Project for Today: Me-110G

Ed Kettler · Post by **Ed Kettler** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 12:32 pm

After the NATS (and the rush to complete the two Mustangs and three SSC Cobras!), it was time to settle down and re-start work on the Me-110. This is actually the third 110 fuselage I cut, the first going to Scott Stockwell for his electric combat evaluator, and the second to Cash to help him deal with the insomnia of newborns. The techniques for cutting the fuselage and nacelles has been well documented, so I'll skip that part.

Chris Quinn uses aluminum rails, and Scott used an aluminum C section, so I decided to go that route with the fuselage. I split it horizontally and routed out a channel down the centerline. The aluminum weighs 5 ounces. I left some space at the front of the fuselage as a shock absorber in case of a crash/midair.

The insides of the top and bottom fuselages were 'woodpeckered' to improve adhesion, then the halves were glued back together using ProBond PU. Clamping was provided by 3M blue masking tape, which is the best I've found.

A trip to the belt sander and a pile of blue sawdust later, and we have a reasonable facsimile of an Me-110:

Unlike the Mustangs and FW that used fiberglass rods for spars, the Me-110 has a spruce spar acquired from the trim section of Home Depot. The spar build up was copied from my SSC Cobras with different sized doublers front and back. The assembly is held together by medium CA and 1" drywall screws.

The wood blocks are poplar, and make a solid foundation for the engine mount tounges. The tongues are glued and screwed to the blocks, as shown in these lower and upper views.

I flared the engine mount once it cleared the wing to provide a platform for the throttle servo, and it looks to be big enough for the servo and a conventional tank if someone wants to go that route. Also, I will be able to mount the cowl blocks to the underside of the tongue, embedded in the foam, a lesson I learned the hard way with the FW.

The wing will be set up with a single pivot screw that will go into the aluminum channel, so that is the explanation of the wood block on the centerline. Here are some trial fit shots:

Most of the dihedral in the Me-110 comes from the upward taper of the wing as it moves from root to tip. There's lots of work left to do, but this is the point where it almost looks like a plane, and gets me fired up for the remaining 50% of the effort to finish the project.

More pics as progress continues!

Ed

Ed Kettler
RCCA 533
AMA 730493
Plano, TX

Cajun · Post by **Cajun** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 1:16 pm

Good work Ed.

These pictorials are helpfull for guys just getting started working with foam, whether they are building just this model or not. The methadology can be used for most models.

CAJUN [8D]
Lone Star Combat State
AMA-CD 174052
RCCA 380
NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS
MY MIND WORKS LIKE LIGHTNING,,ONE BRILLIANT FLASH AND IT'S GONE!!

Post by **Dane McGee** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 7:43 pm

Great job Ed[:D].......Thanks for posting pics.

What is the wingspan? Target weight? Intended paint scheme/JG?

.......I was really wanting to build one of these too......maybe a 410[8D] or even a mossie [:)]

Dane "MadMax" McGee
Greenville, Texas

Ed Kettler · Post by **Ed Kettler** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 11:05 pm

I went looking for a distinctive paint scheme that would be easy to spot and tell orientation, and found it in the decal section of my local Hobbytown USA. The plane appears in AeroMaster Products 48-567 Nocturnal Birds of Prey set, Bf-110G4/R3 werk number 110087 of Nachtjagdstaffel Finaland in April 1944. The upper surfaces are a typical grey and green, but the lower right wing is black. This should work well for combat. Here are some scans from the decal documentation:

The wingspan will be close to 60" and hopefully the weight will be close to the target minimum of 4.0 pounds. Power will be two new OS .15LAs. I'm planning on putting everything except the elevator servo in the wing to make it easy to set up and take down. The fuel tank will be a bladder mounted just aft of the wing spar. Right now I'm leaning towards having some surplus HS-81 servos for throttles instead of just a cutoff.

