ticketec

My Feedback: (2)

Hey Jeff464,

I just use straight windex. I spray both sides of the balsa, apply thick CA to the structure, and then place the balsa piece into position and use a little masking tape to hold in place. I find that the CA is mostly dry by the time i finish applying the tape. The windex must act like some kind of accelerator...

The only caution is to not over wet the thinner balsa as i did with the forward top decking because the balsa can bow a little by the time it's dry.

thanks

ticketec

My Feedback: (2)

Hey guy's

I'm still plugging away with the mustang. I am about 90% complete on the nose top decking and have started to work on the fitting of the ABS lower cowl. I cut back all the excess balsa from the firewal and so had a "flush" firewall to start working with. Probably not the best idea as the ABS cowl will require about 1/4 balsa shim on the lower section to get it to sit right. No biggy, just extra work.

I have also installed the extra bit of balsa i required on under the fin sheeting where once again, i was a little over zelous when it came to making things look neat. All fixed now.

I have also started on the cockpit kit because this will need to be finished and installed before i fibreglass the airframe as i wan to fair in the cockpit.

I have started talking to Gary at getstencils.com about making airbrush masks for most of my markings. So all the bar's and stars, serial numbers, squadron codes, nose checkers, and the shangrila text and bird picture will be airburshed. He has been super fast in responing and i'm really excited about what can be achived...

Herr Major Krauer is now over seeing the work of his aerial sparring partner, while he waits for his aircraft's project to gain more momentum.(eg, wait till the Mustang is complete and then we'll see.)

I have just won my pilot on Ebay, the same scale as Major Krauer, from Dragon as well, for $5!!!!! the only killer was shipping to Australia which set me back $23 USD. The closes price i had found so far was $40 all up including shipping so i am pretty pleased with $28 USD. You really can't beat these pilots in terms of quality and accuracy.

thanks

p.s. Haven' been able to upload pic's for a few days now.... i'll try again later.

IL2windhawk

Heya all.

I'm building one of these too, but I'm way behind most of you. Still working
on the wings.

I went for the CJM retracts with 3 3/4" wheels. I'm gonna be brave and try
the single aileron servo with linkages. Also, I was thinking about doing
something very similar to what Jamie describes with a cooling duct to the
rear radiator. I wasn't planning to have a thermocouple-controlled door,
but the idea is quite intriguing. Instead, I was just going to run a linkage
from the throttle control to the radiator door, or use a pair of micro servos.


Additionally, I was considering using some really thin PC fans (6cm diameter,
1cm thickness) with an independent battery pack (4-8 batteries) to push air
down the corridor. What do you think, Jamie? How fast do you expect the
air to travel through there? If it will be quite fast, then these fans might
actually restrict air flow. I was also thinking about using fans to push air out
of the nose through the scale muffler stacks. I will attach an image of the
ideas. (These are simply brainstorming ideas so far, although I do have the
fans and they work great). In the attached image, green is the pressure zone
on the bottom of the aircraft, blue is a potential location for the air duct
(I am now more inclined to pass the duct above the wing), and yellow indicates
where hot air is leaving the aircraft. I was thinking about using the RCV 120 too,
so I'm eager to see more of your work and especially a flight report (JamieDuff).

Lastly, regarding the profile, I have attached an image that shows a closer-to-
scale mustang profile (red) superimposed over the TF plans. I will be making
minor modifications to my kit where necessary.

Regards. Fine work so far.

ticketec

My Feedback: (2)

Hey Guy's

Finnaly able to upload pic's again.. so here they are.

thanks

IL2windhawk

That B-model looks very nice. Very tempting

ticketec

My Feedback: (2)

Hey Il2windhawk,

Thanks. I went with the B to be different. So may D's out there and plenty of them ARF. Not that's theirs anything wrong with ARF so long as it the right shape!

It's still hard to decide which version i really want......

The only word of caution i would suggest to you is the weight of all this ducting etc.. These models are still rather small and so this extra weight might have a penalty at the end. I guess they you wouldn't be adding much more weight than what i am with the scale details, soi guess if you when one way or the other it should be fine.

As for your ducting, are you doing it because you have heat dissapation concerns or because you can? I would not recomend going through the wing because it will caue you to cut through the spar shear webs etc. As for over the wing, there is room there, but you must make less than 1 1/2" thick if you want to clear the air cylinder for the retracts in the standard location and the ducting would need to be removable to access your servos, R/X, batteries, etc..

thanks

ticketec

My Feedback: (2)

Hey Guy's

Here are some pic's of my cockpit so far. I spent ages with the guages making them line up with the holes in the instrument panel. When i glued them on, i glued them on a little crooked!!!! wasn't impressed but it's not bad enough to reprint and start again. I have put a drop of gloss clear in each instrument face and have started painting the details.

