warbirdcolors

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I consider myself very fortunate to have what I would consider a mentor, in this hobby, in the form of Vance Mosher (Vanguard Vancouver - http://www.vanvan.us). Vance has been, and is, more than willing to impart his 40+ years of knowledge about scale modeling, design, building, and actually take the time to guide me through the mine-field of learning a 3-D CAD system. Thus I feel the need to generate a thread, to docuement my progress with this "project". It will NOT be fast and furious, I'm sure at times it will not be pretty, but the goal is to come out with a Ju87, with "balls", as in the G-2 Kanonenvogel, with a pair of Flak-37's under the wing. The ultimate goal is to "kit" this aircraft in 1/5 scale (120"), in such a manner as to make it easily buildable AND transportable, and of course, truely scale. As I mentioned, it will NOT be fast, so have patience (lots). A new website for the venture (derLuftModel.com) will be developed as the project matures, so check back occasionally and enjoy the "long and winding road" of "Project Kanonenvogel"

Chuck Graves

warbirdcolors

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It occurs to me, that in order to have a "Cannon Bird", one of the requirements would be to have a cannon. So, not to be lacking...I have been working on one, and I think it's a beauty...At 1/5 scale, this bad boy will be just shy of 36" long from the end of the muzzle to the end of the tail cone...OH YEAH!

SMUGator

Cool project. Do you have any photos of scale subjects that are guiding your design that you are willing to share?

P-51B

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Just to make sure I have it straight, this is the later D model with the smoother nose...ie less chin at the nose...than the B?

TomCrump

I'm going to follow this, with interest, Chuck.

rrudytoo

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Oh, yes! Sign me up!!!!

Will Vance be collaborating on this with you Chuck?

Al

x-craft

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Excellent project Chuck, I look forward to tracking your progress. You most definately have my attention. Are you planning on a 3 piece wing design when you talk about transportability?

warbirdcolors

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Thanks for looking in guys....

SMUGator - No, i do not have any photos at this point. I have bought every book in the known universe about the Ju87, just for design/details etc. When I get around to painting this beast, then i'll look for some cool schemes. I know where I can get some really good paint for this Warbird.

P51-B - Yes this is the later "D" model (D5). Remove the dive brakes, fair over the machine guns, add the cannons and you've got a G2 Kanonenvogel.

rrudytoo - Yes, Vance is guiding me along in the journey, and will most certainly provide lots of input. Thus far, he has gotten me over the 3D cad hump, by showing me how to do the things i needed to get to this point.....(Thanks Vance)

x-Craft - Definately a 3-piece removable wing. If it can be designed in, i'm also going for a removable stabilizer and fin, and of course the cannons must be removable.

P-51B

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Subscribed!

warbirdcolors

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Alright....I't been quite awhile since I've posted to this so....

In a nutshell, I've pretty much redrawn the fusilage and the canopy (several times) as well as working on things like landing gear, wings, etc. etc....pretty much most of everything has been done, and re-done, but now it's almost there (as a wire-frame), Next comes taking the wire frame and ctually creating shapes, like formers, ribs etc. etc.

I give up!!!
I am unable to upload imges to this site, so If you wish to see the progress on this aircraft, goto:

http://www.rcscalebuilder.com/forum/...s.asp?TID=6074

Netherwing

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Hello Chuck. I must have missed your original post in April. I'm very glad that your working up a kit for the D5 model. The only models I've seen are kits that people have modified themselves. The cannons and canopy are looking good already. Now if you could get the cannons to fire.....like a much smaller version of what WWII re-enactors use(propane/acetylene)...that would be fantastic!! Assuming that it would be within AMA guidelines of course. Strafing runs would be much more impressive. Well, good luck with the CAD work and I hope you don't run into any major problems.

Later,

Mike

ps: Hans-Ulrich Rudel would be proud.

mobyal

I'll sure follow this one! Sign me up for a kit when they're available....
Al

warbirdcolors

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OK, A couple of months have gone by and if you looked at the wire-frame, you might say it looks the same. In fact it has been drawn, and re-drawn, and re-drawn in several sections and I'm feeling pretty food about it. I'm in that last 10% or so that takes 90% of the time. But I do have some news/previews. At one time I thought that when I finish this project, or in conjunction with it, I would do a set of plans for a Ziroli conversion of the "B" to a "D". Well there is a group of guys on RCSB who are doing that, so I thought I'd throw my $.02 in with some heavy artillery...What you see here are the plugs for the Flak37 cannons (the body portion) on the "G" model. I had three(3) sizes turned. I'm doing Project Kannonenvogel in two scales...1/4 and 1/5. The Ziroli kit is slightly smaller than 1/5 scale, so the bottom plug is in Ziroli scale, the middle one is in 1/5th scale and the bad boy on top is in 1/4 scale. My next task is to find someone (a machinist) who can turn the barrels in metal, to be used as plugs for molds. One more small step in "Project Kannonenvogel"

I keep trying to upload images to this site, but CANNOT!!!!!

