My Little Gall II: The Resurrection

[Grossman56]

Recently, I revisited the remains of My Little Gal II as one of the guys was asking how I mounted the control boxes on the wings of a Freewing P-51 and I remembered I hadn't removed anything from her wing. So, I dragged it out and took a couple of pictures to post. I got looking at the wing and it really was in good shape, a couple of minor wrinkles, easily repairable. I thought to myself, "Good, I have a spare pare of wings for Old Crow."
I got to thinking about it at work one day and decided to get the fuselage out of the death box and have a good look at it as well. I realized that my upset with the accident stemmed primarily on the damage to the Flite Metal (Lots of wrinkles) but upon closer inspection, I realized that one of the contributing factors to the minimal damage was, in fact, the Flite Metal.
So, Having nothing to lose, I decided to make a project out of her.
First, a little history on My Little Gal II:
My Little Gal I was one of the last Iron Ass Freewing P-51's as Motion was clearing them out, the price was good and I bought one. She was a pretty little plane and I used her for the first 'riveting' job I'd ever done, turned out great.



But, unfortunately, she augured in after a perfect maiden, had a faulty landing gear sequencer the autopsy showed.
So, not to be outdone by something so trivial as a new fuse and set of wings, I ordered them in and decided that with MLG II, I was going all out and putting Flite Metal on her. Building a little jewel.



She had a lot of fans! I took her to Nefi and had Captain Mike Maiden her for me as, with all the work I had in her, it was and remains the only airplane I own that I didn't personally maiden.
The doo doo hit the fan one day and she just went straight into the ground, almost like her sister did. I was so disgusted that I brought the pieces home and put them in a parts box and there she sat for over a year.
In the meantime, I robbed pieces like a retract off her for Old Crow, gear doors, that sort of thing and somewhere along the line I've misplaced the hatch cover, but its here somewhere.
So today, I took a deep breath and started in on her.

First thing, remove the Flite Metal from the cockpit forward as the rest was in fine shape:


Once the Flite Metal was off, I noticed a crack on the starboard side
Causing the nose to dimple in a bit


So, the plan was to open the crack up slightly to get glue into it, then push from the inside to straightened the dimple out, then run three skewer sticks into the fuse to hold it in place.
Afterwards, I added a balsa 'plate' to the inside of the fuse where the dimple was, using 5 minute Epoxy and two screws to hold it in place. As I couldn't get to the screw heads, I ran them all the way in and covered them with Epoxy and just pushed them into the foam to act as anchors.

Lastly, I MacGivered up a rig to hold it in place to let everything dry up. It makes me think of resetting a broken bone.

So far so good. I'll let it set for a few days and will probably get to more near the end of the week. My plan is to trim the skewers down to match the surface, then, if all looks good, fill in all the wrinkles with Foam Filler, sand and then recover it with Flite Metal, which I still have enough left over to do. Then make a list of what I need and search it out.

Grossman56

[Grantham Kid]

I have just gone through a restoration too and sometimes there is far more work than a new build but in the end it is worth it. Shame to see such a nice aircraft left to nature. Good luck.
I have a Trojan that is in the same boat but I haven't thrown it out yet. Like you I pinched the retracts and a few other bits from her for other projects but I am sure she is living in hope that one day she will get the love she deserves. :)

[Grossman56]

Just finished turning the basement upside down looking for that hatch and nothing. The good news is that I found everything else. Ran the flaps, ailerons, elevator and rudder through the servo tester and all are working. I forgot just how much of a nightmare the control boxes are, but nothing insurmountable.
I plane to run a 10 channel Lemon receiver with a brand spanking new A3L utilizing the capacitor that comes with it. She'll be running a 4280 580 kv (stock) motor and stock ESC.

Here's the wing:

the only thing I have to replace on the wing is one landing gear light and reinstall the retract, have the retract itself installed, complete with original metal brace plate and a strut al ready to go onto it.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

She's really coming along!
The pins locked the nose back on and now it very rigid. The excess pin length sticking out I just trimmed off with an Exacto saw and filled in what was left of the indentation with Beacon Hill foam filler. Slowly working my way around the nose and filling it in. Also added a piece to the back of the battery bay to extend it for the receiver and the A3L, it should tidy it up a bit. I didn't have a spare nose cone so I rummaged through the old parts and found Old Crow's original nose cone. a bit of stripping and sanding then a coat of red paint and good as new. So far so good...

Grossman56

[t33jetman]

You got some skills , Grossnan56.
She will fly agin.

