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

[wingman777]

Jaw dropping,  this entire post is so unbelievable...I have the same 1/18 aircraft and I was planning to do the same thing but now that I've seen all your masterful work I think I"ll just take up knitting.   Keep up the good work, I can't wait to see the finished product.

[LSP_Ray]

Those wheel well bays look spectacular! But yes, get rid of the Made in China bit!

[JayW]

"That's interesting how the spent shell casings and link chutes are interconnected between the guns, I never really thought about how that was done before.

 

NukerDan - No, am pretty sure each gun has its own chutes.  The shells drop straight out of the guns through big slots in the lower wing skin panel.  And the links pass through individual chutes for each gun, through smaller slots on the lower wing skin.  Here is an end view of the guns - I have tried to identify the chutes (note the feed chutes on top - could you have been looking at those?):

 

 

 

 Here is the lower skin panel:

 

 

 

BTW - the model did not have the smaller link ejection slots.  I am adding them.

 

Edited October 24, 2018 by JayW

[dodgem37]

'the landing gear bays are done'

And they look GREAT!

 

What is the red vent?

 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark

[JayW]

What is the red vent?

 

Dodgem37 (Mark) - thanks for asking.  It is a fuel tank vent on the RH wing only.  As defined by this drawing:

 

 

Drawing is 93C65147, Installation - Vent Line - Wing Main Fuel Tank, effective on all P-47D aircraft (also P-47N).

 

You can see it enters the wheel bay at the aft upper region of the inboard canted rib, is attached to the rear shear web via tube clamps, mates with a special tube assembly via a short section of rubber hose (with hose clamps), and exits the airplane at the wing lower surface.  The detail drawing of the curved exit tube and support plate (93C65225) specifically says to paint the tube red.

 

Here - a better picture of mine:

 

Edited October 24, 2018 by JayW

[Trak-Tor]

Wow and wow!

And thanks for all the details.

 

Juraj

 

[JayW]

Well the machine gun sub-project went better than expected.  I'll get to that in a minute.   The RH wing leading edge has a hole for an air duct - I am not sure what this air duct is for, but it's there.  Here it is on Dottie Mae:

 

 

The original hole in the wing was awful, so I cut it away and then some, so I could fit in a block of plastic with a slotted hole drilled in it:

 

 

Then I simply sanded the excess away:

 

 

The hole shape is actually accurate, but the leading edge contour is considerably blunter than the real thing, so it isn't going to look perfect.  Once the wing halves are glued together, I will add the ring doubler that you see in the Dottie Mae pic, which will cover the seam.  It'll look good.

 

OK on to the machine gun leading edge panel.  Brian asked for a blow-by-blow, so I will give it to you.  Hope you all find it interesting.  Here is my goal - to duplicate this (Dottie Mae again):

 

 

 

As I described earlier, I decided to try plastic sheet (and if I failed, alum sheet).  Also, I need two layers to give the squarish holes and the round holes.  I first needed a good framework around the leading edge cutout which would provide a shelf in which to glue down the panels, and also serve as contour formers.  Here:

 

  

 

It is fixed to the lower wing half, but fits tight to the upper wing half:

 

 

 

The hard part, of course, is to get the rib contours just right, and offset just right.  I got it pretty close.  Note I have a mid-rib; without it the leading edge panel is a little weak.  Material is .03 and .04 inch plastic sheet and strip.

 

Then, I took Peter's advise for hot-forming, and deep freezing thin plastic sheet.  Man - it worked, with a vengeance.  It was difficult to unwrap the plastic from the x-acto knife handle it was wrapped around!  Thanks AirScale!  Here is one of four .01 plastic sheet details that have been hot/cold formed, and somewhat relieved:

 

  

 

 

Yes - I used an x-acto knife handle as the contour master.  Why?  Well Peter suggested using the actual wing as the master, and applying steam to heat the plastic sheet.  But this would have been in the vicinity of the wheel well, and I feared some parts would come unglued or unbonded.  Besides, the curved sheet would have to be flattened in order to drill holes, and cut the periphery.  So an exact contour match was not necessary.  

 

From there, it was off to the mini-lathe set up as an end mill (or in this case a drill press).  It can drill holes very exactly:

 

 

What you see there is a sandwich - with the thin formed sheet (two of them), pressed between thick plastic strip.  This solves the large hole tearing problem, and results in very nice clean .125 inch diameter (and later .156 inch for the other two sheets) holes.  After this step, I got this:

 

 

 

At this point I knew this was going to work just fine.  The squarish holes were had by filing corners into the .156 inch holes, as seen here:

 

 

Nested and bonded:

 

 

Now for final trim to the cutout.  What you see above is slightly oversize.  First the lower wing halve cutout was matched up, then the upper half.  Then I glued the panel in place:

 

 

Final trim, of course, was lots of trial and error, taking off just a bit at a time, until I was satisfied with the fit.  The contour matched up pretty well with the wing, thanks to tedious work on the framework ribs, and to good initial forming of the panel sheets.  Victory!

