June | 2012 | Thirdwigg.com

Focke-Wulf FW-190 a5

June 23, 2012 3 Comments

I start most of my projects because I see something brilliant by another builder, and then I decided to develop this idea, or give the idea little more substance. After discovering a great two row radial, I wanted to give the engine a body. It had also been a long time since I had done a large project.

I chose to make the FW-190 for a couple of reasons. First, it had a radial. OK, 14 cylinders in the plane, and mine would only have 12, but it was close enough. Second, it was one of my favorire plane of WWII. Third, the body work would not present too many challenges. I set to work. I had to get the scale right, and start placing some of the plane’s extremities, so I would have a good idea where to place all the parts that I would build.

Once everything was placed, I had to figure out how I was going to do all the control surfaces. This started with figuring out the joystick, and the rudders. The joystick was a simple design driving side to side movements out the front by an axle to gears for the ailerons. When the joystick was moved front to back, a link all the way to the rear elevator was activated. I mounted the foot pedals on a simple pivot connected by gears to the rear rudder. Flaps, with a simple activating lever, were also installed. The cockpit was pretty full.

With a project this size, it took a great deal of work to get the shaping of the plane to work right. I used half stud offsets to get the fuselage correct, and spent a lot of time on the wings. Because the cockpit had a lot of activating levers, a lot of work went into the area around here. Adding the opening canopy did not help things. I added brick built markings, worked on the coloring, and spent some time adding guns and other details. The model was done.

Brickshelf.com gallery is here.

It’s been three years since I have built this plane, but I needed a little motivation to help me with another similar project. It was good for me to remember how much I enjoyed this project, even though it took a lot of time and energy. Stay tuned for the next big plane.

Filed under Military Tagged with Airplane, Joystick, military, Radial, WWII

Rumble Bee

June 3, 2012 8 Comments

It has been six years since I bought my F1 Wheels and Tires. I bought four, and I paid a lot for them. To date, I have used them once in my Red Sedan; and only two of the four that I own. For some reason, I decided I needed to use them again and I wanted to do a small little project. I was recently reminded about a childhood video game P.O.D. racing, and thought the car I was designing would fit right into the game.

The car is a simple design; a drive motor, a steering motor, a battery box, and a receiver. I knew I was going to design a three wheel car. I wanted to have the rear wheel driven by a PF XL, and a single PF M with a simple return to center system for the steering. After a couple of designs, I decided to place the PF XL motor in the hub of the single rear wheel. I tried a couple of designs to gear the motor up for a little more speed, all with various locations in the car. Nothing worked as well as I wanted. The speed was sufficent, and placing the motor in the hub allowed for a super short wheelbase.

Because the PF XL was place in the rear, I had a lot of space for the rest of the Power Functions equipment. I placed the battery box directly in front of the rear wheel right at the bottom of the car. The front steering axle was place next in front of the battery box. The car had a short wheelbase of only 18 studs. On top of the battery box, I placed the PF IR reciever and the PF M motor which was for the steering. The steering motor passed an axle straight through a Spring Loaded Connector to move a 3L liftarm which connected to the steering rack with a 6L steering link.

I added a simple body using the orange panels from 8110. Keeping with to story of P.O.D. I wanted to keep an agressive stance and look to the car.

The car ran well, and was plenty quick. The steering was sharp and the car was well planted on the road. I had a good time with the design. Now I need to come up with another use for my F1 wheels.

The full gallery may be found here, and instructions here.