Everything is included to complete the airframe (above). Instructions are provided on CD. Wing (above, at right) with nacelles mounted. The wing of the plane is cut from Coroplast™ and reinforced with carbon fiber rods. Tough EPP foam (at right) makes up approximately half of the plane’s construction.
Materials
The fuselage and nacelles are made of EPP foam or Expanded Polypropylene. It’s similar to many of the park fliers on the market today but it trades a small amount of aesthetics for durability. The texture is slightly more rough than some of the EPO and Z-foams but it feels more spongy and re- silient; it compacts when you firmly squeeze it and the shape returns immediately. Tough Jets made a good choice when select- ing a material that would earn the company name.
Typically, this EPP foam is cut using a hot wire and can be sanded smooth with regular sandpaper. It is also possible to make cuts in EPP foam using a hobby knife although I’ve found that when making flush cuts, a cut- ting disc on a rotary power tool works well. A small amount of cutting will be necessary to assemble this kit so make sure you’ve got a fresh blade. Let’s see what it takes to build it.
Assembly
Assembling the airframe took me approx- imately four hours with another couple of
hours to install and set up the electronics. You’ll find this to be a relatively simple and quick build. The instructions aren’t overly detailed which may leave beginners with some unanswered questions. Don’t let this put you off because the Tough Jets support e-mail is available to answer any questions you might have. At a high level, you’ll be ex- pected to measure, glue, and drill to fit the major pieces together.
Although the Blue Angels never flew the
F-14 Tomcat, that’s the paint scheme I’ve chosen for my T-14V. I decided to paint the kit after assembling it, which is possible if using spray paint rather than a plastic shrink covering. If you have concerns about whether your paint will eat through the foam, there are a few pieces of scrap foam in- cluded with the kit just for this type of thing. The T-14 isn’t a small model; at 42 inches from tip to tail there is a lot of surface area to cover. I used three cans of Testors’ Blue Angel’s blue enamel and applied the yellow markings with some masking tape and an airbrush.
The bullet connectors are soldered to the ESC as well as some wire extensions for the
battery leads which I’ll explain later. The motor is mounted to the aluminum bracket using the supplied screws and locking nuts. You’ll need to measure and drill the holes so that the motor sits square to the fuselage and the prop clears the pre-cut hole in the wing. The servos are mounted inside the na- celles which come pre-cut for a single servo set but for the T-14V, some additional cut- ting is required for the second set of servos. A little epoxy holds them in place and then the linkage rods to the control surfaces are measured and cut.
The T-14 requires a 3-channel radio that’s capable of delta wing mixing. The additional thrust vectoring servos are attached to the existing channels using a Y-cable and pro- vide a larger surface area for the elevons. At center stick, the outboard elevons sit at 5⁄8 inch of up deflection for level flight and the inboard elevons sit up only about the thick- ness of the Coroplast™.
The canopy is attached using a CA hinge
on the front end and a rare-earth magnet on the trailing end; it gives quick access to the battery compartment which is a pre-cut slot in the EPP foam and reinforced with pieces
The nose comes slotted to fit around the wing of the plane. Ensure it’s centered and square before gluing. The fins (above left) mount with sticks and
FLYING MODELS
are removable for storage and transportation. The optional Tough Jets power system (above right) provides plenty of thrust for long climbs and stall recovery.
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