mike early

Looks like two thousand dollars is all I need to get this biatch in the air....

cold_reboot

My Feedback: (20)

I don't want to be naughty. I want the enjoyment of gluing my fingers together building up a Top Flite Giant Scale P40. Oh well, I already have two GS in line (Ty's ME109 first, then the Anderson 152) (after I'm finished with the .60 TF P40, still need to sand the control leading edges then it's prepping for glass time), maybe by the time those are done Top Flite will have seen the error of their ways and I can pick up a couple of these KITS.

jetmech43

My Feedback: (9)

wished they would put it out in a builders kit, there are some of us still left who like to build

MANFRED

My Feedback: (27)

I'm in line for the ship and I just ordered the gear. $60.00 off of course. What tail gear number does she take?

MANFRED

My Feedback: (27)

I think it might look a little beefeir on the cowl if you were to open up the cowl flaps on the bottom

MANFRED

My Feedback: (27)

#160LWC LH Offset Pneumatic Tail Wheel

lavochkin

Out of the two new P-40's being this top flight one and the new Giant 86" one from ESM, which is more scale??

mike early

The cockpit and the spinner (albeit 2-blade) and the elevator counterbalances all indicate the Top Flite

JeffH

My Feedback: (43)

I told me buddy the exact same thing. I said there isn't enough dihedral and the canopy isn't right. Looks to be too fat, and too sloped. I didn't even notice the wingtips, now I have to go study those. Sometimes noticing this stuff will suck all of the fun right of it!

MANFRED

My Feedback: (27)

Back to the fact that this is an arf. If you want true scale fidelity you best build from accurate plans. These are fun fliers. Close to scale replicas that fly great and get you in the air in 1/10th the time of the scale builds. Besides, really, how many guys at your flying field or how many people that you know that will ever see this plane and be able to notice that the dihedral is off? Buyit, fly it and forget the rest. You know this thing will look badass cruising by at full throttle 10ft off the deck!

jimkim

For those of you who wish to see the assembly process, the manual is now available.

http://manuals.hobbico.com/top/topa0705-manual.pdf

cold_reboot

My Feedback: (20)

When will the KIT be available. :/

P-51B

My Feedback: (5)

Actually, what is the status of the Giant Scale P-39 ARF?

JeffH

My Feedback: (43)

But it does not cost one penny more to develop and accurate plane vs. a close to scale plane. Plugs still have to be carved and laser cut files still have to be drawn whether it is accurate or not. The correct dihedral costs nothing more than a different wing joiner, wing tips...they still have to be carved, accurate or not. Weight, airfoils and incidences will determine whether the plane flies well or not and whether how close or how far out of scale it is.

Chad Veich

My Feedback: (60)

I'm builidng from plans all the time but that won't stop me from addressing some of the issues on this airplane as well. For those who want to just "buy it, fly it and forget the rest" I say more power to you. On the other hand, my TF P-40 ARF will be unlike any other out at the flying field, won't have a finish full of wrinkles, and will look even better on those low passes!

By the way, I pulled the trigger on mine yesterday and am really hoping that the mid-August delivery date is accurate. Past experience tells me I may not really have a P-40 until Christmas time!

jimkim

In past forums I have watched a very good plane get bashed by critical builders who believe they have a better eye for scale fidelity than the manufacturer. In some cases they might even be accurate in there conclusion. I see this post is taking a turn towards this so I thought I might share information that you may not be familiar with to help you better appreciate what we have tried to develop.

First, let me say that for many years I participated in the highest level of scale competition including Top Gun. I know what it takes to make a truly 100% scale model. It is not as easy as some would lead you to believe. Design starts with a three view. Guess how many different three views there are of the P-40 and then ask me how many of them match each other? Then check the three views against an actual airframe and you will see more differences. To truly make a 100% scale airplane you need to make drawings from a three view and then verify every aspect of the three views to the full scale airplane. Even the full scale airplane may not be 100% accurate because the owner may choose to make modifications.

With our Top Flite P-40 we made a reasonable effort to make a very scale model. Will you find discrepancies? Sure. Our goal is too make the best flying model we can and to make it as scale as we can but we will compromise scale for performance. One example of this is the wing airfoil. You may know that some models of the P-40 have a very bad tip stalling problem. Our research allowed us to find an airfoil that was close to scale but does not have the tip stalling problems. This deviation from scale is well justified in my mind.
In spite of what you may think, it does cost a lot more to develop a 100% scale model. For the sake of argument, let’s say that a canopy is too wide or the cowl bulges too much. It is not a simple thing to change. When we develop ARF’s and we work with manufacturers outside of this country we have a lot of barriers to work through. Language is a big one, the number of samples created, the shipping of samples, the time we spend testing and changing samples. Every change requires a new sample. This adds time and cost to the development of the model. At some point we look at the overall product and if we hit 80% to 90% in accuracy and we have a great flying model, we are happy. Top Flite products don’t get thrown together and made available in a few weeks time. Generally we need 18 to 24 months to bring you a new product. In an effort to make some of our models accurate and acceptable for a release the development time has been more than 24 months. I don’t think that anyone outside of the industry can appreciate the man hours of development and the costs associated to bring you the quality products that we strive to release.

