I am very lucky in that a friendly chap offered to make me a custom aluminium fuel tank to my specifications.

When it arived it turned out to be an amazing looking tank. Its a great point of the craft. I sometimes find myself sitting staring at it when im thinking about the next design problem :-)

Here the tank is in situ under the rear seat. It will eventualy be held inplace by webbing. All of the main control and power cables run directly under the tank in plastic conduit....I hope there are no sparks...
   
I have also started working on my engine cover. It is being constructed from 12mm thick foam which will eventualy get laminated with fibreglass mat. It will eventualy be a strong light strucutre but at the moment its light and very floppy...a strong breeze and it will be gone into the middle of next week.

A lot of thought was put into the rear end of the engine cover. It had to look smart, keep out the cr*p and allow maximum airflow to the fan....It was also kinda important to be able to build a strcutre that was strong.

The engine cover was designed in 3D like every other part of the craft but its a boring image so im not going to bother wasting space with that!

I fancy having this turbo style scoop ontop of the cover to force air over my shiny K&N air filter but im not sure it looks quite right.....something to think about anyway.

Notice how the rear passenger now has no risk of getting munched by the alternator which was sitting by their left ear!

   

I finaly got round to getting some more glue :-) and stuck two bits of 11mm thick foam together, I then cut the foam into the shape I want for the rudders.

This foam is great stuff to work with, you can cut it with a normal knife and it sands into any shape you want in a few strokes. You do have to be carefull not to oversand however!

(One of the smooth rudder foam cores resting against the duct)

(Both of the rudders with one layer of chopped strand matt laminated over the top)

N.B. These are still not finished because I can out of resin AGAIN :-(

   

I started the headlights. They are going to be fixed inplace perimantly and you will be able to change the lightbulbs from behind the instrument pannel.

(this was my first trial fit of all the pieces..)

It looks a bit "tired" so I think it needs revising slightly.

I finaly completed the lights and after replacing one of the bulbs they now seem to work really nicley. They look really cool....They need a little more cosmetic work around them doing but this is the basic setup:
Another shot showing the lights and the compelted seats

I also finaly completed the rudders and have got them mounted on the craft.

The simplest way of mounting them was to create some aluminium brackets to support them from above.

This shot shows a general view of the rudders mounted on the craft.

The red thing below the right hand rudder is the control cable which will shortly be connected to the rudders.

 

Yes...I know the garage is a mess but there is so little room that I have nowhere else to put the things im not using...I seem to be spending a lot of time moving things around before I can get on with the job I want to do!!

I also finaly got around to cutting the very first fan blade down to size.

I am very pleased, I have a maximum tip clearence of 5mm and a minimum clearence of 3mm so as long as the duct stays the same shape as it is, I will be happy.

Christmas came early!!!

My parents decided I should have some proper tools instead of making do with the random "pound stretcher" style tools I have been struggling with for years.

So I now have metric sockets from 4mm up to 32mm.

I also thought I should treat myself to a set of decent spanners

They are all so shiny.

Such a great present :-)

 


  After a long and kayotic christmas break and exams I have finaly got back down to the garage and have progressed slightly which is nice!

The rudders are linked together with steel rods and balljoints. Although I still have no steering mechanism up front I can push and pull the cable from the front and the rudders move better than I expected.

This mechanism will need to be neatened up a bit but appart from that I am happy with it.

A general shot showing the rudders mounted on the duct and the mechanical linkages.
I have also finished glassing the engine cover and added a few more air holes...The cover is however, now burried in the back of the garage whilst I work on the hull.  
   
  Go to the next page to see the hull getting prepared for paint and hopefully actualy get painted! here