1/3 Spitfire

[David Brown]

At last after 3 years I have the reduction drive sorted and running on the ZDZ 210. It can be viewed on my time line on face book or YouTube under ZDZ 210. I will sort out the picture sizing and post them later.

[David Brown]

This is the sketch on Solid works to design the engine lay out

[Cary Bailey]

Lovely work Mr Brown!
Cary

[David Brown]

I finally got time to resize the images I had of the drive build. This is the drive coupling I designed for the drive assembly to take all of the side load off the engine front bearings along with its purpose to push the engine back onto the firewall.

[David Brown]

This is the assembly built up. The back mount plate took some making as ZDZ's machining of the rear mount was not concentric with the centerline of the engine and I had to use cam bushes to true it all up. since the initial runs which were very impressive I have not found the time to manufacture the exhaust to do the full running in of the engine.

[David Brown]

After another factory unit move in 2019 I have more space to get on with the bigger projects I have on the go. The Spitfire is now on her wheels and the engine fitted. I am looking to get her test flown later in 2020

[David Brown]

On her wheels

[David Brown]

https://www.facebook.com/10000695350103 ... 61768/?t=5 if this link works it is the test run of the completed engine.

[David Brown]

Due to a delivery failure at work I spent the day on my 1/3 scale projects. I had bonded the engine mount into the fuselage with a special polyester filler adhesive then glassed the joints for extra grip coverage.

[David Brown]

Along with the P-51 mould I got the Spitfire mould which my airframe was pulled from. To be honest it’s pants, it has major weathering damage to the outside where the flanges and other areas have rotted away. The gel coat is crazed due to incorrect laying up along with damage caused when ejecting my original. On top of this some repair work has been done and the whole mould sprayed with a grey primer. I was aware this mould was in poor condition and had issues with the tail plane incidence as I found on my fuselage so no real gripes here as to its state. In real terms it’s a right off for pulling another fuselage but after talking to a glassing specialist there may be a way to create a new mould using this one as a plug. This will be a big job so it will go on the back burner for now, just some quick strengthening work to help hold parts together. The half shown is the better of the two, it must of been on the bottom when stored. I started just cleaning one area but I could not stop so I ended up doing the whole lot.