sir crashallot

the detailing look superb, the model itself look ssuperb, just hope she flys as good as she looks for you. its a shame pica dont exist anymore as looking at there models they looked great. pica is a kit that i have never built from but have the plans for the pica jungmeister sat on my computer waiting, till my workshop is finished being built il have to wait but sure would be nice to drop on a few pica plans to build from scratch just to keep a few of the brand around,

tenacious101010

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Thank you sir, I appreciate your comments. I hope it not only flies well, but flies many times and lives to be a very old man. I am getting excited as more paint goes on. I bought some high tack frisket and I like it a lot better. I think I would prefer the frisket to be somewhere between the low tack and the extra tack, the high tack was a bit too agressive for my taste. I first cut out a 6 inch circle from the friskit and attached it to the fuselage and wing. I sprayed white in the areas that the star would occupy. After about 3 hours, I made stars from the centers of the circles I had cut. I put them in place and sprayed the blue, it took quite a few coats to cover the white and Olive drab evenly. I was painting the fuselage in my shop and the wing under the carport. Of course it started raining, I had the airbrush in one hand spraying paint and the heat gun in the other hand drying after each light coat. I peeled the masking off and am very happy with the results. I will let it dry a bit and then work on the red dots in the center of the roundels. I want to finish them before I start on the shark mouth as far as filling in color. It looks like it will be a lot of work to cut out patterns for all the teeth. It would have been about the same price to buy the 1/5 scale stencils for this particular subject, but I wanted to have some fun with the airbrush and I didnt want the stick on decal look. I think the paint looks a lot more scale. I will do the sharkmouth next, then the yellow tail numbers.
I found a picture of the numbers that was taken squarely and a pretty good picture of the sharkmouth. I took them and enlarged them to match the size of my plane and will use them as guides to make stencils.

Denny

sir crashallot

well that looks better than some of the decals that get provided in kits, iv only come accross this thread today and have really enjoyed reading it, least i now have somewhere to go back to to read when i come around to doing a p40, my aim is to have a few english warbirds and a few american warbirds and maybee a few german. shame i cant get all the pica plans of the warbirds they made, question now how did you recreate the rivets as they look superb,

Brent AKA sir crashallot

tenacious101010

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sir, too bad you arent closer, I have a 1/5 scale PICA Spitfire I am going to try to sell so I can move onto other projects. My next project is the rebuild of a crashed PICA 1/5 P-51.
I have learned a lot about airbrushing in the last few days. I will start with a dry paint mixture and work towards thinning it only as much as I need to. I thinned this a bit much at first, now I think thinning it about 10 % would be appropriate. I hope to try the yellow letters for the tail tomorrow. I want to get the roundels and the sharkmouth finished first. I think using latex paint for the details is a great way to finish the plane. Even with my imperfections, I like it beter than I would the look of decals or vynl stick ons. Back to work, will post pictures when I have something to show.
Denny

tenacious101010

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In was able to get a lot more of the painting done. Other than some touch-up I have the roundels done. The shark mouth needs a few touches and I need to put the yellow numbers on the right side of the vertical stab. I should have all the painting done by the end of this weekend and I can start on the cockpit, no way I will have the cockpit complete for the airfest, but I would loke to get as much as I can installed and I just have to have the pilot in the cockpit even if he is just propped up in there. Time to get some sleep, I will try not to dream about it tonight. I need the rest.
Denny

sir crashallot

now that looks great, i cant imagine the fear of looking back out of a cockpit and seing a plane bearing teeth like that at me, it is too bad as i really want to get my hands on a nice size spit, and at 1/5th it would be a nice size. the teeth look superb and the same goes for the sights too.

