Trident Redux

I also included a photo of the rear fuselage with the central lower rudder, since none of the previous photos justified the "triple tail" description. The "chin" doesn't show up very well with the view a bit back or forward of straight side on. It shows up best in the 6th photo. It kinda reminds me of Jay Leno. Also, I did the top of the fuselage forward of the cockpit in blue, a bit reminiscent of the black anti-glare nose & inner nacelles on a P-38, which is another of my favorite planes. It should perhaps be flat black instead of blue. But I didn't have flat black available when I built it.
Bottom.jpgFront.jpgInboard.jpgInboartd2.jpgNose.jpgOutboard.jpgSanta.jpgSanta2.jpgTail.jpg
 
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Bill Stuntz said:
I also included a photo of the rear fuselage with the central lower rudder, since none of the previous photos justified the "triple tail" description. The "chin" doesn't show up very well with the view a bit back or forward of straight side on. It shows up best in the 6th photo. It kinda reminds me of Jay Leno. Also, I did the top of the fuselage forward of the cockpit in blue, a bit reminiscent of the black anti-glare nose & inner nacelles on a P-38, which is another of my favorite planes. It should perhaps be flat black instead of blue. But I didn't have flat black available when I built it.
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@Bill Stuntz These are perfect thanks a lot that's just what I needed.

Question. Is the triangle stripes on each side just behind the engine just black, as in there isn't a hole in the front of them into the fuselage?
 
They're actually vents for engine cooling, part of the cowl, not the fuselage. They're concave, maybe 1/2-3/4" deep. Basically like sections of the inside of a pointy ice cream cone, or maybe the paper cone that cotton candy gets gathered on at the state fair. The cowl goes all the way back to the wing root, visible in photo #6. The whole bottom drops off, exposing the engine & fuel tank. The triangle on the bottom is concave to allow maximum airflow over the cylinder head, too.
 
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Bill Stuntz said:
They're actually vents for engine cooling, part of the cowl, not the fuselage. They're concave, maybe 1/2-3/4" deep. Basically like sections of the inside of a pointy ice cream cone, or maybe the paper cone that cotton candy gets gathered on at the state fair. The cowl goes all the way back to the wing root, visible in photo #6. The whole bottom drops off, exposing the engine & fuel tank. The triangle on the bottom is concave to allow maximum airflow over the cylinder head, too.
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Yeah I knew they were part of the cowl I just called it the fuselage since it's all tied together sort of. SO.. both of the triangle stripes on the side are concave "with an opening at the front for air flow out of the cowl", right? Then the bottom triangle stripe is the same way, right? I seen in one of the pictures the opening at the front of the bottom triangle stripe (lack of a better word) so there's a vent on "all three" of those triangles?
 
Yes. 1 inlet at the front, 2 outlets on the sides, 1 outlet on the bottom. I think the outlets should have negative pressure due to propwash & venturi effect to help suck cooling air out while propwash increases pressure through the front opening, forcing air through the cooling fins & over the cylinder head. The cowl fits fairly closely around the cylinder, so most of the air coming in through the front is forced through the cooling fins. I only got to fly it a few times, but didn't observe any overheating problems, so it must work ok.
 
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Looking good! FYI, the spinner should be longer, more of a needle nose continuation of the fuselage. Take a look at photo6 in post23 - the fuselage top tapers down into the slightly smaller diameter spinner in a smooth curve.
 
Bill Stuntz said:
Looking good! FYI, the spinner should be longer, more of a needle nose continuation of the fuselage. Take a look at photo6 in post23 - the fuselage top tapers down into the slightly smaller diameter spinner in a smooth curve.
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That's the original spinner from the profile plane I knew it needed to be longer and I'll make it longer after I reshape the fuselage. I've been using the Scarinizi plans but I don't have them cutout and put into the 3ds Source file but I've been eyeballing them when I shape stuff here's a picture. I can change the tip of the fuselage if you want but the plan shows it going straight across. I also noticed the side view of your fuselage seems to have more of a curve on the top as it goes from the canopy to the tail.

