Welcome to the family.
Dom

Thanks for the photo John! It looks as something has been painted on the cowling, which leads me to believe you may have indeed documented the markings included.

Luke and HalH (Hal is also a Tail-Hooker) have pioneered the way to transform this from an ARF into a BARF (Bashed And Ready to Fly)!!! You'll find both these gentlemen are a wealth of info, and the best part is they share with all the goobers like me! There's also lots of good ideas here from others...sure makes it hard to resist!

I hope to be posting some of the work have I done on mine soon. I am using Robart 615's with Robostruts, used the original late model windscreen from the kit with Luke's canopy, and have made a few short cuts on the control surfaces and the horizontal stab attachment...Basically, I too have been bitten by the bashing bug....

Thanks Dom.

I've been in contact with Hal and Luke. They are indeed a wealth of info. I also look forward to reading about your work as well. Due to lack of skills and time, my Hellcat will only be slightly bashed, or at least that's my plan for now. Reading this thread is like looking shopping for a new car -- the more options I see, the more I want.

John

FYI, Zinger has a line of three-blade props that don't cost an arm/leg and which fit right into the engine sizes which this Hellcat uses. The center hub is 2" diameter.
http://www.zingerpropeller.com/index.htm
Jim

Stopped work on the fuselage for a bit to do some more work on the cockpit kit. First picture shows the parts I have now, I molded the instrument panel separate because it makes it easier to paint and it’s more realistic. I added a hydraulic handle to the floor and some other small details. Next is the finished instrument panel, notice I added the checklist and landing gear up down placard. I’ll show more pictures of the whole thing because the color got messed up on my last ones. The instrument panel looks so good in the plane, every Hellcat needs one! It really stands out because of the almost total lack of overhang on the antiglare shield. Again I’m molding this one out of .015 styrene and it weighs almost nothing, although the seat is molded in .040.

Dion

Mighty nice Luke!!! Have you determined what size pilot( full figured ?) you are going to be using yet since you are doing a full cockpit? What size do you think will fit?
Also, I got my stuff today- thanks again!!
John

Another home run. Looks great! Did you make the instrument decals too? Put em up for sale!!! puhleeze! LOL

For those of you who can get it, The Military Channel is airing a program on the Hellcat. 30 mins of everything you ever wanted to know, old color footage, gun camera, production footage....It's Hellcat Heaven.

Luke, NICE WORK on The COCKPIT! I keep looking for the cockpit "Buy it Now" button on your products page...my click finger is twitching....

nice work on the Hellcat bash Luke.
that cockpit looks great, too bad its too small for
my Ziroli Hellcat .

Thanks John and you're welcome I'm not saying anything about a pilot yet!

Thanks! Yes I make the instruments! ....and... YES, I'll sell them! Happy now?

LOL! I got ya covered C.P.! Won't be long!

Yea, just a tad small! As everyone knows I'm not a fan of the Ziroli Corsair but if I could look at the plans of the Ziroli Hellcat I might be able to make a cockpit kit for that one, it's not a bad looking plane. Got a lot of other projects I got to do first though!



Sliding canopy time, have to get this installed so I can finish priming and sanding the fuselage. I came up with a way that is as close to scale as I could get, it functions very much like the full scale canopy rail system. Full scale used rollers in a track, this could not be duplicated exactly. I used a length of HO scale track rail on each side, it looks very scale. With this system the bottom rail of the canopy will bulge out a bit just as the full scale one did.

Make your brackets from 1/8� bras square stock, cut a slot in a length of it first then cut out 4 pieces about 3/16� in length each. I soldered them to a strip of thin brass sheet, about 1/8� from each end of the brass sheet.

Next mark out the track line on the fuselage and cut a small slot with your dremel and a small disk bit. The track rail will snap into the slot and be somewhat held in by the flange at the top of the rail. The larger bottom flange on the rail is the one you want hanging out of the fuselage.

I drilled some holes in the brass to help with glue adhesion, Cut some strip of 1/32� ply spacers that are the same size as the brass sheet pieces. Glue these to the inside of the brass sheet as shown in the picture.

Next cut 2 slots on the bottom corners of your canopy, the brass sheet rail guides are glued to the outside of the canopy.

I left my canopy intact and slid in on from the front, gluing the front of the canopy to the fuselage. This makes alignment a snap, just use your dremel to cut the frame when the glue dries.

To finish it I’m going to install a strip of Flight Skin to the brass and also I’ll add 2 vacuum formed fairings to the front of the tracks. It also needs a ply frame added to the opening frames to stiffen them.

Dion

Luke,
Amazing work yet again! I just ordered your canopy, gear door covers, and dummy radial. Now I'm ready to sign up for an instrument panel too!

I received my Hellcat today. Everything arrived in good order, now I just have to start stripping off the covering.

I noticed the fuselage had a bit of a soft area slightly forward of the vertical stab. Has anyone else experienced this and if so, how did you address it. I thought adding some fiberglass to the area, but figure you guys might have a better idea.

