JayW

I use solder for hydraulic tubes too - but I cannot make it look as good as you have. Absolutely extra-ordinary work Peter. Very clean!

oh that is magnifico!

And you have said it all Peter. As long as one knows how to read a drawing, and can tell which configuration applies to the aircraft being built, it takes the guess work right out of it. The imagineering then comes with figuring out how to make the part at the desired scale, and how to account for any inaccuracies that the modeler has to live with (like thickness). I may not ever make another OOB model again. Aircorp Library is fantastic.

To add to the applause - the fuel selector valve is just awesome! Cannot wait to see it mounted, with all the hoses attached! Am learning some about the B wheel well (not the same as the D).

"Sweet work Jay! I don't know how you managed that flap leading edge so well. You are truely a master of styrene!" Craig - not so much a master, as there are rough spots. But here is how i did it. First I made quite a few former ribs as you can see. Easy enough. Then I used the Airscale method of heating the plastic in its formed shape, and immediately freezing to try to get the plastic set without alot of springback.

Lord how long have I been waiting to hang a completed flap onto a completed flap linkage on a completed wing. Now I wait no longer. Here is the completed RH flap "on the bench": The three indentations on the leading edge are apparent in these photos, as are the two actuator link clevis lugs. Guess I will just throw away the old flaps - didn't need them after this scratch build effort. Hung on the wing it looks like this: Hmmm. I realized only when I hung the completed flap that there is a bit of a bow on the fixed trailing edge (FTE) along the flap span - the gap between FTE and the flap nose is a bit more pronounced at the mid flap span. Oh well - I'll take it. Anyway the flap is there permanently; I have glued the joints. I managed to not break off any of the linkages - yay! Now I have a good robustly attached flap. Will cut away the excess plastic pin length at the actuator link locations, put bolt and nut heads on either end of the joint. Now, to make the LH flap look just like the RH flap. Lotsa work to do that. Then I will show you the airplane itself, with flaps. Next on the docket after that will be the innermost landing gear doors - another fun and involved project. Hope you like it.

From a guy who specializes in gear bays - that is a gear bay you can be very proud of. Wow. Question - the gear stub you have in there - the subject of earlier posts where we discussed the right gear rake angle - how are you going to get it stiff enough and strong enough to robustly support the considerable weight of this model? It appears to me that it is currently just bonded to the wing upper skin. When I did Miss Velma, I drilled holes in the top of the gear struts and bonded in a cross bar kinda like the real thing, where the gear rotates on the cross bar. My gear do not rotate and my cross bar is not at the authentic angle for proper rotation, but the sole purpose of my cross bar is to support the gear strut at the proper rake angle: But also unlike the real thing, my cross bar extends all the way to (actually through) the wing spar. That way it has two support points - the aft one is the wing spar, and the forward one is the bearing box just aft of the strut itself (which you have created already). Other ways to do it, but you can't get more robust than that. Do not underestimate the weight of the model and how it will want to flex and bend the gear. Even smaller scale models do nothing other than provide a reinforced hole in which to insert the gear strut. Pretty lame. Tamiya was the first to do better and actually provide the cross bar (although at the wrong rake angle).

Kinda fired up about this - I feared the flap leading edge skins more than anything else, and they are turning out OK. Hard work, but OK: Note the airfoil shape, and the leading edge ribs I have made to wrap the thin plastic skins around. You see six of seven skin sections there. The one with the lugs protruding from the nose was by far the most difficult one. Second most difficult will be the long missing one. The airfoil shape is pretty authentic EXCEPT it is too tall. But the whole wing is too tall, so that is how it has to be. A couple more shots: Note at the three main support locations, the leading edge skin is indented. That is because when the flap linkage and flap are fully stowed, the linkage would clash with the flap nose if not locally reshaped. This shows up clearly on real live Thunderbolts with flaps down. Next post I will have this RH flap 100% complete. Then it is on to the LH flap. Take care.

Absolutely stunning Corsair!!!

