CMP 73" P-40 kit bash  
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CMP 73" P-40 kit bash - 5/27/2006 4:38:02 PM   
tahustvedt



Posts: 380
Joined: 1/28/2004
From: Bardufoss, NORWAY
Status: offline 		The plane arrived on wednesday in the biggest cardboard box I have ever seen for an RC plane, and with a shipping price to match. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box though. Everything was undamaged and the smoothness of the finish was very good. I was surprised at how light it felt compared to my ESM Spitfire XIV.

Things I will change:
-Move the landing closer together to the scale location.
-Change the shape of the elevator counterweights.
-Move the chin louvres forwards to a more scale location.
-Flaps probably.


I cut out the wing and made new landing gear mounting beams. This was pretty easy becasue the scale location ended up between plywood reinforced ribs and immediately outside the wing joiner tube. The whole modification took a couple of evenings of work. That mod is jsut about done. I added a 6 mm plywood doubler between the beams where I cut the wing beams to allow the strut to retract. Ideally the strut should lie outside the wing surface but there's not enough room in the fibreglass covers for the retracts.

The elevator mod was probably thre easiest to do. It took just a few minutes with my table-saw to cut after marking the lines based on a 3-view.

I cut away the original cooling flaps behind the chin because they just looked weird and were in the wrong location. I'll probably make the new ones semi-functional because I think that will look better. The belly-pan will be filled in and smoothed at the front. The power system should have more than enough cooling in the nose.

I havent' started on the flaps yet. This looks like it's going to be the biggest job to do.

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       Post #: 1

RE: CMP 73" P-40 kit bash - 5/28/2006 1:44:23 AM   
LDM


 

Posts: 4959
Joined: 5/29/2003
From: Denver, PA,
Status: offline 		excellant work , I still have mine in the box , have everything I need but the retracts .
I have a suggestion for you , on the flaps , use Flight skin , I just bought some and made Flaps for a Seafury , the Flight skin is light , thin and very scale after painted and much better then PLY for split flaps .
I will also be adding an interior to mine .

I noticed you are useing robart 615 retracts , becareful , they may not be able to hold the weight of this plane .

Can you also tell me where did you buy your spinner ?

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LDM

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RE: CMP 73" P-40 kit bash - 5/28/2006 1:53:16 AM   
LDM


 

Posts: 4959
Joined: 5/29/2003
From: Denver, PA,
Status: offline 		One more suggestion on the flaps , I have studied my idea and basicly want to use the flap design of the VQ P40 .
How i will proceed is as follows , one draw out your flap , I will leave a 1/4 on the bottom trailing edge sheeting in place -so I will cut 1/4 from the trailing edge . Why ? this is make the bottom wing more ridgid , the flap will still appear scale from eye perception but actually go into the wing as opposed to be flush with the trailing edge , same will happen where the flap meets the airleron , I will leave aprox 1/8 " sheeting between the two , only visable from the bottom . I will sheet the inside of the wing with flight skin for strength , make my flap from flight skin and carbon fiber rods , all ribs will be wood but long strips for vertical support will be carbon fiber -hope this helps .
Engine for me is a saito 180 , already broken in just need to finish some projects and get this one .
also looking for either Sierra gear , century or new Robart heavy duty , question what size wheels did you use

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LDM

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       Post #: 3

RE: CMP 73" P-40 kit bash - 5/28/2006 12:01:10 PM   
tahustvedt



Posts: 380
Joined: 1/28/2004
From: Bardufoss, NORWAY
Status: offline 		I bought 4.5" dubro threaded light wheels. Ideally they should have been 4.8" to be scale I think but they're close enough.

Good idea on leaving the trailing edge on the flaps!, I was going to use balsa sheeting with carbon fiber strands, balsa ribs and a carbon fibre tube at the leading edge of the flap.

The 615 do look flimsy but they were the only ones I could find. They operate perfectly smoothly and unrestricted. I hope the weight will end up below 12 lbs and I'm optimistic about that since the plane felt lighter than the Spit, which weighed 13 lbs and has 1.5 lbs of noseweight.

