Top Flite P-47 Thunderbolt
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$1,050.00
| 11/14/2008
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Posts: 1839
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
TOP LEFT SIDE: It's hard to see in this picture but the receiver wire is going out the back of the center fuse and tied to a small hook on the back stab. I used some stretch string found in Wal-Mart's sewing section. I also forgot to add the APS balance to the back elevator. They already have a slot through the elevator: just cut an X in the cover material over the slot. The two APS balance are hollow so I cut a small piece of lite ply and epoxied it inside one of the APS, slid it in the slot, and put the top APS in. I thought they might pull out without the ply in the middle: epoxy doesn't hold well to smooth plastic surfaces. I also just added the two side air scoops to the outside of each boom. Again, these are plastic, so I left the outside flat 'ridge' on the airscoop so I could use Dubro's #2 X 1/2" long button screws to hold them on (one in back and two up front). The flat 'ridge' meshes exactly with the side of the fuse so using screws is an easy way to attach them. I also used the button screws for holding the cowlings, top fuse covers and canopy on: I like how they look like rivets. The last thing I did was to paint the white plastic control horns an OD color to hide their glaring appearance. Only thing left now is to work on getting those doors to close when the retracts go up, and access to the flap servos....and also FLY!!!!!
Posts: 1839
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
MIKE, Good question. Twinman's review of gyros are in this section (twins & multi engine planes) dated 6-25-03. As always, he does an excellent review of them and how to install them. They seem to be an excellent deterrent from getting to a crash site faster on one engine. He's got far more knowledgeable than I have on flying twins (he's got more P-38 than all my twins). Two items that he mentions is that rudder is required on all turns and rolls won't happen unless you turn off the gyro. Like building this plane, there is no right way and wrong way: each of us uses what we're most familiar with and are comfortable for our experience and needs. Another experienced pilot at the club tried gyros but didn't like having to use the rudder for every turn. I may regret this later but I'm going solo. I've put about 40 flights on my WM F-82 with an engine going out twice: once at the end of the run way and she flew all the way around and landed. I think this was due to the excellent flying characteristics of the plane. I've got about 10 flights on my VQ A-26: one time both engines went out but that's a much easier way to fly than with one engine out. I've been following Twinman's rule religiously on vertical tests in the pits and on the runway. Also, I find these OS FX engines are extremely reliable. The only time they quit is if the plug goes bad while flying or I do something stupid: like have the engine too lean. With twins, I'm more critical to details: like always using a tach to check RPM's. Twinman's says take off's and landings are a snap because the gyro keeps the plane straight. I'm a 'hands on' dude and like to do it myself: if she doesn't go straight, I only can blame myself. I'm hoping that the P-38 fly's as well the the F-82. I'm also hoping to get out this weekend. All we've had is big thunderstorms about every day since July 4th and hot days but 20 MPH winds(been a very unusual spring and summer so far).
Posts: 1839
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
Here's a close up of the canopy detail (my cheap camera seems to take pretty close up pictures when there is a bright sun out!). I used a lot of button screws (11) on the canopy. I didn't glue the canopy on so I can get access later on, if needed. I epoxied a 3/8" thick piece of lite balsa to the underside of the pilot and then put 2 screws into the balsa from underneath the 'seat' since epoxy and smooth surfaces don't work well together. I put two #2 button screws at the bottom of the front of the top fuse shield, one on each side about half way back and one #6 button screw at the rear. You can also see the top shield for one of the booms. I've only got one button screw again at the bottom of the front of the shield, and 3 at the back (one on top center and one on each side at the bottom of the shield). There seems to be enough bend in the top boom shield to not have to put any into the wing (field testing will decide if changes are needed). The cowling seems to hold the shield on pretty tight where they overlap. I might be able to just use these few screws to hold the shield on and then it won't be a big hassle taking them off to connect the flap connecting rod to the servo. Again, only field testing will decide if this is a good option. If it doesn't work, I'll resort to my initial option of cutting a hatch in the top of the shield to get to the flap servo. I've been thinking that I could first epoxy some 1/16" ply where I want the hatch to be. Use some of the Sonic Tronic sprung hinges on the front of the hatch ( so the wind will only close them and not open them) and put some button screws through the fiber and lite ply and hinges and then using a cut off wheel and cutting open a hatch. That seems like the easiest way to make sure all is aligned when cutting the hatch. After cutting the hatch, glue a small piece of lite ply on the downside end to give the hatch something to rest against when closed. My air filler valve is in one of the 'meatballs' on the Japanese flag. The brass rod with a loop on it connects to my on/off battery switch. I epoxied some lite ply to the inside of the front of the top center shield. I then used some thin brass sheeting, bent a 90 degree angle in it, drilled some holes for the bulk head attachment and 2 more for the on/off switch. The 2 screws holding the brass sheeting to the bulk head go through to the other side. These were ground off so the top shield fits snugly to the front bulk head. I then drilled and epoxied a quick connect to the top of the switch, drilled a hole in the side of the top shield and attached my brass wire. I always have 'on' as push in: just in case a stray hand pushes on it: it's still on (no fun trying to fly without 'juice').
Posts: 1839
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
Now if I only had the money to buy a 12" to the foot one! As you can see in this picture (and as I mentioned previously). The 'tail high' angle bothers me so I'll have to be sure I've got flying speed before liftoff. Hopefully, when she gets to flying speed, I can give it a very small amount of up to lift the nose up. Also, hopefully, this indicates that flying speed has been attained and I can now take off. Wheel well restrictions didn't allow me any other choice. I had the same problem on my A-26. I enlarge the wheel well on the A-26 but I wasn't going to 'butcher' this plane: They did too nice a job on it.
Posts: 70
Joined: 12/9/2002 From: Wayne, NJ, USA Status: offline
Samparfitt,
Looks great!!! Good luck with the maiden flight. You got your together in record time. I was hoping to get mine finished and up and flying this week and bring it to Warbirds Over Delaware this weekend, but that isn't going to happen. I got the Silver P-38 - the Putt Putt Maru. ALL of the fiberglass parts are grey and don't match the covering at all!!! I couldn't do this model without painting it so for about 3 weeks I was putting on very light coats of TopFlite LusterKote Aluminum fuel proof paint until everything matched the covering. The model comes with black stickers to apply to the nose for the glare shielding. I know that the real one also had black on the inboard side of the engine nacelles. The supercharger should also be some darker color. I decided I'd scrap the black stickers and just paint it on. I bought an airbrush just for this purpose and I started by masking the top fuse shield as my test subject (I'd never used an airbrush before). I was puting down masking tape two weeks ago around where the black should go and messed up on a part and peeled back the tape. The aluminum paint went up with the tape!!! This masking tape has hardly any adhesive on it and the paint lifted right off!!! I took some heavier masking tape to the other parts and off goes the paint!!! There goes almost a month's worth of slowly painting it! I removed all of the paint and have started airbrushing everything on instead. I did the tape test on it and it doesn't peel off! I just finished with the nose and top fuse. It's perfect! Two coats of clear fuel proof paint finished it all last night. What a waste of time!!! I still have to do the engine cowls and boom covers. Instead of spending my vacation this week flying the plane, I ended up doing painting! The plane itself is almost done. All I have left to do is finish the throttle linkages, setup my glow drivers, put two gyros in place (one for rudders, one for ailerons), and setup my radio for everything. I'm powering my plane with two Saito 100s which have already been broken in with a gallon each on my test stand. Almost there! Damn that paint and the fact that I even had to do any painting.
I'll post pictures of mine when it's done.
For now though, here's a picture of the real Putt Putt Maru...
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PICTURE 14 - 