Ed

Ed Kettler
RCCA 533
AMA 730493
Plano, TX

wrnstockwel · Post by **wrnstockwel** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 1:01 am

Ed, you indicated the .15s weigh 7 oz, and my motor/gearbox combo comes in at 8 oz, looks like the big difference between electric and gas is going to be that 19oz battery pack vs your 3 oz reciever pack, so you should come in right at 4lbs to 4lbs 2 oz. Guess I need to figure out how to put mine on a serious diet, without burning a hole in my wallet for LiPoly cells. I'll see if I cant at least get mine dolled up with a nice paint scheme and we can get some cool in flight pictures.

The FW-190 redo should be done by the end of the week, then I just have to scare up the batteries for it, but we will know the "minimum" weight for a single motor electric bird, might be close to 3.5 lbs or less.

Scott

Derfanft's mei Gwand I'fuahr in himmeil

Rabbit Leader · Post by **Rabbit Leader** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 1:20 am

Dangit Ed, I wanted to get mine in the air first...man, at this rate you'll be putting out planes faster than Lee...[;)]

Looks good, let me know when ya have her ready.

Scott, I'm real close to offering you a donation for some Li-po batteries just to see what happens..

"Furballs are for cats!"

Ed Kettler · Post by **Ed Kettler** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 12:44 am

Got home early from a trip to London, so got a chance to spend a full day in the shop working on the Me-110 today. At this stage she is fully taped and ready for the paint shop, and weighs in at 4 pounds 1 ounce, so I want to go light on the paint to keep her close to the target weight. The wings with the engines weigh in at slightly over three pounds on their own!

The cowls were made by using the pop bottle method, so the first order of business this morning was to build a plug from 2x4 stock. I was really getting concerned about whether a two liter bottle would be big enough, and the answer was "just barely". The band saw and the big sander made this a relatively simple, but time consuming task. The lower cowl was cut back so I could use locknuts and bolts on the engine mountinginstead of woodscrews. The foam was contoured inside the upper cowl to help vent the air out the rear of the cowling. As you can see, there is plenty of room inside the cowl for a standard fuel tank and servo, if you mount the servo to one side.

The fuel system will be a single bladder feeding a pressure reducer then a 'T' fitting to distribute the fuel to both engines. I did a test inflation of one of my SSC bladders, and it requires 8" x 1.5" to hold 6 ounces of fuel, so the bladder compartment is generously sized at 9"x2". The left hand fuel line is routed back through the bladder compartment, but is kept out of the way with some bidi. This is important so it doesn't get pinched by the bladder. The fuel loops are exposed so I can clamp off each side for starting so I don't flood them out. I used a piece of clear plastic to cover the opening but still allow visibility to the fuel compartment.

The taping was very time consuming because of the compound curves on the nacelles and getting the intersections of the wings and nacelles done nicely. I have to install the aft wing attachment point, then lightly sand in preparation for the primer and paint. Using the black tape should eliminate the paint weight on one wing underside, I just have to mask it off. It is starting to look like an Me-110. The ailerons are done, just have to be covered and attached before painting. All of the systems are installed, so it is getting close to being done.

Ed

Ed Kettler
RCCA 533
AMA 730493
Plano, TX

Jimbo · Post by **Jimbo** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 1:04 am

I gotta hand it to you Ed, that's a fine example of dedication. That's a lot of work for a combat plane. Scale guys are special.[:0]

Limited-B
Try it,you'll like it !

Ed Kettler · Post by **Ed Kettler** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:22 am

Tonight was paint night for the Me-110. I swung by HobbyTown USA Plano with the list of paints from the decal documentation I'm using as a reference. I usually use only one bottle of each color (Polly Scale acrylics), but I decided that I'd pick up an extra RLM 76 for the sides and underside, and that looks like it was a wise choice, as I completely used bottle 1. The first chore was masking off the hoses, servo fittings and other stuff that shouldn't be painted. I shot the canopy medium blue, then did the undersides and sides in RLM 76, along with the tail. I also shot the lower cowls and the underside of the left wing. The lower right wing and cowl is black Zagi tape.

