1/8 scale TopFlite Corsair Mods
03-23-2020, 09:23 PM
#1577
Does anyone involved in this awesome and endless thread happen to have instructions for the TF red box kit?I bought one via eBay and found out it was missing so I'm somewhat stuck until I can find a copy.
Thanks in advance,
Robb
Thanks in advance,
Robb
04-10-2020, 02:06 PM
#1580
I ended through most of the notes here. It’s truly amazing what y’all have come up with.
i date back to the early days of RCU. One of the first long threads was “Corsair blues”
it was generally about crashes and mishaps. I posted many motes during the time. Actually I think I was one of the early successful Corsair guys. My father in law flew the Corsair during WWII as well as Heldivers and Dauntless. I managed to get some war stories out of him that no one else in the family ever could. He is quite a bit shorter ths now my 6’ so he said he always had trouble getting enough right rudder on takeoffs. He said he would trim excess then retrieve as soon as he could. I got a lot of real flight tips from him. He is 97 now and still healthy. Bless him.
anyway I felt it wise to try and fly my Ziroli model as closely to what he said. You can’t beat real experience. I saw a number do the infamous torque roll on take off. The first day with my model I asked a couple of the good flyers to help or fly my plane but no one wanted any paper of a big Warbird. I had not flown RC for a good ten years and had a brand ne radio system. I was well aware of frequency issues so followed rules to the letter. I had a flight log book both preflight and post flight just like the real guys had. It’s now 2”” thick and saved the day more than once. I ran the plane up and down the airport runway a number of times checking out the rudder and testing the motor torque. It was pretty obvious I was going to need plenty of rudder. So time came to fly or go home and I advanced the throttle progressively holding lots of rudder then raising the tail up to hold it on the ground longer. I eased up on the elevator and away she went. I pulled up the gear and it flew almost with no trim. It was probably the most thrilling thing I hhad done since my time in top fuel funnycars. Initially I didn’t think about landing mut I did use a flight timer and it went off just under 8 minutes. So I made a slower fly by and dropped the gear. I noted the plane slow down so added some throttle and swung around on final. Full flaps and throttle back slowly letting it fly in on power just like FLsaid. He sad fly it right to the ground don’t let it balloon so I just picked a spot and set it down. It rolled quite a ways on the pavement. So it was a happy day to say the least. I flew this plane 13 years all over the midwest. I’d put the two kids in seats and we would go someplace to fly. They got a kick out of being flight crew. The plane got a little battle damage occasionally but was still in one piece when I gave it to one of the older boys.
i was deep into scale as many of you are. One thing that I haven’t seen noted for a long time is “how wide are panel lines in this scale?” That was one of my critical points. I worked in a hot rod shop a number of years and DI a lot of race car panels. If a panel was overlapping duch as an access door there is no gap the flange offsetting is close to 90 deg so the mating cover is a near “0” fit all around. I got a chance to look at the full size planes a number of times. Most panel Lin’s are not visible at 20 feet. Even the cowl fasteners are near invisible unless they are well worn Dzus fasteners. These will have all the slots facing the same direction too, like flat head screws. Even the canopy frames are near 0 fit. I used an exacto #11 blade ground off slightly to scribe visible panel lines. Many got repainted so became invisible just like the real ones. I did use Cover Tite fabric when the full size has fabric but no pinked edges ad I couldn’t fine a fine enough shear for this. I made a molded canopy frame and cut out the clear from the purchased canopy to get the flush finish I wanted. . I did extend the tail wheel as the later ones had. Whether I did any good or not I don’t remember but it sure made it harder to install. I won 5 contests so I had five kill flags under the canopy rail. I have all kinds of stories of our adventures for those interested. I may build another San F2g having seen both of the remaining ones or an F4u 4. The hard par of this one is reshaping the fuselage to match the cheeks. I still hav an extensive Cad system from my mech engineering days so it’s possible to redraw the bulkheads and modify a cowl. It’s a big project for my declining years. We’ll see what goes on after the “virus”has run its course. Good luck to all of you happy flying.
byron
i date back to the early days of RCU. One of the first long threads was “Corsair blues”
it was generally about crashes and mishaps. I posted many motes during the time. Actually I think I was one of the early successful Corsair guys. My father in law flew the Corsair during WWII as well as Heldivers and Dauntless. I managed to get some war stories out of him that no one else in the family ever could. He is quite a bit shorter ths now my 6’ so he said he always had trouble getting enough right rudder on takeoffs. He said he would trim excess then retrieve as soon as he could. I got a lot of real flight tips from him. He is 97 now and still healthy. Bless him.
