EVX-48
After sanding, the bottom planking produced a smooth, curvy fuselage bottom (above left). The bottom planking was cut away (above center) for fitting the
landing gear mount. The landing gear mount bottom filler block (above right) was secured by the landing gear mounting bolts.
Starting construction
The tail feathers feature typical built-up construction with 1⁄4-inch thick balsa perimeter framing and 1⁄16 × 1⁄4-inch strip balsa ribs. Just build the tail feathers flat, directly over the plan. Please note the grain direction on the stab filler piece. I tapered both the elevators and the rudder by sand- ing the completed assemblies between two metal rods tack-glued with CA to a board. I started with a 1⁄4-inch diameter rod along the leading edge and a 3⁄16-inch rod along the trailing edge, sanding with a 100-grit sand- ing block down to the rods.
I then flipped the assembly over and re- placed the 3⁄16-inch rod along the trailing edge with a 1⁄8-inch rod, again sanding down to the rods. The result was a perfectly ta- pered control surface ready for final sand- ing. This saved some weight, plus I like the look. You can leave them flat if you like. I used small hinge point hinges on all the con- trol surfaces, but CA hinges will work just fine. A 3⁄32-inch diameter music wire connec- tor was used to connect the elevator halves.
Building the fuselage
Building the fuselage takes a bit of plan- ning as proper sequencing is important. Start by laminating the 3⁄32-inch fuselage doublers to the 1⁄16-inch fuselage sides using 30-minute epoxy. Although not absolutely necessary, I laminated 0.2-ounce carbon veil between the fuselage side and the doubler. It adds quite a bit of strength with negligible weight.
Please note that the firewall/motor mount
is angled to the right to provide the neces- sary motor offset. As a result, the slots in the nose doublers for the firewall differ from left to right. Make sure you put the doublers on the correct fuselage side. With the doublers in place, add the 1⁄8 × 1⁄4-inch fuselage side stringers to the top and bottom of the fuse- lage sides behind the doublers and the 3⁄32- inch filler pieces at the rear.
With the fuselage sides complete, using epoxy, join formers F-1, F-2, F-2A, the land- ing gear sub-mount, the battery mount, and the servo mount with the fuselage sides. The assembly should be self-aligning and is best built by placing one of the fuselage sides flat on your building board, adding the formers -
Full-size plans available through Carstens Bookstore
www.carstensbookstore.com 20
JANUARY 2014
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