Official Nexa 2108mm P-38 Lightning ARF Thread

[Aros]

Sorry no intel on a Marchetti...You never know! Good luck with the build when you get to it!

[papa626]

The spinners came with the kit. Attached is everything that came in the box.

Subscribed!

@ Papa626, thanks for biting the bullet and being the first one to document the build/assembly of this wonderfull machine.
I saw you pulling out a pair of spinners in your video, did you order those separately or where they included in the kit?
The MotionRC site doesn't mention that there are any spinners in the kit, let alone three blade spinners and the correct three blade size options for this plane.

@ Aros,maybe you can answer this, I know in the early days this kit was sold in Europe for something in the region of € 600 - € 700.
Motion is selling it for about € 919 now. I assume the retracts have been added as a standard now, but are there other additions that where done between now and then?

[papa626]

I don’t think you will need to flip it upside down to install batteries. The battery doors are all the way forward and will only require a tilt up in my opinion. I think it’s also good for stability of flight that batteries are located below the wings.

Aros
So I've been eyeballing this for a long time (d/l'd the manual over a year ago) and trying to determine how in the heck am I gonna get the batteries located out of the booms into fuse.
My biggest arse ache with how VQ did this is it was obviously designed for a petrol driven bird because having to flip a 80+ inch airframe upside down to load LiPo's in the bottom
of the booms is just such a huge inconvenience and goes against my long standing airframe setup of electric twins with paralleled power in the fuse.
Is there per any chance that this is being looked at by the factory to get the batteries relocated to the fuse??
If Alpha and FW had done this battery/boom design with the 1600 Lightning, I would bet it never would had been as successful as it is.
I would dearly like to join TJ in owning this but not if I have to severely mod it to make it a battery friendly bird.

[OV10]

I don’t think you will need to flip it upside down to install batteries. The battery doors are all the way forward and will only require a tilt up in my opinion. I think it’s also good for stability of flight that batteries are located below the wings.

papa626
Look forward to see if you still have that opinion after completing the build.
Having been a long time twin operator, I disagree with the weight being outside of the fuselage as providing stability.
With a battery in each boom it is also setting you up to the dreaded dedicated power source for each motor which in the case of an unforeseen LVCO will induce the proverbial graveyard spiral.
Best of luck,

[Twowingtj]

papa626 Thanks for sharing your pics of the P-38 so far. When you get to the point of checking out the nose gear, I'd like to find out what the retract body is made of and about how many degress of travel it has. It looks to be more than 90. Thanks

[Aros]

If this version is anything like my Legend Models/VQ was, then getting the fowler flaps to work properly may shave months off your life.

[bartje]

papa626
Look forward to see if you still have that opinion after completing the build.
Having been a long time twin operator, I disagree with the weight being outside of the fuselage as providing stability.
With a battery in each boom it is also setting you up to the dreaded dedicated power source for each motor which in the case of an unforeseen LVCO will induce the proverbial graveyard spiral.
Best of luck,

What's against running an extra pair of cables from left to right to interconnect the batteries to form an xS2P setup which enables both ESC's to draw power from both batteries?

[ScottGantt]

Has anyone had difficulty with the flap system on this aircraft? I cannot get enough movement and there is a lot of play in the configuration. Like to see pictures of how anyone set up their servos on this one.
Thanks-

[Aros]

Welcome Scott...Yes as I have mentioned previously the flaps are a giant pain due to the wonky mechanisms and slop. We never could figure out how to remove the slop and adjusting each servo to perfection proved futile. We finally gave up and just lived with the slop. It was by far the most challenging aspect of the build.

[papa626]

Only way to get the screws through is by drilling holes.

[papa626]

Ill let you know by this weekend.

papa626 Thanks for sharing your pics of the P-38 so far. When you get to the point of checking out the nose gear, I'd like to find out what the retract body is made of and about how many degress of travel it has. It looks to be more than 90. Thanks

[Ron Dyrda]

Hi Aros I am in process of ordering the Nexa P-38 I would like to power it with two RCGF 10cc or 15 cc gas motors. The elect. retracts that come with the plane do they need to be up graded ?
or are they ok to use.

Thanks Ron

[Aros]

Hi Ron, I honestly do not know if the retracts that come with our version of this model are needing to be upgraded by some or not. My experience was with the old Legend Models (VQ) version 6 years ago which I used Robart retracts for. I would think they will be decent retracts. Good luck with the build and welcome!

[papa626]

They are 90 degrees travel. But at the same time, I believe you will still get the scale look because of the slight angle of the nose. Wheel extended is about an inch back from the front of the wheelwell.

papa626 Thanks for sharing your pics of the P-38 so far. When you get to the point of checking out the nose gear, I'd like to find out what the retract body is made of and about how many degress of travel it has. It looks to be more than 90. Thanks

[Twowingtj]

papa626 Thanks for the answer.

[papa626]

For the front nuts, I’m divided between self locking nuts or using loctite on the ones I have on now. I also thought about doing safety wire nuts but can’t find any in 5mm. Any thoughts??

[StanBr]

Hi Everyone,

Received my Nexa P-38 (= VQ Models?) a couple of days ago and to be honest I am a bit disapointed. The reason?

- The wing is weathered but the rest of the plane isn’t.
- The top half of the cockpit does not fit very well. A lot of tension and big gaps between the leading edge of the wing and the cockpit top half.
- Attaching the gear doors and make them move with the gear is challinging. The whole setup with bal-point pen springs and cotton thread to make it work is i.m.h.o. not really scale like and professional.
- The play in the 4 flap sections is something that can’t be resolved (as mentioned before by other forum users).

Have sent two e-mails to Motion RC Europe Support but no reply...

Best regards,
Stan

[Ron Dyrda]

Hi Stan

I am expecting my Nexa P 38 to day, I hope i'm not disappointed in the purchase , its a lot of money if the quality is not their.

Ron

[StanBr]

Hi Ron,

Indeed, for this kind of money you expect a decent model. Hopefully you’re not disapointed.

Best regards,
Stan

[Aros]

I am a P-38 nut and the Legend Models version was my first giant scale balsa P-38. I came to discover that the model was more of what I would consider "sport scale". Definitely not to be confused with a Yellow Aircraft or Ziroli P-38, but you also pay a lot more for those. I learned to live with the quality discrepancies especially once she was airborn. In the skies is where she absolutely dominated and was a real treat to fly.