butlern

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Hey, Chic.

Glad to hear from you again. No one has forgotten about you... we all know you're on the mend and taking a break from the planes.

Will be in touch soon. Looking forward to getting caught up again via phone.

Any word from Frank, lately? I should shoot him an email, too.

Noah

P-40BRB

I agree with the redtail your time to take photos and post a build like this is really time consuming. It offers new ideas that others may have not seen or tried, like the fiberglass bombbay doors. That is really sweet, I had a heck of a time getting the wood doors square for the long hinge line and if it ani't straight it don't work right. Your photos show very nicely how they should look when they are installed. Just a tip instead of using the recomended tiny wood screws to attach the doors to the plane we had to use bolts with nuts and lock tight to keep the Brison from beating the screws loose only at the fuse. Here are a few of the build photos that I took.

redtail

My Feedback: (15)

P40BRB, I remember talking with you up at WOD several years ago. I had just talked with Charlie and he sent me over to view your Avenger. Charlie was also interested in the Bird Dog I was building, since he was building a DAWG also. You and your father were sitting near your trailer and I walked up and talked with you both about the Avenger and took pictures. I followed your advice about shoring up several areas. I also talked with you and your father about your P-47 that I believe you said had an accident during the trip up from your home. Thanks for the input to our build. Like Noah, I have watched the video of your Avenger over and over again. That video alone is a great inspiration to say the least. Will follow your lead on the nuts/bolts with regards to attaching the doors to the fuse. I will be using a BME 116 for power. Hope Noah sends us a recording of how that round engine sounds in that Avenger of his. Smile. Chic

butlern

My Feedback: (15)

Chic, you bet I'll post video (with audio, of course). May not record the maiden, though... not sure if it's good luck or bad to have a camera there!

Brian, I am with Chic... the greater the input into this thread, the better this thread can serve as a resource for those who follow. We really appreciate your comments, hints and perspectives.

By the way, Brian, what material did you use for your raised panels/hatches and the trim around the windows? Looks like maybe 1/64th ply, but hard to tell from your photos.

Thanks,

Noah

P-40BRB

!/64 Ply is correct/ just add sig resin, sand add sig resin, sand then primer and sand then primer and then wet sand and then glue in place. Add just a few glue drops for rivets and its ready for paint when you paint the plane. You know the drill sand and sand again. The window frames are done the same way. The fuse has been cut out to accept the clear plactic windows flush with side of the fuse. Then the frame is just glued on over the opening. Maybe this photo will let you see the window details better. And here's another photo of the Avenger on display at the Kinston museum for veterans day.

butlern

My Feedback: (15)

Yes, just as I expected.

Now for the next questions... how did you make the hinges for the bombardier's compartment door? Those look dead-on scale, and I would like to duplicate you efforts on my plane. And where did you get your full-bodied 1/6 pilots? Did you paint and dress them yourself, or were those purchased off the shelf, as is?

Thanks!

Noah

P-40BRB

I forgot to tell you to make sure that you get some one to video tape your first flight. It will be a flight to remenber and then you will wish you had it on file so you can wonder why you were so nervous after seeing how good this plane flies. Take lots of photos too!! Just wait for a pretty day and don't rush after you finish the plane. My first flight which you have seen was not as uneventful as it looked. Look close and you can see that the right alerion linkage is hanging loose from the servo on the low flyby, basicly the whole flight was on one alerion. No problem it flew great with one. The other was about to fall off after inspection on the ground. Someone forgot to tighten and lock tight the servo screws on the entire wing not to call any names (ME)!!! Just flight check it out when you finish not once but twice. It will fly you will see!!!

P-40BRB

The hinges are just small robart horny hinges. I just glued a small hardwood block to the former at the door opening and drilled a hole for the hinge top and bottom. Don't glue the hinge to the plane, drill and tap a small hole for a small cap screw into the hardwood blocks to hold the hinges in place, that way you can adjust the door in and out for a good fit. The door has 1/64 ply tabs to cover the hinge from the door to the pivot point to the door, we also made the door side adjustable in the same manor.

The piolts I got off of e-bay, They are 1/6 scale from Blue Box Toys/ collectors items now some are very costly(60 to 210) but you can still find some out there. They come with all the trimings if you can find one still in the box.

lkahn4

Hi guys,
As another TBF fan ours is coming slowly but surely, Noah I still think your work is awesome. We started glassing the wings last week and sanded them tonight to get them ready for a second coat of resin. We do have a small problem that I'm going to contact Charlie about. After taking VERY careful measurements and tracing the cutout for the ball turret, lo and behold ther is almost a 1/4" gap between the fuse skin and the turret, though the position in height appears to be dead on. I will try and get pix taken before the weekend... we aren't happy with this and am trying to figure a way to remedy this, if you guys have a suggestion we would be forever greatful or at least for the time it takes to read it....only kidding
keep up the good work guys, you have given us something to strive for

Larry

butlern

My Feedback: (15)

Larry, upload some photos if you're able. I remember you stated that you were having problems loading photos on this site. Hopefully you've got that figured out.