I have also made some T-handles and switches for it and installed them even though they are pretty hard to see that they are 3 dimentional in the photo's.

I have to finish with the switches on the sidewall panels, and then i can start to weather them some more. I'm hoping to get the cockpit placards done tonight so i can glue them in and start to fit the cockpit nito the airframe....

I won another pilot figure on ebay. The "Doc Miller" pilot that was used earlier in this thread has been going for about $100 USD on ebay. there was no way i was going to pay that much for a pilot, but i just won one for $30 USD!!!! the only killer was the $27 USD shipping cost to Australia[&o]. You get that...

thanks

p.s. Safts, if you want my dial picture file please PM or email me and i'll send it your way. Well, anyone who want's it for that matter

ticketec

My Feedback: (2)

Here is a pic of the temp install of the instrument panel and one of the sidewalls. I have been using Major Krauer to size the correct location for all the bit's and pieces. My American Pilots have yet to arrive but will be the same size.

thanks

IL2windhawk

Looking great!
How long did the cockpit kit take to arrive anyway?
Maybe I should order mine now.

I checked the website that was listed above, and I only
see a Top-Flite P-51 1/8 scale cockpit. Considering that our
kit is between 1/6 and 1/7 scale, I'm wondering if this is
the wrong size, or just a typo? Which one did you get?

Link listed again for convenience:
http://www.scaleaero.com/bob_dively_kits.htm

Thanks

IL2windhawk

I found these profile images here on RCU a while back. They have been more
than handy for this project. Maybe you all can make good use of them too.

http://www.war-clouds.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1094

ticketec

My Feedback: (2)

Hey IL2Windhawk,

Thanks for the compliments.

The cockpit kit i ordered from scaleaero was 1-100. I would hazard a guess and say that the 1-127 is excatly the same thing. It is a little bit small but not bad enough to say don't bother with it. The instrument panel is about 1/4 inch short all the way around. If you butt the sidewalls right up, it looks pretty close to the real thing as per my pictures etc...

Shipping time........ I wasn't happy when i finally received mine because it took them about 1 1/2 months to ship it. He (Ed of scale aero) has said on another forum were someone else asked about a cockpit kit for the TF Mustang and i replied with my veiw and experiences as i have in this forum, that it's one of their most popular kits and so they run out of them pretty often..... Not going to comment any more about it.

I have done some more shaping of the forward lower section of the fuse and re-assembled her with the retracts installed again for some photo's and to also compare the whole airframe to my scale information. It's not too bad, Well, better than what i thought. I have come acorss some great ways in which to do the gear doors on aother forum and i will post pic's as that work get's completed on mine. I have also decided how to fair in the cockpit into the fuse so that there will be no canopy line visable when she's finished.

I had to cut away more material than i was hoping for on the ABS cowl to clear the rocker cover and exhaust flange of the O.S. 120 FS pumper... Haven't decided what to do for the exhaust now that i mention it but i'm leaning more and more to making my own again, After i just performed repairs to my Zero's scale exhaust.

Enjoy.

Mustang1964

Hello All:
I still have my wings on the board. I can not seem to figure out if the landing gear is to lean forward or straight up. Can anybody give me the answer? The best I can figure is straigh up. Thanks in advance.
Mustang1964

solafein

These were taken at a airshow last month. Hope they help.

ticketec

My Feedback: (2)

Solafein's pictures show clearly that the gear should slant forwards.

I would moke sure that at minimum, the center of the wheel is at least in line with the L/E of the wing when the wing is horizontal. So while the wing is onthe building board, i would make sure that the are slated forward.

The more the better as this will curb the models tendancy to nose over on landings. To a point were it stops looking scale you you can't get the retracts to fit in the wing.

Unless you have cut into the mounting rail area of the rib's, TF set the correct forward slant for the gear rails in the ribs.

Here is a three view where i have drawn a vertical line for you. Hope this helps.

thanks

BradSD

My Feedback: (9)

Hello Guys,
I used to post to this forum all the time, its been 6 months or so however. Bought a new house and that ended the flying and building for this year. The landing gear would work much better if the wheel is at least sticking out past the leading edge. My P-51 had a tendency to tilt on to its nose (even picture perfect landings on concrete would tilt to the nose sometimes) and the more forward the wheels are the better off you will be. Not sure about the scale location it seemed to me that TF desinged the plane to have the gear go straight down almost.
Later,
Brad

IL2windhawk

Thanks for the performance notes, Brad. They are closely noted.

