maiden her within the next two weeks. The batteries are sitting at the post office and I'll pick them up tomorrow after work. Then I just have to rework the wiring harness, install the gear, and get everything programmed and set. I still need to cut and install the intake duct work as well.

I might have to wait an extra week to be able to get a camera man out there as well. I have a friend who is quite good at action photography who has always wanted to come out with a good camera and gets some good still photos, and I really want the maiden on video.

wilmracer

These pictures do a much better job of showing the color... still not great lighting.

MTEXX

That looks a ton better than the camera phone images. Nice contrasting colors.

I'm not doing EDF, but I am doing 3-axis gyro, alpha mix and functional canards. Basically using this as a platform similar to Dave Powers' Su-37.

So, you gonna fly that thing?

Alpea42

Nice Wil that tiger stripe sceme looks way better in orange than it did in pink LOL MTEXX I just watched Dave Powers and his gyro Su 37 video yesterday ,what a flyer that thing is.

wilmracer

I'm subscribed to Dave's channel as well. I can't wait to see the vtol project... I love the way he is working through it one piece at a time.

wilmracer

She's DONE!

AUW is a bit heavier than I wanted... 72oz. with the batteries back as far as I could get them she actually needed .5oz of weight in the tail! I made up the weight by covering the undersides of the nacelles with laminating plastic and packing-tape to protect on belly landings.

I ran a very unscientific test of the thrust with the packs peaked... the thrust tubes and larger intake areas compared to the f-14 make a big difference. She should have close to 200w/lb and seems to have more than enough thrust. Using the "hand-o-meter" she seems to have very close to 1 to 1 thrust. Holding her vertical and spinning up the motors and she almost wants to hover (out of control of course). She'll never be as acrobatic as the dual pusher TV system, but the wow factor of the EDF hopefully makes up for it.

The weather this Sunday actually looks promising... 54 and sunny, 10mph winds. Now I just need to wrangle up a ground crew to man the cameras and giver her a toss for the maiden. I can hand launch after that, but for maiden flights I like to have both hands on the sticks. The problem with not belonging to a club field is that I don't have other friends that are into RC... at least not addicted like I am. I'll be lucky to get someone out there to film, but I really want the maiden on tape.

On EDIT: I just realized the Super Bowl is this Sunday! I guess you can tell where my priorities are... Now it seems really unlikely I'll get anyone out on Sunday :-(