stang151

Thanks,, The bird was a lot of fun. Taped off the pnl. lines and sprayed with Pactra R/C car paint, weathering also. Clear coated with Lusterkote clear (gloss over alum, flat over the colors). Did not put gap seals , mabye I should.

Flight 21

Excellent. I like the gray panel lines much better - more scale look. So with the clearcoat you used Lusterkote right out of the can?

stang151

Yes . It's the only Lusterkote I spray ,the color stuff not much good out of the can. I hear some people have good luck with the color but not me. This plane was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. Started looking around for the next one.

goedhartige

Hey Stang151,

Great job on your bird, it really really looks good... and it's nice to hear this warbird flies like on rails...
I have a few questions about your details:

-do you tape off the panel lines on both sides, and spray in between, or do you tape off one side, and airbrush the line from the front to the back (so it fades?)
-what size or type decals did you ordered from Major Decals? Are they 1/6 scale?

stang151

I taped off both sides and spryed in the middle. I went back later with a lighter grey and added the weathering. Somewhere back in this thread I posted some shots on how I did it. I dont remember the sizes for the stars and bars. they are not 1/6 scale and not realy the right sizes for the bird but look better than the kit ones. Oh, I had to back up the fuse stars&bars with white trim sheets, the black and white bands bleed through.

RBean

I went with the advice I got here and scraped the gasser idea for this plane. Installed my OS .91. I hope it is enough power. Plane is all together except decals and retracts. Have ordered Spring Air 703 retracts. About three weeks ago. Hope they show up soon. Weight of plane less retracts, air tank and retract servo is 8 lbs 12 oz. I hope final weight comes out at around 9.5 lbs or so. Plane went together well except for the tail wheel steering arm which I had to replace.

CGAV8R

My Feedback: (2)

The OS .91 is a good choice. I run a 13X6 prop, same brand as you have and performance is good.
Good luck on your maiden.
Aaron D.

Airnondas

My Feedback: (6)

For everyone who has built this plane and does not wait for spring to maiden because of the snow.
Here is the alternative, have a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yJi_mQPaI8

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Airnondas.

Airnondas

My Feedback: (6)

Hi Corsair Jock

Thanks for the great comment regarding my clip on YOUTUBE, on the picture above you see my Topflite P-51 and the Hangar 9 Bluenose, belongs to my buddy.

Here is the video of the Maiden of that Bluenose, both our stangs run on YS 110FZ power.

Here is the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/user/555Bb555.../1/M7Hlc-GyOBU

______________________________________

Airnondas.

Flight 21

Another question Stang: Did your strut scissors clear the gear bays? I am having trouble with mine hanging up on the backside of the opening when they retract. I know I need to slightly rotate the retract body - and this will help but I'm not sure how much. I saw you rotated yours too - do you have good clearance - Clarence? (name that movie) I assume it is a tight fit when retracting...

stang151

What's your vector Victor? No, I have had no problems with the struts clearing, they are an OLD set of Robostruts so I don't know if they have changed the design or what.

Flight 21

Okay roger, Roger. Actually I realized that the reason I am having trouble is because I bought a Robart knock off version of 3/8" (or so) struts that have offsets that will accept up to 4" wheels - and because of this the scissor is higher on the strut which causes it to get caught on the wing when retracting. Boy that was a mouthful! Did I get that out right? I might actually go ahead and buy the Robart struts to avoid cutting into the wing. However I really want to use my 3 1/2" wheels so i would have to grind on the Robart 3 1/4" offset struts to make them accept the 3 1/2" wheels. Anyone done this yet?

Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?

Flight 21

CJ - I know that you are using the 3 1/2" Dave Brown wheels on the 3 1/4" Robart struts - can you tell if the struts could be modified (grinded) a bit to accept Robart 3 1/2" wheels?

Thanks...

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

I am using Dave Brown wheels: advertised at 3 1/2" dia but actually a little smaller (maybe 3 3/8'?). ALL Dave Brown wheels are smaller than advertised sizes. I think it is the same for most manufacturers, but you would have to check.

RBean

I finally got in Robart 700RS air up spring down retracts. These are Robo strut ready and take 7/16" struts, a pair of which I already own. Spent two days here during the blizzard installing them. Almost finished with the plane. Put in on the CG meter to see where I needed to put battery. You guys were not kidding in discouraging the gas engine. Even with the OS 91 FS installed, its nose heavy and will require putting the 2500 mha 6V NiMHA back in the tail under the horizonal stablizer. I think there is room. Really don't want to add dead weight. Total weight about 9.5 lbs. I reinforce the gear mounts by adding hard wood. Ground down the forward mount to give the gear a little more forward rake and am using 3.5 inch Robart wheels.

