Finally have things somewhat settled in the workshop so I decided it was time to start building the Top Model Nike 2 Warmliner.


I began by setting up the control linkage for the elevator. I started by attaching the servo to the mounting blocks. I then put into position (this part is tough) inside the vertical fin and marked its position on the outside. I then taped it down and set up the control linkage. I will come back later and glue it in with some epoxy or jb weld.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

Looks good so far!

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Chris Boultinghouse

We had about 6.5-7 inches of the white stuff between yesterday and last night. I had to shovel the driveway but I'm not complaining. It's the first real moisture we've received since the middle of September.

Anyways, since it's cold, it's a good time to work on the Nike 2!

I had to make a new hole further in on the servo arm to get it to fit. Then I made a small 'spreader to hold the sides of the fuse apart. This was just a piece of tri-stock CA'd to a epoxy mixing stick. I'm just gluing one side of the servo mounts to hopefully keep things clean. I had to carefully get it into position but I made as little mess as possible. I will glue the other side after this one is set up. I then put some clamps on it to push the fuse side onto the mounts to make sure I had good contact.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

Yep, I had to do a really short arm like that on the Wilco / Tiger too. Mounting that elevator servo was by far the most tedious part of getting it ready to fly!

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Chris Boultinghouse

I've had some projects I've been working on finishing up but it's time to get back on this one. The Nike 2 is actually designed to use micro servos for the ailerons but Esprit doesn't mention this. I put a JR 285MG into the blocks for the servos and they were too big to fit in the holes. It's just foam so you could probably sand it down to get it to work. I went ahead and used my wing servos with some 1/4" basswood for the mounts. I glued these in with 5 minute epoxy using a square to max sure they were perpendicular to the trailing edge of the wing. Lastly, I used a brick to hold them down in place while the glue cures.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

Got the shop cleaned up last Sunday and I've been doing a little bit with the Nike 2 every night. I was hoping to maybe be able to maiden it this weekend but ran into a snag that I'll get in to.

The wings are almost finished up. Gluing on the winglets could have been better but it is hard to securely attach those to the wings. Hinging the ailerons was really easy using glider hinge tape. I just need to cut the control horn slots, glue in the control horns, and set the throws.




I also got the battery cradle glued together.



I glued in the motor mount using some JB weld. I had planned on using a Turnigy 3648-850 but it's too tight and I can barely turn the motor because of the wires. I will probably have to fill in the holes I drilled, but I should just be able to use some epoxy with milled fiberglass since the motor mount is G10 material.




So I am not looking for a new motor. I'm thinking about one of these:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... duct=42839
https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/sto ... 840kv.html

I'm probably going to try to find a good inrunner and a gearbox if needed but that's proving difficult.

This is the recommended motor and is also available in 840 kv so I won't have to buy an expensive one to put in the plane.
http://www.espritmodel.com/mvvs-40-4611 ... motor.aspx

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

That Turnigy Glider drive motor you linked to looks like a good match for the recommended mvvs motor.

..and its almost $100 bucks cheaper!!

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Home of Burntwood RC

Yeah, that's the most likely candidate that I'm going to go with. I'll probably get a YEP 100 amp ESC too just because if it's overkill, I have another project to use with it. I need to do some searching and see what it takes to turn the prop I got for it.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

Was a little slow getting started last night because I got some new goodies for my 89" Slick.



Before I moved onto the control horns, I pulled the motor and you can tell there wasn't much room between the fuse and the wires as turning the motor by hand even put a thin line around the can of the motor.



On the Nike 2, the assembler has to make the slots for the control horns. I got the aileron servos set up and centered and then used a builders triangle and straight edge to figure out where the horn should go based off of the servo horn.



The slot needs to be 1.5mm so I took a 1/16" drill bit and drilled several holes the length of the base of the control horn.



I opened up the slot slowly with a sharp xacto knife and trial fitted the control horn. Once I had one set up, I marked where it fit into the aileron and transferred that to the other horn so that when I did this on the other side, I could get the same set up.



When the slots were all cut to size, I scuffed up the horns and glued in using epoxy with some milled fiberglass. My method of making the slots may not be the cleanest so I wanted to make sure there was enough strength to secure the horn to the aileron.



And then I used some of the leftover epoxy/fiberglass to fill in the holes on the motor mount. I was about to order the Turnigy competition glider motor but they are out of stock in the USA Warehouses and it's turning cold next week. Like barely above freezing cold so I'm just going to wait until they are back in stock. I found some data for a rough estimate for my current motor and prop combo that should be pretty close to the glider motor and it pulled 63 amps so an 80 amp YEP should be fine for my set up.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

Some of the progress that was made Thursday night that I didn't have time to post yet.

I used some epoxy and milled fiberglass to install the battery tray. I used what was left over to install the hold downs on the canopy and the hold downs on to the battery tray.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer