Official FlightLine 1600mm B-25J Mitchell PNP Thread

[davegee]

Interesting... Possibly the prop got loosened when it hit all that rough sagebrush at almost takeoff speed, don't know. Did you say that the circuit board for the tail came loose when you took things apart? I never had any problems with any of these things even on all those 100 flights. Maybe that sudden stop past the end of the runway messed things up more than I thought. I didn't do any detailed post mortem, as you have done. I was ready to pass it on one way or the other. I'm sure you'll have a great time with it.

Once you get it flying, if you want some plastic bombs to play with or the "parafrag" bombs with little parachutes, you can have them. They are perfect for this scale and I have a printed bomb rack that screws into the bomb bay and you just fit the bombs onto the aluminum tubes. With small weights in the nose of each bomb, they come out in a very realistic manner. Sometimes hard to find when you try to pick them back up on our field, though.

Cheers

Davegee

[Grossman56]

Hi Dave, yeah I just finished wrestling with the nose gear and she's functioning fine now. It might have been the mounting point, but anyway, I cycled it quite a few times and she's good. I did have to replace the tiller arm as that small piece you found was the rod that comes out of the arm and has the pushrod that steers it attached to it. Had a spare tiller arm from one of the Avantis that matched up. I did notice a crack on the port side rudder just below the attachment point, easy to fix, had that on the Tigercat as well. Starboard main gear was loose at the retract attachment point (I noticed she 'waddled' when taxiing) so I managed to tighten that up. Man, I hope I never have to change that retract, what a nightmare!
Lastly, the starboard prop was loose. When I went to remove it, everything came off with the Allen head screw.
I have a new nose gear door coming along with the green house and a new circuit board for the tail. I can't for the life of me figure out how that would come loose, even if you hit it when changing the battery, it should not have come out, it's supposed to lock in to some degree. Maddening.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Hi Dan: you may have noticed it already, but I think in the aborted takeoff crash the nose wheel strut got bent a bit. Not sure if you can straighten that out or not. I think it might have a hollow section where the damage is and could break pressure was applied to it. But you'll figure out what you want to do with it.

Coming along great. I still didn't find that nose gear door today at the field, but I think a brand new one is only about $5 at MRC.

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

Grossman56,
Use the same as you. Works well just wondering if you used something better.
Thanks, Rex

[Grossman56]

Thanks in advance Elbee for the stl files.
Looking forward to getting into this one.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

Grossman56,
What are you using for filling the cracks after gluing the pieces back? I use lite-weight spackling but wondering if there is a better filler that sands finer.
Best Regards, Rex

I use no shrinking Wally World light weight spackle, probably the same as you have. Also, Urethane gloss makes a decent if time consuming filler as well for the fine stuff.
There's the jar of Spackle sitting by the nose of the Tigercat.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

Those are some beautiful print files and high quality prints. Are some of them (eg .50 cal) resin?

F&L,

Good to hear from you, Sir.

Yes, the ammo boxes, pilot heads, & Norden are resin.

Note: ammo box 1 is FDM and box 2 is SLA.

All the 50 cals are FDM printed on my ol' i3 Mk3 upgraded to a Mk3S+.

HatchBox Silver or Black PLA depending.

Post process with acetone and lacquer paints.

I am going to send some STLs to Grossman56 as soon as I find a little time.

Think I will post all the B-25 cockpit bits and fwd greenhouse to Prusa Printables, again as soon as I make some time.

If you're interested in someting, PM me and I'll see what I can do, Brother.

Best, Steve

[Fast N Light]

Those are some beautiful print files and high quality prints. Are some of them (eg .50 cal) resin?

[Elbee]

Grossman56,

The printed side walls, floor, and aft bulkhead parts should stiffen the thinned foam of the nose.

Once you've printed those you can begin to dry fit and see how much foam you'll need to alter or remove.

You'll see that the nose retract mount is the compromise and I epoxied bulkhead parts to help stiffen that area.

That whole process was slow as the design changed when I realized the limitaions of the foam to remain structural.

Figured worst case, I'd have to start over with a new fuselage.. but it all worked great.

I'll need to send the STL files via email and I have that.

Give a day or so to go through all the STL files and pictures.

I'll check to see if I have your home address to send the greenhouse.

Best, LB

[jetfool]

Grossman56,
What are you using for filling the cracks after gluing the pieces back? I use lite-weight spackling but wondering if there is a better filler that sands finer.
Best Regards, Rex

[Grossman56]

Sure as all get out!

