New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
12-31-2009, 03:40 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
Before you make any modifications to the cockpit floor,think ahead a little ,if you need to fit Pnuematic retract,s where will you fit the airtank,servo,valve etc, i think you will find they need to go under the floor and you will need all the room that is there at present
12-31-2009, 04:27 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
As long as you like the color it's fine. Zinc chromate can be anywhere from a green to quite yellow looking. I know a few warbird shops that use Museum Green for interior parts, it's quite dark.
The stock floor gets cut out and replaced lower to suit the DB kit. The floor is not supplied in the short kit but there's plenty of information to make and locate it. I'm not too worried about losing that fuselage space, there's plenty of room to fit everything but it's something to keep in mind, especially if using pneumatic gear.
The stock floor gets cut out and replaced lower to suit the DB kit. The floor is not supplied in the short kit but there's plenty of information to make and locate it. I'm not too worried about losing that fuselage space, there's plenty of room to fit everything but it's something to keep in mind, especially if using pneumatic gear.
ORIGINAL: spaul813
Thanks CRG.
I was at the hobby shop and MM actually has an ''interior green''. I looked at the ''zinc chromate'' and figured out that was what you were probably using. I would think it would be fine too, the ''interior green'' is just a little greener in color than the zinc chromate I saw. Either should be fine.
One other quick question, I assume you had to drop the floor on your cockpit, or will be? How do you plan on doing this. Obviously there are several ways, just curious what you thought might be the best way to cut it out cleanest?
Thanks and Happy New Year!!
Thanks CRG.
I was at the hobby shop and MM actually has an ''interior green''. I looked at the ''zinc chromate'' and figured out that was what you were probably using. I would think it would be fine too, the ''interior green'' is just a little greener in color than the zinc chromate I saw. Either should be fine.
One other quick question, I assume you had to drop the floor on your cockpit, or will be? How do you plan on doing this. Obviously there are several ways, just curious what you thought might be the best way to cut it out cleanest?
Thanks and Happy New Year!!
12-31-2009, 05:26 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
Thanks guys. Appeciate the input. I do see how the space under the floor could be valuable if you have limited building skills. At this time, I don't have plans on putting the Robarts in, but could see doing that in the future. I'll have to get creative at that point I guess. CRG, I am going to try the interior green and see what it looks like. Just glancing at it, I think it will be fine.
12-31-2009, 11:34 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
I will. Only thing I noticed is I'll probably paint myself. It is $175 professionally painted, $50 unpainted. I'd be living in a tent in the yard if I paid $175 for one pilot.....or I'd need a good divorce attorney at a minimum.
01-04-2010, 02:04 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
ORIGINAL: CRG
As long as you like the color it's fine. Zinc chromate can be anywhere from a green to quite yellow looking. I know a few warbird shops that use Museum Green for interior parts, it's quite dark.
The stock floor gets cut out and replaced lower to suit the DB kit. The floor is not supplied in the short kit but there's plenty of information to make and locate it. I'm not too worried about losing that fuselage space, there's plenty of room to fit everything but it's something to keep in mind, especially if using pneumatic gear.
As long as you like the color it's fine. Zinc chromate can be anywhere from a green to quite yellow looking. I know a few warbird shops that use Museum Green for interior parts, it's quite dark.
The stock floor gets cut out and replaced lower to suit the DB kit. The floor is not supplied in the short kit but there's plenty of information to make and locate it. I'm not too worried about losing that fuselage space, there's plenty of room to fit everything but it's something to keep in mind, especially if using pneumatic gear.
ORIGINAL: spaul813
Thanks CRG.
I was at the hobby shop and MM actually has an ''interior green''. I looked at the ''zinc chromate'' and figured out that was what you were probably using. I would think it would be fine too, the ''interior green'' is just a little greener in color than the zinc chromate I saw. Either should be fine.
One other quick question, I assume you had to drop the floor on your cockpit, or will be? How do you plan on doing this. Obviously there are several ways, just curious what you thought might be the best way to cut it out cleanest?
Thanks and Happy New Year!!
Thanks CRG.
I was at the hobby shop and MM actually has an ''interior green''. I looked at the ''zinc chromate'' and figured out that was what you were probably using. I would think it would be fine too, the ''interior green'' is just a little greener in color than the zinc chromate I saw. Either should be fine.
One other quick question, I assume you had to drop the floor on your cockpit, or will be? How do you plan on doing this. Obviously there are several ways, just curious what you thought might be the best way to cut it out cleanest?
