Official FMS 1400mm P-51D V8 Thread

[BluesDragon]

Definitely looks to be battle ready once again.. mighty fine work there, Grossman56! :Cool:

[Grossman56]

Here she is out of traction and into the sunlight, well, just before the storm moves in:Whew:. The hatch arrived today and is a tight fit but does fit.
The starboard side of the hatch rides a little high, did on the original one as well. The only one I could find was the Dallas Darling hatch, which is fine, a little paintwork and she'll look great. I think I'll keep the canopy bars silver though, call it a silver lining.
She looks good but there is still some work to do, such as the motor mount is loose, so I'll have to pull the motor off and get into that. Still haven't tried any of the electronics as there didn't seem to be much of a point if the fuse and wings were not salvageable.
Fortunately the paint covered the red gear doors with no problem...



I can't believe she's back in one piece, I'll have to do a resurrection picture of all the birds I have that have been pulled back to life. Tomorrow sounds like a great time for that!!:Cool:
My buddy Ron, who was there when she augured in, will not believe its the same bird

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Thanks Hardway, she should be born again tomorrow!

[Hardway]

Awesome.... Happy Easter Gman!!! :Cool::Cool::Cool::Cool::Cool:

[Grossman56]

Thanks guys, she was on her wheels last night and was run through he paint shop today and the motor has been reinstalled. At present, she's in traction to get the red nose glued back into place. I had to go with the Red Tail landing gear doors, so they've been repainted from red to gray as well...



Once everything is dry, I can flip her back over on her gear. The new battery hatch is supposed to arrive today, that will complete it. I managed to save the decals and have one left, the forward tally count, to glue on. Fortunately, I bought spare props and spinners a couple of years ago so I wouldn't get stuck at Nefi without replacements.

Grossman56

[boomer108]

Nice work Gman! :Cool:

[Mad Baron]

Seeing these pics reminds me of the rebuild on my Tcat. Your P51 is looking good waiting to see the renewed P51 in one piece again.

[Grossman56]

Flaps are on!
Came up with a way to center them onto the wing, it's undoubtedly not a new method, but its a great method...



popsicle sticks under and over the wing and I also made good use of the stir sticks you get with every can of paint, worked great!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Should have thrown in this poster, says it all!


BTW, I renamed the basement/hangar
Top Fun:)

Grossman56

[hilldebrandt]

Wow... Awesome job so far Grossman! :Cool:

[Grossman56]

Update on Shangrila, fuselage and wing repair started and filling on the nose started. The Fuselage is now one piece again and the wing crack is, at present drying while in traction.
There is a convenient slot on either side of the fuse that I took full advantage of by running a square piece of balsa through, helping to connect both sides, this combined with liberal amounts of Foam-Tac produced an almost perfect remate.

Also, what is handy, for all you Denny's burger fans, is to keep the skewer sticks, they can be run into one piece and through to the other, which really helps to hold the piece together, afterwards, you have the option of either removing them or sawing the end off flush and leaving them in.

So, we went from this

To this

The wings had a major crack on the port side, if you recall, so I utilized Velcro straps that I picked up from Wallyworld. These are so much better than trying to use elastic bands as they come in a roll and you simply break them off at whatever length you need. Being Velcro, you can tighten them up to whatever tension you want, no more trying to find the proper elastic band size.
So, we went from this...


To this...


So now I'm at the stage where I can sit back and let her dry for a day and start some more body work. Right now the nose is ready for a light coat of paint to see where it may need some more sanding, but it feels pretty good. The only thing that hasn't arrived yet is the new battery hatch which is the only piece I've replaced, not counting the 10 channel Lemon receiver that I'm swapping out so I can have the gyro gain on the roller knob. As for the gyro, its getting glued in this time, but I plan to fly without it if the winds are down. So far so good

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

I was thinking of that, but stumbled on a complete B hatch for $22. Had to lower myself to buy it from HH, but what can you do...

Grossman56

[OV10]

I think you could change her personality with a Malcolm canopy. Start with a Spitfire canopy mated to a p-51 windscreen. :Thinking:

:Cool:................;)

[Boots Whirlygig]

I think you could change her personality with a Malcolm canopy. Start with a Spitfire canopy mated to a p-51 windscreen. :Thinking:

[Drake]

With your talent and skill she will be as good as new.

[Hardway]

Amen to that Dan!!! I love the P-51B!!!! Go for it!!!!!! :Cool::Cool::Cool::Cool:

[Grossman56]

You know what the hardest thing to find will be??
The canopy..
So if anyone has one laying around, let me know if you want to sell it.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

AAAHHRIGHT!!!!

Nothing says challenging like rebuilding a crashed bird, I've done it before...…


And I can do it again!!

Assessing the damage, I found that there isn't a whole lot of damage, other than the split fuse...



and believe it or not, it was a clean break. The nose came through with some compression wrinkles and some splits along the factory glue line, no big deal...…



The wings sustained some damage on the starboard side but the port wing came through in good shape....



So, all in all, she could very well see the air again :Cool::Cool::Cool:
I may have to order some graphics from Callie to match up the nose art that will have to be removed, but short of a few new parts and a lot of Foam-Tac, some body putty and some sanding and painting, she should be good. I'll run all the servos through the tester to ensure there's nothing wrong there and I'll replace the retracts if needed. Note: the Small Parts CNC retract sides lived up to their reputation!!
The motor came through fine, a little adjusting on the motor mount and she should be good..:):):)

Stand by for the resurrection.....right at Easter time, go figure!!!!

Grossman56

[farmflyer]

Sorry to hear this Gman my son lost his 1400 mm Gunfighter a little over a week ago. We probably won’t see these made again so I guess it’s just time to move on to something different.

[Grossman56]

hi HH, the FMS P51 is an older design than the P47. Most of us have upgraded the motor in the 51's to at least the 580kv if not the 650kv which is the stock setup in the FMS P40B. You can also go to 6s power and use the P47's stock system. I have the 6s system in my P40 and its great, very scale, some of the guys have the 6s in their Stangs, CB went with a bigger prop and a 4s system on his P-47, it rocks as well.

Grossman56