P-38 - The Ultimate EPO Lightning

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Official FMS 1500mm P-47D Razorback Thread

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  • davegee
    replied
    Originally posted by jetfool View Post
    Looking good.
    Thanks. Step by step...

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  • jetfool
    replied
    Looking good.

    Leave a comment:


  • davegee
    replied
    making some progress on the painting of the wings. I'm putting the invasion stripes only on the bottom of the right wing, none on the nonpainted NMF bottom of the left wing. This is how the airplane looked for a short time in the summer of 1944 after the left wing was replaced. Callie will be sending out my dry transfers package tomorrow, Friday, and will evenually start on some of those. The tops of both wings are painted in RAF Ocean Gray and will have patterns of RAF Dark Green over the tops of the wings, tail, and fuselage. I'm hoping to get Danger Dan to design up a droppable drop tank of the type that was used for a while during that time period.

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  • davegee
    replied
    Hi Dan: for some reason my Norton software is blocking your attachment. I tried it several times and no-go. Cah you resend it to my email address to see if it will come up?

    Thanks!

    Davegee

    Leave a comment:


  • davegee
    replied
    Originally posted by Elbee View Post

    Dave,

    As I recall Chris Wolfe has added Tank Drops and/or bomb drops to many of his builds.

    You might check out his channel https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...y=The3+RC+Geek and see what he is doing for that.

    Also, there might be something on "Thingiverse" of some other 3DP repository the you could print.

    Found this on Prusa Printables in about 0.5 seconds...https://www.printables.com/model/132...pper-mechanism

    I had/have an old Dave Brown bomb release around somewhere, might check to see if any of those are still available.

    And there's always DIY: https://studyquiz.blog/rc-plane-bomb...echanism-guide

    Best, LB
    Thanks, Elbee. Good stuff there. I think I will limit this model to just a belly drop tank that I will design and print up (with Danger Dan's help, of course!) I'm keeping the OEM mounts for the M-10 rocket launcher tubes that go on the wings. I'll fly a few flights with those and some static photos, too. (In real life, Col. Schilling experimented with these during the summer of 1944 in France. Some postive results, but they were highly inaccurate with no sighting mechanism, and could not be jettisoned after use so you had to fly the rest of the mission with these pretty high-drag 10 foot long tubes on your wings! ) I'll attach a photo of Hairless Joe on the hardstand at Boxted the summer of 1944. The drop tank is something that I would like to print up and function for dropping it during flight. It was a 200 gallon drop tank.

    Might print up a couple of more-scale looking 500# bombs for the wing pods. The foam ones just don't hack it.

    Cheers

    davegee

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  • Grossman56
    replied
    How about this Dave?

    JX Servo 23kg Digital Airdrop SPECIFICATIONS Brand Name: NoEnName_Null Is Electric: No battery Origin: Mainland China Material: Metal Recommend Age: 14+y Recommend Age: 6-12y Use: Vehicles & Remote Control Toys Choice: yes semi_Choice: yes Air dropper Dropper Parabolic switch Drop switch DropperSuitable for helicop


    Dan

    Leave a comment:


  • Elbee
    replied
    Originally posted by davegee View Post

    Do you know of a servo bomb drop mechanism that is available commercially that would work in the belly of the P-47?

    Davegee
    Dave,

    As I recall Chris Wolfe has added Tank Drops and/or bomb drops to many of his builds.

    You might check out his channel https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...y=The3+RC+Geek and see what he is doing for that.

    Also, there might be something on "Thingiverse" of some other 3DP repository the you could print.

    Found this on Prusa Printables in about 0.5 seconds...https://www.printables.com/model/132...pper-mechanism

    I had/have an old Dave Brown bomb release around somewhere, might check to see if any of those are still available.

    And there's always DIY: https://studyquiz.blog/rc-plane-bomb...echanism-guide

    Best, LB

    Leave a comment:


  • davegee
    replied
    Originally posted by Elbee View Post

    Dave,

    IMHO, a servo actuated sliding canopy mod should be designed and implemented ahead of any fuselage work in a foamie.

    In the case of my Corsair, the cockpit section was cut open and I performed various 'foam surgeries' as the design advanced.

    Having NOT done this before and then adding the difficulty that EPO often presents, several iterations were made 'on the fly' as it were.

    For me, any major mod like this should be sorted out first.

    The same was true for me with the 'cowl flap' mods where the only way was to cut off the Corsair's nose.

