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

[Hetstaine]

21 hours ago, JayW said:

 

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.  

 

 

I'll definitely be staying staying tuned Jay, and yes, standard hot Aussie summer. Thick skin, good beaches to head to on the weekends and hiding indoors with the aircon on when it gets too be to much. I managed to do most of my modeling outdoors last year which was nice, way to hot inside but the cooler weather is coming so i can creep back into the garage once my airbrush turns up and hide away in the dark.

[JayW]

Well it's been nearly a month since I posted any progress.  It's been slow these days, because of a whole lot of life, which is preventing any big pushes.  Instead it's a little at a time.  Frustrating.

 

Anyway, a major milestone has been reached, which is hanging of the completed flaps (both of them).  I will show this on the airplane, as complete as it is right now.

 

RH flap, fully deployed:

 

    

 

LH flap fully deployed:

 

 

Pan back some:

 

 

I don't know if the pictures convey this - we have here a gigantic model.  It's hard to pick it up without bumping it into something.  The wings are not permanently installed yet - I want to wait at least until the inboard LG doors are complete and installed onto the wing undersides.  That way I am dealing with a smaller assembly.

 

A couple more pics:

 

 

 

The flaps added another degree of completeness to my eye, occupying some space under the wings.  Now it is on to the inboard LG doors which once complete will add more to the completed look, and occupy more of that space.  After the doors, I get to tackle the bomb pylons - yikes!

 

The LG door layout is tricky and difficult to get right.  The parts will be scratch built, and will hang by two goose-neck hinge fittings per side.  Also the hydraulic actuator in the gear bay will be attached.  Visible parts that have to be right.  Stay tuned for that!   

Edited March 2, 2019 by JayW

[Gazzas]

Hi Jay,

   She looks great!  Amazed at the work you're putting in!

 

Gaz

[JayW]

Just to let you know I am alive, work has begun on the inboard landing gear doors.  Here is what I want them to look like (Dottie Mae):

 

 

I mean to include the following features:

1.  The hydraulic actuator rod attach (rod not shown here).

2.  The stainless steel doubler that has a clearance dish for the tire. 

3.  Two rollers that help lock the door in place with gear up (one shown above on bottom of door). 

4.  The two goose neck hinge fittings along with matching fittings on the wing rib.

 

Here is my progress so far:

 

 

 The outer skin is .020 plastic sheet, the build-up is .156 tall by .08 thick strip, and the inner skin is .015 plastic sheet.  The hardest part is to file and grind the spherical shaped dish on the inner surface, and then get the inner skin to lay down inside the dished area.  

 

Next post these will be finished, and mounted onto the wing.  At that point, it will be time to permanently install the wings to the fuselage and permanently install the wheels onto the gear struts.  I am approaching the finish line albeit very slowly!  To go are bomb pylons, centerline bomb shackles, and pitot mast.  

Edited March 13, 2019 by JayW

[Gazzas]

Jay,

   You Rock!!

 

Gaz

[JayW]

One gear door down, one to go:

 

 

 

 

A very dirty door - pretty lazy weathering.  Maybe I will do a little more later.  The placement of the door opening cylinder in the landing gear bay months ago was really a question mark.  But I had no need to worry - it's just about right.  The thin silver lip that is just above the door I added to the gear bay cutout on the fuselage.  It's really supposed to look that way.  That lip, or shelf, is why the hinge fittings need to be goose necks.

Edited March 16, 2019 by JayW

[airscale]

now that is a double take - it is a testament to the super high quality of your work that those pics actually look like a P47 in maintenance, not a model...

 

superb job Jay, really top notch

 

Peter

[Guest Vincent]

16 minutes ago, airscale said:

now that is a double take - it is a testament to the super high quality of your work that those pics actually look like a P47 in maintenance, not a model...

 

superb job Jay, really top notch

 

Peter

 

Agreed

[JayW]

OK - pretty big update:

 

Both LG doors are done and installed, the wings have been glued to the fuselage, the wheels are permanently fixed to the axles and held on with the axle caps.  And, the centerline bomb shackle and sway braces are installed.  Take a look at some pictures:

 

First, here are some real live sway braces from Dottie Mae, along with the defining engineering drawing:

 

 

 

And my version:

 

 

They were not the easiest of projects what with the complex (and really small) shape.

 

Here is the bomb shackle:

 

 

Now the belly of the aircraft looks like this:

 

 

Addition of all these underwing parts have added much needed completeness to the look of the model:

 

 

 

Note the axle caps - I made them a couple years ago!  Finally they are installed!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK enough enough (got carried away).  Not done yet!  This aircraft will soon receive the wing mounted bomb pylons which are going to be rather involved.  Like usual I will take you through it blow by blow.  And let's not forget about the pitot mast - last because it is fragile and gets in the way.  Next post you will see that, and the wing decals.  

 

Then I will need to transfer over to ready for inspection.  How does one do that?

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

Suuuuuuuuuper nice! 

[Shawn M]

"Then I will need to transfer over to ready for inspection.  How does one do that?"

Most of us create a new thread of finished pictures with a link back to the build.

 

 

This is fantastic, looking forward to seeing the finished product.

[Eenyweeny]

Incredible work and a real inspiration for me to up my game! 

[Gazzas]

A thing of beauty, Jay!

[LSP_Ray]

Outstanding! And nearing the finish line!

[JayW]

As I look through wartime photos of P-47's, I see that aircraft were not always equipped with bomb pylons, or "wing tank adapters" which is what Republic called them.  But the one I am making did:

 

  

 

No question.

 

So the bomb pylon (Dottie Mae):

 

 

The model didn't come with them, at least mine didn't.  Not that they would be usable.  So it has to be a scratch build.  I have begun the layout activities:

 

 

The lower right drawing is my side view layout 3x size.  You may notice the wing lower contour is far different from what you see on the actual engineering drawings.  The contour is practically flat!  Well it is what it is, but it forces me  to make alterations to account for it.  For instance, my pylon will not have as deep a nose, and that may not look quite right.  Nothing I can do about that. 

 

These pylons have many many parts, and have fairly complex shapes which are not very well defined on the drawings.  For contours the reader is just directed back to "the loft" which we are not privy to.  But much can be inferred from the various views on the drawings.  I'll get there.

 

There are three trouble areas that I anticipate (circled in red on the top install drawing 93C78130):

 

 

 

First is the nose.  I am going to try to wrap thin plastic around a couple of former ribs.  And if that doesn't work, I will hog out the shape from a block of plastic.  Maybe too much to call that a "trouble area", but it will be tedious and challenging to say the least.

 

Second is the area right behind the aft sway brace.  This is a contour transition area that is poorly defined, and even if well defined will be very challenging to create from scratch.  At the moment I don't even have a plan.

 

Third is the aft end which is occupied by a very complex casting.  The part is meant to be a hinge for a stabilizing post used for one of the larger fuel tanks that were sometimes used.  When not used it hinges forward to a stowed position as shown on the drawing.  That casting is going to be a tiger to represent.  I have no good plan yet.  MOF - that part was so challenging, even the Dottie Mae has only a simple sheet metal replacement for it.  See the photo above.

 

So I  have my work cut out for me - a project within a project.   Bring it on!

Edited March 26, 2019 by JayW