Thanks and Happy New Year!!
C'mon post some photos.. you've had plenty of time to work on it
Finally got back to working on mine, finished the main wing construction.. just the landing lights to wire up now. The cockpit's done too, finished off the headrest (at the expense of the skin off two of my knuckles [:@] ).
A happy and peaceful New Year to you lot!
Scotty
01-13-2010, 03:02 AM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
Got my Robarts today. The struts were installed backwards in that the strut would have been on the outboard side of the wheel, easily fixed by swapping them. But it looks like I have another problem in that the tire is about 5/8 inch below the retract mounting surface. Not sure if there's insufficient offset in these struts, or some other problem. Capt. G mentions shimming but it would take some serious shims to get the wheels flush to the wing. Pic attached, input appreciated.
01-13-2010, 02:04 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
ORIGINAL: CRG
Got my Robarts today. The struts were installed backwards in that the strut would have been on the outboard side of the wheel, easily fixed by swapping them. But it looks like I have another problem in that the tire is about 5/8 inch below the retract mounting surface. Not sure if there's insufficient offset in these struts, or some other problem. Capt. G mentions shimming but it would take some serious shims to get the wheels flush to the wing. Pic attached, input appreciated.
Got my Robarts today. The struts were installed backwards in that the strut would have been on the outboard side of the wheel, easily fixed by swapping them. But it looks like I have another problem in that the tire is about 5/8 inch below the retract mounting surface. Not sure if there's insufficient offset in these struts, or some other problem. Capt. G mentions shimming but it would take some serious shims to get the wheels flush to the wing. Pic attached, input appreciated.
I also have this Robart set for Frankie, but haven't installed them, yet.
My expectation (from mounting similar offset Robarts in my "Marie"), and talking to friends like Capt. Ron (who posted pics earlier on this thread, I believe), is that you will have to remove a significant (1/8" to 1/4") of material off the gear rails, replacing the structure removed by adding it back underneath, in order to recess the gear units into the wing enough to be out of the airstream.
Don't just shim under the outside flange holes trying to tilt the wheel higher up into the wheel bay; if you do, then when they are extended, the struts won't be perpendicular to the ground and it'll look wrong.
I used a Dremel to remove rail material on Marie (very tedious; remove a small amount of rail, test-fit gear, remove some rail, test fit gear...ad nauseum. Take your time!). I then inserted a 1/4" plywood rail reinforcement underneath the now thinner wing rails. They were pre-drilled and had T-nuts pre-installed for the gear bolts. Then, you should fiberglass reinforce the rails together and to the ribs.
BTW, you'll either have to cut the bottom out of the stock plastic wheel wells, or make new ones from scratch (not that hard). Building new ones allows you to enlarge the wheel diameter to something a bit closer to stock, though I believe clearance with the spar puts an upper limit on this.
I attached some of my Marie pics below. The first shows the routed out stock gear rails, and a filler block glued in where the stock wire strut coil uses to park. The other pics show conduits for the air lines before I put in the "sub-floor" in the wheel well. Walls of the wheel well are 1/16" balsa curled with steam and dried while rubberbanded to a coke can.
I hope my Frankie install turns out as well!
Good luck!
Rip
01-15-2010, 03:13 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
Quick question for everyone.
I'm looking for the stock color schemes on this plane and can't find them. In particular, I need to know what the yellow is called (is it cub yellow?) so I can paint my Dave Brown spinner. I'm going to self etch prime it and paint it but want it to match. If anyone knows what the yellow is please let me know. Thanks.
I'm looking for the stock color schemes on this plane and can't find them. In particular, I need to know what the yellow is called (is it cub yellow?) so I can paint my Dave Brown spinner. I'm going to self etch prime it and paint it but want it to match. If anyone knows what the yellow is please let me know. Thanks.
01-31-2010, 02:59 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
Hi guys
With work and other things I havent had the chance to get much done but I'm back on track now. Cockpit's installed and most of the RC gear, just some "fiddling" with the geometry of the retracts, wire up the landing lights and its almost time for the final balance.
Sorry about the rubbish photos, taken on my cellphone as its freezing cold and snowing outside [&o]
With work and other things I havent had the chance to get much done but I'm back on track now. Cockpit's installed and most of the RC gear, just some "fiddling" with the geometry of the retracts, wire up the landing lights and its almost time for the final balance.