tenacious101010

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Thanks sir, I am with you, how intimidating it would be to look back and see that big mouth and teeth bearing down on you, I am sure the image did have an unsettling effect on the Japanese pilots.
I have to admit, I am really getting excited as the paint and details are finally coming together. I have gotten much better at mixing the latex paint properly and am able to do a better job paintine with less touch up for where the paint goes under the tape and friskit. I did some touch up to the shark mouth and got the eyes painted on today. I also have the numbers on other side of the vertical stab complete. As far as painting,I still have to paint OD inside the cowl, a bit of touch up on the roundels and put the name and kill markings on the side of the fuselage. Funny, hadnt even thought about those details before, just too many other things to figure out. I suppose I will spray the kill markings on and as far as the name, not sure how I will do that yet, I am open for sugggestions. No stick on decals yet, sure hate to start using them now.
I still have to paint the spinner after I drill, tap and countersink the screws to hold the spinner together. I will have to look at getting the exhaust stacks on soon also. I have some model masters paint made for exhaust, not sure if I should use it or not. I would hate for fuel to soften and smear them. This weekend is going to be fun, putting on the formation and navigation lights, the antennae wire, pitot tube, landing light, gun barrtels, brake lines, Main gear data plates and a few other details. I will have to jsut wait and do the cockpit after the airshow.
I cant wait to get the details on and see it put together. I find myself standing and staring at it, I am beginning to feel like it was maybe worth all the work to see it done. My wife may have a different opinion.
Tomorrow morning my son Sean and I are going to go out and fly the Chipmunk to make sure its ready for the Airfest, it might be our last chance to fly before the event.
Denny

tenacious101010

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A very productive weekend. I was able to get some work done on the wing on Friday and Saturday. I have the gun fairings on and still need to fit the gun barrels and secure them in place. I also finally figured out how to make some hubcaps and brake back plates. I used some flitskin, cut the circles using a protracter that is made to hold a cutting blade. I also added some brake lines and fittings that look convincing enough at about a half mile.
I am very happy with the navigation lights I got from Rob Pike at Final Touch ( http://www.rcfinaltouch.com/ ), he does some great work. Check out his site, he has many first rate scale items. I used canopy glue to secure the lights.
I moved back to the fuselage, and put the formation lights on there too. The antenna wire is made from black elastic cord, I used some small electrical crimp connectors for the connections, added a couple small springs and then a brass screw with a white bead for the insulator where the wire enters the fuselage. I found a piece of honeycomb material in the trash and it made a great lower radiator. I also started on the cockpit by fitting the armor plate behind the pilot and the cockpit sides also. This cockpit kit was designed for the Ziroli P-40, it seems a bit big for this kit.
The last thing I accomplished was to get the exhaust painted and installed on the right side. I used canopy glue here also, I was worried with the weight of the exhaust and the vibrations, they might be lost in flight. I hope to get up early enough in the morning before work to get the left side exhaust glued on. I spent the last part of the evening today working on a video camera mount for my Dynaflite Chipmunk. We are hoping to get some in flight video when we fly it at the MacDill Airfest. We will fly it in the evening this week to verify it before the weekend.
Denny

tenacious101010

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I finally mated the wing to the fuselage and took some pictures, after I get the guns fit and glued in place, I will be done till after the airfest. My son took a few pictures of the near finished project, already thinking about the Pica P-51 that I plan on doing next. I still have plenty of paint, sandpaper, primer, spot putty and other items to do it. The biggestt hing I will need is the time. It may take 6 months to catch up on all the honey-dos I have neglected in the last year.
Denny

tenacious101010

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more pics

tenacious101010

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last pics

ggregory

LOOKS AWESOME !!! Hope it flies as good as it looks......mine will have nowhere near the detail as yours....so I will take my pics from much further away... : ) good luck with the maiden flight...

