Official FMS 1500mm P-47D Razorback Thread

[davegee]

Just finished some scale added touches to the Dave Schilling pilot figure for the Hairless Joe aircraft I am working on. Dan did his usual masterful job painting the 3D pilot, and I added a few things like communications wiring like they used in US fighter aircraft in WWII. The black wire off to the side represents the plug in for mask mic and headphones into a receptacle on the left side of the cockpit.

He is sitting in a scale P-47 pilot seat that is 3D printed, not painted yet. I posed him wearing the oxygen mask that I resized and printed hanging down off to the side as is seen in several photos of him on the ground. I even added Lt. Col. silver oak leaves to his A-2 jacket epaulets. He was promoted to full Col. on October 1, 1944.

Once I get the bubble canopy from James who sent it to a company to use his molds for the canopy/windscreen, I'll get going on possibly powering the canopy with a small linear servo. Space is very tight, so that is an issue, among others, to do this.

Cheers

Davegee

[davegee]

Well, schilling is off to his assignment. Pretty cool, I have pilots sitting is such great airplanes, thanks for the opportunity guys!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Hi Dan: working on the final details of Schilling today. All the communications wires that they wore, stuff like that. Oxygen mask was printed up to the correct size for this figure and I glued it on last night. Will send pics.

Regarding designing the STL for the proposed 150 gallon drop tank, I measured the bed of my Prusa mini, and it is maxed out at 7 inches square.That's the space we have to work with. As far as height goes, I think we could print something vertically at least 10 inches tall, if that helps at all. It would be good if we could design in a tab for the sections to interlock and be glued together for more strength. But there are also other ways to go on this, too. I think it needs to be strong, but very light, too. A tumble recovery like we were talking into the field should be a high drag event and lets it drop safely to the ground. We'll see...

Cheers

davegee

[davegee]

Well, schilling is off to his assignment. Pretty cool, I have pilots sitting is such great airplanes, thanks for the opportunity guys!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Looks Great, Dan! I just cut off that little piece of foam flange we were talking about to clear the area for the pilot's feet, and it fits good, now. I really look forward to getting the canopy and eventually completing the cockpit and fuselage painting/decal work. Schilling will add the icing onto the cake!

Cheers

davegee

[Grossman56]

Well, schilling is off to his assignment. Pretty cool, I have pilots sitting is such great airplanes, thanks for the opportunity guys!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Rex: I first met Mike down in PHX for an event down there. He had some sort of wonderful airplane he was flying. Nice guy, outgoing and very knowledgeable on all things aviation and aviation history so we hit it off. I'm sure he wouldn't remember me, but it was fun. Greg was (and probably still is) the nicest of guys, very helpful if we had some problem we were working on. I erroneously stated in a previous post to you that they beat me in competition, that is not true, now that I think of it. They were in totally different contest categories, whereas I was always in Team Scale with my partner Bob. But I certainly was aware of them, and their building and flying prowess. I only flew competition from 2003-2008.

Yeah, you live in classic RC country for great builders, flyers, and events. Long before I started dabbling in rc flying I was aware of the big event they had yearly in Iowa. I never did go to it before it finally closed its doors for good, but it was an inspiration to me to eventually get into rc flying. I"m sure you remember the name of it and the town in Iowa.

I just sold my Freewing F/A-18C to a former Navy pilot and LSO and airline friend in Tennessee. I wasn't planning on flying it any more, and I will try to sell my 90mm Freewing F-22. I only got about 20 flights on it, but our rough runway was trouble for it. We have a yearly swap meet at our local club in Cody, with modelers from several states who attend. If it doesn't sell, my friend in Tennessee will buy it and hang it up in his house.

Once that space is cleared, after I get my Hairless Joe done, I will probably buy the new Flightline P-51D that is the rage these days. Sounds to me like it is a better airplane, even in just stock out of the box form, than my EFlite 1.5m was (is). But I had a lot of fun with it, and look forward to possibly doing some mods on the Flightline Mustang like I did with the EFlite airplanes.

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

Davegee,
They both have those models today. I have been to Mikes house several times and his 4000 sq. ft. basement is his model playroom. He has numerous models in different stages of building, built a beautiful homebuilt there also. He had 10 moki radials NIB, said he got a good deal from the manuf. He is into competing in FAI and his planes are beautiful. Couldn't ask for a better person to be around.
Greg has built some impressive WW1 models and fly's them in a lot of Dawn Patrols throughout Indiana. He has flown at our club field and is another great guy. Believe he is retiring soon from work so he will be more active flying. We are fortunate that we have many scale meets/ fun flys in our area.
Wish you were able to fly here and compete. We live in a small town 30 miles west of Indianapolis and about 60 miles from Champaign Il.so many contests around.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Davegee,
Both were sponsered back in the day. Mike might still be but Greg told me last year that those days were long gone for most scale modelers today.. He still competes but not like he used to.
Best Regards, Rex

The projects that they were working on, it seems like they had another masterpiece almost every year for a while. Mike had a beautiful I think it was a T-44 King Air, and it was exquisite. One of the best large scale rc planes I have ever seen. The biggest one I remember about Greg as we were set up next to him in Kansas City for the US Scale Masters about 2004, was his HUGE C-47, with a special paratrooper ejector that would fire out in sequence up to a dozen or more scale paratroopers as he flew over head and past the judges' box. These were several years apart, and I just saw Mike's King Air in a modeling magazine in the same issue that I wrote a story on my friend's beautiful Jenny, painted up as The Great Waldo Pepper's airplane. He had every turnbuckle, every pulley, operable just like the real airplane was. I did some detail work for him with some parts like the fake engine in the nose and a few other things. I think I painted it that yellow color, too.