Sorry about the rubbish photos, taken on my cellphone as its freezing cold and snowing outside [&o]
01-31-2010, 03:06 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
Thanks Rip! I'm going to start messing with them this coming week, will see how it goes. I'm using larger wheels so had already planned to tear out the stock wells.
ORIGINAL: Rip n Bank
CRG,
I also have this Robart set for Frankie, but haven't installed them, yet.
My expectation (from mounting similar offset Robarts in my ''Marie''), and talking to friends like Capt. Ron (who posted pics earlier on this thread, I believe), is that you will have to remove a significant (1/8'' to 1/4'') of material off the gear rails, replacing the structure removed by adding it back underneath, in order to recess the gear units into the wing enough to be out of the airstream.
Don't just shim under the outside flange holes trying to tilt the wheel higher up into the wheel bay; if you do, then when they are extended, the struts won't be perpendicular to the ground and it'll look wrong.
I used a Dremel to remove rail material on Marie (very tedious; remove a small amount of rail, test-fit gear, remove some rail, test fit gear...ad nauseum. Take your time!). I then inserted a 1/4'' plywood rail reinforcement underneath the now thinner wing rails. They were pre-drilled and had T-nuts pre-installed for the gear bolts. Then, you should fiberglass reinforce the rails together and to the ribs.
BTW, you'll either have to cut the bottom out of the stock plastic wheel wells, or make new ones from scratch (not that hard). Building new ones allows you to enlarge the wheel diameter to something a bit closer to stock, though I believe clearance with the spar puts an upper limit on this.
I attached some of my Marie pics below. The first shows the routed out stock gear rails, and a filler block glued in where the stock wire strut coil uses to park. The other pics show conduits for the air lines before I put in the ''sub-floor'' in the wheel well. Walls of the wheel well are 1/16'' balsa curled with steam and dried while rubberbanded to a coke can.
I hope my Frankie install turns out as well!
Good luck!
Rip
CRG,
I also have this Robart set for Frankie, but haven't installed them, yet.
My expectation (from mounting similar offset Robarts in my ''Marie''), and talking to friends like Capt. Ron (who posted pics earlier on this thread, I believe), is that you will have to remove a significant (1/8'' to 1/4'') of material off the gear rails, replacing the structure removed by adding it back underneath, in order to recess the gear units into the wing enough to be out of the airstream.
Don't just shim under the outside flange holes trying to tilt the wheel higher up into the wheel bay; if you do, then when they are extended, the struts won't be perpendicular to the ground and it'll look wrong.
I used a Dremel to remove rail material on Marie (very tedious; remove a small amount of rail, test-fit gear, remove some rail, test fit gear...ad nauseum. Take your time!). I then inserted a 1/4'' plywood rail reinforcement underneath the now thinner wing rails. They were pre-drilled and had T-nuts pre-installed for the gear bolts. Then, you should fiberglass reinforce the rails together and to the ribs.
BTW, you'll either have to cut the bottom out of the stock plastic wheel wells, or make new ones from scratch (not that hard). Building new ones allows you to enlarge the wheel diameter to something a bit closer to stock, though I believe clearance with the spar puts an upper limit on this.
I attached some of my Marie pics below. The first shows the routed out stock gear rails, and a filler block glued in where the stock wire strut coil uses to park. The other pics show conduits for the air lines before I put in the ''sub-floor'' in the wheel well. Walls of the wheel well are 1/16'' balsa curled with steam and dried while rubberbanded to a coke can.
I hope my Frankie install turns out as well!
Good luck!
Rip
01-31-2010, 03:10 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
Hey Scott.
The pictures look great! Nice work! The cockpit looks very cool. What pilot is that that you used? Your propeller is just a static one right? It would be really cool to run an actual four bladed prop!
Are you running the FG-36 engine?
Mike
The pictures look great! Nice work! The cockpit looks very cool. What pilot is that that you used? Your propeller is just a static one right? It would be really cool to run an actual four bladed prop!
Are you running the FG-36 engine?
Mike
01-31-2010, 03:17 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
Hi Mike
I'm using a Saito 180 (got one at a great price) and sadly yes thats the static prop
The Pilot is BBI's "Donald Moore" although if you search on "William Bowman" on a certain auction site you'll find something a little closer to USAF....ok he's a B17 pilot but does have the leather jacket
Scott
I'm using a Saito 180 (got one at a great price) and sadly yes thats the static prop
The Pilot is BBI's "Donald Moore" although if you search on "William Bowman" on a certain auction site you'll find something a little closer to USAF....ok he's a B17 pilot but does have the leather jacket Scott
01-31-2010, 06:11 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
Hi CRG,
I just started this week on Frankie's Robart gear upgrade, myself. I've attached a couple of pics below.
