jjcrashlanding

My Feedback: (1)

Hey guys I need some help! I am about to complete a F4U Corsair 60 size kit. And previously built Giant scale Stearman from plans.

My next project I want to undertake is a P-38 kit around 1/7 scale.
I so far have been able to find a kit manfactured by Wing Manfacturing. I not even sure its any good. I am in a plane that is true to scale an flys well.

There is one fellow that is building one from scratch out of glass. I don't think I want to go to that extent.

Any Help or sugestions would be greatly appreciated.

IFR

My Feedback: (1)

Attached is a picture of the Wing MFG P-38 I just recently completed. Has not flown yet since I am still hooking up the radio gear. This scratch kit (the only thing the kit includes is two foam wing cores and some vacuum formed plastic parts) took a lo-o-o-o-ng time to build. If scale is an issue I would advise looking elsewhere. The boom sides are flat and the wheels will not retract fully into the boom (no gear doors). I had planned to round out the formers but listened to everyones' advice and didn't. Mistake! The engine cowls come out round and placed on the end of flat booms will look like a mushroom stalk. I spent a great deal of time reshaping the cowls by cutting, sanding, applying auto body filler, and using a heat gun to get the shape to match the boom. You can not get scale spinners without having TrueTurn custom manufacture at about $30 to $40 each. Both rudders and front wheel steering are designed to work off one servo. No way, had to re-engineer using three separate servos and a Matchbox sub-controller to adjust the three off one receiver outlet. The rudder area on a P-38 is too small to begin with without introducing all the problems of a bunch of cables running all through the plane. I added inboard flaps but the wing tip attachment design prevents adding outboard flaps. Space for all the control surface and retract gear is at a premium. The retract gear and the radio wiring harnesses have to be installed as you build meaning they aren't coming out later for adjustments or repairs. I built trap doors the length of the bottom of the center pod, behind the nose, and all through the booms to make places for the radio gear and offer some hope of being able to get at them in the future. This plane got very expensive (two Saito 72's, 13 servos, two JR Matchboxes, SpringAir retracts, Robart Robostruts, etc.) so I would not let kit price influence your decision. Martuka (probably spelled wrong) makes a kit in this size range. I would give it a good look before making your purchase. I talked to the new owner of Wing Mfg at this year's Toledo show and he is trying to address some of the scale shortcomings so you might want to give him a call and discuss any improvements he may have recently made. Hope this helps.

PS: Just noticed that the picture came out sort of small. Click on my gallery and you will get a much larger picture by clicking on the picture there.

Steve Collins

My Feedback: (8)

Marutaka has a P-38 kit:

http://hobbybarn.com/airplanes_marutaka_kits.htm

chipmunkflyer

This is a tough plane to model. Very unforgiving in the air. If you don't have twin experience, get some before trying a P-38. You might consider "bashing" a twin from a stick or some other workhorse plane. There are a couple of kits out there in the size you mention. One is G & P sales. Here is a link: http://www.rcairplane.net/index8.html It has an 88 inch span, which is 1/7th scale I think. There is an ARC coming out from Morris hobbies, if you're interested.
Make sure you read twinman's stuff about flying P-38's on rcwarbirds.com too. Good luck.

flying2bill

My Feedback: (2)

All the above advise is good, great advice, particularly pertaining to a first twin, all I am going to add is to build as big a P38 as you can afford and accomidate. Although a P38 is a big plane, space for putting gear and equipment is crowded, I am building a Ziroli P38 (1/5?) and am having to do some space searching (trying to hide all servos and linkages). Also consider the wing loading on a P38 tends to be kinda high so the more scaling out you do the higher it will get. A lot of people complain about the scale detail (or lack of) of the Wing MFG kit, it seems to me that the Wing kit is advertised as a SEMI or SPORT scale kit (translate: it sorta looks like), I bought one many years ago and as I recall they were NOT designed for retracts and were meant as an entry level twin (although I wouldnot call a P38 an entry level twin). I would use the Wing kit as a trainer, build it as it was intended (except as above 1 servo for each rudder 1 for nose wheel 1for each side of elv), keep it light, use high torque mini servo's and low cost (but reliable, reliable, reliable) engines. If that one pleases you then move up to a more scale '38.

M Gill

JJ,

I make a kit for Ziroli's P-38. I have a full wood kit version, and a "wing kit" version that is designed to fit his fiberglass boom set.

Mace Gill
The Aeroplane Works
(732)-356-8557
http://www.theaeroplaneworks.com

chuck l

My Feedback: (17)

DanB

What did you use for the finish on the plane?

IFR

My Feedback: (1)

Chuck I
It is fiberglassed then auto primer, Lustrakote silver, and Wally World auto spray cans for the black and yellow. Then the entire plane was clear coated with Chevron dead flat clear using an airbrush.