[Grossman56]

Here are some update pictures:
This one shows the plate I put behind the bend in the foam as well as the extra decking for the receiver and the gyro... Still have to trim the Gorilla Glue back, but its in place



The fuselage, showing the trimmed pins and the first layer of filler to help hide the small bend left in the foam


The nose being slowly layered with Foam Filler

The prop and spinner repainted. It's the original set of prop blades, still in good shape, amazing I didn't break one!!

Still have some cleaning and painting to do on the blades.
Looking into the fuselage from the bottom, showing the extra decking...and the maze of wires that is part of the Freewing P-51 experience. Good news is that all systems are working and as of now, the gear is complete and installed. A little cosmetic work on the wings to eliminate the wrinkles and they are good to go. Still looking through the pile to find the battery hatch and I could have sworn I had a spare 650 kv. If not, I'll either go with the 580 kv or order one in, haven't decided (In other words, haven't figured out how to convince the wife)


Grossman56

[Grantham Kid]

Good job. I must look into some of these foam fillers. I normally just use Spakfiller. Those props must be tougher than they look too.
I have a A3L gyro and several A3 gyros. They are ideal for keeping tail-draggers straight when taking off. Use a pot to alter your gain depending on flying conditions. Brilliant.

[Grossman56]

We had a pretty stiff wind a couple of weeks ago, sock straight out but down the runway. Took 'Big Beautiful Doll' up and adjusted the gyro gain and did an airshow for the guys I 'm teaching. One thing I noticed was that when I rolled to upright, if I didn't hit it spot on, the gyro would correct it as soon as the stick was neutral, that was interesting. I just happened to have a spare channel in her receiver and plan on doing the same with My Little Gall II as I'm putting a 10 channel Lemon Diversity receiver in her. Just having that extra control is great, no take offs and landings to adjust it.
I just ordered some balsa filler (white color) as I've heard its a little easier to sand and the guys who have used it (like RC Jet Dude) thought it was great, who am I to argue??

Grossman56

[OV10]

So Dan..................since this thread mentions something about a resurrection. How do I go about raising the fleet from the incinerator. LOL:Not-Talking:

[rifleman_btx]

Win lotto. :Thinking::Not-Talking:

[Grossman56]

So Dan..................since this thread mentions something about a resurrection. How do I go about raising the fleet from the incinerator. LOL:Not-Talking:

I guess if a journey starts with a single step, raising the fleet will start with a single kit. Step one on the journey. Since $$$ are getting tight here, and I have a few sitting in the spare parts bin, time to sharpen my repair skills, besides, it's a lot of fun. The one thing I missed was that there wasn't really a lot of building required in the RTF kits, now with My Little Gal, it took a lot of time to get the Flite Metal on and it gave me some hands-on experience with it as well. But with this, I can sit back and look at where I can make mods and improvements as I go. She WILL fly again !

Grossman56

[Grantham Kid]

Win lotto. :Thinking::Not-Talking:

LOL. Dream on.... :)

[rifleman_btx]

Yes!hahaha

[OV10]

LOL. Dream on.... :)

That's what the New York Lotto punch line is.........." A dollar and a dream"
I remember when I was younger, a Navy buddy used that same line except we sat next to a brass rail LOL;)

[Grossman56]

Sand and fill day, the first of many. I bound the receiver and did the wiring to the gyro all its ready for installation. Revisited some of the Flite Metal videos for a refresher, she's drying right now and should be about ready for another go at sanding.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Well, no flying because its..



Here in Wyoming, so I started reapplying the Flite Metal, it doesn't photograph great, probably due the artificial lighting and the dullness of the basement, anyway, in real life he looks pretty good, once the rivets are on and the Flite Metal polished (Wenol)
She should look great....


Not bad for a bird that lawn darted and was a right off for a year and a half.

Grossman56

[rifleman_btx]

Man the years roll by faster and faster

[Grossman56]

Got that right RM, I had to look up the year she augured in, shortly after Nefi 2017. But here she is, minus her battery hatch, which I guess I'll have to break down and buy. It's like seeing a Ghost!!
Anyway, you'll notice that the forward hatch is stock Iron Ass, that's from MLG I as well as the front wing joiner as well as assorted screws. This time, I plan to put the red nose aka Iron Ass in her as I figured she's a tribute to Iron Ass and My Little Gal I as well as herself...


Still have rivet work to do as well as the wrinkles in the wing, but, compared to the work already done, it's minor. The great news is that all systems work, she has her original 4250 580 kv motor and stock ESC and everything purrs!!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Had some Euroglanz left over from the old DC-3 polishing days, very similar to Wenol, better IMHO, so
I had to get some better pics...



Now THAT"S better!!

Grossman56

[deadbug]

Wow. She's looking fantastic—...nice work Gman! I was wondering if all that Flite Metal work was worth it, but in that last picture it has the look of newly manufactured aluminum.