I'm pretty much done with the fuselage portion of the system, I just still need to add the "up" and "down" air lines w/ quick connects off the variable valve.
In the right side of that picture, you can see the back side of my "charging/connections compartment" which keeps the outside of the fuselage cleaner. Towards the rear of that box, from the "top" down, you see the pressure indicator, the fill valve, and below that is my glow system charge port. One of my two charging switches is now removed since I don't need the dual-battery set-up I've used with the mechanical stock gear.
I'm just starting on the wing, and have just pulled the stock plastic wheel wells out so I can enlarge the well to handle Robart's 4" diameter wheel. If I'm not mistaken, the scale diameter should be about 4.3". There's plenty of clearance for this larger diameter wheel in front of the spar, but I'm pretty concerned over how deep the Robart mechanism really is. You can see the scissor arm notch I just started to cut, and will probably remove more of this sub-panel as I go along.
To get the wheel and strut up into the wing far enough to get a flush fitting gear door, the strut bolt plates need to be countersunk into the wing (read: remove material from the top of the gear rails, replacing it underneath) about 1/4" - 3/8". Unfortunately, there's only about 1/4" gap between the Robart retract frame w/ air cylinder and the curved, forward, inside of the wing's top sheeting. It's going to be tight!
Rip
I just started this week on Frankie's Robart gear upgrade, myself. I've attached a couple of pics below.
I'm pretty much done with the fuselage portion of the system, I just still need to add the "up" and "down" air lines w/ quick connects off the variable valve.
In the right side of that picture, you can see the back side of my "charging/connections compartment" which keeps the outside of the fuselage cleaner. Towards the rear of that box, from the "top" down, you see the pressure indicator, the fill valve, and below that is my glow system charge port. One of my two charging switches is now removed since I don't need the dual-battery set-up I've used with the mechanical stock gear.
I'm just starting on the wing, and have just pulled the stock plastic wheel wells out so I can enlarge the well to handle Robart's 4" diameter wheel. If I'm not mistaken, the scale diameter should be about 4.3". There's plenty of clearance for this larger diameter wheel in front of the spar, but I'm pretty concerned over how deep the Robart mechanism really is. You can see the scissor arm notch I just started to cut, and will probably remove more of this sub-panel as I go along.
To get the wheel and strut up into the wing far enough to get a flush fitting gear door, the strut bolt plates need to be countersunk into the wing (read: remove material from the top of the gear rails, replacing it underneath) about 1/4" - 3/8". Unfortunately, there's only about 1/4" gap between the Robart retract frame w/ air cylinder and the curved, forward, inside of the wing's top sheeting. It's going to be tight!
Rip
02-05-2010, 04:41 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
Okay all....finally got my cockpit kit done. Here is a lousy cell phone pic.
I had to do quite a bit of modification, to the point where it is stand off scale at best I'm not into bashing other companies, so I'll keep this mild, but I bought the Century Jet kit that I believe was designed for the Top Flite model, but was told "might need a few modification, but it will fit" Not so much. I was missing several pieces so also had to get creative. Tried to get them replaced, but never have received a response back on two sent e-mails.
Anyway, pilot is by "best pilots" and is he Sweeney design. Local guy here in KC does these. This was my first ever paint for a pilot and I think it turned out okay. I am changing the goggles as I don't like the way they look, but other than that....I'm leaving it. If I can get better pics later, i'll post a couple.
I had to do quite a bit of modification, to the point where it is stand off scale at best I'm not into bashing other companies, so I'll keep this mild, but I bought the Century Jet kit that I believe was designed for the Top Flite model, but was told "might need a few modification, but it will fit" Not so much. I was missing several pieces so also had to get creative. Tried to get them replaced, but never have received a response back on two sent e-mails.
Anyway, pilot is by "best pilots" and is he Sweeney design. Local guy here in KC does these. This was my first ever paint for a pilot and I think it turned out okay. I am changing the goggles as I don't like the way they look, but other than that....I'm leaving it. If I can get better pics later, i'll post a couple.
02-05-2010, 04:52 PM
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RE: New Hangar 9 1.50 P-51 Build
Thanks CRG! It looks a little better in person. For my first ever cockpit kit, and pilot, it turned out okay. Definitely better than just a stock set up. Thanks for your input!