Official FlightLine 1600mm P-51D Mustang Thread

[nuts-n-volts]

Looks right on the money, Dave. Nice build!

[davegee]

Thanks, Rex. I did the same thing in a CARF P-51D for the Mighty Eighth museum in Savannah. These tanks were key to allowing fighters to stay with their bombers all the way to Berlin and back.

davegee

[davegee]

Thanks, nuts-n-volts. Having done it before for a 1/4 scale CARF P-51D, it was a lot easier this time around.

The drop tanks held up so well the other day in drop tests that I think for now I’ll just stay with what Danger Dan and I cooked up for this airplane. A little heavier than what I prefer, but adequate with the P-51 and the tanks are virtually indestructible so far.

Cheers

davegee

[davegee]

Took my P-51D HHH out for some flying and static photos on the ramp this morning. Although I dropped the printed 110 gallon tanks painted in primer last week, I have them finished now in silver and scale air and fuel lines installed using aluminum tubing. I didn't fly the big tanks today, but did a bomb drop with the printed 500# bombs, and the OEM foam 75 gallon drop tanks.

Those went well although the bomb fins did get damaged and I"ll probably just replace them with a fresh set of printed fins for the next time I want to try them. Here's some photos of the final version of the 110 gallon tanks. Many thanks to my very able partner Danger Dan who is coming along quite well designing projects for printing on my Prusa mini 3D printer.

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Beautiful Model and excellent bombs and tanks. You guys make a good team. Wonder what Dan will produce after retirement and has plenty of time on his hands?
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Davegee,
Beautiful Model and excellent bombs and tanks. You guys make a good team. Wonder what Dan will produce after retirement and has plenty of time on his hands?
Best Regards, Rex

Thanks. We'll put him to work doing something, that's for sure!!

Cheers

Davegee

[Grossman56]

Hey guys, just got finished with the Monday morning runarounds. Had to replace the doorknob on the front door, which is no big deal and of course, the obligatory grocery run.
I'm looking at the 50 cals from the B 25 and thinking I can do a better job than that.
Flip over to the B 25 thread.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Hi Elbee: I just ordered a spool of grey TPU filament from Amazon to experiment with using it as a lighter and more flexible (and survivable from dropping from aircraft) filament as an experiment. Supposed to be at my doorstep next Friday. I'll let you know how it goes!

Are there any special settings I need to change for my Prusa mini to make this print up properly?

Thanks,

Davegee

[Elbee]

Hi Elbee: I just ordered a spool of grey TPU filament from Amazon to experiment with using it as a lighter and more flexible (and survivable from dropping from aircraft) filament as an experiment. Supposed to be at my doorstep next Friday. I'll let you know how it goes!

Are there any special settings I need to change for my Prusa mini to make this print up properly?

Thanks,

Davegee

Dave,

Flexible filaments like TPU should be printed at higher temperatures.

230C is good starting point and you can reduce temps from there.

Depending on the brand you bought, there might be a print guide included with the filament.

I have added a link to a website I have used that explains some do's and don'ts.

Your design should have a wall thickness of at least 2mm with an infill of 20%.

I would use Support Cubic as the infill for your first print and see if it is stiff enough to withstand the drops.

Stringing will be an issue, but is easily removed.

These prints won't be perfect like PLA, but should last much longer in use.

Best, Steve

[davegee]

Dave,

Flexible filaments like TPU should be printed at higher temperatures.

230C is good starting point and you can reduce temps from there.

Depending on the brand you bought, there might be a print guide included with the filament.

I have added a link to a website I have used that explains some do's and don'ts.

Your design should have a wall thickness of at least 2mm with an infill of 20%.

I would use Support Cubic as the infill for your first print and see if it is stiff enough to withstand the drops.

Stringing will be an issue, but is easily removed.

These prints won't be perfect like PLA, but should last much longer in use.

Best, Steve

Great info, Thanks! This was a brand I had not heard of before offered on Amazon, but hopefully it will work. Worth a try. The biggest breakthrough is if it is considerably lighter than the ones I have printed, which are excellent, but lighter is always good when flying these prototypes. I'm expecting the spool to arrive late next week and then I can go to work on a couple of small test projects..

Cheers

Davegee

[Elbee]

Great info, Thanks! This was a brand I had not heard of before offered on Amazon, but hopefully it will work. Worth a try. The biggest breakthrough is if it is considerably lighter than the ones I have printed, which are excellent, but lighter is always good when flying these prototypes. I'm expecting the spool to arrive late next week and then I can go to work on a couple of small test projects..

Cheers

Davegee

Dave,

With the added flexibility and 20% infill the wall thickness can be reduced.

That will decrease the weight more than the material itself.

This is always a compromise.

Do you still have some of the LW-PLA?

You could try test printing the tanks with that also.

Best, Steve

[davegee]

Dave,

With the added flexibility and 20% infill the wall thickness can be reduced.

That will decrease the weight more than the material itself.

This is always a compromise.

Do you still have some of the LW-PLA?

You could try test printing the tanks with that also.

Best, Steve

Thanks, Steve. I do have almost the complete roll of the LW-PLA. I tried a couple small projects with it but it turned out exactly the same weight as an identical test object that was regular PLA. I'm sure it must have been operator error. I thought I had the temp high enough, I think around 230 degrees C to activate the processes of the lightweight filament, but never got that far with it. It's still stored next to my printer.

Davegee