Official FMS 1500mm P-47D Razorback Thread

[spanner76]

Thanks, spanner 76. It's fairly easy to do, especially if you've done a number of other R2800 mock-engines before. I've done some pretty detailed 1/5 or 1/6 scale false motors that were forward of a big gas engine that a buddy of mine and I flew in competitions for a few years. I'll attach one photo of the false R2800 motor that was installed in a 1/5 scale F4U-1A Corsair that has been hanging in the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL since 2013.

For these foamie projects, I just wanted to add a little detail in places where it was reasonable to do so. I photographed the plastic cylinders on the model and then photocopied them, cut them out, and glued them in some of the holes to give an appearance of a rear bank of cylinders like what the R2800 had. I still get adequate cooling through the plane with ram air that hasn't been a problem for the electric motor, ESCs, or batteries.

that's friggin awesome! The detailing is spot on! Love it!

[davegee]

that's friggin awesome! The detailing is spot on! Love it!

thanks! the 18 cylinders were resin cast, as was the crankcase in the foreground. This was a standard setup for my Corsair and P-47 gassers that we flew several years ago in competitions. Fortunately, when we decided to pull the plug on flying them any longer, they all retired to nice museums around the country, one of them in Norway.

Cheers

Davegee

[spanner76]

thanks! the 18 cylinders were resin cast, as was the crankcase in the foreground. This was a standard setup for my Corsair and P-47 gassers that we flew several years ago in competitions. Fortunately, when we decided to pull the plug on flying them any longer, they all retired to nice museums around the country, one of them in Norway.

Cheers

Davegee

would you have any photos of these planes?

[davegee]

would you have any photos of these planes?

I have one for now. The others are in my computer files somewhere. The first plane I competed on a national scale was a 1/6 scale P-47D called Hairless Joe, flown by David Schilling of the 56th FG in WWII. In 2004, I took the model to England as part of a 60th anniversary of WWII and D-Day at the same base where the real plane and unit flew from in WWII. This picture has it on the departure end of runway 22 at Boxted Air Base, Essex, the main runway, or what is left of it. Nonetheless, full sized planes did operate there during that weekend on what became an apple orchard after the war. I flew my plane there, too, and then brought it home safely. It later went to a museum in Kalamazoo MI after completing several more contests.
I'll try to post other models and upload them, if I can find them!

[davegee]

would you have any photos of these planes?

Here is another, a P-47M named Fireball made from a Yellow kit. Flew in competition for a couple of years in team scale with my partner Bob Frey, who did the flying. It went to a museum in Titusville, FL where it is still there today. Note the gunbay on the port wing. Those are machined 1/6 scale 50 cal bullets in brass. We flew with it that way, and had to put some weight in the right wingtip to balance it out. The cowl flaps are operable with a servo, which was kinda neat, and actually helped to keep cool the Brison-Sachs 4.2 cc gas engine.

[davegee]

Here is another, a P-47M named Fireball made from a Yellow kit. Flew in competition for a couple of years in team scale with my partner Bob Frey, who did the flying. It went to a museum in Titusville, FL where it is still there today. Note the gunbay on the port wing. Those are machined 1/6 scale 50 cal bullets in brass. We flew with it that way, and had to put some weight in the right wingtip to balance it out. The cowl flaps are operable with a servo, which was kinda neat, and actually helped to keep cool the Brison-Sachs 4.2 cc gas engine.

For the unfamiliar, this somewhat "wild" paint scheme was actually used by the 63rd Fighter Squadron of the 56th Fighter Group on their M model airplanes in the last months of the war. It had purpose; it was called "disruptive sky blue" which worked VERY WELL, we found out when we flew it, seemingly "disappearing" for a moment or two in the sky sometimes, which was unsettling!!

[spanner76]

Oh wow!! Thanks for the photos! They are stunning!!!