RC-CAKES

My Feedback: (4)

Nice... looks kinda like my plane!

good job

ece8893

Guys, I have a query to send and would like to hear your feedback.  Ihave a World Model P51 Mustang size 46.  Engine is OS 55AX 2-stroke.
I installed a Tru-turn spinner 3" and a 3-blade 13x8 propeller. 

Is this alright or am I going to kill my engine?

Anybody try 11x8 3-blade on P51 size 46 ?


Thanks in advance.

mimoore67

My Feedback: (51)

I could post some pictures of your hard wood reinforcement and tell how you ground down the mounts to achieved the forward rake on the gear. I really like the stance of your Mustang.

JoeMamma

I have 2 different .40 size World Models P-51's. One is 9 years old, the other is 10 years old. They are both powered by O.S. 70 4-strokes and 13x8 2-blade props. This is a real powerhouse package in these planes.

Why are you using a 3-blade prop ? A 4-blade is scale. My advice would be to use a 12x7 or 12x8 2-blade prop. A 13x8 3-blade on a 55AX is WAY too much prop.

Joe M.

JoeMamma

I've been flying my warbirds from a grass field for a long time. Sometimes the grass was much too long. With the centerline of the front wheels located under the wing, takeoffs were always a handfull, especially if the grass was uncut and tall. The grass doesn't seem to effect my bigger 80"+ warbirds, only the smaller ones. About ten years ago one of our club members told me to try raking the landing gear forward about an inch or more to improve both takeoffs and landings.

My first attempt was to grind down the original hardwood rails to attain a rake. I couldn't get the angles exact, so when the landing gear was tightened down, it put the gear mounting points in stress. My next flight resulted in cracking the gear housing.

I have used the following method in 10+ warbirds with great success.

Get yourself a strip of 1/4"x1/2" hardwood. Do you have access to a table saw or bandsaw with a tilt table ? If not, find someone who does. This will also take some careful layout before cutting.

When cutting the new hardwood, try to make the trailing edge of the rear block about 1/4 inch+ high. Your layout marks should make the front edge of the front block almost to a pointed razor edge.

By kicking up the rear block about 1/4" you will rake the wheels forward about 1+". The angle in my graphic may be a little steep, but I think you get the picture. You can also increase the thickness of the new blocks beyond 1/4" for additional rake. Using this method will allow the gear housing to mount perfectly flat, with no stress points to either the new rail blocks or the landing gear housing. Be sure to epoxy the new blocks to the original blocks.

I know this knocks the heck out of scale looks, but it works well, especially on smaller models flown from grass.

Not to add complexity to this procedure, but on my own Top Flite P-51, the original gear rails were out of parellel (up/down) by about 1/16". This allowed the gear to rock on the rails. Take this into consideration when doing your layout marks on the new blocks.

Joe M.

ece8893

Thanks Joe for the reply and recommendation.

RBean

Mimoore67,

Didn't take any pictures of work in progress. I cut and carved hard wood to fit above both the front and rear rail. As far as cutting down, I just eyeballed it a little at a time cutting with moto tool. Then when I got things looking about right, I put release agent on the retract mounting flanges and use Brownell's Acuglass gell (for glass bedding rifle stocks) to get perfect fit between mounting blocks and retract mounting flanges. Just tightened them down snug, not enough to warp or put retracts in a bind. After 12 hrs, gell is hardened and you can tighten down as much as you like with out putting bind on retracts. Acuglass not only creates a perfect fit between the wood and retracts, it strenghtens the wood.

stang151

A couple of in flight shots, a friend at the field has a great camera and knows how to use it .

JoeMamma

stang,

Nice pictures !

I noticed a couple of nice scale touches. What color covering did you use on the rudder ? A nice scale touch.

Like you, I wanted to add some exhaust streaking. Was this done with an airbrush or chalk pencils.

Joe M.

stang151

Ultracote Cub Yellow. Used an airbrush. The info is in the thread here somewhere. 13 flights under her the only prob. ,other than working out the usual retract/strut issues, has been that I just broke the tailwheel steering arm on this last flight.