andywakem

Sam,
very nice work. Did you say you will be using aluminum skin on this? if so what type?

Andy

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Merlin,
Thanks for letting me know the name of it.

Gary:
send ya' an email.


cowl (cont)

pic 1:
cut some 1/16" thick ply and epoxied them in after cleaning the inside surface with alcohol (non drinking kind!).


Wing Nav lights (cont)

pic 2/3/4:
The kit provides the plastic wing nav light covers.
They needed some trimming.
Where the two wing halfs are fused together also needed some filing.
I used #0X3/16" screws to hold the covers onto the wing.
-

pic 5/6:
The kit provided guns screw into threaded rods already built into the wing.
The guns are parallel to the ground and not the wing LE per prototype.

Tricky Rick

My Feedback: (3)

Didn't like the "looks like hell" comment, ahey? Lighten up.

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Hey, guys.

NO work on the P-47: my comp arf came in today.
Please check out:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8096976/tm.htm

for pictures.

Needless to day, I'm a little happy!

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Full size P-47 videos:

inner cooler door operation on a P-47:
I just happened to find this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CPv0...eature=related

P-47 pre-flight/take off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM2-P...eature=related

landing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwVXV...eature=related

two P-47's landing and taxi back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg-Tr...eature=related

lovetoflyguy

My Feedback: (139)

Wow Sam,

Your plane is looking great....when you get done playing with "toys", we'll have to get you a Meister P-47!!!

I can't wait to see her in action! Keep it up man!

PJ

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

PJ,
If I wasn't so lazy, I'd build a plane instead of assembling ARF's!

Ompa

Amazing building thread. It just looks great. I love those P47, Keep it up [sm=thumbup.gif]

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Engine area (cont)

pic 1:
Re-inforced former in cowl with FG cloth.

pic 2/3:
Ignition/ignition battery tray cut from 1/8" ply plus 1/4" thick ply used for eight supports around the paremeter.

pic 4:
ignition switch added to top right of service panel.

==================
Gear doors.

pic 5:
Gear cover attached with #0X3/16" screws.

pic 6:
Dubro hinges with removable center pin.
Again, #0X3/16" screws used.

pic 7:
Masking tape used to hold upper gear door to gear cover so holes can be drilled to screw the upper gear door to the dubro hinge.

pic 8:
These hinges fig perfectly in the gear recesses.

pic 9:
A 3/16" gap is needed for the door to fully open.

pic 10:
I used the disk sander set to a very slow speed on my Dremel scroll saw to grind off the tips of the screws that protruded to the other side of the door.

pic 11:
1/8" thick ply needed to be epoxied under the recess of the wing as the FG is too thin to hold the screws that hold the gear covers on.

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Gear covers (cont)

pic 1:
Inner gear door supports.
One is already there and I added the balsa one on the left.

pic 2/3:
I'm using robart pocket hinges and large hinges so the doors can be removed for servicing and painting.
As on previous threads, I cut off the excess plastic from the set screw forward on the pocket hinges.
The pocket hinge is set low enough so the top of the pin hinge is even with the wing recess that rests against the door when it is closed.

pic 4:
Recesses cut in inner door for the pin hinges using a dremel grinder so the hinges lay flush to the door.

pic 5/6/7:
#0X3/16" screws hold the inner door to the pin hinges.
Epoxy will be added later.
To get the door to open 90 degrees, I had to sand about 1/16" off the end plus I put a 45 degree bevel along the inside edge of the door as well as along the recess of the wing where it meets the edge of the door ( I used an x-acto blade to scrape the 45 degree angle on the wing recess).

pic 8/9:
The inner, upper and gear cover doors installed.

pic 10:
Dubro 2-56 theaded ball link (#181) is used to attach the upper gear door to the upper part of the strut.
To make everything as short as possible (since there's little room between the door and strut), half the ball socket (white) is cut off and both ends of the brass coupler is cut in half.