While that was drying started shooting the upper wings in RLM 74 and 75, then did the tail and fuselage, along with the upper cowls. I did some masking around the canopy to shoot an extra coat of medium blue, but my haste was punished by the 3M blue masking tape pulling some of the paint off.[:(] After some thinking and head scratching, I tackled the time consuming chore of the canopy frames. I used some blue 1/8" pin strip tape, and spent over an hour peeling and sticking stripes to the canopy. Once I was reasonably happy, I used a model paint brush to paint the tape gray to match the upper fuselage. The next plane I do is going to have a very simple canopy!!![}:)][;)]

Here are some pictures of where I finished up for the evening. Without the mufflers, plugs, some screws and other minor bits she tips the scale at 4.5 pounds even. I'm guessing 4.75 when finished. I hope to have the plane up at Texoma for show and tell on Saturday, but I am not planning to fly it as the engines haven't been run yet, etc.

I have some touch up painting to do, then figure out all of the marking stencils for crosses, letters, etc. Once all that is done, it will be shot with MonoKote Clear Flat to (hopefully[:I]) fuel proof the paint scheme. I think I need to sit down with Lee and figure out how to put future twins on Atkins to get the weight back down towards 4 pounds. As a matter of fact, we need to figure out how to take weight out of all the 2548 birds; they all seem to be over by about 0.5 pounds. I also don't know where the CG will end up as I haven't installed the mufflers, so there is at least an evening or two work left in the project.

Ed

Ed Kettler
RCCA 533
AMA 730493
Plano, TX

wrnstockwel · Post by **wrnstockwel** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:50 pm

Very nice ED, should fly well at 4.75 lbs. Why loose weight? The planes are very scale right now, and make for interesting pursuit type combat. Just up the minimum to make it more competitive!

Derfanft's mei Gwand I'fuahr in himmeil

Jimbo · Post by **Jimbo** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 11:31 pm

Are there any kits that fit this class ? If so, which one would be the most competitive ? (single engine)I know nothing about scale but I may give it a try next season.

Limited-B
Try it,you'll like it !

rdc767 · Post by **rdc767** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 11:52 pm

Ed
Wire the throttles wide open. One servo to shut off the fuel will save 1 oz.
Not sure where to save more weight. Mine was a 3lbs 8oz. Totally different building style.
With the engine mounted so far from the spar I got a lot of vibration. Lock tite the back plates. I shook mine off every time.
Ron

Rabbit Leader · Post by **Rabbit Leader** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 12:29 am

Hehehehe...I'm sittin' here right now laughing my butt off..Ed, that is one fine looking bird, and it just tickles the &*^&% out of me to see how well your skills have developed. That plane is almost too nice to combat!!! I will be proud to fly my 109 on your wing, and keep those pesky Hurricanes off your six...seriously nice work..

I believe 3 cheers are in order...[:D]

<font size="5">HUZZAH! HUZZAH! HUZZAH!</font id="size5">

"Furballs are for cats!"

Ed Kettler · Post by **Ed Kettler** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 12:34 am

I RTV'd, LockTited and used Roy's hex head bolt kit on the back plate to lock things down, so hopefully things won't rattle loose too quickly. I was unable to loosen the head screws to replace them with hexheads, but that might change during the engine burn in.

Could you give me a quick overview of your construction approach and aircraft dimensions, please? I can cut 4-5 ounces if I leave out the crutch, but that would considerably weaken the fuselage. Also, how does your plane perform with 8x3s and stock mufflers?

Did you fly it at the NATS? I didn't see it in the air.

Thanks!
Ed

Ed Kettler
RCCA 533
AMA 730493
Plano, TX

wcrane · Post by **wcrane** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 9:57 am

Hate to add more weight, but if you would put some foam on the underside of the motor mounts and glue it to the firewall it should dampen out all your vibration at a minimal weight gain. Great lookin bird. Why if I had two pennys to rub together I might actually be tempted to stick something like this together. But last time I looked I had about a million HS-81's and nothing else, all of em just waiting to be put in an airplane so they can hurry up and fail. Might try to put together a 2548 to fly around the field from time to time, looks fun guys.

Clean

<img src="http://www.northlandflyer.com/pics/mrclean.jpg" border=0>
From somewhere near Parkville, MO
Mr Clean