 

From there, the guns themselves were easy.  I used .125 diameter plastic tube, reamed to .078 inch ID, with a long plug of .062 diameter plastic rod with a .028 diameter hole drilled (scales to the 50 caliber gun barrel).  They were cut to four different sizes to account for the stagger that P-47 guns sported.  Also, inner supports for the gun barrels also serve as the shell ejection chutes:

 

 

And with wing upper half:

 

 

 

 

 

What a relief.  This is going to be OK.  The guns can be removed, and installed after the wing halves are joined, and the wing painted.  I am not sure if it is evident in the pictures, but I was able to capture the somewhat "level" orientation of the guns, thus correcting the error on the original model.  Now, it will take a couple days work to do the other wing.  And then I must decide what wing sub-project is next.  Not the flap supports - must wait a while longer for that.

 

Sorry if this post is tedious for some of you - I really went into detail.  Later, alligator!

 

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2018 by JayW

[LSP_Kevin]

Utterly fantastic work, Jay! You may have taken your cue from Peter, but your work here is just as good.

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

Man, that is some phenomenal work Jay!!

[Shawn M]

outstanding craftsmanship!

[Trak-Tor]

Well, that's terrific!

And now I need to sweep my popcorn off the floor....

 

Juraj

Edited October 26, 2018 by Trak-Tor

[Gazzas]

Beautiful, Jay!

[airscale]

that came out brilliantlyJay - very nice job

 

your cunning plan elevates you to the professor of cunning at cunning university

 

can't wait to see what's next!

 

Peter

[dodgem37]

Great problem-solving.  Love what you're doing.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[JayW]

I am happy to say the machine gun work is finished, both wings.  The LH wing turned out as good as the RH wing.  That's a relief.  No pics; would be repetitive.  

 

So the goal here of course is to complete whatever is required such that the upper and lower wing halves can be joined.  All the work either creates something that is missing, or modifies something that is inadequate.  For nearly all the wing sub-projects, they can be divided into work done prior to wing half join, and work done post wing half join.  So far, most of the work I have done on the wings is needed prior to wing half join.  Here is a list of sub-projects with status:

 

Done:

 

LG bays LH, RH

Guns & LE penetrations for guns plus inside supports  LH, RH

LE penetration for pitot mast plus inside support LH only

LE penetration for gun camera RH only

LE penetration for air duct RH only

 

Partly done:

 

Flap supports LH, RH

Dzus fasteners gun bay and ammo bay  LH, RH 

 

To do:

 

Finish above partly done items 

Landing light relocation LH only 

Tip lights LH, RH  

ID lights (red, green, amber) RH only 

Aileron supports LH, RH

Bomb pylon internal supports LH, RH (may not need anything here - just holes)

Install landing gear  LH, RH

 

So alot of work left to do prior to buttoning up the wings.  Then, after wing half join, there is more work to do, including paint of course.  I have a plan for all the remaining work, but am worried about two items:  landing light, and tip lights.  I seek guidance from the masters.

 

So on the -30 variant (and on), and I am modelling a -30RE,  the wing landing light (LH side) was moved from behind the landing gear bay to closer to the tip.  No doubt, it was to make room for dive flaps, which were introduced on that variant, and which this model will get later.   Of course, my LH wing has the light in the wrong place for a -30.  Here is a picture of the landing light area vigorusly sanded on to remove the landing light doubler, and the "made in china 21st century toys"  raised lettering:

 

 

Yup, the lettering is gone.  So now I do not have to see snide comments on it anymore.    I will add a cover for the landing light hole, a bit of putty, sand smooth, and it's gone.  BTW - the light was a good bit too small.

 

So what's my problem with the landing light?  Well, it requires a .50 inch hole drilled in the lower wing skin near the tip:

 

 

I have drilled a small pilot hole at the location it needs to be (the small black dot - not to be confused with the big screw hole above it, which will be covered up).  That is going to be a big hole.  I'll do it with the end mill but there will be alot of power behind the drill, and I think it puts the wing panel at risk for severe damage if the bit digs in and it gets away from me.  What I need is a clean .50 inch hole.  Any ideas?

 

The tip lights - here is what is provided on the toy:

 

   

 

If one knew nothing about P-47's it might be OK with you.  But I know it's wrong.  The real light is larger (see the pencil lines in the picture), and it is clear plexiglas, not colored.  Here is a shot of Dottie Mae's wing tip:

 

  

 

Let's unpack that a bit:  The glass is clear, it's larger than what is on the model presently, and the bulb is colored (not the glass).  The structure inside the plexiglas is painted with ZC primer.  And, the flanges the plexiglas is attached to have neoprene black tape serving as a gasket of sorts.  I can model that convincingly in theory, and to be sure, I could probably delay the work until after the wing halves are joined.  And I might.  But the big challenge is to provide a clear properly shaped part to fit in there.  Wow.

 

Well, I think I can make the glass out of 2-inch diameter clear acrylic (2.5+ inch dia would fit better, but I don't have any, and it would be too big for my lathe).  I would machine a big ring with the right cross section, or close), and then cut the two flats.  After installation, I can file and hone to final shape.  That is a pretty bold plan.  I worry the acrylic is hard enough to resist final filing.  So I read once where a guy used a clear portion of a tooth brush to make a clear part.  Maybe softer plastic....  Any comments on that?  Anyone have better ideas?

 

FYI, the flooring on half my house gets done in the next few days, including the modelling office, which will be a big fat interruption to say the least.  Stick with me; it will be worth it!    

   

Edited November 2, 2018 by JayW