Roddie's "Tee-33-Dee" for 1/2A profi-speed

Looks fast just sitting there Roddie…..Makes a cool subject for a “speed” build with a little scale flair to it…. I bet it would move out with the Tee Dee in it!!

The perfect name..........."The Shadow"



Who knows? The shadow knows..........When radio was king and I used to listen.

GallopingGhostler Today at 11:50 am
Roddie (and others), my information is outdated as it used to that Rust-O-Leum professional/commercial spray in cans was reasonably fuel-proof and Krylon was not.

Is that still true? If not, then what versions of Krylon spray now is considered as good or better than Rust-O-Leum? And, use of the Min-Wax Urethane Clear spray is the final spray to add further fuel resistance?

George, I'd have to actually "FLY" my airplanes.. to answer that question.. I think we can all agree that any liquid-coating/paint needs to gas-off.. and gas-off properly. What I mean is; I try to follow the directions that come with the product. If it's a "rattle-can" product and states re-coat within an hour.. or else wait days between coats; that's what I do. My Rare-Bear is the only enamel-(via rattle-can)-finish model in my fleet that's gotten any fuel exposure.. which I'm embarrassed to say was minimal. That airplane was "fogged" with multiple coats of Top Flite Crystal Clear LustreKote prior to exposure to Sig's 35% nitro glow-fuel. The LustreKote clear definitely "yellowed" my bright-white base-color.



Note (below photo) evidence of clear-coat breakdown.. directly downstream of a cowled-in open-face engine cylinder.





And that's a Top Flite product...

The Pactra company had a rattle-can product called "Formula-U" which was a polyurethane product.



I have an old model finished with the International Orange.. which had considerable exposure to 25%+ nitro. That finish has stood the test of time.. as well as fuel exposure.

Below is a fairly current photo. The color was very glossy. There is no clear-coat. It was painted in 1992.. and flown quite a bit.



I used what was labeled as an "Epoxy Enamel" rattle-can (gloss red) coating by Krylon.. but that model hasn't had any fuel exposure to report on.





The Minwax clear polyurethane is an "oil-base" product.. and was used on the Tee-33-Dee.



Minwax also has a clear lacquer spray.. but I have not used it yet.



I'm hoping that the extended cure-times on my model-finishes might make a difference in how resistant they are to fuel exposure.

Then there's the questions of; how often the model will be flown.. and whether it's properly wiped-down at the end of a session.. and before the engine cools down..??

I needed longer 3-48 machine-screws to properly engage the 3-48 lock-nuts in my engine-mounting.. which also ties-into the front strut of the tricycle-gear.

I had made upper and lower 2-hole metal plates for the lock-nuts to bear-on. The lower-plate bears across a bend in the .062" dia. music-wire strut.







The front strut..

This would/will be the most potentially intimidating C/L model for me thus far. It wasn't completed for the CEF contest for which it was intended back in 2015/2016. (coming-up on 8 years ago.... )

This is a current photo below.. I'm glad that I scrapped the take-off dolly option.. and devised a tricycle-gear. (my first).. I would later design/build a P-38 profile/slab-wing model with a tricycle-gear.. but totally different in its execution.



I could (and may..) fit a Medallion .049 for the maiden-flight. I'd rather have a much larger and known-stable air-frame for my 1st Tee Dee engine-powered flights.

Like all your planes Roddie it is very nice and neat. Put a picture of you in the cockpit. Looks fast just sitting there.

                                       Mike1484

Very nice plane, Roddie, congratulations. Do not fear the TeeDee, if given the care and attention, this family of COX engines is one of the, if not the most dependable (at least based on my experience with the 010, 020, 049, 050, 051 and 09 TeeDee-s I am flying in their RC service today). Do the maiden flight with a slightly rich setting, the TeeDee will haul your ship even in a "4-stroke" run. If this is your first TeeDee experience, rest assured you will not want to swap it in the nose of your bird after the maiden flight.

Hey Roddie As Andras rightly said, do not fear the TD. they are excellent engines and you wont have line tension issues with a TD within reason. lol. They run like a mill. Hit their revs and your plane flies with an engine that provides constant power, even if set a tad rich. The worst thing with flying a new jigger is when the engine is inconsistant. Get a TD setup right and all you gotta do is fly it.

Nicely done roddie. The T-33, I remember them well from my time at Pensacola. It's also very F-80 like too.

Good eye for lines and color Roddie….. Neat design and great execution…..The trike gear looks right on the plane but I think the dolly idea was pretty cool too…Would look awesome in the air “gear up”….Regardless, I bet it will go pronto …

Like all your planes Roddie it is very nice and neat. Put a picture of you in the cockpit. Looks fast just sitting there.

Mike1484

Thank You Mike. I obviously prefer designing/building.. to flying.

balogh Today at 2:15 am
Very nice plane, Roddie, congratulations. Do not fear the TeeDee, if given the care and attention, this family of COX engines is one of the, if not the most dependable (at least based on my experience with the 010, 020, 049, 050, 051 and 09 TeeDee-s I am flying in their RC service today). Do the maiden flight with a slightly rich setting, the TeeDee will haul your ship even in a "4-stroke" run. If this is your first TeeDee experience, rest assured you will not want to swap it in the nose of your bird after the maiden flight.

Thanks to you too Andras!! You're making me feel better about it...

Yabby Today at 2:26 am
Hey Roddie cheers As Andras rightly said, do not fear the TD. Thumbs Up they are excellent engines and you wont have line tension issues with a TD within reason. lol. They run like a mill. Hit their revs and your plane flies with an engine that provides constant power, even if set a tad rich. The worst thing with flying a new jigger is when the engine is inconsistant. Get a TD setup right and all you gotta do is fly it. sunny cheers Thumbs Up

_________________
GaryB

Hi Gary! My only experience thus far with running a Cox Tee Dee engine was with a .09 a few years ago. It was a bench-run after a disassembly to inspect a suspect bent conrod.. and it was one time. I definitely need to bench-run my Tee Dee engines more; to get a feel for how to start them, tank-height/type etc. I currently have X2 TD .049's, X1 .051, and X2 .09's. They're all very foreign to me. I received all of them in "lots".. where there were several different "brand" engines in each lot. I can count on one hand; the number of times that I've run an FRV engine.. and have fingers left-over. None of them were mounted on model airplanes.

I'm used to my Cox reed-valve mills.. and all of their idiosyncrasies. ... but it's well past time to familiarize myself more with the Cox Tee Dee's.. and what they have to offer in the way of performance increases.

 rsv1cox Today at 7:58 am
Nicely done roddie. The T-33, I remember them well from my time at Pensacola. It's also very F-80 like too.

Thanks Robert!! and thanks for your service. I've always been a fan of the "Blue Angels" and the "Lockheed T-33"

I had reservations about a prop-driven model.. but I figured that a 1/2A profi-scale speed-model would just be the Ticket to Ride...

rdw777 Today at 3:20 pm
Good eye for lines and color Roddie….. Neat design and great execution…..The trike gear looks right on the plane but I think the dolly idea was pretty cool too…Would look awesome in the air “gear up”….Regardless, I bet it will go pronto …

Thank You too Robert. Many of my designs have yet to fly. I LOVE (I really love..) the design-element.

The "dolly" has been given a fair amount of consideration.. and the latest design is pending testing.





Developed for my T33... it can adjust +/- lengthwise to accommodate various designs..