anyway I felt it wise to try and fly my Ziroli model as closely to what he said. You can’t beat real experience. I saw a number do the infamous torque roll on take off. The first day with my model I asked a couple of the good flyers to help or fly my plane but no one wanted any paper of a big Warbird. I had not flown RC for a good ten years and had a brand ne radio system. I was well aware of frequency issues so followed rules to the letter. I had a flight log book both preflight and post flight just like the real guys had. It’s now 2”” thick and saved the day more than once. I ran the plane up and down the airport runway a number of times checking out the rudder and testing the motor torque. It was pretty obvious I was going to need plenty of rudder. So time came to fly or go home and I advanced the throttle progressively holding lots of rudder then raising the tail up to hold it on the ground longer. I eased up on the elevator and away she went. I pulled up the gear and it flew almost with no trim. It was probably the most thrilling thing I hhad done since my time in top fuel funnycars. Initially I didn’t think about landing mut I did use a flight timer and it went off just under 8 minutes. So I made a slower fly by and dropped the gear. I noted the plane slow down so added some throttle and swung around on final. Full flaps and throttle back slowly letting it fly in on power just like FLsaid. He sad fly it right to the ground don’t let it balloon so I just picked a spot and set it down. It rolled quite a ways on the pavement. So it was a happy day to say the least. I flew this plane 13 years all over the midwest. I’d put the two kids in seats and we would go someplace to fly. They got a kick out of being flight crew. The plane got a little battle damage occasionally but was still in one piece when I gave it to one of the older boys.
i was deep into scale as many of you are. One thing that I haven’t seen noted for a long time is “how wide are panel lines in this scale?” That was one of my critical points. I worked in a hot rod shop a number of years and DI a lot of race car panels. If a panel was overlapping duch as an access door there is no gap the flange offsetting is close to 90 deg so the mating cover is a near “0” fit all around. I got a chance to look at the full size planes a number of times. Most panel Lin’s are not visible at 20 feet. Even the cowl fasteners are near invisible unless they are well worn Dzus fasteners. These will have all the slots facing the same direction too, like flat head screws. Even the canopy frames are near 0 fit. I used an exacto #11 blade ground off slightly to scribe visible panel lines. Many got repainted so became invisible just like the real ones. I did use Cover Tite fabric when the full size has fabric but no pinked edges ad I couldn’t fine a fine enough shear for this. I made a molded canopy frame and cut out the clear from the purchased canopy to get the flush finish I wanted. . I did extend the tail wheel as the later ones had. Whether I did any good or not I don’t remember but it sure made it harder to install. I won 5 contests so I had five kill flags under the canopy rail. I have all kinds of stories of our adventures for those interested. I may build another San F2g having seen both of the remaining ones or an F4u 4. The hard par of this one is reshaping the fuselage to match the cheeks. I still hav an extensive Cad system from my mech engineering days so it’s possible to redraw the bulkheads and modify a cowl. It’s a big project for my declining years. We’ll see what goes on after the “virus”has run its course. Good luck to all of you happy flying.
byron
The following 2 users liked this post by bentwings:
CorsairJock (04-10-2020),
robbtennis (11-26-2020)
04-10-2020, 03:56 PM
#1582
You don’t know how much that thrills me to find someone from”Corsair blues days” I learned a lot and hope I gave back some good. It’s obviously my favorite plane. My sister has a picture of me with my first Corsair. I was about 5. I need another to keep the family tradition. Those pictured here are wonderfull. I really enjoy looking then going to occasional meets. On of the younger sons is building a Helldiver like FINL. flew.. he has some great ideas.
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CorsairJock (04-10-2020)
04-11-2020, 01:52 PM
#1584
04-15-2020, 10:42 AM
#1585
Wing Center Sections
Hello Everybody, it's been a loooooong time, but I'm back to building (thanks to Coronavirus shutdown, lol)
I am resurrecting a model which was the last Corsair I flew. The fuselage is in excellent shape, BUT I removed the Saito .82 and all running hardware to for it and will be converting it to electric power.
In the meantime, working on the wing which was showing signs of age, I removed the outer sections and will be replacing them with sheeted foam outers, HOPING to make them foldable.
The center section has all the sheeting removed, as well as leading edge as I will be trying something a little different to make the wing inlets more scale accurate. ALSO, I am switching to the electric version of the Robart 615s
I reshaped the inlets, and added a thin ply backing
This is another Top flite wing I've been working on, not reshaped inlets
Same wing as second pic, with 50 caliber machine gun spent shell ejector slots cut into wing
I am resurrecting a model which was the last Corsair I flew. The fuselage is in excellent shape, BUT I removed the Saito .82 and all running hardware to for it and will be converting it to electric power.
In the meantime, working on the wing which was showing signs of age, I removed the outer sections and will be replacing them with sheeted foam outers, HOPING to make them foldable.
