Hey all ... I'm embarking on a project to replace a Top Flite Giant Corsair that I had years ago. Absolutely a great flying plane ... why they don't make them anymore???? Oh well. Then I came across Planes Revived a UK based company that is now offering many of the Top Flite warbirds for sale as kits (no ARFs). I have no prior experience with them, but after connecting with the owner, I decided to take the plunge and buy one. NOTE - I am not getting anything from Planes Revived for doing this thread. I'm just happy that someone is working to bring the line back to life!

My goal is to build the plane mostly stock. Where I deviate from the original, I'll be sure to point that out.
OK, let's have some fun!!

First impressions ...

• The kit comes very well packed and organized. Wood bundles are wrapped in bubble-wrap. Plastic parts have a film protecting them.
• Everything has been drawn up in CAD and then laser cut (a real improvement over the die-cut world). Parts are now etched with part number and the updated plan refers to these numbers.
• You get all the wood (cut, planks, sticks, etc.) and plastic parts.
• The wood and plastic parts are high quality. The cowling is plastic, but you can get a fiberglass one from them or others out there (I will be using a cowl from Fiberglass Specialties).
• *NO* hardware (which the original provided). I'm OK with this, would rather pick my own.
• The plans are really clear and a step up from the original.
• The instruction book looks to be a direct copy of the original.

Building out the h-stab.



So, right off the bat, will deviate slightly from the plan. The h-stab does not cover the gap with the elevator. I extended the sheeting to do that.

Subscribed!

looking forward to your build. I have an original kit NIB I need to build. Maybe this will give me motivation.

have fun!

-Matt

looks great and may be a silly question but how is the elevator supposed to have proper range of travel with a sheet of balsa covering the hinge point? Can’t wait to see your project and any additional modifications you do as I have this original kit waiting as a special plane to build down the line

Will look like this. This is actually a view of an aileron setup, but the elevator sheeting and hinging will look the same.

Some more progress. Finished the h-stab and v-stab. Same mod on the v-stab, extended the sheeting to cover the hinge gap.

Working on the elevators. They are both built, so getting them sanded and hinged. The instructions want you to sand the elevator LE to a V shape. The hinge line then is next to the TE of the H-stab. But, as mentioned, I've done a cleaner fitting, semi-scale like hinge. Not only does this look better, but it dramatically reduces the amount of air the blows through the hinge line. I'll get the other mounted and then sand the whole assembly to shape.

Here's some picts to show how this sets up.


LE is sanded round.


Hinge line is now well behind the LE.


Plenty of travel.


Final look is very clean. When applied to the rudder, ailerons, and flaps, it will make a real difference in the appearance of the model.

One thing I like to figure out early, is what plane I'm modeling. While the kit includes a complete set of graphics, they are OK, much like the original TF kit. So, I'll be modeling Lt Guy Bordelon's Corsair from the Korean war around 1953. Borland became an ace flying the Corsair. Lonestar Flight museum has painted their Corsair after Borland's, so I have some great reference material. FWIW, the aircraft pictured here is an F4U-5, Borland flew the -5N (night fighter) variant, which had a large radar pod on the right wing. I won't be adding that!



A closeup of the nose art.

I wish I would have extended the sheeting on my H stab. I ended up with a pretty extensive gap.
I look forward to watching this build.

Great work so far, will be following along. Will be adding the hinge set up as you have.

Don Sr.

As some of you seem to be new to the hinge setup, here's a few more picts that detail it out.


The overhang is 3/16" wide. Sanded to a wedge shape and hardened with thin CA.


Large pin hinges, the fixed side just get 3/16" holes drilled. But note that the hinge does not go all the way in. The pivot will be inside the part that moves (rudder in this case).
NOT GLUED IN


In the moving part (rudder here) the 3/16" holes are opened up about 1/4" into the part.


The hinges sit deep on the moving part side and can move as need for the control surface. Fit the fixed and moving parts (fin and rudder) together to ensure you have the movement you need.

These can be covered and glued up whenever it's time.

OK, so now the stab, elevator, fin, and rudder are complete. I like lots of travel on the rudder for a tail dragging warbird. Easily done even with the hinge line covered by the sheeting extension.

