BigTeeEldorado

Nice Job Jasmiller, lots of good ideas in those shots. Thanks for posting.

acdii

Spent some time in the shop today. I found mice have been up to no good. My P-51 wing has dog food in it, and a wing from my Something Extra has splinters of wood fro a mouse chewing on it. Dont know how I am getting the crap out from inside the wing.

Anyway I pulled the ARF down and got a picture of the tail weight.



I was right, I just moved the battery to the tail, no other weight was needed.

bleriot12

This is my first post on this forum and I am from Johannesburg in South Africa. Top Flite kits are becoming scarce and expensive in our country so when I purchased a kit recently I decided that I would scratch build one using the kit as a template. I cut foam cores for the wings and stab but the fusalage is as per the kit. I made fiberglass parts in the plastic bits to keep the kit complete and was given a set of decals from another kit a friend was building. One of the aims with this project was to build it light and quickly as I wanted a nice flying warbird that will be electric. I have been busy on this project for the last 2 months and progressed quite well but the covering in film has been a slow process with the checks on the nose. I have not weighed it yet but it is very light and will spend some time doing an artical on it for a British Magazine.

This is the progress so far.

Regards

Chris

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Nice job Chris! You are doing a great job. Since kits are at such a premium in South Africa have you been on aerofred.com? I find a lot of plans on this site I like and download them. Recently I found a design from 1974 magazine I built as a kid. The design used constant core foam cores from Ace but if you can make foam cores for a TF P-51D it would be a walk in the park for you. I can get foam cores on Ebay so I don't have to cut them. You'll find a lot of old designs using foam cores. Here is the one I plan on building.

http://aerofred.com/search.php?searc...&submit=Search

bleriot12

Thanks for the link, I have not used aerofred yet but have used outerzone for plans. I also have quite a few old RCM, Model Builder and other old magazines that have great fuilding articles. I have been in the building models for 45 years of my 51 years of age and have meet many helpful people that taught me about building and flying. This has been a great hobby and I am lucky to have a son that is also very involved in it. The Mustang was also to see what sort of a finish you can get using film as paint gives a good finish but is more work and can be heavy. My club is 5500 feet above sea level and is normaly very hot so a heavy warbird this size can be a real challange. I also used a chinese covering as Monokote or Moneykote as it is known here is not readily available. Foam cores do make for fast building and if you select the wood carefully and use the correct glue they are not that heavy. Once you cut a core and get used to the bow and tempratures needed to cut the foam correctly you can get very nice wing panels. I even cut Spitfire cores from foam.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

It looks like you got cut foam cores down. I have heard cut cores are more uniform and less likely to have the weight variance molded cores have. I am planning on ordering a couple of pair Ace cores soon from vendor on Ebay for my Sunday Fighter project. I also have an old ACE R/C Simple Series Staggerwing kit to build too.Right now I have been working on a VK DR.1 project and a Top Flite 182.

sabreflyer

That looks great bleriot12. I have a 1/7 and the giant scale in their kit boxes that have been awaiting building for over 10 years. In the meantime I have flown different disciplines and 'gone electric' etc and am thinking it would be nice to one day do an electric conversion of both. I would start with the 1/7 of course and so I will be following this thread to get ant tips i can on how you achieved this and which powertrain you used. Did you build the fuselage as standard or did you lighten it?

bleriot12

The fuselage is built as per the kit design but I did pay more attention to the weight if the food that I used. I have been building electric arframes for many years and in the days of brushed motors and nicads weight was very important. I weigh all my bals I have in stock so i can choose what is needed for a certain task I have found that the heavist 1/16 sheet I have weighed was 66 grams and the lightest was 12 grams for the same size. That is almost 6 times the weight and if you add it all up it can be quite a difference. The ply in the kit is also quite heavy so I uesd some lighter ply that I had. The Powertrain will be a 5055 580kv Tunigy motor with a 80amp ESC with a 5000mah 6 cell lipo. will use a 14x 6 prop and this should provide plenty of urge, around 1500 watts I have used this set up in a 74 inch Spitfire and one of the old red box Top Flite Bearcats. The Bearcat is a tricky beast to fly so that is why I have gone for the Mustang. I would have loved the P47 but could not get a kit. I should have the Mustang flying in the next 2 weeks if the new 1/3 scale Kitfox project does not slow it down too much. I do have a full time job as well!

sabreflyer

Thanks, Bleriot12. Useful to know. If you have any pics of your hatch/ battery tray/ motor mount arrangement I would be most grateful for a look.
Best wishes for your test flight and look forward to reading how you get on. You have certainly inspired me to look into making this the next project for next winter's build.
Did you use the suggested Robart retracts?