Garth

tenacious101010

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Thanks Garth, I hope it has many good flights. I am lucky my camera has a feature that hides all the flaws.
Well, I am finally recovering from 3 days at MacDill Airfest 2009. We had a great spot in the hanger and we presented the hobby to many people who had no idea about it and masny who were very thrilled to learn more about it. We gave out offers for a free introductory flight at our field. The public was thrilled at our offer to let them fly, I expect a huge turnout for introductory flightd at the field this weekend. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. We not only had a display in the hanger but were invited to be part of the flying demonstration. We brought the Chipmunk and the P-6E hawk to fly, but on Saturday it was way too windy. The passes we had were "Airshow Performer" passes that allowed us out on the area of the ramp normally reserved for the Thunderbirds and the other warbirds flying during the event. We took the opportunity to get some pictures that we would not normally have gotten. I couldnt resist getting some pictures with my truck and the aircraft. The Thunderbird people allowed me to get pictures of my truck with their aircraft as long as I let them get in my truck and have their pictures taken, fair enough.
They requested a burnout but I decided that might not be a good idea. It did make me think of when I was stationed at macDill in the late 70s. I was Crewchief of a weapons crew working at the arm end of the runway, arming up the guns and weapons on the F-4 Phantoms. The last F-4 sortie of the day arrived. I was on the headset with him and he looked over at my 428 powered 69 Mach 1. He asked if I wanted to run it, I asked what he had to run, he said"this" pointing at the F-4. I was a bit taken but couldnt say no. We armed him up, buttoned up the panels and had him ready to go. I packed our tools, we all jumped in the car and lined up with him on the taxiway next to the runway. When I saw the burners light, I took off. I had him good for a bit but of course about 1/8 mile down the runway he passed me. What I would give for a video of that! oh well, those were the days!
The last time I was that close to the Thunderbirds was at Selfridge ANGB, when a young kid killed himself by driving his car at a high speed and intentionally crashing his car into one of the Thunderbird F-16s. They were parked in front of the alert barn where I worked on aircraft for the Selfridge museum.
Sunday started out with wind rain, and thunder. The hanger was full of all the people manning the airshow from security personell to performers and vendors. No one was allowed on the flightline because of the lightning hazard. Finally around 9:30 AM it was announced that we needed to be ready, they would let the public in at 10:00. It rained off and on till around noon, we never got to fly that day either, but made the most of the day. We did have fun driving around and touring the place in my truck and my son Sean found a few girls to tell war stories to. He seemed to have a good time also. Here is a few pictures from the event.
Denny

rosek007

Denny, It's crazy how good this plane looks in person!!![X(], Thanks again for all the tips and i hope you don't mind if i bug you for some more tips as my p51....
Kevin

tenacious101010

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Thanks Kevin, If I can get the rest of this plane done I may be doing the same to my PICA mustang as you will doing to your top flite. I would like to do the cowl the way we talked about, I think it would look much better. I will be glad to share anything I have learned.
Denny

tenacious101010

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I was able to get back to work on the P-40 today, time to make it come alive! I pulled the engine to do a few things. I made a bracket to help hold the wrap around exhaust to prevent breakage from vibration. I couldnt figure out how the bracket supplied with the engine was supposed to be installed. I prepped the engine bay with routing tubes for my carburator adjustment cables. I could not adjust the carb with the engine installed so I brazed auto speedometer cable to the ends of the adjusting screws and ran them over the engine in push rod tubes. Now I can adjust the carb with the engine installed.
The kill switch and the fuel lines are done now too. The tank is installed and the servo connected, the engine just needs gas and its ready to start for the first time. I glued in the elevator and rudder hinges, getting excited at seeing things move finally. I should be able to start on the ailerons and flaps in the next couple days.

Denny

ggregory

Hi Denny....cetainly looks full upfront there....my Moki 2.1 is lost upfront in mine....which leads to this quick question.....no where in the plans does it show any kind of downthrust or right thrust.....did you go with the standard 1 degree down and 2.5 degrees right thrust ? and how did you compensate for the gap between the spinner and front plywood piece as it is large....now, mounted straight in, all looks perfect but I would have little down and right thrust.....I thought I read somewhere that the larger models require less.....it does not appear that the kit compensates for any of this.....any advice would be appreciated.....

Thanx.....Garth

maineflyer

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Great looking build Denny!!!
Jeff

sir crashallot

yes it certainly is impressive, wish my building and detailing was as good, but i guess it comes with money and experiance

tenacious101010

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Hello Garth,
I built this one just as the plans called for. As far as I know there is no downthrust or side thrust, everything is parallel and perpincicular. I built this plane with the G-62 in mind and when I added ply to the forward bulkhead for the engine mounting, I took into account the engine size and the resulting spinner clearance and alignment. Based on my limited experience, the larger the plane is, the les angular compensation is required. The planes that seem to me to have the most angular compensation are trainers and it sems that the more advanced the plane is in performance, the less important this is. I could be incorrect, I am sure there are many people on RCU who know a lot more about this than I do. Sorry I couldnt be of more help. And, yes, the engine sure fills the front of this plane, I am concerned that I may have some cooling issues. I will fly it with the cowl off first, then a few short flights with the cowl on to check engine temperature.
Thanks Jeff,
How are you doing? You got me thinking P-51, I got mine down and took it out to the shop then realized I didnt have room for it in there. I had to tell myself to finish this one before starting another project. I plan on a G-62 in the PICA Mustang also. I wish I was a lot closer to you, I would love to have that fuselage of yours. The more I think of it, I should get my TBM Avenger flying next, then the Mustang.
Thanks sir,
After spending a lot of time on this project, I have come to the conclusion that I dont have the patience required to do such a scale project. This is actually the first one I have done but one thing I have realized is, learn from others here on RCU and use your imagination, the challenge is a lot of fun. I may never do another one like this, but I am glad I did it at least once.

