Freewing F-35 lightning II V3 weapon bay door mod

[DaFlyingSnek]

Hello everyone,

I have never seen this done before by anyone on any scale fighter jet. On my F-35, I want to add scale, functioning weapon bay doors. Of course, I know the main gear is in the way of the outside bay door, but that's fine. I only wish to do the inside doors anyways. I do need your guy's experience and help, as I have never modded an airplane's structure so majorly before. I plan on cutting out the existing "doors" that are molded into the fuselage and reusing that. I'll cut away unnecessary foam and cut away more in the fuselage to make the bay. I'll add all the detail (paint, fake wiring/tubing, etc) and add some on the actual door. Then, I'll 3D print (or make out of wood) some control horns just as the full-scale F-35 has for the door to make it hinge and open properly. I also want to have that freewing sliding mechanism on the door so I can attach/detach a scale Aim-120D when I wish. What I don't know very much about is the execution of a project like this. Does anyone have any tips on how to make the doors more scale? How can I cut the existing foam out and re-use it? Where and how should I set up my servos for the doors? How should I cut out the door on the plane?

Thanks a lot everyone for your help!
-DaFlyingSnek

[hillarydavidson]

I am really enjoying reading your well written articles. It looks like you spend a lot of effort and time on your Fur Shearling Coat. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work.

[tab28682]

Sounds like a fun project. I (actually, myslef and a couple of cowokers) actually built a 1/10 scale display model of the F-35 that has working doors, as well all other powered doors and control surfaces that work. This was a display only model built for Lockheed Martin a number of years ago.

Here is a video that shows everything working. The nozzle is a little hard to see. The weapon bay doors cycle at the :50 second mark in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY0yuxLc3dM

Having done several F-35 models with working doors, this is how I would do it to the Freewing foamie.. I would first make sure there is enough volumetric space in the model to get the AIM-120 in there.

I would protect the lower surface of the F-35 model with saran wrap, You might try giving the sheet of saran wrap a very light coat of hair spray to help it adhere smoothly to the model. Wax and mold release the wrap and do two lightweight glass layups on it to replicate the inner doors. Use one of the layups as the outer surface and one as the inner surface. Trim back the inner surface to about 3/16" to 1/4" from the outer edge of the outer surface.Shim the inner surface out from the outer surface with some thin soft balsa or foam to get a scale thickness effect that will also make the door stiffer. The engraved door outlines should show through .Do not allow the glass layup to get too warm.

Getting the hinges to work will be a little tough, as the actual hinge line runs at an angle well up inside the model, with offset hinges to allow the door to clear the model as it opens. You will have to experiment with that.

Alternatively, you could possibly cut out the foam door somehow and thin the door to a reasonable thickness, reinforce it and hinge it . If that foam is very thick, this could be fairly tough to cut out neatly..