Posts: 1866
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
Well, I purchased a Yellow P-38 kit last week and I wasn't going to start it until Fall....I lied! I could resist buying parts that will be needed and then started doing some work on her. During the summer, this thread shouldn't get update too much since I'm suppose to be building new kitchen cabinets for my daughter's 1919 house. I want to thank Mark Taylor for valuable info since he has already built a yellow P-38.
pic 1: As you can see, I bought the kit where some work has already been done. Doug did a fine job on aligning the outer wings to the center FG fuse plus he glassed half the wings.
pic 2: Robart retracts instead of yellows are being used. This will require some mods to the retract mount.
pic 3: Yellow wheels and brakes are being used.
pic 4/5: The first thing I did was wet sand, using 220 grit, all parts and then wiping everything down with alcohol to insure any releasing agent has been removed. As you can see, this is one fine model that has a lot of design work put into it. The vast majority of parts are all FG. Also, with the entire center section all one piece, it makes it a lot easier to build since no worries about alignment, incidence, etc as all that's been taken care of.
pic 7/8/9: I used a 1/16" drill bit and flat/round over file to open any openings that are suppose to occur on the plane. ie: cowl, turbo chargers.
pic 10: I just noticed there is a 'R' and 'L' cowl marking but I haven't noticed any difference!
< Message edited by samparfitt -- 7/27/2007 4:09:15 AM >
Posts: 1866
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
pic 1: Batteries and the nose steering servo are suppose to be in the center's nose but there is no easy access so I made a hatch which will also hide switches/air filler, etc. I penciled the outline of the access door. It would have been nice to follow the gun access door lines but that spans across the first former and I don't want to weaken the model by cutting across the former.
pic 2: I used a dremel cut off disk(two added for the proper thickness) to make the groove for the piano hinge pin to fit.
pic 3: I used Nelson's 1/2" wide piano hinge and #0X3/16' screws to hold the hinge to the door and fuse.
pic 4: After installing the piano hinge first to insure the door will then be aligned, I used a razor saw to cut the other three sides. I was going to cut along the seam between the two halfs of the FG but the glue used is too tough so I cut about 1/4" above the seam.
pic 5: Hatch open. Lots of room to now get into the nose. The door and sides will later be re-inforced with ply and some magnets added.
pic 6: I put additional epoxy on the fire wall where the fire wall is attched to the FG fuse to insure no future cracks occur.
pic 7/8: I moved the center screw on the wing attaching bracket to the outer hole. I had to put holes in the FG but the holes are on the bottom of the wing and it will make it much easier to attach the outer wing to the center wing. With the doors added later, it looks like I won't be able to access that screw if it remained in the center hole.
< Message edited by samparfitt -- 7/27/2007 4:03:44 AM >
Posts: 678
Joined: 12/23/2002 From: Simpsonville,
SC, USA Status: offline
I've been reading build posts for years but I have yet to see one on the Yellow P-38. This will be fun to keep track of and you do a great job not just on your models but on posting pictures and describing your processes. Thanks, Bud!
I'm in the never-ending-rivet detail phase of my Yellow P-47. Actually, this is the first time I've elected to apply rivets to a model and, yes, they look great but I've only just begun and it's drudgery already. Ooh, boy.
Anyway, keep these posts coming. I'm probably as thrilled as you are!
Posts: 1866
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
Al, Thanks for the comments: that new camera makes taking pictures so much better.
Yellow really puts out nice kits: I think of them more of as ARC's since the wings are already sheeted. All we have to do is build up the tail feathers, which is a 'piece of cake'. And best of all, yellows planes fly great. I'm sure your P-47 will be an 'easy' flyer. I wish they would bring out more WWII warbirds (especially a 92" corsair)! I think they have a winning combination at a good price to rival ARF's. The fuse is FG and the wings are sheeted which is where all the work is if you were building from 'scratch/kit'. It doesn't take long to get their kits to the 'ready to finish' state and then you can finish her as simple or as detailed as you want.
I'm putting two Zenoah G-38's on the P-38 (especially since I already have them)! I saw Dennis Crooks Ziroli P-38 with counter rotating props so I was wondering if a G-38 can be converted. I talked to Dick Bennett (B&B Specialties) and he told me to talk to Ralph at RC Ignitions in Arizona. Ralph said it should work if he re-keys and reverses the rotor. I sent the G-38 off to him this past Monday. I should know next week if he can do it.
I'm figuring the G-38 swings an 18X10 2 blade so a 16X10 3-blade should work. MAS has a pusher and tractor 16X10 3-blade. Dennis is using Zinger 3 blade props on his counter-rotating props but he is using larger engines so I can't use his blade size. I fellow pilot had some Zinger 3 blade props so I just picked those up last night. That should look cool duplicating the P-38's counter rotating props! The counter rotating props should also virtually eliminate the left torque pull from the engines.
