Just to bring you up to date on a couple of modifications to the SE5a.
I had bent the axle to give a few degrees of toe-in. It did improve the tracking initially but because of an unforeseen flaw in the design I’ve now straightened the axle again.
The axle passes through holes in the undercarriage legs and is held by bungee cords. Having bent the axle it was slightly “V” shaped and was positioned in contact with the base of the axle fairing with the apex of the “V” pointing to the rear to give toe-in. When I checked after a couple of flights the axle had rotated, the “V” was now pointing forwards, giving toe-out, exactly what I didn’t want! Presumably the friction in the wheel bearings produced enough torque to overcome the friction of the bungee cords, the ground handling wasn’t too bad before, especially for a model of this type, so I decided to abandon the idea.
I moulded the noses of the bombs from rubber both for safety and to make them less prone to damage; however, the rubber I used has proven to be very susceptible to the affects of fuel / exhaust emissions, the detailing has virtually melted away and they are very sticky.
I have replaced them with some dome shaped rubber feet from Maplin Electronics, they are made from much more robust rubber so I hope they will not suffer the same fate.
As you can see from the photo the new noses are not the correct shape, are slightly too small in diameter and have no detailing but you have to be pragmatic about these things.
I think they are quite acceptable especially with the arming vanes in place and when seen from a distance slung under the model.