1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

Since I was a young man I have always loved this plane. I remember watching the Wide World of Sports coverage on the World Propeller driven speed record. I also remember when it was lost but Steve Hinton was spared. Most of who were involved in the RB are gone now but I have corresponded some with Steve on his memories of it. The Contra Rotating prop setup has always been a Brick wall blocking my progress in the dream of modeling this plane.. Now , with the practicality of the electric power systems the dream is now a reality..
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I started with a ABC ( Already Been Crashed) Hangar9 Gen2 1.50 size P-51.
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...psa261330c.jpg
After stripping the covering and assessing the modifications necessary I progress to the first stage of filling the cockpit opening and building the turtledeck and modifying the vertical fin and rudder. This is going to be a stand off scale so I have taken some liberties and done some shortcutting here and there to keep from having to unbuild the plane to make the needed modifications..
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...psb698ff77.jpg
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Next mod was to build the air intake scoop to feed the Griffon engine. The scoop is similar to what was used on the P-51A but is larger.. I am also utilizing the scoop as a hatch for battery/switch access.
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...pse92bbfda.jpg
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...pse9311869.jpg

Next was the bottom cowl. No chin scoop on the RB so rather than try and modify the original fiberglass lower cowl I opted to make a new lower out of balsa planks. I went ahead and built it as a permanent fixture since the motor would drop in the from the top or the front.
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps0c4bf786.jpg

The power system is a Himax CR6320 contra motor. This is a 3600 watt power system on 8S.. The propeller are 20 X 10 3 blades from Zinger in a Pusher and Puller configuration. The spinners are a Zinger 4.5" for the front and a trimmed 5" No Limitz glass for the rear. The contours match up very well and produce the desired look..
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http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps42ff1258.jpg

So far this is up to where I am currently and will update as I progress..

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

Awesome Rickster...............what a great project.  Glad you have the skills my friend.  Gotta keep us posted.

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

I was there when the RB went down.....he hit the only pile of rocks on that desert floor. In those days there was not much security so a lot of us walked down the crash site (after Steve had been taken to the hospital) and poked around the still smouldering pieces....there was not much recognizeable.

This is an excellent project!! keep up the good work...!

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

I can't wait to see how the counter rotating props work!

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

Yer killin' me Rickster! The RB is my absolute favorite racer and I have been planning a model of it for 20+ years but something else always gets in the way. I even drew up the mods and cut the parts to modify a Dave Platt airframe that I had framed up. I have the "Red Baron" script all drawn up in AutoCAD and can laser cut you the stencils to paint it or provide the script in vinyl or Monokote depending on how you plan to finish the airplane. Let me know if I can help.

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

Really interesting project Rickster. I especially like the mess around the building board. It, unfortunately, reminds me of home:D

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

I clean the bench before I start covering but so long as work is being done and I know where everything is...Onward!!!!

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

This is an awesome project! Thank you for building a race plane for a change instead of the usual.... I would like to build a 'Learstang' among others!

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

The Rickster how about giving us the details on the setup for the counter rotating props?

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

Wow, I'll be following this one for sure! One of my favorite planes (I bought all three of High Planes' 1/72 variants). I'll be interested to see how it turns out. <div>
</div><div>Nice work so far.</div>

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

NO!! NO!!!!!!

Red Baron was a Fokker tri plane:-(((((((((((((((((

Les
:-)))))))))))))))))

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

Les, trust me he's dead he won't care. :D Besides Werner Voss was the better pilot any way. ;)


Just had to stir thre pot!!! :D

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

very nice project love the side view pic of the ship been thinking of kit bashing my old g/s mustang the same way allway loved that ship

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

Spent most of this weekend making my new mount for the motor and finalizing all the prop mounting and spinner drilling. Finally got all that done ..

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps9a1c97f7.jpg
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps1a7f1e83.jpg
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...psa032ed2c.jpg
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps4dd12a98.jpg
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...psbe95b149.jpg
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps7213e6ac.jpg

I set the fuse aside and am now stripping the covering off the wing to fix some damage and to look at the rib spacing to determine how much I am going to clip the wings. The RB was clipped to the 2nd rib bay according to my documentation so I am goiing to look at the spacing on the model and see what it comes out to.

My next hurdle is a retractable tailwheel. The Robart one for the TF is just too big for this model and the small one is too small.. I am leaning towards using a 60-90 size nose gear retract for the tailwheel..

Rick

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

Still debating on what to do with the wingtips.. Stuck it together to get a "Feel" for how it looks..

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...psa9071956.jpg

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

Wow, what a monster! This is looking very cool:D

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps8ba5f881.jpg

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

Looking good Rick. Am I the only one who wishes Photobucket hadn't messed around with their image linking?

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

Looking at those nose pics makes me think... it slices, it dices... lol This will be a pretty neat bird!

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

One of the 60 sized nose gears will be plenty. Yellow aircraft and Byrons used .60 sized nose gears as tailwheels for years and years.

RE: 1/5ish scale Red Baron RB-51
 

Finally ran across a pair of CCHV80 esc's so next step is tailwheel and batteries.. I have been working on the exhaust stacks.. Naturally the Griffon has a toatally different looking exhaust than the Merlin so I am in Fab mode making them.. I will post when I get something worthy of posting..



Rick

Got the tailwheel working...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ormYI...Q_RzstuP2tpq8A

Nice Tailwheel action!

Any further progress on this? It was very promising.

I am still owrking on it. I had a lot of work to do to the wing. One panel was sheeted with contest grade balsa and the other looked like it was sheeted with Cedar planks. I spent a lot of time with a 2 foot long T- bar filling and blocking the wing panel to get it smooth. I have finish filled and sanded the fuse as well and am fixing to start covering the fuse and wing.

Rick