Is it possible to just fill back in with some more sheeting to reduce the gap? Might not look pretty at first, but after sanding and filling no one will ever know!

Noah

butlern

My Feedback: (15)

Larry, I can now picture in my head what you're talking about... I suppose filling back in with more sheeting will then change the "height" of the sheeting relative to the turret. Almost sounds like the turret is too narrow, right?

Maybe you could split the turret into a left and right half, and then fill in between to space each side out closer to the fuse sides. Again, with careful masking to protect the panes, you could fill and sand and get it looking like a single part againt after painting.

Just a thought.

Looking forward to some pictures.

Noah

lkahn4

Hey Noah,
Great idea, never crossed our minds... thanks, pix to follow next week orr to bring my cam in

lkahn4

Hey Noah,
Here's some shots of our Avenger, not as good as yours but this is our first scale project, we are still on a huge learnign curve..LOL I attached some shots of the ball turret as well as some build photos. Are you going to Warbirds over new jersey, I just emailed Charlie to see if he would be there, would love to meet the other Avenger guys in person.
I will have to email you the pix, it keeps telling me the file is too big

Larry

butlern

My Feedback: (15)

Looking good, Larry.

I see exactly what you mean about the "narrow" turret now. Aside from making a new part, it looks like you may be able to just split it down the center as I suggested earlier. I think mine fits a little better for some reason, although I trimmed the basla too far and the "curve" of the balsa (that should wrap close to and tightly around the bottom of the circular rail in the turret window) is not a very good fit. However, my turret appears to fit the fuse better (wider, and closer to the sides). Maybe my sheeting is just wrapped around the fuse tighter. Although this is just as unlikely because we're all warpping the sheeeting to fit the formers.

Nevertheless, yours is looking great! You're also much further along than I thought you were.... you were sending me some old pictures, man. Unless you and your friend have been going at the build hard over the past few weeks!

Keep up the good work.

Speak with you soon.

Noah

P-40BRB

Just looking at your ball turret problem. I did not have any trouble with the turret fitting either. From the photo it is hard to tell but it looks like the front of the turret fits fairly well and then gets worse towards the rear of the plane. Have you taken a straight edge ruler and run down the fuse to see if the former behind the turret is larger than it should be. Check for a gap from the cokpit to the rear of the turret. It looks like the plane gets larger toward the rear but that may just be the angle of the photo. It is hard to believe that the ball turret it self is to small they should all come from the same plug, but I have seen some strange things in this wonderful hobby. Lets us know what you find. Your plane is looking great and for a first scale man you are doing super well!! Turret photo attached.

lkahn4

Thanks for the compliment, as far as I can remember all the formers were in the right place, I have attached another photo that might help. I thought I took the measurements wrong but going over Charlie's build photos I found one from one of his Avengers that has rubber gasket around the opening. I suspect he had the same problem with one of the builds. Noahs plane is coming out awesome and the photos of yours makes us strive to build even better... we didn't realize how time consuming and exacting scale building would be, but are loving every minute of it. We are hoping to see Charlie at the Warbirds over New Jersey on Aug 22nd.. If you get me your email address I will send you more photos, mine are too large to be able to attach more than 2 at a time. I am waiting for Charlie to get back to me about the problem.

Chat soon

butlern

My Feedback: (15)

Hi, Larry.

Snapped a few photos of mine, too (I set it in the fuse crookedly... so it looks a little goofy).

Not really having the same issues. Not sure why. As Brian said, they all should have been vaccuum formed using the same mold. Weird.

Mine could stand to be trimmed a little more (at the bottom, to get the turret to seat lower in the fuse), but it looks pretty much like Charlie's photo right now. I think after I trim the plastic a little more, and I add the rubber coping along the fuse edge as Charlie did, it'll look spot-on. The goal will be to get the circular framework in the turret to ride just above the cut-out in the fuse (Brian's photo shows this detail nicely).

Keep us posted on the fix.

Headed up to Oshkosh, WI, for the Air Venture show on Wed., so I'll only get a day or two to work on my Avenger this week. Looking forward to seeing some more real ones!

