You know how to hurt a guy while he's at work, dont you Hot Rod? HEHEHE!!
Looks GREAT!!
Later, John

Hal Have you weighed the tail wheel asm? I need to make one for a Platt Spit. I have an air twa , just like to compair. Thanks Rich

Don't know about Hal, but mine is 1 1/2 ounces or 44 grams. What does the air twa weigh? Just for comparison my 1/8 scale Corsair tail wheel for my F2G weighs 2 1/2 ouces, look at the difference in size.

The tailwheel weighs 1.5 oz.

Hal and I are very close to paint, right now I’m creating the patterns for the stencils that we are going to have custom cut. My aircraft is going to be painted to represent Alexander Vraciu VF-16 aboard the Lexington aircraft #32.

For the rear cockpit windows I glued in some clear plastic from the inside using RC56 canopy glue. I just used some masking tape to hold it in place overnight to dry. Next I painted the radio compartment bulkhead white and weathered it with some charcoal. After sealing it with some flat clear I glued it in place with epoxy. Notice that the frames are clearly visible in the window, this is how they were on the full scale.

My air retract weighs 3.5 oz with a 2 in tire and about a foot of air line. I guess that's not to bad it is 1/5 scale. Need to find a shinner 2in tire . The Dubro is to fat. Thanks Rich

Been kind of taking a break from the Hellcat to finish another project that I have been wanting to do for a long time. A pilot to fit my Corsair and Hellcat cockpit kits! I am going to show him as he is roughed out, detail work and refinement is yet to be done. What I did so far was work on his posture and make sure he fits right in the cockpits. As Ram-bro pointed out in his observations, the pilots are leaning forward and not relaxing on the back head rest! No doubt paying attention to the flying of the aircraft and looking for the enemy.
My pilot will be hollow cast in resin, so should be very light. When and if I am satisfied with my sculpture I'll pour a silicone mold. So stay tuned, will I like it or chuck it?

Dion

That looks like a "winner" to me. Keep truckin man we are all anxious to see him finished.

This is a picture of my CMP knockoff. It has CJM retracts and a Saito .125. I have had several of the same issues that have been noted in this thread. Landing this plane has been an issue for me. It has six flights on it, and three landings have hit pretty hard. I have tried to get the speed up but have yet to figure out the problem. It was entered in the Fun Scale Mint Julep competition at Rough River State Park, Kentucky, last weekend. Flight was good but in the second round crashed into the flight line after a bad hop and poor recovery on my part. It did hold up very well to the impact into my field box; my field box has been trashed but the plane is repairable. It doesn't seem to do very well in winds over 10 mph and it may be too light for its size. The original wheels that came with the model shattered on the second hard landing during practice, and I had some 2-3/4" Dubros that are shown in the pic. I had robart mechanicals in it that broke after the maiden flight. The canopy can be stripped using acetone with no discoloration, so it has been repainted. Model master paint and Top Flight Lustercoat flat clear, 1 very light coat (should have used 2 coats). The "Pistol Packin' Airdale" decal was done on a ink jet printer with testors decal paper. My dad machined the spinner out of stainless. Pilot is a Slimline bust. I have had several formers come loose due to poor glue joints, and all the hardware that comes with it is junk. Since it was flaking as I assembled, I painted over the existing paint after sanding/scraping . It needed 9+ oz in the nose not including the spinner which was 3 oz. The instructions are useless. The last couple of pages were missing from the instructions (including CG information) so I had to go to the Giantscaleplanes website to print out the rest. I put two servos on the elevator, because there was an extra hole in the servo tray that needed a servo. This was my first ARF so I don't know if these are typical issues, but as much time was invested, I should have just bought a kit.

Matt,

Those problems have been talked about pretty extensively. My advice is to look at this thing as a kit, that way it's a great value. Most ARF's are just that in my opinion. Just the fiberglass fuselage for a kit this size costs $250, canopy and cowl is another $45. The CMP Hellcat is a good starting point for a nice plane, cutting six inches off the wing will solve the floating problem. Never did hear about the landing problems like you have, but that could be helped with more practice by the pilot maybe?!

I would always go the extra money to get the geniuine CMP instead of the knock off. I also would not use the CMP CG on the knock off plane. Use one of the many CG calculators and take some measurements. I'd guess your CG needs to be moved forward if your plane is landing hard.

Todd, what is so different about the two planes, don't they come from the same mold basically? The parts are interchangeable, so I can't see how they could be different enough to have a different C of G.

They are the same plane made by the same company just sold in different places by different companies. THe supposed "knock offs" are older versions without the improvements of the newer kits.