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Gear covers (cont)

pic 1:
a Sonictronic offset hinge is used on the upper gear door.
This offset hinge allows flexing which allows me to make the brass rod just a little short on length so there is tension holding the door closed against the wing.
Note that the ball link is attached to the lower threaded tube on the strut.

pic 2-6:
Various angles and closing position of the upper gear door.
The extra long piece of brass sticking past the hinge will later be bent into a 'U' shape.

pic 7:
To get the proper length of brass rod, I transfered the hole in the offset hinge to the edge of the gear door, then transferred that mark to the wing: I could then raise the door and bend the brass rod at the mark on the wing.

============

lower gear door:

pic 8:
A 3/4" X 1 5/8" piece of white oak is being used to hold the lower gear door to the bottom of the oleo.
I used the following procedure to get a half round groove in the wood.
A 1/16" pilot hole was drilled.

pic 9:
Then a larger 1/4" hole was drilled.

pic 10:
Then the final 7/16" hole was drilled.

pic 11:
I then used the band saw to cut half the hole away.

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Gear covers (cont)

lower gear door (cont)

pic 1:
Block resting on oleo.

pic 2:
Metal ruler used to mark lines to front and back of block.

pic 3:
Lines transfered to the sides of the block.

pic 4:
Lots of sanding and trial and error checking to get the final shape.

pic 5:
dry fit of lower gear door.

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Gear covers (cont)

Lower gear door (cont)
I used six #2 button head screws to attached the lower gear door to the piece of oak.
I used a ruler to transfer the outer edges of the oak block to the wing, taped the lower gear door to the wing and then transfered the wing marks back onto the top of the gear door resulting in a rectangular square, outlining where the oak block is below the door.

I'm using some thick brass to attach the lower gear to the oleo.
To get the brass to match the shape of the oleo, I used the oak block, a slightly smaller drill bit and a big vise.

pic 1:
I just held the brass, drill bit and oak block in place and the vise pushed the drill bit into the recess of the oak block which forced the brass into the correct shape.

pic 2:
I then used the other half of the oak block that was cut off to bend the brass sides into two flanges.

pic 3:
After trimming the two flanges of the brass to the correct width, I drilled six holes and used six #2 screws to hold the lower gear door to the oleo.
After tightening all six screws, the lower gear door is not going anywhere: plus I can easily remove it for painting and future maintenance.

pic 4-9:
Views and sequence of gear doors when gear is retracting.

pic 10:
Some Sierra air cylinders will be used to open/close the inner gear doors.

Killer_Matt

My Feedback: (11)

Make sure when the struts shorten to thier minimum length under load, that the pin holding the outer door clears.

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Matt,
Excellent point.
I'm going to have to modify the upper gear door so it's attached higher up on the strut.
Any compression of the oleo will snap the brass rod connecting the upper door to the strut.
Things you don't think about when there is only one upper gear door!

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

I just JB welded a new brass tube and ball socket about 1 3/4" higher on the strut.
Some scotch tape to hold it 'in place'.
I'll leave that 'cook' overnight.

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Tail wheel doors

pic 1/2:
The provided hinges in the kit are secured using #0 screws where the hinges are 2" and 4" from the end.

pic 3:
Recesses cut for hinges.
Note small recess for hinge arm.

pic 4/5/6:
Done.
The recess around the fuse as well as the outer inside edge of the doors were beveled to remove the 90 degree corner to allow each surface to not interfer with each other.

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

pic 1:
The bushes may be changing here in Ohio but it's in the 70's in November so I did my video of the P-47 in the back yard.
============

Gear Doors (cont)

pic 2/3:
Upper gear door:
(relocation of connecting wire due to oleo movement)
After the ball and brass tube cured overnight with JB weld in the new location on the strut, I move the control horn for the door up (down in picture) about 1 3/4" (original holes show in picture).
I also put a bend in the brass wire to keep it aligned with the upper door.

pic 4/5:
Inner gear door:
I had to use the robart 165 air cylinder as my Sierra air cylinder was about a 1/4" too long.
There's not much room (length wise) for the air cylinder to close the inner gear door.
As you can see in the picture, I had to remove some of those gear well balsa strips that I previously installed to get the back of the air cylinder as close as possible to the upper wing.
I only used one screw to hold the air cylinder bracket to the inside of the rib.
I also had to cut the socket 1/8" long (short!) when attaching it to the end of the air cylinder shaft.
Doing these two things gives me just enough room to close the inner door.
Fortunately, there's not a lot of stress on that ball socket since it only has about 3/32" of the threaded rod in it.
As with all the small parts, #0 screws are used to insure the control horns don't come off.