Check out the "Project Kannonenvogel" thread on RCSB to see the pictures

http://www.rcscalebuilder.com/forum/...s.asp?TID=6074

OK...so they did upload...You'd think the "Preview" post would show them...but NO

warbirdcolors

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For most of us on this side of the pond,the metric system doesn't mean much...we can't relate. So just how big is 3.7cm (centimeters), or 37mm (milimeters) (both the same)...Here's a look...

I just had to have one(or more) of these for this project....This is a shell for the
cannon on the G2 Stuka....ruined many a T-34 crews entire day....

FYI, thats an 18" ruler in the photo...

warbirdcolors

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It has been quite awhile since I posted any progress here so time for a quick update. The Ju87 itself is still in the design (spelled re-do) stages. Once I started drawing "parts" from the wire-frame I found that I had some problems and have re-done the fusilage formers, so now i'm re-drawing parts and figuring how it all goes together and comes apart for transport & storage. It taks a lot of time, and time is my least plentiful resource. In the interrim, I have been working on the 1/4 scale version of the Flak cannons.

warbirdcolors

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Continuing with the cannon.....

Here you see the barrell, which is turned from maple. My CAD program prints a cone, or cup, template, which I transferred to some heavy manilla card-stock, After cutting it out, I soaked it in water, and wrapped it around a form which I had turned with the barrel. Same for the connecting piece. After they dried, I soaked them in thin CA, which produced a VERY HARD composite material. After some work, It produced a muzzle flash and connector. I added some mounting/alignment pins to the body and shroud pieces, and did some shaping on the front shroud, and it is now looking like a cannon. Next comes the ammo chutes and all of the plumbing and detailing, and rivets etc. I'm hoping to have it all done and on display in my WarbirdColors booth at TOP GUN....Everyone stop by...

Tommy_Gun

Thats looking real nice Chuck.

The model reminds me of the time I spent playing Warbirds online.

I had a squad mate that loved to take the JU87G up for the purpose of air to air fighting. He became very proficient at aiming those two
37 mm at an enemy fighter after he would force them to overshoot his slow Stuka. Next thing you know the enemy would be confetti in the virtual sky and screaming in the text buffer about what a load it was to get beat by a Stoookie.

I swear he would do better in that 87G than I could in a FW190A-4 !

Keep it up

hookemut

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hi,
A very admirable set of goals~~and following on the heels of the KMR JU-87D Stuka

http://www.kmp.ca/product_info.php?p...010274878c6855

which is just now being delivered here in the US. Perhaps you might visit their Stuka site and see how your effort meshes? They work in conjunction with YT Models, and will be offering their version of the 37mm cannon pods.
I believe that they warehouse in Grants Pass-interesting, no?
hookemut

warbirdcolors

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As long as it has been since I posted anything on this thread, it has never actually died, and has in fact, started to come to life again. I've been drawing, re-drawing, re-designing this aircraft forever, and at last I'm creating something I can touch. I have to admit that working in CAD, the size of this airplane gets lost. It all fits so nicely within the confines of my 22" monitor, but now that i'm printing something out the size gets big, very fast. I decided I would start on the plugs for some of the fiberglass parts of this kit, so here goes...

First the pieces were printed, glued to cheap luan plywood and cutout. The formers were assembled into the two halves of the wheel pants and then the foam was cut to fit. After it was all glued up the sanding started. These wheel pants go over an 8" wheel. The paint can in the photo is a quart size for reference. After some sanding, and some sheet-rock mud, and more sanding, the plug is coming together.

warbirdcolors

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Next I started on the cowl. Using the same general method, the shapes were printed, glued to cheap plywood, and cut out. Once I cut the parts it became very obvious that I would need some sort of tooling to handle this item, so I created the jig shown. It holds up the form quite nicely, and is rotatable so that I can work on the underside easily. This will be strip-planked, and shaped. In one of the pictures you will notice the spinner plug I started to make using the same techniques, however my little drill press would not handle the job, so I wound up having a plug turned for me out of wood. I'm now looking into having a spinner spun for me using my plug. Otherwise I will make it into a mold and do a fiberglass layup.

rrudytoo

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Chuck,

I'm am SO glad to see that your Kannonvogel is still being developed. At 1/4 scale, this is going to be one impressive bird and it is obvious that you are doing a terrific job to make it right.

Thank you for hanging in there and I'll drop in from time to time and see how things are coming.

Al

warbirdcolors

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OK...3rt attempt at this...

It has been a long time since I was here, as so for anyone out there who cares....CannonBird Lives! (spelled..."at least I'm working on it")

Stuka Jon N

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Chuck Keep me in mind, make several of everything, cowl , pants, canopy etc. I can do my own woodwork. Friend and old customer Stuka Jon Niezelski

tunakuts3d

I dont know why I haven't looked at this thread before but I'm glad I looked today.You mentioned in an earlier post that you have every book published on the ju87, I would assume that you have the aero detail #11 which shows the G version that is on display in the museum in Hendon England.LOts of good details and drawings but no actual cannon photos.If you havent already check out www.GermanLuftwaffe .com .they have some really good photos and info on the 37mm cannon.

Paul S.

warbirdcolors

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Paul,
thanks for the inof...i probably have the photos, but you can't be too sure...but your link does not work...it goes to a generic site