The center section has all the sheeting removed, as well as leading edge as I will be trying something a little different to make the wing inlets more scale accurate. ALSO, I am switching to the electric version of the Robart 615s
I reshaped the inlets, and added a thin ply backing
This is another Top flite wing I've been working on, not reshaped inlets
Same wing as second pic, with 50 caliber machine gun spent shell ejector slots cut into wing
The following users liked this post:
robbtennis (11-26-2020)
11-01-2020, 07:03 PM
#1588
Well, after 6 or 7 or maybe more years since starting the Corsair, I am finally getting back into it thanks to Horizon. They had a sale on Saito's and the 120R3 Radial was on sale for nearly 50% off. Perfect Fit for this Corsair and just the engine I was wanting to put in it. The delay in the build was all about the engine, could not decide on one that required cutting the cowl up. The 120R3 is a perfect fit and have seen plenty of videos of one in flight. So I finished the clear coat yesterday, got the flaps and ailerons installed, and finished a prelim balance check. It will have onboard glow, so two LiFe packs will be used, a 16 ounce fuel tank, and placed them up on the nose behind the firewall and it is within 3/32" of CG with the tail level.
The book says to balance with the gear extended, which would make the plane shift tail heavy, so I assume that means the CG in the book makes it a touch nose heavy when the gear is down so that it is on CG when retracted. I will experiment once I have all the radio gear in and can raise and lower the gear while on the Vanessa rig. For now I just needed to see if I would be nose heavy, and turns out it is not, may even need an ounce or two up front once everything is installed. '
Flaps down
Flaps up
Finally on its feet.
The book says to balance with the gear extended, which would make the plane shift tail heavy, so I assume that means the CG in the book makes it a touch nose heavy when the gear is down so that it is on CG when retracted. I will experiment once I have all the radio gear in and can raise and lower the gear while on the Vanessa rig. For now I just needed to see if I would be nose heavy, and turns out it is not, may even need an ounce or two up front once everything is installed. '
Flaps down
Flaps up
Finally on its feet.
The following 3 users liked this post by acdii:
The following users liked this post:
robbtennis (11-26-2020)
11-02-2020, 05:53 AM
#1590
Yeah, about the same as the Mustang. I would fly the stang more if it weren't for it's tendency to nose over in a light breeze. The manual calls for a 4 1/4 CG from the leading edge at the fuse. Is that an agreeable location or is there a consensus of a different one? The Mustang is all over the place on where to balance it. I was afraid the 120R3 would be too heavy, but turns out that it isn't, so that's a good thing. It is within a 1/2 ounce of the XYZ 20 gas I was going to use.
11-03-2020, 09:29 AM
#1591
Yeah, about the same as the Mustang. I would fly the stang more if it weren't for it's tendency to nose over in a light breeze. The manual calls for a 4 1/4 CG from the leading edge at the fuse. Is that an agreeable location or is there a consensus of a different one? The Mustang is all over the place on where to balance it. I was afraid the 120R3 would be too heavy, but turns out that it isn't, so that's a good thing. It is within a 1/2 ounce of the XYZ 20 gas I was going to use.
As for balance: 4 3/8" works for me, and I have never added dead weight to balance. My favorite power was Saito .82: adequate power to fly scale, yet entire engine could fit in cowl. Mine all weighed under 10 lbs, one even under 9 lbs
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robbtennis (11-26-2020)
11-03-2020, 10:59 AM
#1592
4 3/8 is where mine seems to sit right now, hopefully will stay there once the gear is installed since there will be added foam and plywood in the nose for the battery and fuel tank trays I make. I like to be able to easily remove those items in case something isn't working right, like a pinched fuel line, or failed battery. The trays will counter the three servos in the fuse behind CG. I haven't weighed it yet, still working on blending the clear. I have all the paint done, just a matter of blending and polishing the clear. I started the wing and it's looking pretty good so far. Somewhere I have the mold I made for the gear doors and have to make a pair of them next.
11-03-2020, 11:51 AM
#1593
4 3/8 is where mine seems to sit right now, hopefully will stay there once the gear is installed since there will be added foam and plywood in the nose for the battery and fuel tank trays I make. I like to be able to easily remove those items in case something isn't working right, like a pinched fuel line, or failed battery. The trays will counter the three servos in the fuse behind CG. I haven't weighed it yet, still working on blending the clear. I have all the paint done, just a matter of blending and polishing the clear. I started the wing and it's looking pretty good so far. Somewhere I have the mold I made for the gear doors and have to make a pair of them next.
https://www.motionrc.com/products/fl...r-door-parts-a
https://www.motionrc.com/products/flightline-rc-1600mm-f4u-1a-corsair-main-gear-door-parts-b
11-26-2020, 06:49 AM
#1594
While searching all over for the aileron servo mounts I know I made, I came across the templates, and of course, got sidetracked, again. I started inputting them into the Lightburn software. I now have all the plywood parts ready to cut. One thing I noticed though, maybe someone has an answer. The online manual is Version 3. The cut parts in the last kits, were they still die crushed, or did they switch to laser? The sheets are different from the kit I have, they combined sheets. I also found out the tank floor is different from mine, it is shorter and angled to provide the firewall offset needed. My kit used 3 blocks for the mount that you have to sand to get the offsets. Is this how the later kits are built, which means different sets of plans?
