P40N

At last I have finished the cabin. It was new territory for me, my first civilian fit out. I’m more used to doing warbird cockpits.

The full body 1/3 scale 600mm (2ft) high pilot was quite heavy and I was concerned that he and his chair might break free in one of my not so controlled maneuvers being just epoxied to the floor so I drilled out the seat back for two pieces of 1/4” dowel which go through the floor and into the 3/8” ply U/C plate and now he’s going nowhere.

Fibreglassing and covering next

musterpilot

Fantastic Stan you sure are a craftsman your cockpit sure makes mine look very ordinary

John

TomCrump

Your cockpit looks great !

P40N

Thanks for the kind words guys...


Now that the cabin is finished I was able to plank the roof and fit the spine which will give this Tri Pacer its peculiar hump backed look as per the full size.

musterpilot

Just got the pilot for the pacer
The pilot came from premier pilots

P40N

Gee John, he's a ripper, bet he cost more than a slab.!

musterpilot

Sure did mate but I think it was worth it glad you liked it

P40N

I'm putting together a TF giant P40 for a mate of mine so progress has been a bit slow on the Tri Pacer but now she's all covered. I'm going to fiberglass the nose and after priming and wet and drying I hop it will look like the aluminium sheet of the full size.

musterpilot

G'day Stan
Looks great do what I did with the front to simulate the ally I masked off from the front of the windscreen and sprayed the solatex with spray putty
it fills in the weave and looks just like metal when you are done

John

TomCrump

I was thinking along those lines, too.

I was going to suggest automotive filler primer. Maybe it's the same thing.

I've used the filler primer over Solartex, on several models, to create the illusion of metal panels.

musterpilot

I had another 4 flights yerterday whent well I had to change my prop
I have been flying with a 24x8 but she was a bit fast so I changed to a 24x6 and it is perfect
I managed to pick up 3 J Zinger 24x6 props perfect it has cut the speed down nicely this is my flying field

P40N

Hi John, Dont know if you have enough space mate!! You must be in the middle of iron ore country looking at the colour of the ground.

John and Tom thanks for the tip on filling Solartex. It's the story of my life that i get given a good idea after I've done it the hard way but I will remember for next time....

musterpilot

Sure am stan 40k south west of Kalgoorlie

P40N

The plans suggest scale opening doors but I believed they would have weakened the structure too much so I settled for simulating the doors by packing off thin G10 fibreglass sheet with 0.3mm plywood.

Next was the window glazing. The side windows were a piece of cake to make as they are all flat, the windscreen is another matter.

The plans have a template of the screen but I must say I only thought it would be a starting point so I photocopied the template onto ordinary 80gsm paper and cut it to 6mm oversize.

I fitted the paper template to the aircraft and was pleasantly surprised to see a near perfect fit, a bit of trimming around the wing root and removing the oversize I then had an accurate shape to transfer to the PET sheet.


A bit of accurate scissor work and you beauty, a really good fit.


I didn't believe it was going to be as easy as it was.


Thanks for the template Wendell, it saved an awful lot of stuffing around.
Now I can fit the two forward wing root braces and lay a coat of primer on the glassed front and glass doors, might as well prime the cowl while I’m at it.


After I paint the anti glare panel I will be able to glue all the glazing in place

TomCrump

Nice work !

I've had good luck with Wendel's windshield templates, too.

P40N

A picture of some pretty extensive masking just so I could put a coat of primer on the fibreglass nose, U/C legs, doors and hatch. Now all I have to do is sand it all off and fill any dry patches before I can paint the anti glare panel.

musterpilot

Doing a good job there old fella

John

avionics

My Feedback: (3)

P40 what an amazing built. Thanks for sharing it. I certainly am enjoying and learning alot from it.

P40N

Progress has been a bit slow with two giant scale planes on the go but finally finished the windscreen and added a 1/3rd scale map so Happy can find his way home.

P40N

Finally got around to painting the thing yesterday. I had a litre of Dulux external gloss water based paint colour matched to Daytonna white and another litre matched with the Cadilac red. Read all the instructions and Roy Valliancourt's notes again, even to the point of using a viscosity cup and all to absolutely no avail. I started with the underside of a wing and it went on thick and horribile. It looked like the kids at pre school had painted it so I hosed it all off and today I'm off to my usual paint man to get some auto lacquer colour matched. Should of stuck to what I know in the first place.

avionics

My Feedback: (3)

Looks great hope you get the auto paint right this time please keep us posted.
Great job!

TomCrump

Sorry that you had a problem.

In my opinion, auto paint is more suitable, and looks better.

I hope that your next attempt goes well.

P40N

After my shambles with the water based paint sanity prevailed and a couple of coats of auto Daytona White base coat was applied all over. Now after some pretty extensive masking I can apply the Cadillac Red.

I was lucky enough to have a copy of the Flying Scale Models magazine that featured the old Tri Pacer and I was able to recognise the one I flew as a kid was the 1957 model which is the second down in the pictures above. VH-RST was not pink as in the picture but red.

I was able to scale up all the decals and registration letters from other pictures and so made up a couple of sets of water slide decals ready to put on after the red.

Its been slow but we're getting there

Happy Christmas

Stan

avionics

My Feedback: (3)

Stan this is amazing. I thouroughly enjoyed it very nice colour scheme.
Love to see it when she flys.
Keep us posted.

P40N

At last I've finished painting and decorating now on to engine running in and a maiden flight.




I think she's a bit too glossy at the moment but I think that will tone down with a bit of use, fuel, oil etc
Cheers