Official FMS 1500mm P-47D Razorback Thread

[davegee]

Yeah, an easy little addition, the boarding handles, being that they took the trouble to put those handhold depressions in all their P-47 kits. You can point those out to inquisitive observers as to “how you get into a P-47? “Actually, I’ve seen videos of people climbing up from the front of the airplane grabbing onto one of the machine gun tubes then putting a foot on the main gear tire, then shimmying up onto the wing.

You’ll have a beauty of a Jug when you get done with it!

Cheers

davegee

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Thanks for the handle idea, I'll add them, simple to do. Will add the retraction struts too.
I remember reading and seeing the photos of your P-47 in the magazine's. I drooled over how clever it was and thought of trying that on my Yellow P-47 but never got the courage. The FMS P-47 for a foamy really allows a lot of detail to be added and has been making the cold 0-degree days go by instead of watching TV and looking out the window. LOL
After spraying the grey on I'll let it set for a few days to cure out and harden before the OD paint. Need to order Callie's decals and a Spitfire mirror from Motion RC and maybe have this done and back together by mid Feb.

If FL ever makes a 1600 bubble-top P-47, that's the P-47M I want to paint.

Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

THAT'S Enough!

Added the tail bumper jack and I think that's all the mods on the fuselage and wings. I still need to detail the cockpit but after an Alcohol rub down (maybe a beer also) I will start painting the grey paint on the undersides.

Davegee, Did you paint your gear struts with steel paint or not? Looking to find a decal for the struts also. Forgot, I want to add the shortening retraction on the gear too.

Every time I sit and think about it I find more things to add. Anyone else have this problem?

Best Regards, Rex

Hi Rex: sounds like things are really coming alonig. I have one more minor suggestion, totally up to you if you want to do it or not, but the FMS P-47 has three small (3) rectangular depressions in the foam, two on the left side of the fuse between the cockpit and the wing, and one on the right side of the fuse, again between the cockpit and the wing.

These were pull out spring-loaded handles to get up to the cockpit from the wing. The usual way of getting up to the cockpit was to get behind the flap, pull on the closest of the two handles that are flush to the fuselage, and both come out around 90 degrees. You use this as a hand hold then once you are up on the wing, grab onto the next one and you are near the cockpit. Although not used nearly as much, there is one pull out handle on the right fuse if you wanted to get up to the plane that way. I would guess maintenance personnel used the right side handle, but the pilots used the left side, maybe alluding to how people mount a horse to ride.

I used a little piece of wood like a toothpick or somehing, cut it so it fit flush to the depression in the foam, glue it in, and you're done. I bet few rc builders do that. On my larger models for competition. I had these handles springloaded so that when you pulled on them, they came out just like the real thing. I didn't bother with a foamie,but it looks more finished or complete that way, IMHO.

I'll attach a couple pics on my I Wanted Wings P-47 for demonstration. Just thought I'd bring that up for consideration before you start priming and painting.

I did not paint my struts steel color, I just left them the silver color that they came installed on the airplane. I found a few decals from books to copy, cut out, and print. Not the best, but they are what was on the plane. I don't know if Callie has any or she could certainly make some if you have a decal from a book or plastic model sheet that she could blow up and you could stick them on your gear strut.

The "shrinker bars" that I think you are alluding to can be made easily with a 1/16 inch diameter rod and glued or fastened to the back of the strut and ensuring that it doesn't interfere with the operation of the main gear. It was a fascinating subject for me, again showing how marvelous the engineers at Republic were in designing the gear to "shrink" 9 inches to fit in the gear wells on retraction, and "grow" by that same amount on extension so they had the proper prop clearance for landing!

Also, I found a couple of pics from the memory locker on my computer. They are of my 1/6 scale P-47M Lorene that I flew in some competitions around 2005 timeframe before I donated it to the Evergreen Museum In McMinnville, OR. The other pics show detail I scratchuilt into one of the wings for demonstration purposes. Everything, bullets, guns, feeder cassettes, etc., were scratchuilt, with openable breaches where they load the guns on the ground. I think each gun had about 25 parts I had to make and then glue together. On hte photo of the plane landing, you can see that the cowl flaps are open. I made up a servo-operated system to be able to open/close the cowl flaps as needed. On this day as I remember, it was a Very hot June day and I kept them open for the landing, too to help keep the Brison-Sachs 4.5 cu. in gas motor from getting too hot.

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

THAT'S Enough!

Added the tail bumper jack and I think that's all the mods on the fuselage and wings. I still need to detail the cockpit but after an Alcohol rub down (maybe a beer also) I will start painting the grey paint on the undersides.

Davegee, Did you paint your gear struts with steel paint or not? Looking to find a decal for the struts also. Forgot, I want to add the shortening retraction on the gear too.

Every time I sit and think about it I find more things to add. Anyone else have this problem?

Best Regards, Rex

[jetfool]

Thanks guys.
I need to finish wet sand the hatch to get it like the fus.. Wings are in the final sanding prep also.
Yes, I will get to a point where I say "THATS ENOUGH", but it is fun seeing this go past just being a factory model, you guys understand. Thanks for starting me on this journey over 2 yrs. ago with my Corsair.