On the servo hatches that I couldn't find, I wound up cutting new ones on the laser and have them done. Well, last night, apparently another rodent got in, where, have not found, but that's country life out in the middle of farm land for you. Guess what that little bugger found. Yep, the servo hatches I made. Now if that bugger had found my missing hardware, and the P-51 manual I would reward it.
On the servo hatches that I couldn't find, I wound up cutting new ones on the laser and have them done. Well, last night, apparently another rodent got in, where, have not found, but that's country life out in the middle of farm land for you. Guess what that little bugger found. Yep, the servo hatches I made. Now if that bugger had found my missing hardware, and the P-51 manual I would reward it.
11-26-2020, 07:25 AM
#1595
It has been a bad year for rodents here with all the broken tree limbs piled everywhere from the ice storm we had. We have set of shelves we use as an overflow pantry in the garage. One of the little buggers chewed thru a package of macaroni and cheese so stuck a sticky trap behind it with a few pieces of macaroni on it as bait. I found three stuck mice on the one trap the next day! I dropped the mice and the trap in a plastic bag from the grocery store and wack the brick on the side of the house to dispatch them on the way to the trashcan. So far I have caught 12 of them little suckers in sticky traps but I haven't seen anymore for about 3 days. I hoped they have moved on. I will leave bated traps out all the same.
11-26-2020, 08:29 AM
#1596
Sticky traps seem to work the best here too. I need to get a few more. I found where they are getting into the interior from what used to be the original garage, apparently there is a nest in there somewhere, we wil have to remove everything, it is our storage room for horse stuff. Hoping none of the saddles got damaged, they are in a plastic outdoor storage container, the double wall type with a lid. I have to nail a board up to block the hole they chewed. Little *******s would come through the hole, then run across a drain pipe from the sink in that room and that is how they got in my workshop. I found chipmunks had got in through a crack in the foundation into an area in the basement that is blocked off with drywall ceiling and no way to get traps in because of the stairs. Well, there are 1 x strips with gaps that support the drywall and through some poison bags up. Sure enough, they got them and now no longer reside up there. There will be skeletons all over the place by the time I'm done. Ah the beauty of country life.
11-26-2020, 08:39 AM
#1597
COVID 19 Corsair
Hello gents! This thread is a gold mine for inexperienced builder like myself. Here's an update since my request for help some time ago. COVID has allowed me extra time to rebuild my BMW engine and complete the construction phase of my dated red box Top Flite 60 size Corsair. Thanks to this thread I've added scale features inc increased angle of incidence, rudder reinforcement, wingtip shaping, retracts, tail hook, gun, formation and navigation lights plus a sliding canopy and pilot with articulating head. As this is my first attempt at anything scale this project has expended loads of time. But the lessons learned are valuable no less. The next phase which I'm sure will be equally time consuming includes adding more details as I cover with fiberglass and finish. I'm still in search of a radial engine noting the Saito R3 as perhaps ideal. However I've come across several Technopower R5 as well as R7 that may qualify. These engines are discontinued however and somewhat finicky from what I've read. Their exorbitant cost being another prohibitive factor. Anyway keep up the chatter and have wonderful Thanksgivings!
Thank you all,
Robb
Thank you all,
Robb
Last edited by robbtennis; 11-26-2020 at 08:59 AM.
11-26-2020, 08:53 AM
#1598
You just missed the sale on the 120R3 Saito that fits perfectly in the .60 Gold Edition. It was on sale for $599. List is 1049, and their regular price is now 749. So far its the perfect weight to help balance out the plane. Too me 5 years to figure out what engine to put in it as I didn't want a gas chainsaw in it, and didn't want to cut up the cowl either.
11-26-2020, 08:57 AM
#1599
I wish I had known about that sale! I believe the FG19 R3 is the same engine but gas. Perhaps it will go on sale at some point.
You just missed the sale on the 120R3 Saito that fits perfectly in the .60 Gold Edition. It was on sale for $599. List is 1049, and their regular price is now 749. So far its the perfect weight to help balance out the plane. Too me 5 years to figure out what engine to put in it as I didn't want a gas chainsaw in it, and didn't want to cut up the cowl either.
Last edited by robbtennis; 11-26-2020 at 09:01 AM.