__________________________________________________ __________________________



Here is another idea in development for my build: Engine compartment access panels




The advantages of these panels would be:

(1)
They can be removed for the maiden flight to ensure that the engine does not overheat.
Then, when I feel comfortable enough with the plane to risk a dead-stick landing, I can
re-attached them and test the experimental cooling system described above.

(2)
Provides access to the engine compartment, allows for visualiztion of the fuel tank during
fill-ups, as well as providing a location for the fuel & retract valves, charge mount, and
power switches.

(3)
Heat reduction! I was thinking of making these panels from thin sheet metal. With steel's
excellent thermal conduction properties (especially as a flat plate exposed to an airstream),
they should serve nicely as heat sinks for the engine compartment.




I'm hoping to get them to function with just magnets, so that I can close them while the
prop is running, and not have to mess with a fasteners, etc. If magnets won't hold,
I was thinking that a small dash-pot cylinder might work. In all likelyhood, I will have
to use fasteners or latches.

jeffk464

I'm in the middle of building my own mustang and need some advice from people who have finished the kit. I want to run one of my engines inverted with the stock muffler, and need to know which engine will be the best fit. It seems to me that the stock muffler on my tower .75 will not stick out far enough to clear the fuselage. I also have a super tiger 2300 that will probably clear the fuselage but think it might be hard to balance with this engine. How much lead are most of you having to add with a normal 60-90 sized 2 stroke.

P.S. I'm finishing off my mustang in a reno mustang scheme so the speed potential of the 2300 is tempting.

jeffk464

Oh, this is the finish scheme I'm going for.

IL2windhawk

Jeff,
The fuselage plans show an inverted ST.90 sitting in the nose pretty nicely.
Not sure about the muffler.

tlgibson97

Hey guys. This is my first kit build. I have been readin through the thread for some time now. Ive been building for 2 weeks and here is my progress so far. I think the kit goes together quite well. Except that I have a few beginner mistakes like poking my fingres through the skins. It will probably be a little heavier than an experienced builder might make based on the amount of glue im using. Oh well, I guess Ill see how it goes when I fly it.

ticketec

My Feedback: (2)

Hey Tlgibson97,

TWO WEEKS?????? Do you put nitro in your coffee?

Man that is fast, and she is looking great!

Well done, and welcome on board. Lokking forward to hearing about your maiden in a few weeks

thanks

tlgibson97

I figured it would take me a couple months to complete it. Plus I was going to buy parts like landing gear and engine as I got the money for it. Well the more I worked on it the more excited I got to get it completed. Im not putting in all the scale details. Mainly to cut costs. I wanted the robart robostruts but just cant bring myself to pay $80 for struts so i put an axle on the retracts and going with that. I left my option available to add them later if I want. My wife still doesnt know how much I have spent on the project. I keep telling her that its way more than I expected but Ive got so much invested now that I have to complete it. I think I pretty much have most everything I need except for covering and electronics. Im still deciding on a color scheme and my 5ch radio just doesnt have enough channels for the retracts and flaps. I thought about putting the retracts and flaps on the same channel so that when the gear come down the flap come down about 50%. But im looking around for a good deal on ebay and here for a 7-8 channel system. Im trying to keep from having to steal the guts from my trainer because my son will be learning with it soon. Ill let you guys know how the maiden goes. I plan on having an experinced member of the club fly it first to work out any bugs that may be in it and also to have a second set of eyes check it over in case I missed anything.

tlgibson97

OK. Im trying to decide which servos to put into this bird. I have a JR 8103 with 5 JR 537 servos. Are these strong enough to control this plane or shoudl I go bigger. Also what would be a good servo to run the retract air valve? I planned on using the 537's for the rudder, elevator, throttle, and flaps and picking up a higher torque aileron servo and micro for the retracts. Let me know what you guys think.

ticketec

My Feedback: (2)

Hey Tlgibson97,

I went to the Top flite website and looked up the recommended servos and matched or exceeded the specs for the servo in the brand of my choice.

I am using Hi-tec servos. Hs-85MG for each aileron and flap, so 4 total in the wing. I am then going to use a Hs-81 to actuate my air valve because this is not a big load job. I haven't decided what i'm going to use for the other flight controls other than to say that i will be staying away from Karbonite geared servos.

Check out this thread if you interested to find out why,

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_2880669/tm.htm

I do have some HS-425BB's here and might use them, they are a little better that the "modelers choice" servo that come with the Futaba T/X.

Checking out the JR website, the 537's are a little lower torque and slower in operation than the Futaba's or Hi-tec's..... (40.3oz/in vs 46oz/in for the Hi-tec's @4.8V)

Thanks

jeffk464

I have been flying a top flite 190 on hitec and airtronic standard servos and get good response from them at any speed. Didnt try the flaps at speed, but you dont want to do that anyway.