Scale Plans built P-51

[Pistolera]

Sub'd. You gonna do a warbird or racer?

 

[Red Raider]

Warbird. Gunfighter II. It's a beautiful plane that's still flying the arishow circuit. In fact I've got a picture of me and my grandson sitting in the cockpit. What a great memory.

 

[Bartman]

do those plans show P-51B parts also?

always wanted to do a Bud Nosen Mustang as B/C finished like Charles F Blair's Excalibur III

http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?object=nasm_A19530088000

 

[Red Raider]

Sure does! A clipped wing version like Galloping Ghost would be awesome too.

 

[Red Raider]

Here's the business end showing the installation of the plywood side-doubler (MS). I've laminated F1 and am waiting for it to dry. The instructions say to have the engine on hand because it's critical that the 2 sides stay absolutely square while bending them around F1 which is round. Right now I'm in pretty good shape.
That's my 6 year old grand son holding the square. He said this is the most fun he's had all day!! Papa is so happy!

 

[Red Raider]

Making a compound curve out of a square piece is a difficult task, and one that if you're not careful, could result in fracturing the sheeting. The plans call for making 1/16 inch deep cuts in the side sheeting to facilitate the bending process. I did this on the tail and it didn't work out too well. I've got a lot of work to do to fix that mess. What I plan to do this time is to make the cuts, but before I try to bend it, I'm going to soak it in an ammonia solution to try to soften it up a bit. That's not going to happen until tomorrow, so if you have another idea, I'd sure love to hear about it.

 

[Red Raider]

Here's what I use for stripping balsa. It's just a small piece of 1 by, that I dressed on my bench sander and then rounded the edges. That's just a #11 x-acto blade and a couple of servo screws to hold it where I want it. Very simple, very useful.

 

[Red Raider]

Heres F1, rough cut and ready to finish sanding to get the curve right. That's what the front side pieces have to form to.
Come on guys, it's been a couple of hours and nobody has come up with a procedure for helping with the bend.

 

[WMcNabb]

If the curves are compound, the only way I know to get the desired shape is by planking.

I've found an example of a P-51B fuselage at the link below:
http://www.rcscalebuilder.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=18459&PN=1

 

[stangflyer]

This should be an awesome build. Maybe it will motivate me to dig out the Don Smith and get to building on it. Hmmm.....