Nice start, one thig to consider is putting lightening holes into the centre section of the rudder and elevators. Will help a lot when balancing and doesn't reduce the strength. I used a Forstner Bit to cut mine.

sbarrow took the words right out of my mouth so to speak haha. In between each of those ribs you should cut holes out. You'd be surprised at how big you can make them too without any compromise to the structure. Every gram saved back there equates to 4-5grams at the front.
Other than that you're smashing it. It looks great.

Guys, yes, good idea you have there ... so here's a lightened version. Also I've been working on the LE of the wing center section.

That's the spirit

Center section framing complete ... next on to the outer panels!

Here are the outer panels and joining them to the center section. Takes a bit of sanding / trimming to get the panels to fit to the center section. But there is a guide to help the process. Patience is key. Confirmed that each wing panel is at the same incidence angle before and after gluing.

Sheeting the wing. Is a bit of a project in itself. They have you make up a whole pile of sheets of different sizes and shapes. The gull wing provides a lot of opportunity to test your sheeting skills with several compound curves to work out!




So the sheet that goes in the "toughest" spot (right over the wheels where the bending is the worst) needs some added treatment. The instructions just say to "wet the sheet", like they do with all the others you put down. HA! "wet" needs to be "soaked"!


The "soaked" sheet initially positioned.


... and trimmed to shape.

Here the entire top is done and the bottom of the outer wing panels. So all that's left is the bottom between the wheels.

There is an interesting optical illusion here. As least to me, the different colored panels give the impression that they are FLAT. When indeed that are all nicely curved to exactly the rib shape.

The top half of the fuse is well under way. I've elected to use 5/16" dia. carbon fiber rods for the 3 pushrods that reach the tail. Incredibly stiff, probably the best option for a long reach to minimize flex. The Corsair is already tail heavy enough, so I opted not to move the servos from over the wing and into the tail. You can see the clevis attached to the rudder control and there will be clevises at the elevators. At the servo end, I'll use ball links. I would have liked to use ball links in the tail as well. But the default alignment is not set up for it and there's not much room once you get back to the elevators. For sure, you could do it, but you have to rethink and change the pathways for the pushrods. Clevises work and I'm making sure there's no slop in the connection.

If Top Flite were still around, I would ***** about a few things ... I'll vent here ... skip forward to the pictures if you're not interested
- They put the air tank in an inaccessible location once the plane is done (i.e. you can't get it out). If it fails, you're likely to abandon it in place and put the tank into the fuse behind the cockpit. This actually happened to me on my first TF Corsair.
- Likewise for the pushrod connections in the tail. There's no planned access once it's complete. I'll add a couple of hatches for these later.
- There is enough plywood in the tail to build a small boat (see pict below). It's over done for what's needed. (FWIW, I do design aircraft as well, if interested you can see my work here of an IA-58H Pucara: Pucara-DesignBuild

OK, on to some picts.



I'll put some lightening holes in these parts, especially parts "ULGS" and "SBS"

Now lighter. (I'll drill out the far side once the fuse is off the table).

A friend of mine bought one of these new built but unflown, It was SO LIGHT, I always was afraid what the skin was hiding inside the plane. For some crazy reason my buddy sold it, WAY to cheap,and the guy that had it flew it for years, and He absolutely loved the plane. I think he did eventually put it in. But it was a great flier while it lasted.

Yes, agreed, great flyers!!! I had the ARF version previously. The plane weighed 28 lbs and was a great flyer. That said, the tail end was very heavy. Even with a 70cc twin up front it took 2 lbs to balance the plane. So, I'm doing what I can to lighten it up.

Given the type of wood used there in the tail you could go even a step further with your weight reduction. You could cut out the parts I have marked in red and still not lose any strength. On the opposite side of the tail you could stagger the cuts in the other direction.

Just a thought.

I've been working a design project (a Martin P4M Mercator) so have not had tons of time. But made enough progress to get it off the board and do some work on the cockpit. As you can't buy the cockpit kit anymore, I've been working with ScaleRC Engines (who also makes cockpits) to get something that fits properly. Below, you can see the longerons installed and the higher cockpit floor removed and a new one added where it belongs. If you look you'll see I narrowed the upper longerons where they pass through the cockpit (these are too big when scaled up to full size). As they are load bearing, you can also see that I've spliced in 1/4"x1/16" hardwood by insetting them in the 1/4" x 1/4" balsa. Then I sanded much of the balsa away from the inside. Finally, you can see some crude paper prototypes of the cockpit parts taped into the cockpit.

Original 1/4" squar balsa longerons


Hardwood spliced in and balsa sanded out