bleriot12

I will take some pictures over the weekend and post next week. I think that Top Flite kits are great but some of the wood can be very heavy/hard. I bought a half built 1/5 Mustang which will have to have half of the wood replaced in the fuselage sides as it will be too hard to bend and also too heavy. Reading through all the pages here also show how the finished weight can differ so much, the heaviest I saw was over 14 pounds which sould make for some challanges in the air. That is why most ARF's fly so well as they are generally lighter. I have the Robart air retracts with just the wire legs, the retracts seem a little flimsey but time will tell. I fly from a grass strip which can be a little rough at times as we have not had much rain this summer. I hope that the Mustang will be around 10 pounds so it should take off and land at slower speeds. I think that you will enjoy the build, the only issue for me is the canopy that is quite hard to fit, even the picture on the kit shows gaps. The cowl was painted white with 2k paint and the black checks are just covering ironed on, a real pain but look ak once done.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

It seems to me ARFs are so light is because they put the bare minimum of wood in them and the companies don't know what real plywood looks like let alone use any of it. It's easy to see why ARFs have a lot shorter lifespan if they get dinged.

acdii

That and Mice like the wood in them.

sabreflyer

Thanks bleriot12,
the pics will be very useful. Lovely finish you have there.

DanIsGo

So after I found out my beefed up version of the single servo setup won't work I decided to go with dual aileron servos. I have started to put in the openings in the wings, and a standard servo is going to be a tight fit with making sure the wires don't rub and everything. I was thinking about going with mini servos for the ailerons specifically hitec mighty mini digital with metal gears. Would I be okay with those or would I be safer squeezing in standard size servo's?

acdii

Standard Futaba 3010's fit just fine. It's what the ARF uses, and its the same wing.

bleriot12

I have mounted my motore on a wood mount that I made up, I try to have all the parts made in such a way that you can remove them if needed should I ever want to change the motor or even if I wanted to go to a glow motor. The ESC is mounted on a plate so that I could move it further back otherwise I would have to extend the battery leads on the ESC and that is not recommended. The Battery plate is mounted to the top ply peice in the fuselage and the holes in the formers are as per the kit and this will allow a 6 cell 5000mah lipo to fit. The cg position can be adjusted by moving the battery forward or back. I will have to remove the wing to change batteries, so I have the retract valve and the switch iin the fuselage so this can all be done whilst the wing is off. Not the best option buy I do not like large hatches on this type of airframe. You could use the cowl as a hatch but a smaller motore mount would be needed or even a firewall mounted further forward in the nore for the motor to mount onto it directly. I hope to test fly this weekend and will report back next week.

bleriot12

I am pleased to report that this is a great flying aircraft and one that I am very pleased that I built it. Great size and flies like a larger aircraft. Mine weighs 8.5 pounds without the lipo and just over 10 at take off. High speed and low speed handling is great and the flaps really slow it down and I have no elevator mixing. Had a total of 5 flights in 2 outings, 2 of the flights were by my 22 year old son who loved the way it flies. If I can give any advice is keep it light and simple but the retracts and flaps are a must. The plastic covering worked far better than I expected as I am normally a glass and spray finish man.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Beleriot12 and his Mustang rule the skies! Congratulations great job!

BigTeeEldorado

Thank You Bleriot12 for the flight review and pictures. I needed that. I haven't had much time to devote to mine and your success and pictures is a definite pick-me-up. Bravo!!!

I have gotten some work done and I was wondering how my co-builder Memphisflier was coming along as well?

After much procrastination and confidence building I finally attacked the wing skin last week. NOT an easy way to do it (one big piece) but it is done and whether by skill or luck, I don't claim either one, it looks good. The retracts were a considerable effort to get them adjusted to the right depth and angle. I would not be surprised at all if retracts were the sole reason for the giant scale version so there would be just that little bit more room to manipulate the fit. My gear door configuration is still in the process but it looks like it is going to work. I also like the additional strength the laminate gives around the area with all those cut outs in the skin. It would have been a good opportunity for damage since there isn't a lot of support around the edge of the wheel well openings and the laminate really strengthened the skin without much added weight at all.

Pictures of the retracts, wheel wells and doors.

Onward to attaching tail feathers and deciding whether to put a servo in the back or not. Hopefully I progress at a slightly more consistent pace around that four letter word w * * k!

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Tony what laminated material did you use around the gear wells?

BigTeeEldorado

Revell brand 1/64 Birch Plywood part # 88-7625, from the local Michaels Craft Store. Very strong and thin enough to conform to the compound curves.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Will you be putting any balsa over that to bring it up to the same thickness as the rest of the skin?>

BigTeeEldorado

The ply laminate is actually over the kit balsa skin and I plan on feathering the edges with scrap balsa, filler and probably a sandable primer where needed just prior to covering. It is only 1\64 inch thick and should be easy to feather out. I did not trust gluing the birch to the ribs as much as gluing it over the top of the skin. It worked out well.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Sounds good to me.

bleriot12

Hi Tony

Your build is looking good, I like the ply idea around the retracts. What finish are you going to use as ply can be a pain to cover with film. I find gear doors a real pain and tend to cause more problems than what I would like. I had a Brian Taylor P47 that had all the doors but any bump on takeoff would cause them to jam the retract. I do not fly competition so I try to keep things simple.