Most of the scale purists I know make their final product by scratch building or finding a kit they can start with and then modifying the kit. There are some very good scale kits available but expect to pay a premium for them, and for good reason. Scale purists may need to stay with kits or scratch building if they wish to be totally satisfied. I think the vast majority of you will be very satisfied with the scale fidelity of this airplane and I am confident you will love the way it flies.

Capt G

My Feedback: (8)

AMEN!

Experten109/40

My Feedback: (-1)

x2

accurate 3-views are very hard to find. it took my a looong time to figureout the true scale of
this single side view, and that was after sifting through hundreds of documents. the new ARF
from top flite is simply awesome looking as is. plus, it lends itself to anyone who wants to do
there own personal scale touches to it.

GerKonig

Amen, and if you see somebody getting close to your plane while holding a picture in order to compare your model with the picture, when in range, smack him! No court of law will hold it against you!

People that know that small things are off scale are the ones that build their own airplanes, which is great, but this is an ARF that happens to have a reasonable price tag. Scale has some "caveats" as it is expensive to add more and more detalis, it makes airplanes heavier (heavier planes do not fly better), and in some cases it turn them in "less fun to fly" airplanes (like a scale airfoil that is not helping in the air).

My 2 (grantes, slightly out of scale) cents

Gerry

Yogi

My Feedback: (2)

Bring this model to any average model club field and people will be excited to see it fly and once its up and ripping around the place many smiles can and will be seen about. Brings back memories for some and new ones for others. I have a Hanger 9 P-40 that gets this reaction all the time it is most pleasing for both the pilot and onlookers I have just started getting all the items together for my dream build of a Ziroli P-40 but in the mean time my H9 P-40 will be out ripping around the field as allways this Sunday.Warbirds Rule Yogi

ccostant

My Feedback: (38)

Absolutely. It's an ARF. A quick way to get an IMAA size warbird into the air. For me, this plane would be an every weekend flyer. Save the true scale models for competition and warbird flyins.

p-80

My Feedback: (1)

i dont think ive ever seen a p-40 arf ever with the correct shape in the cowl it realy is anoying because the cowling might as well be the head of the airplane even though theres alot of other peices thats what you look at first the yellow,and now century kit have the best looking cowl, as well as the ziroli ive always looked at these and salavated on my keyboard, couldnt these be made on a computer that way you coulfd do all the corrections there and not have to re mold then procede to make it. ik people are happy with the plane as am i, but all im saying is that increasingly as kit building isnt an option for most people ,demand scale in arfs is there i understanth the airfoil and what not that part didnt bother me like the cowl does. the wing tips need to taper from the botom and not be rounded off but idk if you could do that and still keep out the tip stall ,but i want to say yes. It just seems like there was more effort put into the giant mustang than the p-40.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

When I was a kid I got to see the Byron P40 . It was my dream as I was flying my Cox Control line P40 .
I never realized the dream with a Byron kit because they were out of production by the time I could even fly one .
When I viewed the pic of this P40 on the runway next to the real P40 , it brought back memories of when I was a kid .

I know the scale buffs will come out to bash the plane , I wont , my fun is found in fixing it , that is what I find fun about arfs .
In addition , if Top Flight states that they made it easier to fly , I am all for that , some hanger queens that are 100% scale are just that -hanger queens .

I cant wait to order mine !!!

Doug47

My Feedback: (24)

Thank you for a truly outstanding post. Outstanding.
There is a LOT of imagination and subjective criticism going on with modelers for whatever reason. Most entertaining to me is the absurd notion that "all P-40's (models) do this", "all P-51's have this idiocyncrasy", etc.,etc. and ad nauseum, because it's just not true. Airfoils, wing loadings, a ton of things come into play for such sweeping and inaccurate generalizations. It's actually pretty darn funny.
Top Flite makes outstanding models, you folks do a great job, keep it up.
I've seen self-styled "experts" make these absurd generalizations, state they can tell 1.2 degrees difference in dihedral yet be cluelss if they're right for one and why it's how it is for two, yet they stick a dumbass comic book dog head or something in the cockpit, so please spare us the sermonizing.
I'm all for criticizing when criticism is due, but man there's a lot of BS going around.
What a flier gets for the money is frankly incredible considering the cost and time involved in building a kit. Want a kit ? Go build one, and do make sure the holes in the exhaust stacks are the right diameter.
Darn nice job Topflite. That things pretty enough to tempt me to get a big plane ! That comes out in a .60 and I'm on it.
Same dream ! Same Cox P-40.I'll betcha this Warhawk outperforms that Byron and by a good bit all things considered. Doug

MANFRED

My Feedback: (27)

Boy did I open the can of worms or what? Heehee.