Official FMS 1500mm P-47D Razorback Thread

[Grossman56]

Meanwhile, Bob Schilling is coming along. The face looks pretty good and the helmet color is roughed in, a couple of coats on the leather jacket as well.
Popped the head on and got some pics, time for the reveal, so far....



Looks pretty serious doesn't he?? Pics never seem to do them justice but hey, that's a good thing, the always look better in person!
Besides, looks like he needs a beer !

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Davegee,
Wings are going to be outstanding. The little details make it more real even though most of my flying buddies don't do it to theirs. To each there own.
I like the new P-51 with all the scale details plus the new pilot looks good too. Having the option of a tank drop would be a must if I had one. I would fly it stock for a while because I'm ready for a break from trying to get 2 planes re done. It's been fun but harrowing sometimes and I still have things to finish on the F-4. The price is pretty high but as other things it's comparable with other costs we pay. I will wait for my hobby money to build back up before I purchase anything new. I like the e-flite GEE BEE and think it would be a fun plane to have. Hopefully Motion has more to release this spring.
Best Regards, Rex

I think this P-51D is definitely on my longterm list to buy. I would prefer with this one not to have to do much to it, but just enjoy flying it as is, for the short term, at least. I like that they have four different decal schemes for different aircraft in the 357th FG. I think I like Nooky Booky III decals for a plane flown by "Kit" Carson. But they are all good. We'll see.

I am really looking forward to getting the fuse back which should be within the next two weeks, maybe less. I have to transfer all the "guts" out of the fuselage from the kit that I bought to this modified fuselage. I look forward to the day when I actually get power on the airplane. Still ahve all the detail of the wheel wells and gear to do since they have not been extended yet. That will come, in time.

Cheers

davegee

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Wings are going to be outstanding. The little details make it more real even though most of my flying buddies don't do it to theirs. To each there own.
I like the new P-51 with all the scale details plus the new pilot looks good too. Having the option of a tank drop would be a must if I had one. I would fly it stock for a while because I'm ready for a break from trying to get 2 planes re done. It's been fun but harrowing sometimes and I still have things to finish on the F-4. The price is pretty high but as other things it's comparable with other costs we pay. I will wait for my hobby money to build back up before I purchase anything new. I like the e-flite GEE BEE and think it would be a fun plane to have. Hopefully Motion has more to release this spring.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

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.

Started on the RAF Dark Green camo patterns on the wings and horizontal tails. Seemed to work best with a photo in one hand and an airbrush in the other to apply the first layers of the camo pattern. So far, so good.

Dan made it easy from your good measurements you sent for the aileron counterweight covers. All four of my P-47s have them installed, now.

On another subject, what is your take on the brand new release of the 1.6m P-51D from Flightline? I really like some of the details like the landing light, bomb/drop tank drop, simulated machine gun firing, etc. The cockpit looks to be acceptable for now. If I get one, I might keep it as is for a while, at least. Always the option of putting in a full cockpit. This cockpit even as is, is MUCH better than the goofy interior of the EFlite 1.5m P-51D!!

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Your three-aileron hinge covers really look good. Congrats to you and Dan.
Rex

[davegee]

Looking good.

Thanks. Step by step...

[jetfool]

Looking good.

[davegee]

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.

[davegee]

How about this Dave?

https://rcdrone.top/products/jx-servo-23kg-digital-airdrop?currency=USD&variant=45766788972768&utm_so urce=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google%20S hopping&stkn=677f40c1dee9&gad_source=2&gad_campaig nid=22916176319&gclid=Cj0KCQiAtfXMBhDzARIsAJ0jp3AD 9SIQRmQv1Z2aTvDM57J77EZDLbe7I1aFU1J8CQHYPWvHLkQw7n 8aAq2PEALw_wcB

Dan

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

[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

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

[Grossman56]

How about this Dave?

https://rcdrone.top/products/jx-servo-23kg-digital-airdrop?currency=USD&variant=45766788972768&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&stkn=677f40c1dee9&gad_source=2&gad_campaignid=22916176319&gclid=Cj0KCQiAtfXMBhDzARIsAJ0jp3AD9SIQRmQv1Z2aTvDM57J77EZDLbe7I1aFU1J8CQHYPWvHLkQw7n8aAq2PEALw_wcB

Dan

[Elbee]

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

[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

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

[Elbee]

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

[davegee]

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

[Elbee]

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

[davegee]

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.

[Grossman56]

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

Dan

[Elbee]

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

[jetfool]

Nice craftsmanship vrosi 1963