I am putting the finishing touches on a Wing Mfg P-40b short kit. She is fiberglassed with PolyC and painted with Craft paint thinned with Windex and airbrushed. Top coat with Minwax polyurathane for fuel proofing. The craft paint turned out really well. I'll try to get some pics later.

Put her on the scales last night. Looks to be right at 5 lbs. dry with an OS 40 LA mounted upright in the nose. Was planning on using a 10x6 APC prop. Will this be enough motor for this airplane?


Thanks
Jim

should be ok I have the fw 190 with a fox 40 at 5 pounds with no problem.

fuse pics

Dang it Jim, you sure do good work!

Thanks Harold.

The P-40 has been extensively altered from the plans. Probably explains why it weighs 5 lbs. I added the wing filets. The plans originally called for a plastic turtledeck that included the canopy. I could never get it to fit properly. In addition, the P-40 should have the see through rear window to look right to me. So I cut off the canopy portion. then cut off the rear window portion. Tossed the left over and made a rear turtledeck out of floral foam and filler. I thought it came our really well once it was glassed. Couldn't do that with plastic covering.

Also, I painted it with the inexpensive craft paints that you buy in the craft section at Wal mart. Thinned it with windex and airbrushed it on. Once it was dried, I applied the decals, that I got from Brodak. The sharks teeth are part decal and part painted, since there is no way in you know what that you can get a decal around that complicated cowling. Once I was happy with the decals, I used a pencil to draw in the panel lines. To me it seems more subtle than using a marker. Then the whole thing got several coats of Minwax Polyurathane for fuel proofing. Finish on this model is pretty tough.

I also added hatches and things using hvac ductwork aluminum tape. And I used a brush on masking film to mask the panel lines on the canopy.

Its amazing how this plane came about. My original intention was to build a quick and cheap model that I could practice flying warbirds with. She has turned out to look ten times better than I ever expected. And without a whole lot more work.


Jim

Wing painted and decals on. Just had to put it together to admire. What do you think?

Looks sweet Jim! If it flies as good as it looks you'll have a real winner.

Hey Jim, nice job! Loved to see it as electric though, did it hurt to cut up that beautiful nose???????

Well, actually it did hurt. And to make matters worse, I am going to cut it up some more. She ended up a little tail heavy after all was said and done so gonna go ahead and bite the bullet and do an engine swap. Have already pulled the Tower 46 out of my other model and it will be going into the nose of the P-40 this afternoon.

As far as electric goes, Yes this would make an excellent electric airplane. I have already made a vow to myself that I will not be buying anymore IC engines and will make do for another year or so as I wait for the price of Electric batteries to come down enough for me to make the conversion.

The P-40 "b" model had a very different and distinctive nose as opposed to the later models. It had two 30 cal machine guns on either side of the carb scoop. All obliterated on my cowl by having a big ol smelly glow engine there.

But then again this is a stand way off scale model anyway so I went with simplicity of operation instead.

JIm

I'm building one and it was not easy , i cut the canopy and built a turtle deck , because
the aft section of the plastic wasn't even close, the wing doesn't match the saddle, but
i think the incedence is close, its just like a dynaflight , too much messing arround to get it right.ITS fairly light , because of the foam wing. What i also did is made a battery
box out of the lower cowl block , so i could have all the battery weight further foward,
i didn't worry about the contour , because it isn't scale. I put in wing bolts too.
THE area where the a rons , are,was too cramped inside, so i put the links facing undeneath, CRAZY !!!, THAT WAS THE DAY i almost lost all my patience.
yours looks real good, i doubt mine will. All i have to do is glass the wing and put the A rons on. A .46 sf for power, if it lasts the first flight, i'm gonna have it bronzed

how did you fabricate the fillets? they look good

I know what you mean Typhoonfury. I also put the battery in the cowl box right under the fuel tank. The turtledeck wouldn't fit for me either so I made mine out of floral foam with filler to smooth it out. Mine also has the wing held on with screws. The filet on the full scale P-40 is such a distintive feature that I just had to have one. It is not quite as hard to make as it looks. However, this is not the first one I have made. First thing you do is to get a good fit of the wing to the fuse. Does not have to be perfect though, If you have a little slack that is ok. Next, you cut strips of 1/32 plywood the outline of the filet where it meets the wing with just enough to be able to glue it to the bottom of the fuse. Then cover the wing with was paper, glue the plywood to the bottom of the fuse and bolt the wing up to it to hold it in place while the glue dries. Then you sketch the outline of the fillet on the fuse. Cut a piece of plywood to match the end of the wing to fair it back to the fuse. This piece is actually glued to the bottom of end of the first plywood pieces. Next you get some electrical tape and tape off the outline of the filet on the fuse. This is there so that you can sand without sanding into the fuse after the filler pieces are in.The next step is to fill in with foam blocks. Glue the foam to the plywood and the fuse but not to each other. I did that once and found that the glue joints when dried would not sand evenly. After the glue dries, sand the contour of the filet into the foam. After the rough contour is in, fill any imperfections with filler then sand again. After all the sanding is done, remove the electrical tape and you will find that the tape actually will leave a nice panel line where the filet begins.

I swapped out the LA 40 I had in her for a Tower 46. She came out quite a bit tailheavy so I figured I might as well make some added nose weight come in the form of more displacement. Even after that I still had to add 6 onces of lead. AUW dry came out to 5 lb 12 onces. Not too bad considering all the extras I added. Took her to the field today but with 15-20 mph winds and an inner ear infection I decided that I better not try it today. I did taxi her down the runway a few times. Sure looked pretty out there. Well maybe next week. Here are some finished pics I took before swapping out the engines.

Had her first test flight yesterday. With the TH 46 and an 11x6 MAS prop she flew right off. Gave her throttle gradually and with just a little right rudder she tracked straight down the runway. I let her build up speed to the end of the runway before gently lifting her off. Trim was real close as she flew out without too much input. As she gained speed at WOT, she started to climb fairly quickly. Had to add several clicks of down trim. Flew the circuits a few times and with a couple of clicks of right aileron she was flying hands off at about 3/4 throttle. At this throttle setting, I pulled her up into a big loop and then did a roll. Noticed that my engine was running a little on the lean side so just flew the circuit for about 5 minutes then prepared for the dreaded landing. I chopped the throttle on the base leg and let come around. Lined up on the runway and let her settle down. Did not notice any tendency to tip stall. But I missed the runway and landed on the short grass. Unfortunately, I used some wire that was too soft for the landing gear and they bent in the grass and she ended up on her nose. Since I was in the grass, no harm was done. Bent the legs back into position and put back for the day. After reviewing my flight, I have to say that she flew very well, was stable and solid in the turns. Roll rate was good. The big loop was pretty. I think if I had hit the runway, the landing gear would have been alright. I may leave them in there for a while. I would rather the wire bend than the gear mounts rip out of the wings. I was really happy with the flight. I get really nervous flying a new plane. Especially a new warbird that I have spent so much time on. I dont think I will stress as much over the next flight now that I know how well she flies. Would recommend this one as a good fun scale warbird.

Jim

Jim,

Congratulations on the maiden. My knees always shake on a maiden, especially with a warbird. It's one of the biggest rushes you can get legally! After that first landing (a good one) you can't beat it!

Your P-40 looks great by the way. That Tower Hobbies 46 is an awsome engine. My Dad has one in a Contender (40-60) and it just screams.