============
tail wheel doors.

pic 6:
Dennis Crooks suggested I used some thin piano wire (.015-.020) across the tail wheel doors to close them.
He said make the distance 2 7/16" long on the wire and it worked perfectly.
I put square bends on the ends of the wire so there's no binding on the door hinges.
The bend in the wire keeps the doors open.
If you need the tail wheel to move farther into the well, he said to remove the clevis on the end of the air cylinder shaft off the center folding mechanism and drill a new hole 1/8" higher. This reduces the travel distance of the air cylinder shaft so the folding mechanism moves farther into the well.

pic 7:
First test of the gear and door sequence video:
In the video, you can see the landing light rotate down and the tail wheel and doors operate along with the main gear and inner door operating.
http://rcuvideos.com/video/P47retrac...sequence01-AVI

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Test all systems.

pic 1-6:
I thought I'd connect most of the parts up and see if everything is working as planned.
I need to adjust the landing light servo travel as the lights are pointing straight ahead and would seem to be more real pointing at a slight angle downward.

pic 7:
Still need to relatively organize the wires.
Each side of the wing has 9 connections for a total of 18 connections to be made for every trip to the field.
Each side has 4 air lines and 5 wire connections.
retracts (up and down)
doors (open and close)
ailerons
flaps
landing light servo
landing light electical
nav light electrical

pic 8/9:
Some epoxy and microballs to secure the yellow safety tubes over the pull/pull wires and exiting the back of the fuse.

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Cockpit (cont)

pic 1:
Got a few last things done tonight.
I put the black paint on, cut and inserted the gauges and, for lenses, I put canopy glue over the gauges.
The glue will take 2-3 days to dry to a 'clear' look.

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Gas tank (cont)

pic 1/2/3:
I cut six slots in the side of the ply for the velcro straps.
Tank dry fit test.

==================
Cockpit (cont)

pic 4:
I cut out an additional 1 7/8" in the access hatch for the cockpit area.
Dennis said more to scale by placing the pilot in the original hole.
I wanted to extra room for Mike (the pilot) so I cut enough to use the whole cockpit and the Mike's hand fits right at the control stick.
I dressed up the cockpit from a Bob Dively P-47 cockpit kit plus some pins, etc.
I still need to make a control stick.

pic 5:
I epoxied the cockpit to the top of the access hatch.

pic 6:
The cockpit needs to be attached to the access hatch far enough backward to clear the former in the fuse.
The cockpit can't be attached to that former as you must have access to putting in the bolts to hold the wings on from the inside of the fuse.

pic 7:
I had to epoxy a hard piece of foam between the floor and pilots seat so Mike wouldn't look like he's sitting on the bottom of the cockpit floor.

pic 8:
Mike approves!!

pic 9:
I had some left over leather from building nine dining rooms chairs so Mike gets a nice leather head rest!

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Canopy rails.

pic 1/2/3:
I think I'm going to putting a functioning canopy on this plane.
The jig you see in the pictures was made 2-3 years ago for my Yellow P-40.
Basically, it's a chain link fence gate clamp holding a dremel on a piece of ply with a guide for 3/16" square brass stock to be pushed through a fiber cut off wheel from home depot.
I offset the fiber wheel from center a very small amount and run the square brass stock through twice, turning end for end: this gives enough clearance for a dubro ball socket.
Some small files are also needed to clean up the top/bottom edges.
The brass gets hot so wear leather gloves and like Norm Abram says: always protect your most important part...your eyes,
and never be in line with the cut off blade while it is turning.
Careful on tightening the clamp to the dremel as that's a plastic case!

pic 4:
I made eight since I'll probably need three for the P-47 and probably four for the Corsair, not counting four more for the Yellow P-40 that's in the basement waiting to be built!