If anyone has any experience on the counter-rotating props, G-38 prop sizes, etc, please post.
< Message edited by samparfitt -- 7/27/2007 1:22:52 PM >
pic 1: The Robart retract extent below (top) of the wood mount so a hole has to be cut into the mounts. After outlining the hole, I used a Forstner 1 3/4" to drill out the rectangular hole. I drill a 1/4" hole along the edge to keep the forstner bit from overheating and also a place for wood chips to fall out.
pic 2: First hole drilled. Make sure you put a sturdy board below the mount so you don't drill through the top of the FG fuse. The two spars and the retract mount is made of very high quality plywood. The ply is 1/4" thick and 12 plys: normally plys are in odd numbers but this plywood has and an even number of plys.
pic 3: Second hole drilled. I then used a razor saw and a dremel grinding bit to clean up the opening.
pic 4: Since I put a big notch into one of the spars, I need to sister a couple of supports on each side. I made a paper template of the area and traced it on some 1/4" thick ply.
pic 5: Some epoxy and clamps will secure the sister supports to the spar. I also found that former to the right in the picture was loose so I epoxied it, also. All the other formers and seems on the fuse were very secure.
pic 6: Retracts in the up position. Note: sister plys on spar were not glued in yet in this picture.
pic 7: Here, you can see the cylinder going below the mount. The large fork connecting to the oleo also goes below the mount.
< Message edited by samparfitt -- 7/28/2007 11:59:21 AM >
Posts: 1866
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
First coat of primer. I like putting the primer on early. I used a local brand from the auto shop which is a two part mix so it is as hard as nails when dry but easy to wet sand. I did it outside under the tree: even outdoors, I used a good paint respirator and lots of latex gloves: this stuff is nasty. It also lets me know where all those pin holes are. Not too many: I've seen a lot worse! I'm glad I finished painting and all was dry enough to handle: it just rained the usual 'cats and dogs' (or 'dogs and cats' as mentioned by the german 'bad guy' in Diehard). I painted the bottom half of the fuse first, then went on to the elevator and did the bottom half of that and then did the rest of the small parts. By the time I was done with all the small parts, the fuse and elevator were dry enough so I could flip them over and finish priming the top halves.
----------- Stuff: It's been a good day. Gear mounts fixed, FG parts primed and three packages from UPS. All that 'stuff' adds up, $$$ wise, for large planes! Got six HS-645 servos and a HS-5625 and fived sets of large robart door hinges (among other 'stuff'). From Dick Bennett, I got some double choke/throttle linkages, thin carb extensions (white instead of the usual brown color), etc. The last picture has the Zinger 3-blade prop sets with two mounting plates to hold the props.
< Message edited by samparfitt -- 7/28/2007 11:53:38 AM >
Posts: 1628
Joined: 1/19/2002 From: Katy, TX, USA Status: offline
For someone who lied about getting started..you are really in high gear. Will be watching closely. Just a thought, you might look over the new Twin Sync not only for safety, but holds the engines in ABSOLUTE sync. Have one of the prototypes and well worth it in many ways. Twinman
Posts: 685
Joined: 4/3/2004 From: Wallingford,
CT, USA Status: offline
Hi Sam, I too will be watching I had the opportunity to build our Yellow 38 about 3 years ago and its still the flag ship of our fleet. I too posted the build with the additiion of our seamless aluminum plating process here one RCU and I have attached the link below if you like to take a look, lots of pictures and that can sometimes help when building, I know it did when I was building mine and I was amazed at the knowledge our fellow modelers have. Looks like you’re making great progress and looking forward to seeing her completed.
Posts: 678
Joined: 12/23/2002 From: Simpsonville,
SC, USA Status: offline
Ron,
Your series of posts on the construction and plating of your P-38 ended in October of 2006 with a maiden flight in the then-near future. How did that go?
Posts: 1866
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
Well, it's Saturday, which means flying all day so by the time I got home and ate, it was 7 PM. Mark Taylor sent me the instruction manual, which was missing, so I spent about an hour reading that. The manual seemed pretty short giving me the impression that the P-38 can be built in a week....NOT! Everything in the manual is pretty much like their P-40, again, only not as detailed with a picture manual that comes with the P-40. I only thing that surprised me was that regular 50 oz servos can be used. I find that those regular servos get gear teeth broken not by flying but bumping into them (and things), so I'm sticking to the metal gears 133 oz HS-645's and the 164 oz HS-5645 if two surfaces are being moved (such as the inner flaps).
I'm building what motivates me and tonight it was the elevator and rudder servo trays and supports. The
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Yellow P-38 build thread - 
