Looks great Ollie. You do excellent work.

When I raced boats my caller worked for a company that made parts for Top Fuel drag cars. He had a mold for a boat and I watched him lay a couple up out of CF cloth. He used a thick black epoxy similar to AeroPoxy to do the seam. He also had small ports in the mold that he filled with clay befreo he applied the PVA. When it was time to pop the part loose he would hit the port with air and it would help pop the sections out of the mold.

That's a good idea Chris. I'd been thinking about molding the exhaust stacks into the fuse mold when I re-do my P-39 mold. perhapsan opening in one or more of the stacks, in addition to being more accurate, would give me this access to getting pressurized air to a part of the mold I foresee being a troublespot.

Thanks!

Now I'm starting to make firewalls and cowl rings, using my formica templates.

#1 Here I am rounding the front corner of the firewalls. Otherwise, they won't fit flush beings I rounded the radius of the front corner with microballoons and resin.

#2 Finished firewalls: P-39 on left, P-47 on right.

Time to pop out the P-39.
(Same procedure as with the P-47)

Thanks for taking pictures, "Leadfoot."

Again, it takes a lot of patience. Working with as little air pressure as will complete the job.

#1. Here you can see where the part has begun to separate from the mold but the PVA is still stuck tothe part.(darker green), and where the PVA has separated from both the mold and the part (lighter green).

#2. Getting the wedges in there.

. . . and running them all around the outside of the molds, while continuing to utilize air pressure.

#1. "This one is being really stubborn, Casey!"

#2. Finally, it is coming loose.
BUT, I heard a crack that didn't sound good!</p>

That crack was my wing fillet breaking. Okay, that is frustrating! But it is time to free this thing once and for all.

Yeah, Ifound that I did not get enough PVA into thenarrowest part of the fillet. Thiscaused some distortion effects(called either "alligatoring" or "orange peeling")and broke the other fillet off inside the mold, too!

This is why when I re-do the P-39 mold I am adding a third part to the bottom. That should help with getting the fillets out in one piece, consistently.

I boo-boo'ed . . .

The P-39 was 12.7 ozs., and the P-47 was 12.15 ozs.

Ollie that looks absolutely amazing...ima gonna stop by that insulation place sometime this weekend when im not buisy...speaking of this weekend are you going to be at the swap on saturday?

Thanks Spencer.

I've got a friend coming up from out of town, so I won't be able to make it to the swap meet. (I've still never been to one!)

Not quite the correct "Trinity", but a trinity nevertheless. Here is the P-47on its brand new, ready-to-coverwing. The new P-39 fuse is in the background, on an old wing. (I cartwheeled the last P-39 and only the wing and the hatches survived, so I am puttingthemto use with this fuse.) I also have another P-39 that I've had just aboutready to paint for almost a year now. I just have to cover the ailerons and elevators and glue them in, and fabricate the rear hatch cover. All three of these will be olive drab, so I was hoping to prep and paint them all together, at the same time.

The newP-51 (still in the mold, so it is not pictured) will be modeled after the Red Baron, but because Ron (fromDowntown Hobbies)and "Bushman" already race multiple Red Barons in its traditional markings, I am going to do a custom color scheme so they can be distinguished from each other.

It has sucked not having a plane to race for the last two years. My goal with this build was to assure I wouldn't find myself in that position again. Assuming I don't crash any in the meantime, when I am done, I will have 2 P-39s, 2 P-47s, and 2 P-51s. That ought to keep me in raceplanes for awhile, so I can start working on new projects, without worrying about not having a plane to race.

Back to the last model of the true trinity of this build . . . the P-51:

The P-51 has different construction being a U-shaped fuse with an open bottom. I need to glue cross-grain balsa on the bottom to close it up eventually. But, this means that I need something more substantial that 2 layers of FG cloth to glue it to. So, it gets a piece of 3/32" balsa sheet, followed by another layer of FG cloth. This sandwich construction makes it very rigid, and also absorbs the stresses of the wing saddle during hard landings, beings there are no fillets on this model. (Without a fillet, the edge of the fuse side would be so sharp it would cut through the wing sheeting.)

Here, I am clamping &amp; weighing down the sheeting to the sides of the fuse after applying epoxy, to ensure a good bond. Also being a scuba diver, I found another use forthe ballast from my weight belt. It comes in handy keeping the top edge of the balsa sheet in contact with the fiberglass fuse sides that are too far from the bottom for my clamps to reach.

I put plastic wrap over the top so I don't accidentally glue my ballast to the side of the fuse. Otherwise, I can just see it now, "Gee, this planeflies like a brick!"

Unclamped, here goes the other piece of glass over the top of the balsa sheet, to complete the 'sandwich' structure.

While the last layer of cloth on the P-51is drying, I start laying up the cowls.

It follows the same basicprocedures as with the fuses, so I won't bother to repeat myself in outlining all the steps . . . aside from stating that I like to wet out the cloth from the middle of the strip, working outwards.

This is the P-39's cowlreceiving its second layer of cloth.

Here's the fabrication of the 2-part RedBaronP-51 cowl. Notice the relief cuts and the overlaps at the spinner backplate area.

Next, the P-47 cowl receives its layers of cloth, while the P-51's layers start to harden.</p>

After it is tacky, I mix up another batch of resin.

I pour half into another cup and mix in microballoons. (I keep the other half to use later, when wetting out theseaming strip of FG cloth.) I skip the chopped fiberglass this time, because it was a pain in the butt to work with when I did the fuses!

I install my Klecos to hold the halves of the mold tight.</p>

Seal up the gaps between the cloth on the halves and the line/gap where the two halves of the mold meet with the mixture.

Apply cloth strips and wet them out.

Now, do the same with the P-51 fuse:

Klecos . . . microballoons mixture . . .apply cloth strips . . . wet them out.