Heavy Mod - 1/18 21st Century Toys P-47D Razorback

[1to1scale]

FYI, if you cant find seatbelts in 1/18 scale, try using the edge of clean a dollar bill, the paper/linen is very convincing as seat belt. I have used it in my P-40, BF-109G, and a few smaller scale models. 

[JayW]

Thanks 11to1!  What a cool idea.  Expensive too.  Actually I am going to post pics of alot of work in the next day or two, including seat and seat belts which I made from wine bottle lead foil wrap.  So too late.  Next build, I will try that out for sure.

[Guest]

Jay, good to see you back ! Carry on sir.....Harv

[Thunnus]

I just went through and browsed through the nine pages like a kid in a toy store dragging his jaw along the floor.  Simply amazing work.  Thankfully, you did not delete your old photobucket photos... I can still see them thanks to the Google Chrome hack.

[1to1scale]

Thanks 11to1!  What a cool idea.  Expensive too.  Actually I am going to post pics of alot of work in the next day or two, including seat and seat belts which I made from wine bottle lead foil wrap.  So too late.  Next build, I will try that out for sure.

Lol, use a $1 bill, not a $100, that makes it cheaper. I call them my $5 belts, I get a set of $4 PE buckles and the edge of a $1 bill, which is enough for about eight 1/32 Aircraft.

[Shawn M]

Wine foil is also a great belt material in the larger scales.

[JayW]

Well - looks like my Photobucket trick has failed.  Am getting the sign of death again.

 

On a different note, so after the long grueling engine work, I turned to the cockpit as you can see from the last post.  I want to get everything done that will allow me to button up the fuselage halves, and finish the engine and cowling work.  But there is much to accomplish before I can do that, and not just the cockpit.  But the cockpit is by far the largest project.  Also, as you will see, I am going to take a break from the cockpit to do lathe work on the wheels and tires to make sure that will work (not feeling 100% on that, partly because my tired old lathe will be asked to work very hard, and I am not sure how much legs it has left).  If I can't fabricate good wheels and tires, I might as well close the book on the P-47.  But first, I need to get you up to date on what I have been up to the last six months or so.

 

The upper longerons are very important, as many things hang from them.  They were made from heavy plastic strip stock:

 

 

 

Installed they look like this:

 

 

You also see attempts at side frames that I need to back up side panels.  And, canopy rails made from channel stock.

 

The pilot armor plate was fun.  It attaches to the aft (sta 180) bulkhead:

 

 

Dry fitted, it looks like this.  You also see the beginnings of the aft floor with seat post fittings, the bomb release panel, and the hydraulic hand pump:

 

 

A reminder - all this stuff is made using actual Republican Aviation engineering drawings, scaling down, and deciding how to best make the parts.  They can be had at Aircorps Library - cannot overstate how cool that web site is.  I will continue with cockpit work on the next post.  Man - you guys with great cockpit skills already know the complexities.  They can be huge projects.

 

Later alligators.

Edited January 24, 2018 by JayW

[Shawn M]

looking good, keep at it!

While these larger scale pits are a LOT of work (cause you can see and make every detail) they are VERY worth it in the end

[JayW]

Moving on, here is progress on the aft rear corner of the cockpit:

 

 

 

New items include some decals, the trim unit, the flaps and LG hydraulic unit, and the fuel selector valve (on a standpipe attached to the floor.  note the push rod attached to the bellcrank on the landing gear unit.  Visible - so it had to be modeled.  These items are pains in the you-know-what! 

 

The right side of the cockpit has the radio equipment, oxygen unit, and map case.  The radio stuff you see is all for the SCR-522 VHF radio.  Also, the spike antenna that you see so much on WW2 fighters is part of that equipment.  That comes much later.  Two other systems I did not include - the Detrola and the IFF (Identification Friend or Foe).  The Detrola uses the long aerial antenna that attaches to the end of the Spike antenna (which is part of the VHF unit), to the tip of the tail.  ETO fighter aircraft did not use that radio, I am consistently told.  The IFF unit (or lack of) perplexes me though.  The Republic drawings show it as provided, and the "Dottie Mae" P-47-D-25 restoration includes it, which is a very accurate restoration.  But my book "The Mighty Eighth" (Roger Freeman) states that 8th AF fighters did not use this system for some reason.   Now, this aircraft is 9th AF (as is Dottie Mae) and I could not find any information on the 9th WRT IFF equipment.  Anybody out there know anything about this?