Maybe the Hellcat is the same, some others like the .40 Zero are much different. I know Raidentech sells both Hellcats, they list different manufacturers and about $50 difference in the price. I can't say I have had both in my hands to know the exact difference though. As far as the CG goes, It is risky to use CMP CG figures even on thier own planes. They sometimes are a bit off the mark.

Dion, you are a "True craftsman" love your pilot figure. Put me on the list for one. What scale is he anyway? At the rate your going, you will be producing kits b4 to long.......

Thanks Bro! You got yourself a free one dude! Along with Hal for the encouragement! And also you participated in the process with your input, so it's the least I could do.

He is 1/8, made to fit in my Hellcat and Corsair cockpit kits. I'm now ready to pour the mold, so please wish me a bubble free pour!!![:-]

Here is the final sculpture, being a perfectionist I could work on it for months, but you just have to quit. I think it'll be a great addition to the cockpit once assembled and painted. He will be having his lower legs and grip hand molded separately.

I took my Hellcat to the field a few days ago...a knock-off...not CMP. Fiberglassed the wing, CJ retracts, repainted etc....
Long story short I found that at 127 mm CG the plane flew tail-heavy...started to baloon on me.
Elevator was very sensitive and needed quite some down elevator to get get a semi-ok flight. With wheels down it flew much better.

Put some more weight into the Cowl (epoxied lead into the lower section) and trimmed at 122 mm CG.

Any feedback re CG's on the Hellcat ?

Pete

Hi
Can anyone tell if the CMpro Hellcat is covered in painted film or fabric. Also what other differences are there between the CMpro and the knock off copy. Think I may have a knock off copy

Geoff

Thanks for the CG info Pete. I usually like them a tad nose heavy for first flights just in case, I'll mark that down in my instruction book.

Don't worry Geoff, I have the copy or whatever, I had no problem with it. I must admit that if I had to keep it the way it was I would have hated it!

Got my pilot done. First thing I did was give him a quick paint job then try and fit him in the cockpit for the first time. I got it all figured out, he fits in the cockpit great without any modification to the cockpit itself. Anyway here are some pictures:

P.S. One other thing, I'm not sure at this time if I will sell any of these. It was expensive to make, close to $100.00 and I would like to get my money back but they take some work to pour and I don't have the time to do that right now.

Dion,

The Pilot looks super. Great job!

Man you went into overtime on this one LOL

What's that nice piece of work sitting on the table behind the Hellcat??


Take care,
Pete

Dion , here we go again , ok as soon as you catch up sell me one of those guys -please !!

As far as CMP /and knockoffs , there are some differance depending on the plane , the P40 from CMP is much better then the one from Wills Hobbies , but I have seen the CMP hellcat , own the knockoff , the only differance to me seems to be the consistantly in glueing (better in the CMP version ) The cost is soooooo worth the bash , I got my hellcat for $69 plus $45 shipping , not bad vs CMP on sale for $179 plus shipping

Hi LMD
Is the covering on your Knock off, clear film painted? My wing has so many wrinkles in the covering it makes Granny's tights look good, and they will not iron out, will have to recover wing and tail.
Geoff

No Geoff , mine is a cloth type material painted .However all "real CMPs" planes have issues with paint chipping off the wings , clear cote seems to help but I did not hear of bubble or wrinkle problems
sorry for your problems

Luke,

Pilot is lookin' good! Continue to be amazed at how you continue to flesh out the voids in the scale world!! [sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif]

Put me on the list for one if you go into production - Can't see my Royal F4U without it

Cheers!

Jim

Hey Pete! Thanks! I just love the way a plane looks in the air with a good pilot. That was the whole idea behind this one I molded, it's got OK detail but it's really for looking good on the taxi out and in the air. What you see behind the Hellcat is my VQ Black Widow project! [8D]

I will make a few of these pilots for those that want them. I'm also making a bust from this guy so that those that want to use the stock cockpit can have a great looking pilot in there! I'll also add the armor plate so that they can add some detail to the cockpit easily.

Thanks Jim! I was surprised when I tried to fit the pilot in my Corsair, he seemed just a little on the big side. I'll post some pictures so you can determine for yourself if it looks OK to you or not. When I get another pilot painted and custom fit for the Corsair I'll post some pictures.

I cut up 3 pilots experimenting with various leg lengths and angles and this is the one I came up with. He fits in the cockpit without a problem and can be easily removed if needed. I will make a drawing with the cut angles so that anyone can easily duplicate my pilot. I just used my table disk sander, cuts like butter so be careful!