Page 16
www.oldschoolmodels.com
Construction Manual
n
Step 114 - Sanding
Now is the time to get quite familiar with the sanding tools of your
choice. Take the time to perform a good sanding, rounding the
wing’s leading edge and blending it into the wingtips. Go over the
entire wing, making sure the everything is smooth.
Round the trailing edges of the stab, elevator, fin and rudder.
Round the leading edge of both elevator halves, the rudder, and
the ailerons.
Although you could round off the edges of the fuselage framing,
we prefer to leave them squared off. Just lightly run over them to
make sure they're smooth and uniform.
The idea is to spend some time caressing this airframe you've
created, smoothing the rough edges until it's something, beautiful
and ready to cover.
n
Step 115 - Electric air exits
If (and only if) you are powering your Minuette
with an electric power system, pop out the
elongated cutouts in the bottom fuselage
sheeting, close to the firewall to allow cooling
airflow in over the battery and ESC.
However, if you're going with glow power, use a bit of glue to seal
these cutouts in place as you don't want exhaust and dirt getting
into the fuselage.
n
Step 116 - Fuse Assembly (Main gear)
With the wing removed, place the
fuselage upside down (be careful of
the vertical fin).
To assemble the main gear, you'll
need to locate the port and starboard
main struts, the axle, the two gear
straps and four of the 2-56 x 3/4” self
tapping screws.
Using an 1/8" drill, clear out the two
small pre-cut holes in the firewall.
Then push the port and starboard
struts completely into these holes.
Now you'll drill the holes for the landing gear straps. Working with
one strut at a time, gently pull the aft "flat" of the strut rearwards
just a little to add a bit of tension to the wire. Then place the strap
over the back portion of the wire, as shown in this photo, while
holding this tension. Mark and drill the mounting holes with a
1/16" bit. Now you can attach the strap with two of the 2-56x3/4”
self tapping screws. Do the same for the other strut.
n
Step 117 - Fuse Assembly (Main gear soldering)
With the struts mounted, lightly sand both struts where the axle will
be attached, and also clean the axle.
After cleaning, offer up the axle to the struts, centering it on the
airframe, and making sure that the struts are straight and parallel
when doing this.
Now, working on one strut/axle joint at a time, carefully and tightly
wrap the joint with wire as shown here. We used 26 gauge wire (not
included), but other thicknesses can be used.
Lightly brush on a bit of flux over the wire-wrap, then use a small
torch (or a soldering iron) to securely solder the wire wrap in
position, securing the strut and axle into a solid, one piece unit.
Take care of your surroundings when doing this as to not set the
fuselage, or anything else on fire.
When finished, do the same to the other
strut and you should have something like
this when finished.
n
Step 118 - Fuse Assembly (Tail-skid)
Locate the pre-bent tail-skid, two of the
3/32" wheel collars and set screws.
While the fuselage is upside-down, you can
mount the tail-skid in position. Use a 5/64"
drill to clear out the pre-cut hole in LG3 and
LG5. Then you push the ends of the tail-skid
into the fuselage.
Note, the tail-skid can be held in with the
collars and set screws - or you can slightly tighten up the skid's
bend so it will be held under tension when pushed into place.
This completes assembly of the Minuette airframe. These next few
steps can be done in most any order - up until it's time to cover.
Power system
Installing your power system of choice is up next. As I mentioned
up-front, the Minuette was really designed as an electric powered
aircraft, mainly because of the large firewall area makes it difficult
to mount a typical 2-stroke engine without a bunch of muffler
extensions. 4-strokes could work better, if you have one in this
small range.
Electric power
There's a lot of choices out there for electric power, but we've
reached out to Innov8tive Designs for their recommendations
on power. You'll see those on our website for both their different
brands. We used one of their Cobra setups on our prototypes.
The motor’s cross mount should be installed exactly on 45-degree
lines with respect to the center of the firewall. We've etched this
"X" pattern into the front of the firewall to help you line things up.
Also, note that if you're going to install our Anzani 3D dummy
motor from our optional Minuette Accessory Kit, you MUST have
the motor mounted with the cross
mount in a “+” orientation instead
of an “X” orientation, these cutouts
in the dummy motor will not line up.
You'll also need to make a hole
underneath the motor to allow the
motor's wires to pass through the
firewall, into the fuselage.
Battery /Tank Tray (TR)
Located on LP7 is TR. This is the battery/tank
tray. This is glued in place at somewhat of an
angle - see plans for what I'm on about. The
front of TR will be up against the firewall and
should be supported with a couple scraps
of balsa. It should be glued to the firewall,
to these support scraps, and to where it
touches LG1 and the fuselage floor.