Next step on the flap, after main body ribs are installed, and all the hundreds of drill starts are finished on the upper and lower skin panels, is to close out the main body by gluing the lower skin on. This was done with a high degree of success. Looks good. Then next step is to make the attach fittings (three main fittings, and two long actuator fittings) all of which attach to the flap spar: Consider yourselves lucky - few folks get to see how a P-47 flap looks with the nose gone. And yes, the flap leading edge is next. Will be a real challenge to do well. First though, I had to hang this flap and see if it positions how my layouts say it should: It worked! Success. Flap hangs down around 30 degrees, with the proper gap and overlap to the fixed training edge of the upper skin. At least the end ribs indicate that. The middle shot shows the temporary plastic pins joining the actuator arms in the wings to the extended fittings on the flap. This was no small thing - the toy scale is quite inaccurate in the flaps area - wing is too thick, and trailing edge cove (where the flap nose resides when retracted) is not deep enough. To say nothing of the grossly inaccurate flap shape. That meant I could not simply scale the flap linkage, but redo its geometry to account for the inaccuracies. Lots of opportunity to screw up. Also, spanwise the location of the fittings on the flap needed to match the locations of the flap linkages and actuator arms. Match is good. So now it is on to the leading edge ribs and panels. Cannot wait! Later.

Oh boy! The wheel wells. Man you are doing great! Love the work on the landing light.

Now that's funny! Yeah, but this is the final season, and it will not have as many episodes. The end approacheth.

Gaz - the ailerons I salvaged from the original parts. The flaps here are all made of plastic; no metal. Hopefully when they are done and painted, they will look aluminum!! Could it be the silver paint you see made the skins look alum? I use silver paint so I can scribe shapes onto the plastic sheet. Works great. Black is bad; cannot see the lines on scales and protractors. And I agree - bonding aluminum and plastic (with epoxy) sucks.

Hello master modelers - life got in the way, and my work on the Thunderbolt has been interrupted alot. But I do have a modest update if for no other reason than to let you know I am alive. So on the wing, the flaps are next up. Something has to attach to these links: Recall I had started on the flaps a while ago, attempting to salvage the existing parts: And I still might. But to get the spans just right, and get the leading edges right with the attach fittings, is going to be a little sloppy. Besides, scratch building control surfaces or high lift surfaces like flaps, can be great fun. So that is what I am doing. If it turns out badly, I will revert to plan "A". I am at work making skin panels (with many hundred drill starts for rivet patterns), the spar, and quite a few ribs: These parts will make up the main body of the flap, and are all 0.020 inch thick plastic sheet. After that is done, I will tackle the more difficult leading edge, with its attach fittings and heavily curved skin panels. Sorta like the real thing! You may be wondering "why does he bother with lightening holes?" Here's why - glue together a thin sided closed box with no way for it to breath, and the plastic skins will soften and sag or otherwise deform due to the fumes from the glue. I found that out the hard way on Miss Velma a few years ago, where I completed a flap box only to see it deformed overnight. The holes really solve that problem. Here is a shot at the mostly complete main body: There are 9 ribs including the end ribs. I have also put stiffeners in between the ribs (the actual flap has full ribs in those locations too - I didn't want to make that many ribs). This shows the end ribs: They are two layers of 0.01 inch thick plastic sheet, meant to show the hydro-formed stiffening features on the real thing. Since these ribs are visible, I needed to do that. Note also I put in some .03 x .03 rod as a stringer, just to split up the bays and minimize any sagging of the skins. Finally, note the inboard end rib has a heavy (20 deg) cant to it. The real flap has this too. Next post you should see a completed main body for the RH flap, and perhaps some work on the attach fittings. My near term goal is to complete those fittings and test fit the flap on the wing. Hopefully the flap fittings will line up well with the linkage on the wing, and position the flap properly in a flaps down position. Fun. Stay tuned!

Yeah you just performed some magic on that wing fillet! Keep it up. On a different note - I put a helluva lot of detail into the Miss Velma tail wheel strut and well. It was fun too. But I realized as I was doing that work that very likely wartime Mustangs sported the canvas cover in there. I do not think, with all the mud and stuff, it would be good to subject all that critical equipment exposed in the tail wheel bay (like elevator & rudder cables?) to flinging mud. I never did find anything definitive on that. But I did with the P-47 effort I am involved with right now, and P-47's apparently used tail wheel well covers. Having said that - your skills seem without bound. I did not make a cover, but I'll bet you could!