GSP Giant P51D ARF build and modifications
 

Hi Guys

I made an inpulse buy earlier this year when I saw a 96" ARF P51 on "Fee" Bay, it is sold as a Giant Scale Planes P51 in the US and a later version here in Australia by Austars Models.

I think these were prepoduction models as the quality is absolute cr@p however as I only paid $300 for it (Austars is $1200) I thought it would be a good basis for modifying into something reasonable as I already had a set of retracts and engine that would suit.
The model had a fibre glass fuse with sheeted wings covered in heat shrink film and painted, the fit and finish was lousy with the big gaps in the flaps and ailerons and the retract mounts a joke (a small sheet of 3mm ply to screw to)

Photo of model as sold attached


The fuselarge fibre glass was paper thin so the first step was to add another layer of 2 oz cloth to the rear fuz and some 6oz forward of the wing saddle and apply plenty of Hysol to the engine box and reinforce with extra ply.
The horizontal stab was designed to be removable however the fit was rubbish so I modified and fixed the stab on and blended the fillets in with filler, fiber glassed and filled.
The rudder looked like something of an Extra 300 aerobatic model, completely the wrong shape and weighed a ton...... so I made a new rudder frame and covered it with fabric solartex film.......now half the weight and a better shape.

The wings were stripped of the film covering and the bottom sheeting removed as I had to build in new U/C mounts to suit the Custom Retracts, new ply ribs installed and hardwood rails and all this was glassed in place. The wings were then covered in 1/4 oz glass cloth and glassed over, the control surfaces modified for better fit and panel lines and rivets applied .
The original plan was to do a quick fix and get this thing flying as a "daily hack" but I thought it would look naff without some scale detail so I ordered a cockpit kit and nonmenclature from Meister and applied rivets to the fuselarge. Paint masks were supplied by Aeroart decals (Peter Love) in Aust and I am waiting on a set of exhaust stubs from Tony Howard just to finish the model off. The wing looked "nude" so I made the gun ports and added the aileron linkage blisters, panel and rivet lines, ammo hatches etc

After 6 months of work it is looking far more presentable with most of the painting complete, I had a 6" spinner and 3 blade prop "in stock" which should suit the 3W80 under the hood.

A few things left to finish including the exhausts stacks, cockpit kit and final fit out

Stay tuned for more progress

Al.

RE: GSP Giant P51D ARF build and modifications
 

Looking good Al, I was wondering how this model was progressing. Give me a yell when you have it down at PARCS. Cheers Trent.

RE: GSP Giant P51D ARF build and modifications
 

I had one of those. It was a terrific flyer. Only vice was that it WOULD drop a left wing if you got her too slow on landing. I had a ball with it until it crashed while being stupid and doing an aileron roll with full flaps and retracts down:D. I musta had 200 touch and gos with the baby. Enjoy.

Jeff

RE: GSP Giant P51D ARF build and modifications
 

Hi Jeff.........that's great to know that it is a good flyer !
After all the problems with the build quality (poor fit and finsh and thin fuselage f/g) the incidence on the wing and tail plane turned out fine with just a minor incidence issue of 1 degree between the left and right wings . This will trim out with some aileron deflection

Should be ready to fly in a few weeks

stay tuned

chers

Al.

RE: GSP Giant P51D ARF build and modifications
 

G'day Trent

I might be down at Parcs on Sat morning if the WX is OK ............I'll give the ugly SBach aerobatic thing a fly

I'll send you a text if I'm down there

cheers

Al.