Thanks,
John

The area that you found was soft is probably just a space between the outside skin and a former. I found several spots where there were gaps between the formers and the fuselage. If you cut off the tailcone, you will be able to see the problem. I would not recommend adding glass ! To use Lukes cockpit kit you will have to cut the stock cockpit out and remove some material on the inside.

OK, what is Luke going to come up with next? Let me see.... hummmm...I got it! An automated gound support crew to service his hellcat once the plane lands Luke, you are amazing with your talent! Keep on keepin' on brother!
For those of you who are using CJ retracts with 4 inch wheels, are your wheels sticking out above the surface of the wing at the trailing edge about 1/4 to 1/2 inch? I dont see that there is anything I can do about it tho. My retract mount is below the balsa sheeting by 1/4 inch or so at the leading edge and gets even lower as it goes toward the spar (using the stock hardwood pieces supplied that I have not glued in yet) Did any of you change the hardwood out to get your retract mount even with the balsa sheeting? Or what did you do to solve this?
Thanks!
J

Thanks Hal. I'll look at the area again. The soft area seems to be between formers.

BTW...I ordered the retracts today from Darrell at Sierra. Thanks for the tips.

John

Thanks John! I'll have more than an instrument panel, it'll be a whole cockpit kit!

lol I don't need anymore ideas! I'd like to finish this thing! Thanks buddy!

Well to keep this thread alive a little I'll post some pictures so you can all keep up on my build/bash/ARF! I've been doing the plumbing, hooking up the rudder, elevator and installing the tail wheel. The slow stuff that makes it look like you aint done nothin!

Just some general shots of the fuselage, notice the panel lines. I'll finish the radio installation before I add the final panel lines, hatches and rivets. Look at the outline scale jugdes! For an ARF it sure looks good!

I used some PC board to hold the rudder torque rod stable. One area I'd like to comment on is the tail wheel steering, I'm not running any plastic tubing or any cable. Most people over do this area especially on the smaller models, adding to much weight. I just use fishing line and that's it! If it breaks big deal!

The canopy is cut out so that just the frame is left, then I glued in the clear part. This will strengthen it for the sliding operation.

Keep those projects going people! Let's see some pictures![8D]

Dion

Dion I have to put on a bib when I read this thread....way too cool man...

Darren

Luuuuuke.... my knees are getting sore from bowing down to you. That sliding canopy is wicked awesome. I knew when it had been a couple days since your last post, there must be good things brewin'. Boy was I way off... these last 2 photo sequences are just phenominal. If you're making the cockpit kit avbl, I'm buying... and doing the entire bash to mine.

Bravo,
Tom

hey Luke , that is fantastic !!! The fuse lines look great !
I hope you deside to sell your interior kit , the one offered by Dynamic balsa is an adolesnat attempt compared to yours .

I am just about to start my build , got all your stuff except the interior , can I please get a copy of the plans for the wood mods , I will gladly pay for them ,
Thanks
Lou

Received Luke's canopies, and they look superb. I'm impressed. Shame on CMP for supplying the kit with a crappy looking canopy in the first place.

Rich are going to make the mods to the kit ?

Just a few minor mods, such as canopy, retractable tailwheel, and probably shorten the wing. I won't go into the extreme since I want to get it up in the air as fast as possible. Afterall, I'm more of a flyer than a builder

Thank you all for the praise, believe me though, I'm as exited as you guys are about how this thing looks! I thought I saw a Hellcat under that factory finish! Daren and Tom... lol!

I will make the cockpit available to whatever degree you want to make your cockpit. You can still cut the fuselage and add a few small formers and do a partial cockpit with my canopy and not mess up the original paint.

Lou, I'll get some drawings together for you so you can add the wood mods to your project, no problem.

Thanks Richard, I'm sure you'll love the way she looks with the new canopy. Those will be easy mods, you can still use the stock finish on all of them no problem. Richard is a great flyer, love those video's! I've moved more to the building side of the hobby in recent years, it used to be about 50 flights or more a week for me back in the day, but not anymore. It's a great hobby and it has something for everyone that loves aviation.

Man, I can't wait to paint this baby![8D]

Thanks Luke , your always first class , I wish you take on my favorite plane -the P40

I have had one of these kits sitting in my warehouse for a few months. Reading this thread created enough stir in me to get off my lazy butt and start putting it together. This is the second one. My friend Jim built the first, to the directions, and utilizing a Saito 100 it performed flawlessly and flew great. Mine will be a little more scale than the first one we flew. I ordered the after-market parts last week and they arrived in a just a few days. The quality is great and they fit as good as the originals. It took me about 30 minutes to strip the covering off the ARF and the wood construction underneath is excellent. I am using a set of CJM retracts which were designed for the Pica Corsair (OOP) and they seem to be a perfect fit. I only had to trim the mounting blocks about a 1/32 inch to get them to fit inside. I will be using a 2 3/4 inch wheel, which I think will look about right. My is powered with a trusty old OS 1.20 which should be more than enough power to chase down those pesky Zeros.
Now I have to find a cockpit kit...hint..hint... for it and I will probably order one of the full body pilots that CJM used to offer. With a little detail it will look great under the new glass.
Tommy

2 3/4" wheels? Scale is close to 4" since the full size has 32" wheels.