I have the ailerons and flaps working now, next is to get the bomb drop working and it will be time to get the CG set. I think thats the last thing I know it needs before engine run and first flight. I have to admit, I am getting very nervous. My wife says dont fly it, hang it up and admire it. I cant do that or I would just have built a plastic model. I will get this thing weighed soon, I am afraid it will be between 30 and 33 pounds.
Denny

rosek007

Denny i had to resett my phone and lost you number but i did my first trail glassing on the elevator of my big stick, not bad, isn't as bad/hard as i thought...bad thing is now i have my mind set on doing a large t28.....if anyone knows where i can get one...kit or arf i'll jump right on it...
give me a ring.
Kevin

glazier808

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certainly a beautiful build! Inspires me as I'm involved with a Top Flight P-40 build at the moment.

beautiful plane, good luck with your maiden my friend.

tenacious101010

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Hi there Kevin,
Glad to hear your first glassing went well. I cant locate your number, mine is 930-4062. PICA makes a 1/5 scale T-28, not sure if any one else does. I see them on ebay and RCU now and then. I bet if you googled"pica 1/5 T-28 for sale" you would find a kit or complete plane for sale. I am sure they are great flyers.
I just bought a giant scale top flite P-47 bubble canopy. It is framed and sheeted already, I just need to make the wing fairings and the intercooler doors on the rear of the fuselage, then time to decide, glass or shrinkwrap. I hope to have this TBM Avenger done in a week, so I will be able to start on the P-47.

Thanks Glazier, glad to hear another P-40 will be coming together soon. Post some pictures as you go, I am interested in the Top Flite P-40, what scale is it?

Speaking of P-40s, I weighed mine ready to fly minus the cockpit kit and pilot, it came out to 29.5 pounds. I was hoping to keep it to 33 pounds or less.
I didnt have to add a bit of weight to balance it, I was so happy. I knew it would need weight up front, that was one of the motivating factors in modifying the cowl and the resulting increased weight. I have to check out my retract system and run the engine, if all goes well, I hope to take it to Bay City Flyers for its maiden flight this coming Sunday. Kirby Cole and his dad will be there practicing for Top Gun, my son Sean will do the maiden and he wanted Kirby to be there for support the first time he flies the P-40. We will do the first flight without the spinner, cowl, main gear doors and the tail wheel fairing. Just in case of any gear problems. I added some weight after removing the spinner and cowl, had to add 14 OZ to make up for my heravy cowl and spinner!
I came home from the swap meet last weekend with a Cermark F-16, I have wanted one of these since I saw them introduced, I have plenty to keep me busy for quite a while. I will post pictures and some video of the P-40 Maiden.
I went to Sun and Fun last weekend, a good friend gave me some passes and his parking pass for the warbird pilot parking area. We pulled into the warbird ramp and parked right next to a freshly restored P-40. Unfortunately, the pilot showed up just after we arrived and I wasnt able to get a picture of my P-40 next to his. I did get a few pictures of it and had to turn the prop for him to get it started, a simple thing, but I did enjoy getting to do that. Much to my wifes dismay, I also paid the money and took a ride in and got a bit of stick time in a P-51 mustang. Its been a while since I was in a plane pulling 4Gs, it came back to me just how that feels, its not easy but sure is a lot of fun. The last time I felt that many Gs was about 15 years ago when I got a chance to ride in and fly an F-16, damn that is fun stuff! I wanna do it more!
Denny

rosek007

You lucky, lucky guy!!!!!!!!!!!!I'm jealous...hey have as much fun as possible while your'e young right?.
Kevin

glazier808

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The Top Flight P-40 is 1:6.9 or 1/7th lol. It's a nice build and I've taken several pics of the process, but I need to reduce the size of the files so that I can upload them. I plan on opening a new post for it soon I promise.
I just finished setting the main gear in the wing last night, and they await epoxy to finish the process.

"Glazier808"

Casey