    Ya gotta break some eggs to make an omelette.

    Best, LB

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    Yeah, I'll be thinking about doing the mods on the canopy and possible belly drop tank. I think I really need to have access to the cockpit with some sort of sliding canopy, whether I make it powered or not.

    Do you know of a servo bomb drop mechanism that is available commercially that would work in the belly of the P-47?

    Davegee

    Leave a comment:


  • Elbee
    replied
    Originally posted by davegee View Post

    I like the idea of using a worm drive or your rack and pinion to allow the canopy to open and close. I just don't want to do something that would ruin all the hard work James has done!

    Davegee
    Dave,

    IMHO, a servo actuated sliding canopy mod should be designed and implemented ahead of any fuselage work in a foamie.

    In the case of my Corsair, the cockpit section was cut open and I performed various 'foam surgeries' as the design advanced.

    Having NOT done this before and then adding the difficulty that EPO often presents, several iterations were made 'on the fly' as it were.

    For me, any major mod like this should be sorted out first.

    The same was true for me with the 'cowl flap' mods where the only way was to cut off the Corsair's nose.

    Ya gotta break some eggs to make an omelette.

    Best, LB

    Click image for larger version

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  • davegee
    replied
    Originally posted by Elbee View Post
    davegee

    That's beautiful work, Elbee. The P-47 wouldn't be all that different using a similar rack/pinion idea.

    davegee​

    Thanks.

    I moved my response over here to the FMS P-47 thread.

    If I were building one of these, I'd consider it, too.

    A worm-drive would be the smoothest, like jetfool wrote, and probably easiest to fit in a small space.

    I chose the rack/pinion as I could adjust the rack length to my canopy open/close measurement for simplicity's sake.

    Also, I knew I wanted the mechanism in the battery cover for ease of maintenance, if it all went sideways.

    The other real trick for my build was designing a carriage (for lack of better term) that was robust enough to stay square in squishy/flexible EPO foam.

    The x-axis tolerance was a tight fit in the tapered fuselage, so install fitment was critical to keep it all running smoothly in repeated cycles.

    I ran the cycle function with a servo tester for more than 100 cycles before closing up the fuselage and it still 'snaps' tight in both directions.

    All in all for me it was a mod worth the time and effort for a model as beautiful as the FlightLine Corsair.

    Best, LB
    I like the idea of using a worm drive or your rack and pinion to allow the canopy to open and close. James wrote me yesterday that he is concerned that cutting into the new areas that he just added to make it a bubbletop might damage and make a mess out of things. Not having seen the new fuselage yet, I'm reserving judgement to see it myself and come up with some sort of plan. I do know this, though: I defnitiely want to have the canopy slide back and forth or at the very least have it removable and held both closed and open with magnets or something. I did do that on one of my FMS razorbacks for simplicity. The canopy holds tight in the closed position using tiny reare earth magnets, with over a dozen test flights on it so far. For static display, I simply slide the canopy back by hand onto a magnetic strip and other magnets further back in the cockpit to have it stay in the open position. I think I could do that, at a minimum, but still would like to see if I could employ something like what you did with your Corsair. Once I get the model in-hand soon, I can start making decisions which way to go. I just don't want to do something that would ruin all the hard work James has done!

    Cheers

    Davegee

    Leave a comment:


  • Elbee
    replied
    davegee

    That's beautiful work, Elbee. The P-47 wouldn't be all that different using a similar rack/pinion idea.

    davegee​

    Thanks.

    I moved my response over here to the FMS P-47 thread.

    If I were building one of these, I'd consider it, too.

    A worm-drive would be the smoothest, like jetfool wrote, and probably easiest to fit in a small space.

    I chose the rack/pinion as I could adjust the rack length to my canopy open/close measurement for simplicity's sake.

    Also, I knew I wanted the mechanism in the battery cover for ease of maintenance, if it all went sideways.

    The other real trick for my build was designing a carriage (for lack of better term) that was robust enough to stay square in squishy/flexible EPO foam.

    The x-axis tolerance was a tight fit in the tapered fuselage, so install fitment was critical to keep it all running smoothly in repeated cycles.

    I ran the cycle function with a servo tester for more than 100 cycles before closing up the fuselage and it still 'snaps' tight in both directions.

    All in all for me it was a mod worth the time and effort for a model as beautiful as the FlightLine Corsair.

