LDM

My Feedback: (15)

Nice job FW , looks great

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

Well I have to make a confession and an apoligy, I got so tied up into watching the season premier of "24" that I put the whole horizontal on and forgot to take any picture until I had it glued into place. Anyway I Put it on just as the plans said without any adjustment to the method......

TY

mobyal

Neat thread. Thanks for doing it.
Al

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

I did not put the rudder on or the elevators on because I mount my motor a little different. The way I do it you can't get the alignment off. It will be perfect everytime. First I measure the distance the the motor need to stand off the fuse. I am using a Quadra 40 XL instead of the 3.2. I may regret it later but the installation is much cleaner with the Q40XL. Using the Q40 I have to space the motor off the motor box 3/4" to clear the pitts muffler. So after all the figuring, I found that the motor box should stick out from the fuse about 2". I then marked the motor box and glued 2 small pieces of balsa on the line so the box could be inserted and only 2" stick out. I made a 3/4" standoff for the motor and drill the holes to match the backplate.

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

I then went ahead and mounted the cowl. I followed the instructions except that I used 11 holes and I also used 6-32 Buttom head machine screws and I drilled and tapped into the hardwood. Once the cowl was totally mounted I was then ready to set up the motor.

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

I then took 2- 3/4" pieces of 1/4-20 Nylon bolt and I screwed it into the backplate of the motor. These were then set into the 3/4"
standoff. I slid the motor box into the fuse . I then set the motor assembly onto the motor box and trial fit the cowl over the whole thing. Now to get the motor to fit perfectly you need to secure the fues standing on it tail. I then take 5 minute epoxy and place it on the motor stand off. I then place it and the motor back onto the motor box and quickly put the cowl on and several screwto hold the cowl in place. I then place the spinner on the motor. Now you are able to move to the motor into perfect position. You now just have to leave it standing there until the epoxy dries.
Ty

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

Now remove the cowl and then remove the motor and then drill your hole that are in the 3/4" standoff through the motor box and the motor is in perfect position. This method works great even when trying to center a motor with a little right thrust in it..

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

Great Job , please keep the pics coming , very educational

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

Ok the next thing I did was to glue in the motor box to the fuse. I followed the instructions on this one. I sanded away teh paint and primer. They supply triangular stock to glue around the box. So I made sure my box was in the right place and I tack glued it in place with CA and then used 5 minute epoxy to glue all the triangular pieces in place. Then you have to repaet this on the inside of the fuse also.....

TY

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

I then went to install the elevators. Skyshark supplies the very small point hinges for teh elevator. Its probably just me I just don't think they are strong enough for planes with larger gas motors. So I drilled out the holes to fit the larger Robart point hinges. I did have to relieve a little on the elevator and trailing edge of the horizontal to get it to fit tightly just as i did on the alierons and flaps...I then glued into place as before..


Ty

Meschmidt

My Feedback: (15)

Ty, you are right, concerning the hinge points. I used the supplied smaller ones and already broke three under normal usage on the elevator and rudder. If another one breaks they are all going to be replaced with the big ones. Paul

bladerunner1955

My Feedback: (72)

Hey Ty,
Don the electric guy here, great information, thanks. Hey Ty I am going to be swinging a larger prop than the gas guys with less RPM but possibly more low end tork. What have you seen on the firewall in reguards to a little right off set to keep the plane on take off from pulling to much to the left? I do know how to use my thumb on the rudder but with the large electrics I have found it takes a little more than say with a gas set up.

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

I asked Mike about the right thrust. He said only with really larger motors do you need right thrust. So If you are swinging a large prop I would go ahead and add a little. There is a guy on another thread that said he added right thrust. you may want to e-mail him and find out how much he used...

Ty

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

The next thing I did Is I went ahead and drilled for the rudder. Once again I opted for the larger hinges. I marked the locations I wanted on the rudder and then on the vertical post. I used the stripes on the rudder and marking locations. So it was really easy. I first drilled out allthe holes with a 3/32 drill bit. I then drilled the holes using my robart hinger to make sure I was centered in the rudder. you are drilling into a pointed area and it would be easy to slip to a side. I tried to drill the vertical poet teh same way. even with a small pilot hole already drilled I drill bit still migrated to the side a little. If I had it to do again I would have just incresed the size of the bit one bit at a time until I got the right size hole for the hinges.

Once I had every thing drilled out I found out that the rudder post is only backed up with 1/4" balsa. That is not very much to hinge into. When I hinge the rudder into the verticl I will add glue from the inside to make sure I have a good lock on the hinges.

You can see in the pic's i have already wet sanded the rudder so i can paint it OD before I install it to the fuse....

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

The elevators are already installed. One thing I found out is that there is no hardwood in the leading edge of the elevators. I was hoping to just run screws into the hardwood so you would not see any thing on top of each elevator.

I am waitnig to get everything on the airframe to see where i need to install the servos as to help the balance of the plane....

Ty

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

Well,
The next thing I did was the easiest yet. Installing the tail wheel. All you have to do is hook up the airlines and set it in place and add 4 screws.....

Ty

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

It tells you in the plans that you can install the servos at the rear. I just don't like that Idea. even if my engine makes it a little nose heavy you can still balance it with battery location in the end. So I plane to install the elevator and rudder servos under the cockpit.
I had to find the proper exit location for the pushrods. So I used a 1/4" dowel to help locate teh proper exit. Once that was done I took a piece of mylar and traced the location and then transfered it to the other side.....
I then cut out the holes and it was right on the correct location..

Ty

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

I am at a stoping point waiting on my pushrods to get here. so I decided to go ahead and paint the rudder and the cowl. I sanded everything down with 320 grit paper and got it nice and smooth. I bought the touch up paint from SkyShark. I opened the bottles and it was very thick. the paint was like paste and the hardner was like maple surup on a cold day. I have been told it may have frozen on the way here. Being that it took 3 days to get here it may have in the back of a truck.
Any way I mixed it and after a few tries I got it to spray pretty well.......

Ty

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

Here is the template of the artwork that is going on the side of the plane....I blew it up on the computer until it was the right size. then I traced over the outline and then applied several layers of 2" clear tape so when I cut it out it would have a sturdy edge to trace off with...

Ty

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

Great work , you are a brave man painting over those teeth , its one of the best features of this plane but I admire your ability and willingness to make this your own .

Keep us posted and great job again

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

Here is an interesting Video I ran across. It on the Testors web site. It a video of the P-40N. Its a restored plane....

http://www.scaleworkshop.com/workshop/video19bg_1.htm

ty

bladerunner1955

My Feedback: (72)

Cool clip Ty! Hows the paint job coming? I just found the right shade of green I wanted for my P-40 at ACE Hardware. It comes in a camo combination pack. Here are some before and after of the elevator and retract covers. I am going over right now to get another can or two. As much as I like the big red nose this one will be the same color green as the rest of the plane. From Don Hofeldt the electric guy

fockewulf37

My Feedback: (102)

Well, I have not gotten much done this week. I have been really busy with family things. I was going to put sleaved pushrods in palce but I did not want to add supports in the fuse. I opted for fiberglass pushrods. I used the Dave Brown pushrods. They work really well and installed easily....

Ty

bladerunner1955

My Feedback: (72)

Check out who I just found while I was looking for a pilot for my P-40. I have been looking for one of these pilots for some time. I looked in Google for P-40 pilots and he jumped up at me.

warbird51

My Feedback: (12)

lookin good fockewulf37. I can't wait to see it all finished.[sm=thumbup.gif]

Wayne