2023 Modifications
At the beginning of 2023 I again returned to my model of Bluebird K7 to continue my build and enhance the model even further to improve the detail add some more features. The items that I intended to work on were.
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- Enhance the water brake and improve the appearance of the stern as I had never really been happy with this part of the model.
- Finish the transport cradle.
- Add a static cover for display purposes to include details of the Orpheus jet engine.
Firstly, the rear of K7 was stripped down and existing water brake, rudder and stabiliser were removed.
A new water brake was machined from aluminium with a working piston. This was a much more accurate copy of the original. A massive thank you to Brian Hembrow for doing the machining for me as this was prior to equipping my workshop with lathe and milling machine.
Both the rudder assembly and stabiliser were redesigned so that these were more realistic to their full-size counterparts.
Once these parts were completed then they were painted the correct shade of azure blue or silver, as necessary.
The water brake, rudder and stabiliser were attached to the transom with M2 nuts and bolts.
Individual rivets were 3D printed and sponson was drilled, and each rivet was super glued into place to complete the transom detail.
The water brake was removed and all everything was sprayed azure blue.
Water brake was refitted along with rubber seal to limit water ingress around the jet pipe. New data label was added and mock hydraulic pipes for the water brake. Below stern all finished.
In parallel I had been working on the transport cradle, here is a picture of the finished item. Although I do intend to create some new wheels which more accurately reflect the design of the originals.
I also wanted to create a cover for the interior for display purposes only so that when on display this would hide all the interior components such as the gas turbine, radio control equipment and fuel tanks etc.
The interior cover was constructed with a combination of some air conditioning ducting, 3D printed parts, sheet metal work and various diameters of pipework and cables.
I also redesigned the RC components and incorporated some waterproof enclosures whilst also changing the RC over to FrSky X18 transmitter which runs EthOS operating system. This also allowed me to include telemetry for GSP including speed and telemetry for the JetCat jet engine.