Or you can buy them from Barry:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=449870

=========
Cockpit area (cont)

pic 5/6:
Mike in cockpit with access hatch on plane.
Dry fit canopy.

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Canopy frame.

I hope this works!

pic 1/2:
After putting some seran wrap over the clear canopy, I put some heavy duty fiber glass cloth from the local auto store and finishing resin on the areas where the frame is suppose to be on the canopy.
I'll need at least two more layers.

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

canopy frame (cont)

pic 1/2:
After wasting the morning on cutting/sanding the FG frame, it didn't turn out very well.
The saran wrap didn't allow the FG cloth to form closely around the canopy.

I'll have to try Winston's procedure:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_70...tm.htm#7076924


I found this web site for mold release for only 10 bucks plus flat rate $6 to ship.
http://www.discountmarinesupplies.co...D_RELEASE.html

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

aluminum finish.
Since I butchered the canopy frame, I thought I'd leave that for later (have to wait for the mold release to arrive, anyway!)
Tonight, I started putting aluminum tape on the surfaces.
It's fun but not easy.
First time that I've tried this technique.
I first wiped the surfaces with alcahol and no roughing of the surface is needed.
I found it best to cut off the length that you need, lay the foil side down and pull away the backing: this seems to leave the least amount of irregularities in the foil.
I then touch the center first and use either my finger or the yellow bondo applicator to work out to the ends.
This stuff really sticks well but it can be removed if you hose it up.
It seems best that if you have to pull any part up, it's best to remove the whole thing and start over.
Once you pull up the aluminum, it gets a lot of irregularities which are difficult to remove.
I did the bottom of the elevator for my first try.
I did the LE recesses first and then worked back from there.
I used the xacto blade to score the aluminum along any panel lines and then pulled up the waste.
I used the bondo applicator to push the aluminum just past the panel line.
After insuring all tape is securely down with the bondo applicator, I used the edge of the bondo applicator to push the tape into the panel lines.
This tape is a lot thinner than I thought as pushing the applicator where the existing flush rivets are located, revealed their location.
If you want a very subtle look for the rivets, you could stop there.
I wanted them more pronounced so I used a piece of brass tubing to enhance their profile.
Per Dennis Crooks, just lightly sand the end of some brass tubing that gives a thin edge and just rotate the brass tubing on the aluminum. Rotate in holding the tubing at about a 30 degree angle and rotating the tubing while keeping that angle.
The aluminum marks very easily so not much pressure is needed.
This is also a disadvantage as I will have to be careful not to get any marks on the surface until I clear coat it (which I'm assuming will make the surface more durable).
The tape gets some wrinkles when going over compound curves (outside edges).
I just used the applicator and pushed it down as best I could as edges won't be easily seen by any viewers.
On severe corners, I cut angles into the tape and overlaid them with each other.
The thin TE is pretty easy: just use the applicator to pull the tape over the edge and I used scissors to cut the waste off.
The tape is only 3" wide so it will not cover all panels with one piece of tape.
This isn't going to be a problem for me: I'll keep them parallel to the real panel lines and I doubt if many pilots will notice.
Like most illusions: you detail close up areas and people assume the entire area has the same amount of detail.
(note: see post # 102 for resolution to 'extra' panel lines)

pic 1/2:
My first 'shot' at this.

pic 3:
Tools used:
3" wide aluminum duct tape from home depot.
yellow bondo applicator
brass tubing
scissors
xacto knife
tweezers

pic 4:
Here's where you can barely see the flush rivets when only pushing on them with the applicator.
I also covered the control horn.
Here, you can also see the extra 'panel' line created because the tape is not wide enough.
I ran the extra 'panel' line through to the other side which I think makes it difficult detecting that it shouldn't be there.
Some weathering can also subdue that line.
This isn't going to the Masters and it meets my needs as a sport model.