Huge 1/7 scale Tomcat!!!

[xavi84]

I've never seen this posted here on ARC so I thought I'd share it.

http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=147936

Its pretty freaking awesome.

[dryguy]

Yes it is pretty awesome. I have a LOT of respect for the RC scale guys; a lot of engineering; especially the composite models. I sometimes wish that they would consult us plastic guys as its a shame to see all that work often with a big shape problem (well to me anyway!) Not to reduce the awesomeness of this though; it really is excellent.

There is also a 1/7 scale su27 that also shows the entire build from the plug to moulds to the first parts being pulled from the mold to flight testing. WICKED!!!

Edited May 14, 2012 by dryguy

[David Hingtgen]

I sometimes wish that they would consult us plastic guys as its a shame to see all that work often with a big shape problem

This is my main beef with so many "large" RC planes---basic shape issues. I've seen stuff that's like 1/10 or 1/20 scale, with frankly horrendous shapes that are worse than some 1/144 or 1/200 Chinese knockoffs of kits from the 60's. With that much larger a structure to work off of, you'd think they could hold to within a half-inch (actual, not scale) for the basic outline. I think a lot of them frankly get a basic 3-view line-art like this:

And use that as their one and only reference.

Edited May 14, 2012 by David Hingtgen

[dedalus]

Is it RC? I just skimmed through--I'm not going to read 70+ pages--but it looked like the engine area is filled in with no inlets or outlets for engines.

[kap64]

He said it will be RC. The pics are the plugs and moulds for the actual pieces.

[dryguy]

They build them complete with miniture functioning turbojets, often made from an old truck turbocharger.

Being a person who has dabbled in rc flight, I have to point out that it often isn't simply a matter of 'making 1/7 scale.' In order to have a plane that actually flies decently, a few 'scale compromises' are necessary, particulalry with smaller scales. For example, my topflight spitfire has a much enlarged elevator. This is to make the airplane easier to handle on the edge of a stall. In a nutshell, the rc guys are dealing with completely different reynolds numbers that the original plane is, so scale compromises are often necessary. Having said which, a lot of the basic outline shapes are sadly off.

[dryguy]

To end off, I think many of the more talented scratch builders here at arcair would be very, very useful indeed to the rc community, particularly now with the plug/mould/composite technology that rc flight is moving towards, where the parts are easily replicated with quite a lot of detail