[davegee]

Getting started into the messy work in the "ugly duckling" phase of the redo of this FMS 1500mm P-47 model. After carefully removing all the stickers from the plane, leaving unsightly depressions and some damage to the foam itself from the glue and pulling off the stickers as gently as possible, much filling and sanding work needs to be done to rehabilitate those areas before proceeding onto other parts of the model .
There are many techniques people use to smooth out foamie skin to be ready to repaint again. In my case, I like to use an automotive filler with a hardener that when mixed together and applied onto the damaged surfaces, eventually looks much better. I like to use plastic 2x3inch cards, the size of a hotel room key to carefully clean off the extra material almost like using a razor on a tough beard. Eventually it gets there with a lot of sanding, priming, repeat the process, as needed... That's where I am now on this project. How I wish they would carry a version of these models with NO markings whatsoever so that those who want to do their own detailing could do it without going through this brain damage!! Oh, well, I'll attach a few pics just taken as I continue with this phase of the project.

davegee

[jetfool]

Davegee,

Going to look beautiful when you finish it. Keep posting the many steps it takes to bring life to these foam planes as I am learning new ways to do these foam replica's.

Best Regards and Merry Christmas, Rex

[davegee]

Davegee,

Going to look beautiful when you finish it. Keep posting the many steps it takes to bring life to these foam planes as I am learning new ways to do these foam replica's.

Best Regards and Merry Christmas, Rex

Thanks, Jetfool. There are several of us posting on HSquawk where we can at least give our experience and ideas on finishing out these foamie airplanes. I'm waiting for the mail to come today with my supply of yellow zinc chromate bottles so I can finish the wheelwells before completely dismantling the airplane into its component parts to start working on them. Although we are expecting -30 degree low temps for a couple of days, if the snow clears off and the temps warm up a bit, I will take the plane, looking as it is, for a couple of test flights to see how it flies. If not, I'll continue working on the plane in my shop for the next available days that I can get a maiden flight in as I continue on the redo.

Have a Merry Christmas!!

davegee

[davegee]

Made some good progress on the P-47 the past few days, as the outside temps have gotten down to -30 degrees here. We still like the extra trappings of snow covered ground, for Christmas, although I'm thankful that the temps will soon moderate and Christmas Day should be in the 40s (above zero!)

I'll attach a couple pics of the latest on the airplane. I have the fuselage in primer, have done a few things to it like adding scale looking turbo wastegates after sanding down the long plastic exhaust tubes on the kit that weren't present on the real aircraft. One thing that was pretty easy to do was replace the ridiculous tailwheel door actuation that also had the doors swaying to and fro as the tailwheel moved. The fix was a small spring strung across the two tailwheel doors that keep the doors splayed out realistically when the gear is down, and then smartly snap the doors closed as the gear is retracted. For the life of me, I can't figure out why the designers of the model didn't go with a design like this when they first started producing it. There will be more details to add to the fuse before I go to painting the OD and Neutral Grey colors. The cockpit will be totally redone, and possibly add a scale 3D printed pilot.

The wings have gotten off to a good start. Lots of patching of the holes in the wings that they used in the molding process, and minor dents/blemishes that it came with out of the box. Did add a scale looking retracted landing light on the left wing behind the gear, a stub tube for the pitot tube that is removable, and covering holes made to attach the rocket tubes and wing pylons, which this earlier version did not have. Earlier versions like this were strictly for aerial combat with the enemy and bomber protection, which, sadly for the bombers, didn't extend far into enemy territory until they improved fuel drop tanks for increased range.

[davegee]

user delete

[jetfool]

Looking good Davegee. These are the kind of pictures I like seeing, ones that show the time it takes to produce a real miniature replica. I enjoy studing your techniques and trying them on mine. Please keep these construction photo's coming.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Looking good Davegee. These are the kind of pictures I like seeing, ones that show the time it takes to produce a real miniature replica. I enjoy studing your techniques and trying them on mine. Please keep these construction photo's coming.
Best Regards, Rex

Happy to do so, Rex. I'm currently priming the wings and will start painting the final OD and Neutral Grey paints in the next few days. Yesterday, I put in the ram cabin air inlet on the leading edge of the right wing, and also the simulated gun camera port nearby. I'll include photos of them coming up. For most people, this is TOO much detail, but that's sorta built into my being. No changing that now!