    Best, LB

    Leave a comment:


  • davegee
    replied
    Originally posted by jetfool View Post
    Sounds good Dave. A droppable tank would really set the flying apart from others. You could 3d as many tanks as your sorties allow. A thought! I wonder if a jack screw retract servo would give enough motion to open/close the canopy. Might need a fulcrum setup underneath to give the desired movement. Just my .02.
    Been working all day on the Phantom, parts everywhere but feels like I'm making headway.

    Best Regards, Rex
    Thanks, Rex. I might bend your ear for your opinion on things when I get to that point of wanting to make a motorized canopy. That would be cool! One of the drop tanks they used a lot was a 215 gal. "flat tank" wich looked sorta like a rectangle and the aft edges angled in to a smaller tail area. I made one of these for my Fire Ball. We dropped it in testing and later in competition. was really cool Went unstable immediately after release and tumbled down the ground without damage.

    Leave a comment:


  • Grossman56
    replied
    Wow, this should be sent to FMS, maybe they'll create a bubble top!?

    Dan

    Leave a comment:


  • Elbee
    replied
    Originally posted by vrosi1963 View Post
    The back turtle deck is nearly complete , some minor filler and we are done, I even added the back panel line .. the hatch needs minor work, both should be ready to ship back to Dave, in a week, then full attention to the canopy plug finish work.
    Vrosi,

    That is Master Class level work, Sir.

    Just amazing.

    Best, LB

    Leave a comment:


  • jetfool
    replied
    Nice craftsmanship vrosi 1963

    Leave a comment:


  • vrosi1963
    replied
    The back turtle deck is nearly complete , some minor filler and we are done, I even added the back panel line .. the hatch needs minor work, both should be ready to ship back to Dave, in a week, then full attention to the canopy plug finish work.
    Attached Files
    Last edited by vrosi1963; Feb 22, 2026, 09:21 PM. Reason: more info

    Leave a comment:


  • jetfool
    replied
    Sounds good Dave. A droppable tank would really set the flying apart from others. You could 3d as many tanks as your sorties allow. A thought! I wonder if a jack screw retract servo would give enough motion to open/close the canopy. Might need a fulcrum setup underneath to give the desired movement. Just my .02.
    Been working all day on the Phantom, parts everywhere but feels like I'm making headway.

    Best Regards, Rex

    Leave a comment:


  • davegee
    replied
    Originally posted by jetfool View Post
    Davegee,
    Designer Dan is really turning these things out fast. He and Elbee are the go-to 3d GURU's. So, your fine with your 3d parts and don't need me to send any? You and he should start designing the structure behind the cockpit seat turtle deck. believe there is some sort of canopy structure that is exposed.
    Best regards Rex
    Hi Rex: with the breakthrough of Dan's 3D printing prowess, I think I'm all set. Thanks for your explaining the casting part to me. I am still going to experiment with that since I made a tool which is very close to the size you made and the clay for making impressions to fill to make cast parts. I think I even have a bit of turtlewax in the garage somewhere to coat the clay so the part will come out. I'd like to see how it looks versus the 3D printed parts.

    So, yes, I guess I've got everything I need right now, and you don't need to send anything. I certainly appreciate your helping explain this stuff to me, though. It's great that we as modelers can help each other out. Back when I competed in Scale Masters and Top Gun, there were a lot of great guys on the flightline that were happy to help out, as we were for anyone else. I had heard in the more elite divisions, the guys were pretty cutthroat, and I was happy to be with my homies on the warbird flightline.

    I do plan on making the back turtledeck for the Hairless Joe bubbletop underway, and I'd really like to see if I can get a small servo to open and close the canopy like most of the bubbletops had. Another thing I'd like to add is a scale large rectangular belly drop tank that I might jettison during the flight. Those would be cool additions for this plane. This is probably the last Jug that I do, so I want it to look and fly great!

    Cheers

    dave

    Leave a comment:


  • jetfool
    replied
    Davegee,
    Designer Dan is really turning these things out fast. He and Elbee are the go-to 3d GURU's. So, your fine with your 3d parts and don't need me to send any? You and he should start designing the structure behind the cockpit seat turtle deck. believe there is some sort of canopy structure that is exposed.
    Best regards Rex

    Leave a comment:


  • Grossman56
    replied
    Here's the file I just sent to Dave so you can print 6 at a time.

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    [ATTACH]n444567[/ATTACH]

    Dan

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