ALL THE EXRAS

By

Herman Burton

At the January, 2008, monthly (Note: This was not the SLAC meeting) meeting the members present voted my giant scale P-47 the Model of the Month. Your vote is appreciated. Thank you.

During the presentation of the airplane, during which many questions were asked, I attempted to provide information about the airplane and numerous scale features I had added to the plane during the construction process. Numerous individuals asked for more information than time allowed after the meeting, and asked me to outline that data in the newsletter.

So, this article will be a synopsis of everything I did to add realism to my plane in the way of scale features. At the beginning of construction I had wondered how many hours it would take to build this plane. I finally made the decision after a few months of building to quit keeping up with the time involved, and just have fun. I am retired, and model plane building is one of my retirement hobbies. I will say, however, that I logged a little over 200 man-hours building the basic airplane, completely sheeted and ready to finish. Had I elected to just cover the plane with Monocote or a similar heat shrink fabric, and skip the scale extras, a good estimate to have the plane ready to fly would be somewhere in the 300 hour range.

The airplane is built from a Gold Edition kit manufactured by Top Flite. The plane has an 85” wingspan, and requires a minimum of a 45 cc gas engine to power it. At completion, the finished weight is supposed to range from 20 to 24 pounds. Mine weighs 24 pounds. www.top-flite.com is the web site to access their product line.

Although not a scale feature, I had decided to apply fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin to the plane to protect the plane from excessive “hangar rash”. Plus, this type of finish is excellent if you plan to paint your plane, which I did. The fiberglass should be as light as possible to minimize weight. I used 0.6 oz/sq.yard. This material is only slightly more bulky than a spider web, but with a little practice is not difficult to use. CST Composites Store is a good source for various weights of fiberglass. Their website is www.cstsales.com

There are many epoxy resins available on the market, but the key for model building is one you can sand, and sand with relative ease. West Systems makes an epoxy that is the ideal candidate. Additionally, there are three different hardeners to choose from to increase the useful “pot life” of the material. I use the hardener that gives about 2 hours useful time at 70 degrees. In my garage in the summertime, when the temperature gradually climbs from the low eighties early in the morning to 90 by lunchtime, I get about 30 minutes useful life from this slowest setting hardener. Using small pieces of fiberglass cloth, I find this is plenty of time to get the material saturated, smoothed out, and completed before the epoxy starts to harden. West Systems epoxy and hardener is available at Kemah Hardware on Highway 146.

Several WWII airplanes have a large fillet between the wing and the fuselage. A useful tool to use to fill in around the pieces of wood to make a seamless and smooth fillet is an epoxy glue filler, or “micro balloons”. Add about 30% - 50% by volume to your epoxy glue, and reduce 25% by volume with alcohol, and the resulting mixture is similar to putty in consistency. Just apply, spread with your finger, and with a little practice, that fillet will look machine made. I used Great Planes PRO Milled fiberglass, and can report it works like a charm. Odyssey Hobbies on NASA Rd #1 stocks this material.

Panel lines add a nice touch of realism to any scale airplane. I discussed how to make panel lines in an article for this newsletter last year, so I will not repeat that information here. I was unsuccessful in finding the 1/32” wide tape used for the panel lines locally, and would up buying several rolls from www.SuppliesNet.com in Louisiana. Another facet not covered in my newsletter article last year was the source of the drawings for the panel lines, which is an airplane enthusiast named Dave Burbeck. Dave has drawings of many WWII planes on his web site. These drawings are comprehensive, and shows every feature on the surface of the airplane.

My P-47 was modeled after an actual WWII aircraft flown by Lt. Frank Oiler. He flew a P-47D-25, one of the first bubbletop canopy planes to come off the assembly lines in America in late 1943. This canopy was designed to improve the pilot’s visibility to the rear, and was a big improvement for rearward viewing compared to the earlier versions of the P-47. The bubbletop canopy on my plane came with the kit, and after adding small simulated rivets along the frame of the canopy, I merely painted the frame and installed the canopy with small screws.

Paints used were from www.warbirdcolors.com . These are water based polyurethane coatings specifically designed to exactly match the colors used by all countries who participated in WWII. They are easy to use, cover nicely, and they clean up with soap and water (YES!).

All markings on this plane are dry ink transfers from Aeroloft Designs in Mesa, Arizona. Their web site can be found at www.aeroloft.com .

All of the retractable landing gear, both the mains and the tailwheel, are from Robart Mfg. Their products can be found at www.robart.com

The removable machine guns are made from telescoping brass tubing, starting with 1/16” and stopping with ¼”. The ends were soldered solid, then drilled out to simulate the Browning 50 caliber weapon mounted in each wing four times over. The next larger size of tubing, 9/32”, was mounted in the wing to accommodate the simulated machine guns. K&S Engineering out of Chicago makes these telescoping brass tubes, which are found at all area hardware stores.

The dummy radial engine comes from Nick Ziroli. His products can be found at www.ziroliplans.com. The static display 4-blade propeller was purchased from Horizon Hobby, which imports the 150-size P-47 ARF. www.horizonhobby.com lists all their radio control planes and accessories. Northeast Screen Graphics, dba Major Decals, was the source of the Hamilton propeller logo decals on each blade of the prop. They can be reached at 415-525-4110.

And last, but certainly not least, the pilot figure. This little guy is a collectible action figure with triple jointed arms and legs, and no less than seven separate pieces of gear: a helmet, goggles, parachute, Mae West, .45 caliber Colt automatic pistol, ammo clip, and ammo belt. He was purchased from Historic Aviation. Their toll free phone number is 800-225-5575.

Not visible, and hidden under the cowling, is a custom JTEC muffler, made specifically for this airplane and the Zenoah G-62 gasoline engine. JTEC/RADIOWAVE can be contacted at P.O. Box 1847, Mooresville, NC 28115, phone 704-799-1658.

Scale modeling is a lot of fun. I have had a wonderful time researching this particular plane, and getting it ready for flight. I hope this article answers any questions the membership has regarding particulars about this GIANT SCALE P-47.