Scratchbuilt AT-38B

[Pete "Pig" Fleischmann]

Hey Guys,

While I'm waiting for Usheco in Kingston NY to fit me into their schedule to pull the fuselage halves, I thought I'd keep pressing on the tail. I've built-up the rudder and the aft section from folded .005 brass sheet over a .040 styrene frame. This will all get skinned with aluminum:

This is the aft fin top. The little curly-que was scabbed on and will be blended into the brass:This all gets covered as well. Most of the jet will be covered with aluminum attached with thinned contact cement-

Here's the rudder covered with aluminum:The rivets were impressed with a beading tool. The screw heads were impressed with a tiny philips-head screwdriver from one of my son's TechDeck mini skateboards. I sharpened each flange of the screwdriver with a diamond file to get a nice crisp, tiny "+" impression.

Gettin a sharp trailing edge on all the flying surfaces is critical to the look of the T-38. Timmy! schooled me on the folded-brass technique, and it works like a champ

Thanks for looking!

Pig

[GreyGhost]

AWE .... SOME !

Gregg

[Skyking]

Fantastic work Pete. The screw heads are the bees knees. Just one question, did you add any additional ribs in the rudders? I was looking at the picture of the framework in your hand with just the top and bottom ribs. Is the brass thick enough to hold its shape without "oilcanning" and forming a depression? Why cover the brass to begin with? I can see using the aluminum on the plastic covered surfaces, but the brass should be adequate no? I'm not nit-picking, but asking for my own ejimicational purposes. You are really knocking this one out of the park.

By the way I hope you and the family fared well with all the rain and flooding in New England.

Cheers

Mike

[Pete "Pig" Fleischmann]

Fantastic work Pete. The screw heads are the bees knees. Just one question, did you add any additional ribs in the rudders? I was looking at the picture of the framework in your hand with just the top and bottom ribs. Is the brass thick enough to hold its shape without "oilcanning" and forming a depression? Why cover the brass to begin with? I can see using the aluminum on the plastic covered surfaces, but the brass should be adequate no? I'm not nit-picking, but asking for my own ejimicational purposes. You are really knocking this one out of the park.

By the way I hope you and the family fared well with all the rain and flooding in New England.

Cheers

Mike

Hey Mike!

Thanks for your support mate!

I added no other support for the rudder and area above the rudder. The doubled-over .005 brass was rigid enough-

The entire model will be sheeted in Aluminum, save for a few panels in .010 sheet that stand proud of the skin a bit. I needed to skin the entire rudder as the leading edge vertical panel has a recessed panel line. Skinning that only would result in a lap joint. Also, the trailing edge has a step on both sides-Easy to replicate by skinning in aluminum then cutting the aluminum back to reveal the step. The step still needs to be a blended transition-I'll do that with primer most likely-

Regards,

Pig

Edited April 9, 2010 by Pete "Pig" Fleischmann

[HOLMES]

SUPERB scatchbuilding....

getting more and more excited to follow this one..Keep at it Pete.

HOLMES

[Pete "Pig" Fleischmann]

Thanks you guys!

Here's the tail build up progress: The tabs keep the symmetrical airfoil up off the buildboard

Regards,

Pig

[Emvar]

Pete,

It's guys like you that make me like this hobby even more, truly amazing.

Emil

[VADM Fangschleister]

Magnificent!

I learn a lot every time you post something.

;)

[Pete "Pig" Fleischmann]

Hey Guys-

getting closer to finishing-off the tail...This section was filled with balsa sheet slightly thicker than the structure and sanded back to profile, flush with the tail ribs and bulkheads. Then I skinned the outside with .010 sheet. I made a new section out of brass for the aft area immediately above the rudder. My first attempt was a bit too thick where it met the vertical spar. The easiest fix was to just make a new brass section, which hits 2 of the most important rules of scratchbuilding: 1) Plan on building everything twice 2) If it's not right; tear it down and do it over again.

Here's a look:

Here's a closer look. I may end up building the rudder twice as well-I just need to see how well it really fits once the tail is sheeted in aluminum-

regards,

Pig

[Tilt]

Beautiful work Pig. I just love watching this jet grow.

[Pete "Pig" Fleischmann]

Beautiful work Pig. I just love watching this jet grow.