Also putting my list of decal requirements from Callie. Probably won't get those until first half of January, but I can still maiden it before that if the snow melts and we get good weather. We are up to -5 degrees F from -30, so that is a good thing!

Merry Christmas

davegee

[davegee]

I hope everyone had a very nice Christmas. We did at our house, just finished a great meal that my wife made for us.

I've been able to get quite a bit of work done on the new P-47. In the past few days, I did a lot of filling, priming, sanding, etc. Got it painted over the past couple of days, but that is only the beginning! I have put together a packet of markings requests from Callie, and she'll get around to it sometime after the new year. No rush on those, if it does warm up enough around here and the runway melts off, I think I'll try to maiden this airplane, as is, prior to getting all the stuff from Callie. If that doesn't work out, I'll maiden it in the next month or two, weather permitting.

I'll attach a few pics I took just now as I get some of the basics done on the fuselage. Eventually, the entire cockpit will get a makeover, and possibly a more accurate 3D pilot. I'll fly the maiden and first few flights with the stock prop from FMS, which is ridiculously small, but it flies well on it for the initial flights. I have maybe half a dozen flights using the larger V3 FMS 1700mm Corsair prop, and it flies and looks great on it, but I'll do the changeover to the big prop this spring.

I included a photo of the tail area. Instead of white bands, these are a darker OD color. The reason for this is that paint schemes were rapidly changing over the course of the war, especially in Europe. The white bands on the nose and tail were recognition stripes to help our bomber gunners differentiate a P-47 from a FW-190, which looked fairly similar when passing at 400 mph!

Eventually, the white bands were removed or painted over with an OD green color, , and for this particular unit, the white noseband was repainted a bright red color. They eventually settled on painting the rudders, too of all the planes in this fighter group. The 61st Fighter Squadron got a red rudder, the 62nd a yellow rudder, and the 63rd, a blue rudder. Probably more info than a lot of you need or want, but if you're into the scale aspects and competitions like I used to do, a painting mistake could cost you dearly in the scores!

[jetfool]

Very, very nice Davegee. Enjoy seeing your progress. Hope to do a good job on my Christmas Corsair by using some of your techniques. Merry Christmas Rex

[davegee]

Very, very nice Davegee. Enjoy seeing your progress. Hope to do a good job on my Christmas Corsair by using some of your techniques. Merry Christmas Rex

Hi Rex: you're going to enjoy your build of the new Corsair. If you like weathering your planes, the Marine Corsairs welcome you to "pile it on " (within reason)! Those birds suffered under the intense tropic conditions of sun, sand, dirt, and salt air. Most of them started looking a little ratty, over time. Just be careful not to commit the sin of "overdoing" it! Some guys make their planes look like they just reentered the Earth's atmosphere form space, or something!

Doing the Robart mod for this plane is Highly Recommended, IMHO. And be sure to add some scale wheel covers that Elbee has delivered very beautiful and accurate STL files where your grandson can make them easily. The stock wheels are a bit small, a bit hard, and can cause some bouncy landings, but the Robarts, being soft, seem to grip the ground and stick the landings almost every time if you have a good approach and landing set up. Although not as critical to have as for the EFlite 2500mm P-51D, they sure help!

[davegee]

Very, very nice Davegee. Enjoy seeing your progress. Hope to do a good job on my Christmas Corsair by using some of your techniques. Merry Christmas Rex

Hi Rex: I'm just starting to get into some weathering as I proceed on other parts of the plane. One quick thing I did this morning was paint the turbo supercharger exhaust hood. This part of the airplane, even though some models show it painted, is usually a nasty mess of burned colors as it gets so hot paint wouldn't last long on it. I started this morning taping it off and spraying it gun metal color for a base. I'll continue with other colors, usually chalks that I can apply with a brush and rub in.

