RE: B-24J project
I haven't been working on it very much lately. I promised my wife that it would take a lower priority this summer on my "to do list". I did get in a little time to build a second A-6 turret and the top turret though. I need to update the site and post that. This fall I'll get back to work and get it done!
I really want to get the motors and all but decided to wait until the finishing is, well, finished because like everything electronic, the prices keep falling and the quality gets better. At this point i'm going with brushless outrunners, figuring 200-250 watts each turning 3 blade Vario-props and powered by 11.1v, 3s2p, 4200 mAh Lipos in each nacelle to keep the wires short. That also saves about a half pound.
The CJM retracts are nice but not very scale. They are built well and strong with thick cast and machined aluminum parts that provide good thread support for the allen screws and pins. In a hard landing i'm pretty sure that they would rip out the wood mounting before they failed. My only complaint is the torque links are pop rivited in and bind a bit and need working in but not a real big deal. They came with a oleo strut on the nose wheel but the instructions that came with them showed a standard wire strut bent in such a way that would probably work with the normal mounting (similar to what's shown on the plans) but I went with the oleo because it was there. I haven't actually hooked up the air to them and cycled them yet but they seem smooth. The gear are kind of clunkly looking and the main gear yokes seemed over built so I cut and ground them down to a more scale outline and plan on rounding them and also the nose gear yoke. I think they will still be plenty strong. In short, my opinion is that the gear is not very scale but they look plenty strong enough.
Mark