This thread will detail my composite building methods duringa simultaneous lay-up of 3different fuselages for the purpose of scale air racing.

This begins in response totrying toensure I have plenty of race planes in the hanger to get me through therace season,and to make the most of my3 weeks of Spring break, I decided to try laying up 3 fiberglass fuselages and cowls simultaneously. Since re-appearing on therace scenewith my composite P-47 a couple weeks ago, I have had a few of my friends ask if they could watch how I lay-up a composite fuse, but some of them are working while I am trying to complete this project, and I have a really small workshop anyway, so I thought I'd take pictures and share the process in this forum, instead. This way, any and allwho might be interested can follow along.

Please realize that I am self-taught. I am a schoolteacher by-trade, not a fabricator. I certainly do<u>NOT</u> claim that this is the best way tocomplete this process.These aremerely methods, that through trial and error (an there has been alot of error!),and<u>NO</u> specialized equipment,give me relatively good results and mostwho see thework view it as successful.While I appreciate feedback on my methods, that is not my intentin this thread. I am merely sharing my methods with my fellow club members and several friends I've made from out of town that are nice enough to regularly attend S.A.M.'s warbird races,that have asked me to do so.These are the reasonswhy I am posting in this forum, rather than in the Composites Fabrication and Repair forum.

There is a "learning curve" to the compositefabricationprocess. Ihave only made 8 fuses, at this point;so I am still learning each time I make a fuse. And yes, IDO have an alterior motive: My hope is that if I share what knowledge I have acquired thus far, perhaps I can shorten that learning curve for others a little, and more of my friends will feel that they can be successful too. The more of us that try this form of modeling, the more our skill sets grow,the more we can all learn from each other, and the bigger the variety of modeling/racing subjects we will see out there. So while I apologize in-advance for my P-51 (Tommy Gun), my intent is to see less ARF P-51s at those races!

So Casey, Dick, Spencer, Steve, and a few others, and Jake who was asking if there were any more of these models coming out
. . . here we go!

I will be attempting the lay-up a P-39, a P-47, and a race-modified P-51 and their respective cowls and other details, all at the same time. I intend to race each of these planesin the Silver class of S.A.M. Warbird Racing events, but they would also be capable of Gold speeds with the right combination of pilot and nitro. (In fact, Dave Sullivan flew my last P-51 to a Gold class victory in the 2008 President's Cup V race.)