Official FMS 1500mm P-47D Razorback Thread

[jetfool]

Outstanding work Dan. He should look great in Daves new Bubble Top P-47. Bobs says to tell the guys hello as he will be traveling on Republic Aviation business to upper Ohio for a convention shortly..
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Whipped out the Canon, better pics.



Obviously not done yet, but maybe 80%??

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Looking great, Dan!! I have the oxygen mask ready to install hanging from his helmet to finish it off for display when you're finally finished with it. No rush, still a lot of work to do on the fuse, especially cockpit and canopy when it comes, hopefully soon!.

Cheers

Davegee

[Grossman56]

Whipped out the Canon, better pics.



Obviously not done yet, but maybe 80%??

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

Finally felt well enough to do some work on Schilling....



Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[jetfool]

Thanks Dave,
We are leaving for Toledo early Friday morning (3 am) April 10, about a 4 hr drive from our town. Have the room at the convention center reserved for Friday night. Hotel costs are crazy.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Added the back cylinders to the engine and making up the ingnition harness and wiring. Need to paint before assembly. Think it will look ok when installed.
Best Regards, Rex

Thanks, Rex. The last time I flew Fire Ball was in 2008 at the US Scale Masters Contest in Sarasota, FL. We were cruising to a first place finish in our division, Team Scale, and then Disaster Struck! We could get through most of our routine, and then the motor would thin out and quit. It became a nail-biting conclusion to see if it would crack up or not. We got all our required maneuvers in, or most of them, but we just couldn't figure out why the motor was doing that, a DA 50. On one of the rounds, Bob, the pilot, landed a little short with a dead engine, and it hit hard, tearing at least one main gear out of the airplane. Not to be deterred, I worked all night in my hotel room with Fire Ball to get it flyable again. In the end, we dropped from a sure first place prize to fourth place, but we still got a trophy. On that last flight, the engine quit again, and the whole crowd yelled in unison: "GO FIRE BALL, GO !!!!" It was touching.That last flight, Bob brought it down for a perfect dead stick landing with no additional damage.

I took it home and did a proper repair after that. I gave the DA 50 to Bob to take to the manufacturer to see why it did that. When the airplane was restored, that's when I made arrangements to take it to Florida to the museum where you saw it.

That drop tank was rare, and special. It was a scale 215 gallon "flat" tank of the type used by the 56th FG on their M models in the last months of the war in Europe. It was released on each of our flights as part of the routine we did for the competitions around the country. On the real airplane, they were able to get to Germany and back with that tank on, as they had gotten orders to remove the wing pylons. They all breathed a sigh of relief when they got that order, as that now meant no more low level attacks, which were considered much more hazardous than high altitude fighting or bomber support missions.

Your engine cowl looks great, and I would hazard no one else will have such scratchbuilt details on their entries.

When are you leaving for Toledo?

Best of Luck!!!

Cheers

Dave

[jetfool]

Added the back cylinders to the engine and making up the ingnition harness and wiring. Need to paint before assembly. Think it will look ok when installed.
Best Regards, Rex

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Your P-47 in Florida is a masterpiece. I remember the tank on it. I took lots of pictures that day of it to use some of your ideas on my Yellow P-47 when I got home. Keep thinking about a P-47M and after yours is completed I may order the conversion parts to have on hand for a later build. Dave Platt rule #7 (Scarfology) Get it while you can.
Glad I'm just taking one model to Toledo; I have been adding the engine parts like yours and every time I look at it I see more little things. Same with the Phantom so will take my time on it. Talked to the event director about the static rules (same as AMA) and he said they are adding cash prizes this year in hopes to entice more entrants. I know of 4 guys going so the competition should be pretty tough this year.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Good job!

Thanks, that should dampen out any undesirable movement in the air stream until it is released from the EFlite bomb/tank drop. My team scale partner back in the day just HATED droppables, but I loved and still love them. On our blue camo Fire Ball that you saw in Florida, we did drop that very large scale 215 gal. tank (over 16 inches long in1/6 scale) in a very realistic manner and looked spectacular as it tumbled down end-over-end to the ground, always undamaged. It was the same one that you would have seen mounted on the plane in its display case in Titusville.

Cheers

davegee

[jetfool]

Good job!

[davegee]

Working on the sway braces for the belly tank. These are scratchbuilt aluminum tubes and can accommodate this foam scale 108 gal. drop tank and eventually a new and unique printed rectangular steel drop tank that was also used commonly during this period in 1944. On a previous post I added an actual pic of Hairless Joe on the hardstand with one of these attached, taken at Boxted Air Base in Essex, England. Both of these type drop tanks should easily survive dropping during demonstration flights later this summer.

[davegee]

The canopy plug is nearing completion ,way more print grain that the 1.2m for some reason and sanding and polishing with mothers mag polish .will post a pic before it goes to parkflyer plastics vac people next week.

Thanks.

davegee

[vrosi1963]

The canopy plug is nearing completion ,way more print grain that the 1.2m for some reason and sanding and polishing with mothers mag polish .will post a pic before it goes to parkflyer plastics vac people next week.