Hi Tilt-Well this thing will grow so big, It should be visible to you all the way up in Canada!

I'm heading up to NY Thursday morning to pull the fuselage shells. I'm hoping the guys at Usheco will let me photograph the process-

Regards,

Pig

[Timvkampen]

Pete,

This is amazing and takes the whole hobby to a new level. PAtience is a virtue and scratchbuilding a skill! You possess both in abundance. You have good memories flying this jet (assuming you flew them)?

Best Tim

[Pete "Pig" Fleischmann]

Pete,

You have good memories flying this jet (assuming you flew them)?

Best Tim

Hi Tim-

Yes, great memories of flying both the T-38A as a student, and then the AT-38B at LIFT. Just a great little jet. also, my wife was a T-38 Instructor Pilot for many years, so for me, there are alot of connections to this jet-

Regards,

Pig

[Dr Fester]

Awesome project Pete, looking good.

Doc

[Pete "Pig" Fleischmann]

Hello Gents!

Huge day for the AT-38B project today. After flying all night..through my front door at 2300..Up at 0500 for the 2 hour drive up to Kingston NY to meet the guys at Usheco, who were happy to thermoform the fuselage shells for me. The owner was facinating: 85 year old Bernarr Schaeffer- P-47 pilot from the ETO, tons of combat experience-Played ball for the Milwaukee Brewers, self-made millionaire-Awesome fellow and razor sharp.

The building they are in was built during the cold war as a secure communications link facility, and looks like a bunker:

These guys are plastic fabricators, and do prototyping, etc-They have enough vacuum to pull a 4X6 bathtub..anyway, Bob and Dan mounted my masters on some ply, and got after it-

Here is the "small" thermoformer-It might fit in my shop-

First pull-Sierra Hotel!

Their system had a ton of vacuum-So much so that the stretched sprue bulkhead locators made a slight ridge on the outside of the forms-No big deal, they are easily sanded away. Here you can see I've started cleaning them off of the shell on the bottom

After we pulled what I needed, Bernarr and I went out for lunch, and I sat there and talked fighter pilot stuff with him for an hour. Awesome.

Regards,

Pig

[Paul Mullins]

Pete,

Awesome. Simply awesome.

Paul :unsure:

[TomTheTomcat]

:unsure: applause !

[Youngtiger1]

Pete, this is coming along really nice. Sounds like Mr. Schaeffer a great individual. I'm glad they were able to help you with your project. I can't wait to see the fuselage cut, worked, and glued. In the mean time keep up the good work.

Mike

[GreyGhost]

Wow, very cool !

I gotta say Pete, you've reached this point much more quickly than I was expecting ...

Gregg

[mareku]

Great progres I´m waiting to see the ready model

[mkimages]

Everything about this is just so utterly cool.

Mark

[chukw]

Woof! Extreme Modeling, maybe? Good gravy, Pete- that's downright scary.

Cheers!

chuk

[Pete "Pig" Fleischmann]

Hi Guys,

Just some vacuform 101 stuff here.

I've separated both halves from the sheet, and have the left side just about cleaned-up. Having the master patterns available makes the fuselage sanding much easier. ..Just sand the edges to the master pattern:

I removed the plugs at the intake and tailpipe areas-Remeber the plugs were there only to prevent the plastic from getting pulled thin around the corner..Once the plugs are removed, sand to the master profile again:

Here's the intake trunk area roughed out after removing the plug. this will get all cleaned up, and will mate-up with the approx. 3 inch intake and splitter I have yet to build up-

Here are the locator marks on the inside of the shells..these are for the interior bulkheads to install:

Thanks for looking-

Pig

[mareku]

Fantastic

[Skyking]

Hey Pete,

Now THAT is a vauform machine. That's about the size of the one at Ekl Plastics in Binghamton that did some work for me years ago. It's so cool to watch an industrial machine at work. They make it look so effortless. These look like they pulled very well. Did you make extras just in case?

If I might offer a suggestion, that's going to be a pretty big model. What I would so is have a resin duplicate made of your master so that you can cut it up and leave inside the shells for support and strength. I've done that on the NC4 and my Trimotor, and it makes handeling those thin shells so much easier.

Great work Pete. Keep it up.

Cheers

Mike

Edited April 17, 2010 by Skyking