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Well, not a great deal to show, the last couple of weeks I havent had nearly as much time to work on this as I was thinking I was going to have. And then my fall classes started on Wednesday, so now I'm back to only about 2 days a week to work on this thing, but I am making progress slowly.

After getting the doors done, I decided I was going to give the CATSS seats a shot, and so far its going OK. Had a couple of aborted attempts at it, before finding a method that seemed to work pretty decent.

Just to give ya guys something to show what Im working to make, here's a pic I found awhile back. Ive since found a whole page on the Martin Baker website giving very very good images of these things

CATTS_heli_Seat_popup-1.jpg

I started by taking the dimensions given on the Martin Baker website for the seats so I could figure out what size material I needed to use, and this was what I came up w/

catss01.jpg

Once I had the size material decided, I played w/ Solidworks, so that I could make some kind of a print to make a jig to work from, and this was what I came up w/

catss03.jpg

Started out by trying to bend styrene rod to match the form, and it didnt work real well. Was using straight pin's w/ the above printed form taped to a piece of high density foam, but it didnt work very well. Had a lot of trouble getting the styrene hot enough to get it to bend.

The next attempt was using brass rod, and that just didnt work out real well. Had a difficult time getting it bent, and like the styrene, just didnt work out real well.

And then I decided I was just making it too damn difficult. Why try bending the styrene, when I could make it so much easier by just cutting it to the correct lengths, and then gluing it back together, and this is where I stand right now.

These are the parts for the main loop that bolts to the fuselage. The seat pan will then be attached to these. Going to get all of these assembled, before I start working on the seat pans. Also worked out a different way of assembling the frames. I snagged a 12" steel rule from my mom, and Im making the 90° corners by laying them at the corner of the rule, and gluing them. So far its been working out pretty good this way, but so far Ive only done half of the frames. Still got the other leg to attach to each one. Hopefully that will go as well as the first half has.

catss08.jpg

Here's my box of cut pieces, enough for 32 hoops.

catss06.jpg

Once I get them all done, I plan on carefully rounding off the corners of hte hoops using a sanding stick, to make it look a litlte more accurate.

The hardest part is probably going to be making the canvas hammock that goes inside of the hoops to hold the person sitting in it. Im thinking that the 2 best options are either A) Aluminum foil or Bare Metal Foil, or :cheers: glue soaked kleenex or the like.

Once the seats are completed, I think that Im probably just going to mount them right to the interior fuselage panels, w/o trying to create any of the interior framework that these things attach to. Thinking I'll leave a few of the seats loose, since Im most likely going to display the completed bird in some sort of maintenance scene, so having a few of them out leaning against the rear ramp would probably look good, and also give people a good idea of the insanity inside the fuselage, haha.

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That's quite a task, how many seats do you have to build? I had enough fun building my stretchers, though I did do it twice. :cheers:

Looking forward to what you come up with, I may steal it for my next build. <_< So open hatches and seats from Adam, tail rotor gear box from Harold, and everything else from Dan...

Nice work.

mason

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Well, there are 32 of them, 16 down each side of the fuselage. So I figure I'll build them until I either get them all built, or I get so frustrated that I start pulling out what little hair I have left on my head, haha.

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Hahaha, yea, no kidding.

Unfortunately I'm kinda having to go back to the drawing board on the seats. I'm trying to find a NWSL Chopper 2, so that I can more accurately cut the styrene. Right now no two pieces are the same length, so it makes it really difficult to get it put all together.

While Im waiting to do that, Im moving on to other things.

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  • 4 years later...
  • 1 year later...

Wow, shows that I dont pay attention, never saw this.

Build has more or less stalled out for various reasons. I had moved a couple times and then early last year I pulled it out and worked on it some, and then havent touched it again in probably 8 or 9 months. Been thinking about pulling it out again.

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