Best Regards, Rex

[Elbee]

jetfool..

Really great work, Rex. Yeppers, it can difficult to find a place to stop. You go until it feels right and then move to the next part. That works for me anyway. Best, LB

[davegee]

Looks great, Rex. I can see just looking down the length of your fuse that you have done a nice job prepping it for paint. Should really turn out great when you paint it.

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

I've slowly been working on some details. I made up the fuel line from fuselage to drop tank and made the antenna insulator that has a black thread to the tail ant. bracket, this thread will get replaced with some old small control line cable when finished. Still have cockpit and many other things to do before I start painting. Davegee, Dangerous Dan, Elbee, I keep looking at the thing's you guys are/have done and I keep adding details......... Madness!

[davegee]

Ah, that looks great! I just wanted to be sure you were on the right track, and indeed you were! Carry on, my man!

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Hopefully these pictures answer your concerns. Please keep it up, keeps me on my toes.
I used alum. flashing cut in 3/16" strip to make the base, 2-56 bolts for the stabilizing of the tank, then 1/8" balsa for depth. Sanded. Not perfect but think it looks ok.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Today I'm working on the sway bars that hold the belly tank on. First, I measured and using a brass tube I cut 4 holes to glue some 1/2" long ny-rod for mounting the braces. I tapped them for 2-56 threads to make it easier to install small screws in. The bolts shown are just to set the ny-rod flush with the fuselage, removed after glue dries and shorter bolts will be used. Hope to have more to show later today. These little details takes as much time to do as assembling the whole aircraft.

Best Regards, Rex

Looks good, Rex. My only question or concern is the bolts look to me to be angled out away from the centerline of the model. You probably know this but they need to be angled IN towards the centerline so that they can be adjusted to touch the bomb or drop tank so that it doesn't "sway" left and right. Am I missing something? I just wanted to be sure.

I just grabbed my I Wanted Wings P-47 to demonstrate what I'm talking about. This is my oldest jug and is somewhat beat up over the years. The sway brackets have been ripped off a few times on belly landings or in the weeds. At any rate, I just wanted to try to point out to be sure we're on the same page to show that the sway brackets angle IN towards the bomb or tank, and the adjustbable nails or whatever (I used nails) then can be moved to touch the droppable slightly keeping it from sideways movement.

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

Grossman,
Glad your resurrecting older models that have taken a lot of battle damage thru the years. Makes the winter go faster.
I have that paperback book also since the late 60s. I re-read it every few years, a good read. I thought about the Midway B-26 but it is the earlier version with different cowling arrangement. The cowls are removable on the Dynam so it could be modified, also the tail gunner position was a little different.

Best Regards, Rex

[Grossman56]

You realize that at Midway, they used B 26's with a torpedo strapped to its underside and attacked the Japanese Fleet. A great account of it is in Martin Caiden's "Ragged Rugged Warriors" which I have a copy that I believe was the first paperback I ever bought way back in the 60's.

[Grossman56]

The B26 reminds me of Big Beautiful Doll, an older model that still had those deep oversized panel lines. Guess we're getting spoiled! I started working over my P 51B to eliminate those aka RC Geek, Still a lot of filling and sanding, but it might work. The biggest challenge to that model is to figure out a way to reattach the wings to the fuse. I may have a plan using the screw thingies (technical talk) that you insert into a wall and screw into. If it works, I may be able to recover that plane. The only thing other than that is the motor mount may need some work and the canopy could use to be replaced. Problem is that the model has been out of production for years now, man I'd love to lay my hands on another one.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[jetfool]

Today I'm working on the sway bars that hold the belly tank on. First, I measured and using a brass tube I cut 4 holes to glue some 1/2" long ny-rod for mounting the braces. I tapped them for 2-56 threads to make it easier to install small screws in. The bolts shown are just to set the ny-rod flush with the fuselage, removed after glue dries and shorter bolts will be used. Hope to have more to show later today. These little details takes as much time to do as assembling the whole aircraft.

Best Regards, Rex

[handyman220]

Almost everyday! Best, LB

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one that does this!!

[Elbee]

Do you guys ever plan to work on your models and then find 1-2 hours later you're just sitting there looking at it. It has been one of those days. Any whoo, this has been staring down on me That's it for todayRex

Almost everyday! Best, LB

[jetfool]

Do you guys ever plan to work on your models and then find 1-2 hours later you're just sitting there looking at it. It has been one of those days. Any whoo, this has been staring down on me



That's it for today
Rex

[davegee]

I totally agree, Rex. The 56th FG was one of the first in combat in Europe for the Americans, and had the highest number of kills in Europe. Near the end of the war in Europe, they turned down the opportunity to convert to P-51s ( the only group to do so) and received Republic’s total supply of the new “hotrod” M models. They came in an array of pretty cool paint schemes: 61st FS- matte black, 62nd FS-ocean gray and dark green, and 63rd FS- a pretty “wild” array of dark and light blue “disruptive sky”. camo pattern. I have done all three patterns on different models.