rcwarbirdbuilder

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I build all my bigger airplanes with two or three piece wings and this 85" Giant Scale Top Flite P-47 will be no different, it will be made as a two piece wing. How do you build a two piece wing that has dihedral?.. I am sure some of the modelers would be interested in how this will be built.. I am making this P-47 as a razor back. I had built two others as the standard bauble canopy airplanes all powered with a Zenoah G-62. I will take some pictures to post of the fuselage which is will under construction and pictures of the two piece construction from the very beginning.

chris923

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Subscribed.

rcwarbirdbuilder

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I bought the Top Flite kit a few weeks back from Tower Hobbies, they had such a good sale the price i saved was $200 buying the kit, retracts, razor back canopy and misc. other supply's like the air system etc.

rcwarbirdbuilder

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The first thing to do in constructing the two piece wing, I hate doing this, but I read the instructions to kind of get a feel for how the kit is set up to go together. Once I feel like I get the picture I start by cutting the main spars. I find 1" clear pine with very little defects from Home Depot (actually the 1" thick wood I think is more like 7/8" thick which makes no difference for my use).

I set the wood on the table saw and rip the wood in 1/4" strips to make 4 - 1/4"x7/8"x48" main spars which will replace the kit supplied spars which are not wide enough for my purpose ( with a sharp blade in the saw the cut marks do not effect the newly cut strips). I also rip 4- 1/4" square strips which I use on the fuselage to replace four of the 1/4" square balsa stringers. I place them evenly one on the top to the left, one on top to the right and the other two likewise on the bottom. This step may not be necessary but I prefer the added strength it gives to the finished airplane.

rcwarbirdbuilder

My Feedback: (104)

I have taken the widened main spars and pinned them over the plan, than glued the 1/8" front and aft ply doubler which came with the kit onto the spars.. below the spars you can see the dihedral wing brace I have cutout from the pine board. The brace came out to just over 37" in length and 13/4" at the highest point. I transferred the angle of the dihedral by placing the kit supplied dihedral brace on the board before cutting it out..

rcwarbirdbuilder

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The picture should give you a good end view of the rectangle socket for the wood wing brace. The all the rib slots are widened for the wider spar.

rcwarbirdbuilder

My Feedback: (104)

The picture should give you a good end view of the rectangle socket for the wood wing brace. The first rib is laminated with a second 1/8" balsa rib making it a total of 1/4" thick. All the rib spar slots are widened for the wider spar..

rcwarbirdbuilder

My Feedback: (104)

I start the wing sheeting on the top. i opted to use 1/8" balsa sheeting rather than the kit supplied 3/32" balsa.

rcwarbirdbuilder

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After sheeting the wing top, I flip it over and install gear rails and check for fit than prep and sheet the bottom. You can see the wider spar i am using to form the wing brace pocket.

rcwarbirdbuilder

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Once sheeted I try the wing brace fit into the wing panel and set the protruding brace over the plans and get ready to build the other wing panel..

rcwarbirdbuilder

My Feedback: (104)

Here is a picture of the fuselage which is well under construction..The fuselage has been lengthened about a inch in the front to reduce ballast weight. The bottom has been left open to facilitate install of push rod tubes.

rcwarbirdbuilder

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All the major structures are complete, now a final sanding and filling with Balsa Lite before assembly trial than fiber glassing the parts.

rcwarbirdbuilder

My Feedback: (104)

Glassing the parts by first laying the fiberglass sheet over the parts than spreading two part finish resin over the fiberglass with a 1" camel hair brush.

rcwarbirdbuilder

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Next step is spray painting all the parts with gray latex house paint thinned with 20% water, letting it dry a day than sanding it down with 120 grit sand paper. All the low spots are filled with red auto feathering paste out of the tube and using a plastic spreader. After the feathering paste is dry it is sanded down with 120 grit paper than final sand with 220 grit paper. Than repainted - this process is repeated three times to get the parts smooth and ready for final paint.

rcwarbirdbuilder

My Feedback: (104)

After filing the low spots all the parts got a final 320 & 400 grit wet sanding and let dry before painting. The silver is Dupli color silver metallic spray can paint, the black & stripes is Rust oleum can spray and the olive green is latex wall paint sprayed with lphv gun.
The panel lines are 1/16" silver colored tape, the small square access panels are cut from sticky back aluminum a/c tape, the rivets are canopy glue in a oil syringe applied as drops along the panel lines in select areas.

rcwarbirdbuilder

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I got the new G62 engine with a 22x10 prop installed and ready for a first start up, also finishing up on the cowl from fiberglass specialties.

rcwarbirdbuilder

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The plane is near completed other than things like gear doors and paint details.. Took it out to the field for first test flight, typical P-47 flew great and easy to land, the G-62 engine ran great and no problems with any thing.

Ram-bro

My Feedback: (101)

congrats

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

Late to the game,, but that was a nice simple tutorial,,,
good luck with the plane.

rcwarbirdbuilder

My Feedback: (104)

I hope everyone had a good time in Dayton and got some good flights in.. I just did not feel up to it and was caught up on working on my new P-47.. Painted the blue over the black stripes and the paint crinkled a little but got to move on and get the white star on next over the blue.

rcwarbirdbuilder

My Feedback: (104)

The issue with the blue paint crackling I think was caused by sanding and the silver paint speckles contaminating the area that was painted blue.. The white went on with no problems and looks great as I peal the masking off. I am using Rustoleum spray paint, it is time consuming since the paint is slow to dry but looks good when completed.

Ram-bro

My Feedback: (101)

I use Rustoleum also. I learned that after the paint has dried and cured to wipe it down to rid it of a waxy substance. If you don't , the nexts coat may peel. I usually use Model Masters over the silver

Aeronca78

How did you hold the wing and belly pan on to the fuselage?

rcwarbirdbuilder

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I will get some pictures tomorrow and post it so you can see the mounting detail.

rcwarbirdbuilder

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The doors on my trailer was iced up and froze shut, I did manage to get it open today to get some photos of the P-47 belly pan... the belly pan was constructed as a separate piece and attached with two screws long sheet metal screws on the front and back of the belly pan, the screws go into the fuselage to hold the pan in place once the wing is set onto the fuselage...If you look at the fuselage just ahead about 3" of the point where the back of the pan meets the fuselage i have a 1/4"x2" ply going across the fuselage with two 5/16" holes through it which I inserted a 1/4X20 "T" or some call a blind nut installed, each half of the wing has a 5/16" hole drilled through at that point and I run a 1/4"x3" long screw through the wing halves to hold it in place. The wing halves at the center has 3/8" dowels glued in which fit into the holes drilled at the former where the wing goes up to the fuselage.