Best regards,

Noah

butlern

My Feedback: (15)

Hello again, Avenger fans.

Little more work done yesterday. I made the cut-outs and fitted the handholds on the left and right sides of the fuse. The plastic was provided by Charlie, and I just added a little 2-56 wire to finish them off. They are just dry fitted now. After glassing they will be glued in place and the edges made smooth with sanding and filler.

Next I worked out how I was going to tune the engine in situ. Again, the rear carb makes everything a bit more challenging. I decided to install two independent guide tubes so I could slip a fine-bladed screw driver into the tubes and it would find its way exactly to the H or L needle.

First step was to drill holes for the tubes into some hardwood blocks which were then mounted to the F-0 false firewall. Everything was checked with the motor attached so I could be sure that the tubes were correctly aligned with the needles.

Then the motor was removed and the F-0 firewall was mounted to the fuse. A drill bit was used to locate the holes that exit the fuse. The cowl ring is just balsa so drilling the holes went pretty fast even though I was using my fingers to turn the drill bit. After that, the tubes were inserted and checked for fit. The tubes were then cut so that the F-0 could be removed without disturbing either set of tubes. Doing it this way makes sure that everything remains aligned when the motor is mounted. Lastly, the ends of the tubes were sanded flush with the exterior of the cowl ring. After glassing, a little filler will blend these in so they will be hardly noticible.

The last thing I worked on was relieving the cowl ring where the collector ring exhausts exit. This is only rough-cut for now. Once I get some extensions on the stubs, I'll work on the finish sanding in this area.

Next steps will be to mount the cowl/motor so I can make final cuts up front. Then it'll be onto fiberglassing. I should be able to get to this very soon, although I'm leaving for WI now (Air Venture this week!!!), so will not be back to the plane until Sat. or Sun.

Best regards,

Noah

lkahn4

Hey Noah, as always excellent work... FYI, took Charlie's advise and raised the turret 1/4", then cut a 1/4" piece from the piece I had already removed from the fuse. Lo and behold, almost perfect, we will add a rubber coping around the opening aka Charlie (if you scroll through his CD you will see it)
We we're hoping to put a second coat of resin on the wings this week, but it doesn't look like schedules will allow for it. As of now, no work this week other than my fixing the turret problem
As soon as we get the wings done I will send you some more pix, very tough when 2 guys say they are bringing a cam then both think the other is... LOL
You plane is coming out awesome... as we get to the fuse details I'm sure I will have plenty of ?'s

Happy flying
LArry

thedeuce

Noah,

Great looking build, was going to let you know, if you need pictures or info for your build let me know. My father just retired last year and has been flying TBM Avengers(Used for Firebombing) for the last 27 years.

Cheers,

John

butlern

My Feedback: (15)

Much appreciated, John! Will let you know as I move closer towards the finishing stages.

Nothing really accomplished the past 1.5 weeks. Was away for most of the time, and my time spent on the Avenger was focused on the tail cone... still not satisfied with its shape. I'm certainly not sharing pictures of the mess I've made back there! Needs lots more work before I can move onto glassing.

Will post when things are back under control.

Noah

lkahn4

Hey Noah,
Glad to hear you made it back, we finally got the wings glassed and 2 coats of resin and the fuse door cut out... the door is not pretty but I think after we glass it ti will be fine. We're going to hook up with Charlie at Warbirds over NJ on the 22nd, can't wait. We are planning on telling the wives we're working Sat AM so we can get another 4 hours onto the plane ... it's so nice to have a place at work to build..LOL Will take my cam and send some pix Saturday PM.

Larry

redtail

My Feedback: (15)

Hi Guys, it has been great watching all the progress you have been making on the different Avengers being built. Be sure to know that I am taking notes about all the tips and hints that several of you have been giving on the forum. I can now raise my right arm up to about my shoulder. Can not lift most things yet but I feel the strength coming back into my shoulder. Hope to be back in the shop soon. Noah and Larry keep up the great effort and thanks for keeping this build thread alive. I expect you guys to finish this thread. I'll just send pictures to you of my Avenger when ever I do get to finish it. I'm staying tune for the updates. Chic

lkahn4

Hey guys,
Got the 2nd sanding of the wings done today as well as some spot puttying, yesterday we got the door and windows cut out as well as the filler pieces for behind the turret pix below I hope... hopefully we will get primer on the wings next Wednesday and then a final sanding before moving on to glassing the fuse, I have my fingers crossed, as usual my pix are too large for the site so I will have to do multiple posts
Larry

lkahn4

Let's try this again