[Elbee]

......wife is very encouraging but now I have to run the vacuum every week in the house

Hah

Tamms gave me an Official Patch.

Best, LB

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Great to know the bomb drop works. Will install one for flying this season.
Yes, I'm getting excited. The P-47 is finished and sitting on our dining table until we leave, wife is very encouraging but now I have to run the vacuum every week in the house. Things we put up with to enjoy our hobby.
Working on the docs book and getting all the little things in my toolbox to take just in case I need to repair, clean at the show. Our motel room at the convention has been made. Helped my buddy spray his clear coat on his Jenny so we are almost ready. Still moving on the Phantom but slowly.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Mounted the E Flite bomb/tank drop mechanism using a couple of 1/4" dia. dowels that I drilled holes in the foam and then epoxied in to be flush with the skin. Drilled 1/16" diameter hole in the two dowels and then screwed the mount in two places using the holes provided in the mount.

I had to clear away the foam just a little bit to allow a manual loading lever on a spring pin to attach the fuel tank to the mount. Once that is done, it is ready to go. Have not had a single misstep doing about 20 test drops using my transmitter last night and this morning. I will be adding scale looking sway brackets to keep the tank secure from wind forces until I release it with the transmitter. I expect that it will go unstable immediately upon release and tumble softly onto the field near the runway. I'll probably do this drop fairly close to the ground at first just to be sure I don't lose the tank, although I will get another one ready as a back up.

I'll attach a pic of me holding the drop tank next to the E Flite release mechanism. I have to commend them on good engineering and simplicity on this add-on. The proof will be in the pudding on operational tests to see how well it does with an air load on it. I'm looking forward to flying it in the spring.

[davegee]

Davegee,
Great job on the tank drop. Might add it later to mine.


I know it's a lot of work but how are you finding the polyacrylic, sand, polyacrylic process. Do you feel it gives a harder shell and smoother surface to work with? I think it's worth the effort.
Best Regards, Rex

Hi Rex: The E Flite drop tank mechanism is easy to install on the FMS P-47. I removed the plastic OEM slot for the tank on the bottom of the fuse, enlarged it slightly and put a hole through the fuselage through that opening into the open area on the fuse where the receiver is. I am running a 8 channel Spektrum receiver from another plane that must have crashed or something, but I tested it and it works fine. I have two open ports, 7 and 8. The tank drop is in 7 and I'm reserving the 8 for the powered canopy. Supposed to get a mechanism today that might work for the canopy. Sorta a guess, and I hope it won't be too difficult to make that work. We'll see...

Regarding the Polyacrylic, it is pretty easy to apply, I put it on after I put Tamiya spray primer on it, sanded it and then have used about 3 coasts of the Polyacrylic, sanding between each coat with a light and fine sandpaper and water. Seems to definitely smooth it out some and make it a little less subject to dents, but I still got a few so far that I have had to fill during building. The only minor annoyance is an occasional drip that has to be sanded off later when I discover it. But I'm getting better at applying it.

Back to the E Flite drop mechanism, for this FMS model, I think it is going to be a little too wide to fit in the OEM pylons, so I'll wait for a different model to do that. Possibly get the new P-51 which you can buy drop mechanisms specifically for that one, but I don't think they've hit the market yet. Plus, I'm still awaiting delivery of the clear canopies from James.

I see the new Flightline P-51 on my next "to do" list project!

Cheers

davegee

P.S Rex: I wanted to let you know that I found those "googly eyes" in the craft part of our local Walmart and picked up a packet of the one inch diameter ones for $1.46. Trimmed them to shape and glued them on the landing lights of my P-47s. Works great! Thanks for the tip!

You getting excited about the Toledo show coming up sooner and sooner on the calendar???

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Great job on the tank drop. Might add it later to mine.
I know it's a lot of work but how are you finding the polyacrylic, sand, polyacrylic process. Do you feel it gives a harder shell and smoother surface to work with? I think it's worth the effort.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

I had success with my first attempts using the E Flite drop tank/bomb release. Still some cleaning up to do, but I think it will work. I did a video of several drops but I couldn't upload it because it was a.mov file. I guess that doesn't work in that form on Hobbysquawk.

I did take a pic while the tank was attached to the drop mount, for reference.. Got about 6 perfect drops using the "I" button (push button) on the top of my Spektrum DX18 transmitter. That was with nothing glued or screwed down yet, so I have good hopes this will be successful on the plane when I fly it. And I can use other 3D printed tank shapes, too.



.

[davegee]

Hi all,

first to Dave, that project is coming along amazingly! I’m looking forward to see the result. My project is moving along a lot slower … finished the of tops of each wing, starting the fuselage now. I’ll make another update when I get around half the fuselage done, but right now she looks a lot better than I had hoped.

Looks great, Eagle15! I know that is a LOT of work, but it is really coming along. When I used to have some carbon fiber kits in 1/6 scale, I would do the riveting with a small brass tube inside of a soldering iron. The process was similar to what you are doing, and I know how much work that is!

Thanks for the update.

Cheers

Davegee