Fuselage.jpg
 
I forgot to mention this. The new fuselage shape isn't nearly finished it's probably about 50% done. I just upload pictures each time I work on it but there's a lot of reshaping to do. But as always my modeling skills are just so so but I do the best I can. Which always falls short of what I want.
 
The "swayback" rear curve looks right to me, but the top forward of the cockpit isn't straight. There's a significant curve in the drawing. But my nose does curve more near the spinner than is shown in the drawing. I shaped it to match the spinner I had. And I didn't do the cowl to match the plans - I wanted to be able to access the fuel tank by removing the cowl, so I made the air outlets part of the cowl rather than the fuselage. I think I changed the angle of the top of the cowl a little to extend it below the leading edge, too. And there's a full plywood ring behind the spinner instead of the split ring shown in the plans. There's a pin in the front of the cowl that hooks into the spinner ring, and a single hold-down bolt at the back, rather than a pin at the back & 2 screws into the 1/2 ring as shown on the plans. I know that you aren't done with it. And I appreciate the progress reports.

P.S. Your modeling skills AREN'T "just so-so"!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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Bill Stuntz said:
The "swayback" rear curve looks right to me, but the top forward of the cockpit isn't straight. There's a significant curve in the drawing. But my nose does curve more near the spinner than is shown in the drawing. I shaped it to match the spinner I had. And I didn't do the cowl to match the plans - I wanted to be able to access the fuel tank by removing the cowl, so I made the air outlets part of the cowl rather than the fuselage. I think I changed the angle of the top of the cowl a little to extend it below the leading edge, too. And there's a full plywood ring behind the spinner instead of the split ring shown in the plans. There's a pin in the front of the cowl that hooks into the spinner ring, and a single hold-down bolt at the back, rather than a pin at the back & 2 screws into the 1/2 ring as shown on the plans. I know that you aren't done with it. And I appreciate the progress reports.
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I wasn't planning to do all the little details, pins and plywood rings. The same for the seam where the cowl meets the fuselage. I was planning to shape it be best I could and go with that. Hopefully that's okay with you? As I said my modeling skills are just so so, I wish they were better.
 
Bill Stuntz said:
Of course it's OK with me! I was explaining the differences from the plans. And as I said above... your modeling skills aren't "just so-so"!!!!!!! Your models always look & fly GREAT!
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Okay thanks and I appreciate your comments. But there are things that make me feel the way I do about my modeling so I try to live with it. I decided to go ahead and create a template to use in 3ds Max from the plans I have but I'll need to rotate them to get them level. I don't know why they made plans at an angle like the plane would set on the runway but they did. But I'll put the fuselage part of the plan in Photoshop and rotate it to be level so I can import it in 3ds Max and use it to get the shape of the fuselage and spinner correct.
 
That might be overkill. It's pretty darn close now. IMHO, a bit of tweaking should be "good enough." Note that my spinner doesn't actually come to a point. The retaining bolt is sunk into the nose of the spinner. You're certainly capturing the "spirit" of the design that was lacking a bit as a profile fuselage. The contrast between the fuselage's gentle curves and the straight lines & sharp corners everywhere else was missing.
 
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Bill Stuntz said:
That might be overkill. It's pretty darn close now. IMHO, a bit of tweaking should be "good enough." Note that my spinner doesn't actually come to a point. The retaining bolt is sunk into the nose of the spinner. You're certainly capturing the "spirit" of the design that was lacking a bit as a profile fuselage. The contrast between the fuselage's gentle curves and the straight lines & sharp corners everywhere else was missing.
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I just did a quick template to make sure I got the outline of the fuselage right, that doesn't help when I finish rounding it off so I'll only use it to get the outline right. Take a look at this picture and see what you think. Is the spinner right and is the top of the fuselage rounded down enough. And yeah I put a screw on the nose of the spinner so it would be flat like your spinner. Let me know if the length of the spinner is okay I can shorten it a little if I need too. So let me know.

Trident 05.jpg
 
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