 

At any rate, here is the RH side:

 

 

You see the VHF radio equipment, the oxygen regulator, O2 hose, and the map case.  The hose BTW is made from a piece of .032 solder with .015 solder wrapped around a couple hundred times.  I have done this before and it works great!

 

And here is a nearly complete aft floor:

 

 

I am kinda proud of the control stick - I poured my heart and soul into it.  Check out the wire run for the gun trigger.  You also see pulley wheels for rudder cables, and a vent pipe for the aux fuel tank under the floor.

 

Will finish up with the next post, and you will be up to date with my progress so far.  Thanks for tuning in!

Edited January 25, 2018 by JayW

[JayW]

Learning to use Imgur....  My pictures are very large; I will try a smaller size (large Thumbnails):

 

 

Is that better?  

 

OK - then it became time to make the pilot seat.  This was done with simple plastic sheet, and of course an excellent drawing:

 

 

 

And the finished seat with seat belts made from wine bottle lead wrap.

 

 

Barely seen are suspender type bands in the back which served as springs to assist raising and lowering the seat.  I found this interesting.  Also, I compare the finished seat to the pitiful original part.

 

A key component in the cockpit (one of many) is the engine control quadrant.  The P-47 has a doozie, and it is not defined well on Republic drawings because the unit was provided by another company.  Never the less - it is easy to find good pictures on the web, so off I went overdoing it:

 

 

  Look at all the pushrods!  They are in full view, therefore need to be modeled.

 

It was then time to move forward.  The forward floor is actually stepped up from the aft floor (a couple of inches full scale).  It is partly done here:

 

 

I made it from two layers of .03 sheet, the top layer cut out to provide rudder pedal troughs.  Some of you P-47 efficionados will wonder "where are the corrugations".  Well - somewhere along the line the corrugations were covered up.  This model (the -30) had a smooth floor.  The hydraulic lines you see there are for the brakes (the rudder pedals).  You will see more with that detail later.

 

Speaking of rudder pedals, here is the rudder pedal beam, with pedals, brake cylinders, instrument panel support brackets and more.  It is mostly but not completely done.

 

 

 

The P-47 (at least the bubbletop versions) had something called an "arch" under the windshield and is quite visible.  It served to attach the gunsight and other things like windshield defroster, and along with the rudder pedal beam provided the instrument panel attach brackets.  Here it this son-of-a gun:

 

You will see it installed later and you will say "aha!".  It is more important than it looks.

 

And lastly, here is the beginnings of the all-important instrument panel:

 

 

Like I did for my last 1/18 efforts, I drilled holes in the thin plastic sheet using the drill press function of my mini-lathe, with the panel detail sandwiched between thicker plastic.  That is the only way I know of to drill large diameter holes in thin sheet and get a clean hole.  You see here a large scale layout of the IP in the background.

 

Also note the instrument bezels (or flanges) are shown on the near side of the panel.  Amazingly, from this model (-30) up, including the N-models, the instrument bezels were on the aft face of the panel as I have done here.  All prior models had the flanges on the forward face and were therefore hidden!  Why????? 

 

You are now up to date.  I will post progress as it happens from now on, thanks to Imgur! 

Edited January 25, 2018 by JayW

[JayW]

Here - all the clap-trap to date excluding what is on the RH sidewall:

 

 

There are two new items in there - the main circuit box, a signature P-47 item, and the prop switch box.  Look at all that wiring!  Next - the very challenging work with the instrument panel instruments, pneumatic lines and electrical wiring in back of the IP (and unfortunately visible), and installation of the rudder pedal beam and arch. 

Edited January 25, 2018 by JayW

[Shaka HI]

The details are a feast for my eyes! I like the larger picts, Jay, but I don't have bandwidth issues that others may.

[Gazzas]

I am amazed at the crispness and fine-ness of your details.

 

Exceptional!

 

Gaz

[JayW]

Thanks folks.  I don't know about those big pictures.  They are like an electron-scanning microscope, showing every little flaw.  Maybe I will compromise and use the next size up thumbnail.

[Troy Molitor]

Lovely work going on here Jay. A tremendous improvement over the original.

Well done Sir.

 

Troy