That wire had come out and you can see where she was sitting!
Maybe, as a maintenance directive, put this on your list to check to see that the plug is secure.
Dave had 100 flights on her and 101 was the bingo flight.
Let's face it, with Winter coming along, it's time to do the work.
I have a new attachment circuit coming and I think I'll replace the old one to make sure it snaps together.
She looks pretty though.


Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

That'd be great!
I'm looking at the forward area as per the first pic and the cockpit pieces (seats, gunsight and instrument panel)
I think that with adding the printed frame in the nose, it would add to the overall strength and rigidity of the damaged area.
I'm looking back through your build thread, was there something you did to strengthen the nose gear area?
I'm going to stay true to Dave's Cactus Kitten so nothing in the rear will change unless I can find a good pic of the gunners bay, then I'll hop on Tinkercad and see what I can do.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

Grossman56,

I have the aft greenhouse if you want it.

I modded mine to a "C" variant, so no greenhouse, just a bubble.

Also, if you'd like some of the STL's for the forward greenhouse, let me know.

Best, LB

[jetfool]

Nice job Grossman. Going to look great after you detail it out. Rex

[Grossman56]

You must have been reading my mind Elbee!
What with having the green house off and the canopy as well, plus winter coming,
PROJECT!
She's out of the clamps, bound and gear is down.
As Dave was saying, there is nothing on the southern end. No rudders and no elevator.

I suspect the little box at the rear so I have another one on the way as well as the birdcage and a new gear door.
Then I'll pull the tail off and see what's up.
Should have ordered some prop blades as well, I was thinking that they were the same as the Tigercat but according to Wes, they're different although they fit in the spinners.
At this point they're not necessary but always nice to have some spares.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

Got some stills off Kermit weeks tour of his B 25, good stuff as his is very authentic.Gret for reference.Grossman56(Dangerous Dan)

Danger,

Ah yes, the "Kermie Cam"...great videos.

Are you going to detail out the cockpit and forward gunner's office?

I know a guy with STLs. LOL

Best, LB

[jetfool]

Grossman 56,
Your rebuild is amazing. You are a foam craftsman. Better be careful when it's finished Dave will pry it out of your hands yelling MINE! MINE! MINE! LOL

[Grossman56]

Got some stills off Kermit weeks tour of his B 25, good stuff as his is very authentic.


Gret for reference.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

Making impressive progress!

Dan's patented airplane pinchers at work, the clothes pin adjusts the amount of pressure applied while the elastic bands hold the thing together.
Wheel retract mount is back in place. Future note, reinstall this piece first as it would have been much easier. It also adds a lot of strength to the forward section.

The forward section is still split. Last step is to glue them together once the other parts are dry.


hen a little sanding and a little painting ad voila! She's new!
A couple of parts to order like the forward cover and gear door, pitot tube and the Radom underneath seems to be missing as well. Then bind it and drop the gear, see what's up with the electronics.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

I have every expectation that Dan will be able to rehabilitate this airplane to its former glory. Over the weekend, I decided I wanted to get my 100th flight in that day. I was sitting at 90 and just decided to keep on flying it until I hit 100. It has never been severely or even mildly damaged up to this point. Anyway, got FMS P51 Mustang 1450 & 1700 Flight Times? in, but before packing it up, I thought I'd like just "one more" to finish up its career as the previous landing had been less than ideal, not terrible but one I wanted to improve on. I had no plans on flying it after that.

Unfortunately, even though I had 100 successful flights on this airplane, the takeoff roll went normal and then I noticed that I had no control of my elevator as the airplane was screaming down the runway towards the end. I was too slow to try and use the Very impressive reverse thrust on this airplane, and it went rolling at high speed off the end and impacted into some nasty scrub brush which wrecked the nose section. The rest of the plane was undamaged. So, a major chore will be finding out what happened to elevator and rudder control. Nothing obvious at this point.

I offered the plane to Dan, as he is well known for his amazing restorative skills with foam airplanes. There is still a lot of life with it if he can repair the damage to the nose. I also offered that if that doesn't work, he can buy a replacement forward fuselage section for about $117 and essentially have a new airplane.

I did a lot of upgrades with the plane that are still good. The Robart diamond tires, WWII scale wheels for the nose and mains, and other stuff like that. This was based on a real airplane that lfew in the Southeast Asia Theater in WWII, and was lost to antiaircraft fire near Saigon in what was then French Indochina. All five crew were lost, unfortunately.

So, I"ll look forward to see Dan's progress and hope he has a lot of good flights on it like I did for over two years.

Cheers

Davegee