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


JayW

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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, or "masts") all of which attach to the flap spar:

 

 ypmraHsl.jpg

 

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:

 

uDqQQS9l.jpg

 

FvgregMl.jpg

 

0zTy6rUl.jpg

 

It worked!  Success.  Flap hangs down around 40 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. 

Edited by JayW
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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:

 

1k0s56Hl.jpg

 

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:

 

  Xb2cnJTl.jpg

 

bMv01l5l.jpg

 

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.

 

 

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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":

 

4TtqLLWl.jpg

 

4BUFiBil.jpg

 

A1Z8Eril.jpg

 

The three indentations on the leading edge are apparent in these photos, as are the two actuator mast 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:

 

 5MiiLJ9l.jpg

 

Zx9ZLJMl.jpg

 

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. 

 

 

Edited by JayW
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"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.   

Edited by JayW
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Jay, I have been meaning to drop by for a few weeks now and boy have I missed some updates!

 

that flap looks amazing - in fact the whole thing is really coming together

 

I love how you also use aircorps library to get the goods on each part you make - there is nothing like a factory drawing to make sure its just right

 

All the best

 

Peter

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30 minutes ago, airscale said:

 

I love how you also use aircorps library to get the goods on each part you make - there is nothing like a factory drawing to make sure its just right

 

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.  

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Not very often, if ever, have i read a topic in the last twenty odd years on the internet and then gotten up and walked away shaking my head. Your work and attention to detail is sublime Jay. Reading through this is in two sittings, your passion and enjoyment for this project has come through my screen and left me smiling. Really lovely work and i 'm glad you could share that passion with so many people.

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On 2/16/2019 at 8:34 PM, Hetstaine said:

Not very often, if ever, have i read a topic in the last twenty odd years on the internet and then gotten up and walked away shaking my head. Your work and attention to detail is sublime Jay. Reading through this is in two sittings, your passion and enjoyment for this project has come through my screen and left me smiling. Really lovely work and i 'm glad you could share that passion with so many people.

 

Says newbie Hetstaine.  Thank you, and welcome to a modeler from down unda!  .  My daughter lives in Sydney, and is complaining about a seriously hot summer. 

 

As for passion and enjoyment, why do I feel so unenthusiastic right now with the LH flap?  I forget who mentioned it, but it's true for me as well that once I make one of two items, the second one is more tedious.  Definitely true of the flaps.  Building a flap from scratch is involved.  I recall on my P-38 a couple years ago where I had to make umpteen gear door scissor linkages - I can assure you I didn't feel very enthusiastic midway through that!

 

Anyway Hetstaine, stay tuned.  Getting ready to get seriously passionate about the body-side gear doors, and then the bomb pylons - both will be involved.  Those two items will make this P-47 look more like a completed P-47 instead of a partially completed one.  From there just a couple of small items and it's done, after 2 plus years.  

Edited by JayW
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18 minutes ago, JayW said:

 

As for passion and enjoyment, why do I feel so unenthusiastic right now with the LH flap?  I forget who mentioned it, but it's true for me as well that once I make one of two items, the second one is more tedious.  Definitely true of the flaps.

 

I am 100% with you Jay - I learned a while ago that the only way to do multiples is do them at the same time and keep them in sequence with each other

 

One of the reasons my 1/24 F7F died on the shelf was because I couldn't bring myself to repeat the whole process again to make another P&W 2800 - so there it sits with just the one..

 

..now I am religiously disciplined in doing multiples simultaneously so I never repeat that mistake :)

 

Peter

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Peter - here is the thing and I'll bet you can relate:  When scratch building something and I feel there is a risk it might not work, might not fit, or unsure of a method of fabrication (and I have had that all happen), I am hesitant to do them all in parallel only to have to do them all over again.  Would rather do one over again, apply the correction to the other before making the same mistake on it.  With these flaps, I had lots of trepidation for several reasons, none of which came to fruition thankfully.  So I could have done them in parallel.  Actually, for some of the parts I did.  The spar, and the main box ribs, and to a lesser the main skin panels.  Mostly because I didn't want to forget some of the itty bitty details of fabrication.  But those parts are just a fraction of the total effort.  Hope to get that LH flap done in a week or so!

 

Now get back to work on that Mustang!

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