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RE: CMP 73" P-40 kit bash - 5/28/2006 2:35:09 PM   
LDM


 

Posts: 4959
Joined: 5/29/2003
From: Denver, PA,
Status: offline 		I agree I do feel the plane feels very light , I was surprised at the suggested 140 to 180 size 4 stroke , I was thinking it could actuially fly on a 120 .

Robart now has a new set of gear that hold 12 to 20 pound planes , dont know the cost but they look like sierra gear and should fit your struts .

Thanks for the info on the wheels , how about the spinner do you have a good source , so far my plan is to purchase from Gene Barton .

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LDM

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RE: CMP 73" P-40 kit bash - 5/28/2006 2:40:24 PM   
tahustvedt



Posts: 380
Joined: 1/28/2004
From: Bardufoss, NORWAY
Status: offline 		I was a little annoyed when I saw that Robart came out with improved retracts just a couple of days after I had bought mine, but I'll give them a shot. I only fly from tarmac so landings should be relatively easy on the gear. The aluminium spinner in my pictures is a 4.5" Dave Brown that I got from Tower Hobbies. It's a little small so I'm going to make my own from fibreglass eventually.

I started making the wheel doors now. Hopefully I can get them to operate smoothly.

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< Message edited by tahustvedt -- 5/28/2006 2:49:53 PM >

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       Post #: 6

RE: CMP 73" P-40 kit bash - 5/28/2006 3:43:57 PM   
bosssman


 

Posts: 307
Joined: 5/7/2004
From: Moreno Valley, CA, USA
Status: offline 		are you leaving the wings as is? for some reason, CMP used an open structured wing without full sheating. As is typical here in Southern California, the covering on my CMP P-40 has already wrinkled and I have decided to rip it off. I will also have to sheet the remainder of the wings and add the flaps. its odd that CMP chose this plane to not fully sheet the wings....

randy

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RE: CMP 73" P-40 kit bash - 5/28/2006 5:44:32 PM   
tahustvedt



Posts: 380
Joined: 1/28/2004
From: Bardufoss, NORWAY
Status: offline 		I plan to leave the wing as it is for now except for adding flaps.

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       Post #: 8

RE: CMP 73" P-40 kit bash - 5/29/2006 4:05:18 AM   
LDM


 

Posts: 4959
Joined: 5/29/2003
From: Denver, PA,
Status: offline 		I thought my wing was fully sheeted , I will have to cjeck again

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LDM

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RE: CMP 73" P-40 kit bash - 5/29/2006 11:09:34 PM   
tahustvedt



Posts: 380
Joined: 1/28/2004
From: Bardufoss, NORWAY
Status: offline 		I made working gear doors. They are linked to the retracts with 1.5 mm carbon fibre rods and heatshrink tubing. Works fine and operates effortlessly, however the edges don't line up perfectly. I'm happy with it though.

Short clip of the doors while the gear retracts: http://www.enrarot.net/videos/p40/test.wmv

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       Post #: 10

RE: CMP 73" P-40 kit bash - 5/30/2006 1:46:56 AM   
LDM


 

Posts: 4959
Joined: 5/29/2003
From: Denver, PA,
Status: offline 		Great work , can you give more detail please

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LDM

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       Post #: 11

RE: CMP 73" P-40 kit bash - 5/30/2006 3:16:45 PM   
tahustvedt



Posts: 380
Joined: 1/28/2004
From: Bardufoss, NORWAY
Status: offline 		It's very simple. I just cut out the hatches with sharp scissors and a dremel where I thought it would look right. The covers supplied by CMP aren't very scale so it's just guesswork from looking at pictures. I used a single heavy duty hinge on the large hatch and custom made the hinge for the small door by glueng a carbon fibre rod to the underside with plastic tubes on each side to swivel in. Once the hatches were opening and closing well I connected everything together with carbon rods using heatshrink tubing as joints. I measured and tested to find the right connecting points on the hatch. It was much easier to do than it sounds.

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       Post #: 12

RE: CMP 73" P-40 kit bash - 5/30/2006 8:30:24 PM   
LDM


 

Posts: 4959
Joined: 5/29/2003
From: Denver, PA,
Status: offline 		Thanks , great job I plan on trying that method , the doors make a big differance when they are on the gear leg .

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