For the two exhaust ports that are on either side of the lower fuse near the cowl, I shortened the plastic exhaust tube to a more scale look, and then made a circular piece of plastic that I glued in the hole to simulate an open wastegate, as it sets on the ground. Eventually as they climb in altitude, these wastegates will completely close porting all the exhaust to the turbo supercharger (which is installed inside the fuselage where the turbo hood is) and this compresses the intake air to give the engine added boost to help it perform better at altitude. A good friend of mine, Russ Kyler who had 10 kills in the P-47 in WWII, told me once: " if the Germans ever engaged us above 25,000 feet, they were dead meat!" I think he was alluding especially to the M model which was sorta the "hotrod" of the P-47 development.

Still more work to do on these areas, but I'll always be mindful of my mantra "less is more." I'll concede that these planes were designed for pure function as killing machines, but many of them didn't take on the "earth reentry look" that I try to avoid! Getting photos of your subject can be HUGE in making it look realistic.

Lately, I've been using (among others) AK Exhaust Stains Weathering Set. It contains five bottles of liquid and some powder that are airbrush ready to use or apply the powders with a brush. For those interested, it is available on Amazon and other outlets.

[jetfool]

Wow Davegee. Its starting to take on a real plane look. I'm interested in how you do the exhaust color overlays to get the real look. I used my airbrush w/ different shades, (Wildcat) but not happy how it looks. I probably need more practice. Also am looking forward to the supercharger weathering detail to see how you blend it all together. Interested in airbrush vs chalk too. Great tutorials keep it up Rex

[davegee]

Wow Davegee. Its starting to take on a real plane look. I'm interested in how you do the exhaust color overlays to get the real look. I used my airbrush w/ different shades, (Wildcat) but not happy how it looks. I probably need more practice. Also am looking forward to the supercharger weathering detail to see how you blend it all together. Interested in airbrush vs chalk too. Great tutorials keep it up Rex

Thanks, Rex. For the exhausts at the wastegates, for instance (or the exhaust stacks on your Corsair), that is something you want to practice on a sheet of paper first with your airbrush. I have used a dual action Iwata Eclipse airbrush for years, and am pretty proficient using it by now. I start with the exhaust color from AK in the airbrush, beginning at the wastegate with a medium back pressure with my finger on the trigger, moving in a sweeping motion towards the rear of the aircraft, slowly releasing pressure on the trigger until at the end of the stroke, I am not spraying any paint out. I do this process several times until it gets to my liking. The whole point is to have a thicker exhaust stain closer to the wastegate, and then trails off as the exhaust is pushed by the airstream and progressively gets thinner on the fuse. I bring it back about half way down the fuse, which seems to be justified from period photos I have used for reference. The exhaust stains should follow the natural path of the airflow as it would in flight.

Some of these aircraft were even lovingly "simonized" with car wax and buffed out to give a slick appearance but more importantly maybe give it a few extra knots of speed that in combat, might be the difference between life and death for its pilot. Not all OD painted planes were waxed, but some crew chiefs did this in concert with their pilot's wishes. I've heard from crew chiefs that they really considered the aircraft "their" airplane, and they "allowed" the pilot to take it up once in a while, They were sometimes although relieved that their pilot came home safely, were chagrined that the plane was shot up which meant he and the rest of the ground crew had a lot of work to do out in the cold weather to make it ready to fly again for its next mission.

Some parts of the plane, like the turbo hood for instance, are almost an art, and I frequently come back to adding some more chalks or even paint if the hood scraped the runway on landing. That doesn't happen often, but if the landing is firm and a bit nose up, it can contact the ground which scratches it and that has to be addressed.

I believe the old adage on scale models, "you're never really done building them!"