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Both were sponsered back in the day. Mike might still be but Greg told me last year that those days were long gone for most scale modelers today.. He still competes but not like he used to.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Davegee,
Thank you.
I will try for the gold but national competitors Greg Hahn, Mike Barbee and others are hard to beat. I expect to see more of these guys this year. To me it's about the journey and friendships I make along the way more than the prize. Just being among these guys that offer free advice on how to present and do things better means a lot. I am trying to present the best model I can make and a win would be nice. Fingers Crossed.
Best Regards, Rex

Hi Rex:

I competed against both of those guys, they beat me, but I was competitive. They are in it for the long haul, I wasn't. I went up against them, at least Greg, back in 2004 for the first time, a long time ago. Great guys, and greater flyers and modelers. Just competing against the likes of them was an honor. Regardless of how you do, it will be a good experience. I think both of them are sponsored, aren't they? No doubt, they will appreciate your Lucky P-47 when they see it.

If I lived closer to Toledo, I would enter it myself, no matter what the results!

Good luck, and have Fun!!

Cheers

davegee

[Grossman56]

I agree, the prize is just the icing on the cake. The real joy is making friends and connections with people who you might know on line or have never met before. I had the greatest time when I went to Muncie (3 times) and got to meet a bunch of fellow Squawkers as well as people who were just into the hobby.

Always a great time!

Dan

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Thank you.
I will try for the gold but national competitors Greg Hahn, Mike Barbee and others are hard to beat. I expect to see more of these guys this year. To me it's about the journey and friendships I make along the way more than the prize. Just being among these guys that offer free advice on how to present and do things better means a lot. I am trying to present the best model I can make and a win would be nice. Fingers Crossed.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Just a quick pic of the P-47 while wife is measuring and making tail and wing covers. I used socks to protect the prop but she says she will make prop covers too. Kinda thinking she can't wait until I leave for a couple of days.LOL
Need to clean dust from canopy glass

Beautiful work, Rex! Go for the Gold in Toledo!!!

Cheers

davegee

[Elbee]

Rex,

Looks like a winner from here, Sir.

She's a beaut.

I use aerosol canned air to dust the inside of the plexi.

Best of luck, Steve

[jetfool]

Just a quick pic of the P-47 while wife is measuring and making tail and wing covers. I used socks to protect the prop but she says she will make prop covers too. Kinda thinking she can't wait until I leave for a couple of days.LOL
Need to clean dust from canopy glass

[davegee]

Davegee,
If I had to explain ,I might have to shoot you. LOL
I will go back and give both of you Top Billing. Glad you saw it, you Grumpy OLE MEN.

Looking at an old road atlas last week I see you're. not far from Billings. In 1983 I visited a customer in Billings and spent 2 weeks in that area, beautiful country, I see why you like living there. My first time visit and I expected to see the Calvery and Indians riding over the hill.
Best Regards, Rex

Yeah, it is still pretty much wide open country even today. It is a fairly easy drive less than 90 minutes to get up there, but we avoid night driving (lots of critters big and small crossing the highways at night!) and as much as possible in the winter if there is a storm. There is no cell service driving up there, and if something happens like crashing into a ditch, there is no one to save you!

I was driving in Cody yesterday on one of the main streets and in front of me a young girl and her mom were guiding their beautiful horse across the street. Her mom was carrying the saddle. Don't see that random picture in many areas, but I sure do enjoy it up here!

We are less than an hour's drive from one of the most famous and beautiful national parks in the country, Yellowstone. our First national park in 1872 by President Grant. Lots of history and tons of beautiful animals of all kinds. There are thousands of bison and there are many times they take to the roads so you just drive slowly around with them or stop until they cross. Priceless!

After a career traveling and operating out of many major, congested, polluted cities around the world in my career, Cody is about my speed for the rest of my life.

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

Grossman,
A good guess on the spelling. My mind didn't catch Daves little letters. LOL
It's beautiful country out there but I remember driving long distances and seeing very few people. The winters must be hard when it snows and temps go low. Had to work in Minot ND in the winter and the temps were 21' below with blowing wind and snow. Thought I'd never get out of there. I like Indiana, just wait a day and the weather will change. Your pilots are beautiful and I will spread the word on your endeavors
Best Regards, Rex

[Grossman56]

Grossman56,
Dave Schilling will look great in the cockpit. EXCELLENT JOB!
Dan, I'm working on my table presentation with names of model, builder ext. Could you pm me your last name or post it so I can include you on this. Thanks, Rex

Hi rex, the last name is 'Gross", but I see you got it all ready, BTW, good catch as my first name is spelt in Caps, wonder how you knew that??
Yep, we're one hour and 45 minutes from Billings. Drove it 21 times there and 21 times back a few years ago when the wife was in the hospital.

DAN

[jetfool]

Davegee,
If I had to explain ,I might have to shoot you. LOL
I will go back and give both of you Top Billing. Glad you saw it, you Grumpy OLE MEN.

Looking at an old road atlas last week I see you're. not far from Billings. In 1983 I visited a customer in Billings and spent 2 weeks in that area, beautiful country, I see why you like living there. My first time visit and I expected to see the Calvery and Indians riding over the hill.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Dave and Dan,
This is the table placard and in my docs book for display. Do you guys approve and do I have your names correct. Wife is sewing wing, tail and prop covers for the trip. Almost ready to go. Rex

Looks good to me, but why does Dan get ALL CAPS for his first name?? HA! Just kidding, looks great and thanks for mentioning us as loyal supporters of your project. We are both foursquare in support of your entry!

[jetfool]

Dave and Dan,
This is the table placard and in my docs book for display. Do you guys approve and do I have your names correct. Wife is sewing wing, tail and prop covers for the trip. Almost ready to go. Rex