Oberst

Man RCU Forum is going nuts tonight. So far I'm not liking this new Server.


It tried to Double Post.


Pete

e9coupeguy

hey pete. Thanks for the post and its good to know that i'm not crazy for making the trek to get the plane. I might not have said it well but i think the point of my post was to say that i plan on taking it slow, and one step at a time until i can get everything perfect. I'm in no hurry to get the P51 up.

Merry Christmas!

Oberst

Merry Christmas to you, and welcome to our addiction. Let us know how things go with your first flight when the time comes.

Pete

91zulu

My Feedback: (2)

That`s a very nice looking bird from the little I saw. The damage is not too bad, so a couple layers of glass on the inside will do fine.
Now you BET NOT go trying to fly it just off the sim. If you do and crash it bet keep it a secret, cause a few of us will hunt you down. That`s too nice a plane to ruin. Got my eye on you. [>:] [>:]

yard-dart

My Feedback: (35)

Sims are great. My 8 year old, who's been using the sim for about 3 months now, flew a .60 trainer this past Sunday like he's been flying for months. I had him on the buddy chord and only had to take it a couple of times, simply because he was flying lower than what I was comfortable with. I'll give him one more month and I'll bet he'll have soloed.

Nothing wrong with learning at the field. Throw a sim in the mix for the pilot to practice on during the week and he'll be soloing in no time.

e9coupeguy

So, just wanted to update. Still waiting for the weather to cooperate before a go out and visit some of the local clubs so i've been passing the time on Realflight5.5, going through both planes to replace suspect components, batteries, servos, etc. I've also started adding some weathering touches to the P51 that i thought i'd share. I've combed through several of the the threads to get an understanding of the various techniques and have settled (for the time being) on pastels and powdered pigments. I'm applying everything via q-tips, tissue and brushes. I'm accenting the rivet lines and panel edges with Testor's silver paint. I'm pretty happy with the first pass. I'm going after a very battle tested look, hence the extremely worn appearance. The nice thing about the pastels is that you if you arent happy with the way things are going, you can wipe it clean and start again (the paint of course is permanent). I plan on probably redoing both wings to clean them up a bit and also to do a little more research into exactly where (along which seams and panels) the plane weathered naturally - as opposed to streaking random sections as i've done to date. There are a couple of areas i want to dial back a little on the fuse but for the most part i'm pretty happy with how thats coming along. The pictures arent the greatest - i'll take it outside this weekend and snap off a few with the nikon that will hopefully show a little better.

Anyway, thanks again for all of the helpful advice and as always, your comments are welcomed.

Richard


DSCN2196 by J_Otte, on Flickr

DSCN2191 by J_Otte, on Flickr

DSCN2193 by J_Otte, on Flickr

DSCN2199 by J_Otte, on Flickr

yard-dart

My Feedback: (35)

Very impressive! It looks great! What are you doing to get the weather streaks from the panels and panel lines?

e9coupeguy

Thanks. The technique depends on how dark the streaks want to be. For very subtle streaking, i used a sharp pastel pencil and traced the leading edge of the panel to be weathered applying enough pressure so that the tip of the pencil flaked slightly as it was drawn across the surface. then, depending on how smooth or pronounced i wanted the streaks, i used either a textured paper towel (pronounced) or issue (smooth) and streaked towards the trailing edge of the panel. For darker streaks, i ground down either a black or dark grey pastel stick on sand paper and VERY lightly tapped some of the resulting powder onto the leading edge of the panel and using a combination of paper towel, tissue, and q-tips to streak it. Not sure if that makes sense or not...

ARUP

Zulu91- nice Mustangs and the flying field looks like 'the real deal'! I've logged flight time in my log book using FAA approved flight sims. To me, it's not the same as being in the airplane but what do I care so long as the time really counts! The saving grace of a flight sim is that if you crash and burn nobody gets hurt and only egos are damaged!

Whistling Death

e9coupeguy,
This forum is a great place to start, http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_85/tt.htm

I didn't have the luxury of having a club within a reasonable distance to help me learn to fly so the sim was the only answer.
Everyone is right, the sim doesn't simulate the REAL conditions your experience in a real time situation but beyond that the sim is a wonderful learning tool.
I started with Real Flight and spent no less than a month on the sim before I even tried to fly.
I did 1000s of touch and goes, left and right circuits, inverted flight, etc.
The main thing is that I wanted to be very fluid with the take offs and landings.
I bought Hobbico Hobbistar 60. It had everything I needed including the radio.
The sim and the Hobbistar were probably the best and most important purchases I have made to date.

91zulu

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks ARUP, that was my buddy P51. Yeah nothing bets the real deal.
e9coupguy, you did very well on the Mustang, now just go easy on flying it too early.