1/18 Curtiss P40C - Finished :)

[brahman104]

Always learning with every post Peter! I'm going to have to try that foam, what a game changer!!!!

 

Continue on, good Sir!

 

Craig

[airscale]

evening all

 

On 1/7/2022 at 6:52 PM, adameliclem said:

Hi Peter,

 

Happy to help. The  Z-proxy looks promising. If you test it to see how it interacts with the foam, I suggest you also test it on the plastic you used for the formers, or laminate a bit of scrap foam and plastic to see how they behave together. I don’t think there’s much chance of another Great Banana Fuselage Crisis, but I remember it well.

 

As always, you’re doing terrific work.

 

Cheers,

Adam

 

Haha, thanks Adam - I remember that too - chemical heat reaction of two part foam inflating my tigercat won't do that again

 

 

On 1/7/2022 at 7:32 PM, patricksparks said:

Awesome progress !!! looks like the foam worked well so far. It looks like your foam is a lighter density than I've been using, the foam that you are using is much easier to sand though than the 20lb stuff, it requres some serious elbow grease, I use a small drum sander on my fordom flexible grinder and rasps to knock down large areas and get shapes close and then finess with 60-80 grit sanding blocks and files then go down to the finishing grits. The 20lb density is much more solid and stable for making patterns that can be vac-formed over, just an fyi if you want to use foam for forming it's definately a good alternative to hardwood and acrylic patterns, I have pulled pretty heavy thickness(.080-.125) shots over the heavy foam. I have also made some canopies over it, I made the pattern slightly under sized and pulled petg over it, left that shot on the pattern and pulled another petg shot over it with the polyethelene film left on the side that goes down onto the pattern.

Always a great treat to watch your projects, thank you !!!

Pat

 

 

Thanks Pat - always good to have an experienced wingman I might try the heavier stuff next time as this foam is while stiff, quite lightweight

 

 

On 1/8/2022 at 4:07 PM, KUROK said:

Hi,

 

The cockpit floor in P-40s was the top of the wing.  So it should not be flat.

I see a piece of styrene in there now, maybe that's temporary?

 

 

That's a good spot KUROK and please do keep me staight on this build as I don't know the aircraft well at all. I did profile the floor to the aerofoil so thats fine, and I had marked out the dihedral & started to make a base floor with it but them remembered all the floor parts and the central rib are all being made up in PE..

 

 

..there are about 15 parts to the floor & rib and because it is not in two halves or shaped to be both curved back to front, and also accept the dihedral, I will just keep the aerofoil shape and leave the dihedral - it will be imperceptible in the end hopefully..

 

so, onto the fuselage - I did some experiments with Z-Poxy resin both with and without tights..

 

 

..the findings were mixed - just adding a layer to the foam gave a bit of a skin (on the right), but I could still easily deform it with a fingernail... with the tights, the surface was way stronger but very textured so would need a lot of work, or perhaps more coats..

 

In the end, I decided to stick with plan A and skim the foam and fuselage with P38 filler..the skin is very thin and ultimately still quite fragile, but with a mix of CA and filler it's good enough to form and rivet litho over..

 

 

..it took a bit of work, and where I sanded through the filler to the foam,  I just washed it in thin CA and skimmed over it again..

 

 

 

..then I added a cotton datum and chopped out big holes to add boxes for the exhaust areas - these wil ultimately be 3D printed so all I need is the 'hollow' that goes behind the skin panel..

 

 

..then the fuselage was refined, the lower cowl vacformed (& here only taped on) and the body shot in high build automotive primer..

 

..the lower nose under the spinner has been left as it's a complex scalloped shape

 

 

 

 

 

 

..still lots to do, but the base form is starting to take shape..

 

TTFN

Peter

[Out2gtcha]

Lovely work Peter

[Iain]

That's looking rather good Peter - another work of art in progress!

 

Iain

[LSP_Kevin]

Unbelievable.

 

Kev

[spartacus2000]

[scvrobeson]

Already looks like an early Warhawk.  Can't wait until the next update comes Peter.

 

 

Matt 

[JayW]

Man Peter - you are on the move here.  It is obvious you have done this before!  Looks terrific mate.

[KiwiZac]

Watching and smiling as always! Fine work Peter.

[airscale]

thanks chaps

 

It is like Christmas morning here in the airscale house..

 

my giant PE sets turned up, perfect as always from PPD

 

 

a walk around..

 

left to right - gun sides, cockpit floor, below that main gear door inners

 

 

 

lower canopy, canopy retraction mechanism & wheel, rear cooler meshes, below all that main gear roof parts..

 

 

 

cockpit parts, rudder pedals, cowl flaps, fuselage cockpit bulkhead formers

 

 

instrument panel, throttle quadrant, tailwheel door inner

 

 

flap ribs..

 

 

cockpit parts, belly tank / bomb shackle, fuselage hatch

 

 

 

..rudder mass balances, wheel parts, bulkhead 5 backing plate

 

 

fin spar, rear canopy skins, bulkhead 5 face plate and in the middle of that cockpit parts

 

 

..chin radiator / cooler meshes

 

 

seat parts..

 

 

 

..very happy with how they turned out, just need to remember what they all are now

 

TTFN
Peter

[RadBaron]

On 1/9/2022 at 1:39 PM, airscale said:

That's a good spot KUROK and please do keep me staight on this build as I don't know the aircraft well at all. I did profile the floor to the aerofoil so thats fine, and I had marked out the dihedral & started to make a base floor with it but them remembered all the floor parts and the central rib are all being made up in PE..

 

 

..there are about 15 parts to the floor & rib and because it is not in two halves or shaped to be both curved back to front, and also accept the dihedral, I will just keep the aerofoil shape and leave the dihedral - it will be imperceptible in the end hopefully..

 

Fantastic progress, Peter!

 

For future reference, here are some pics of the floor area (from a P40K), note the panel lines continuing across the span of the wing. 

 

 

 

Hope that helps!

 

Denzil.

[JayW]

Peter, it would have taken me weeks upon weeks just to do the computer modelling required to design the PE parts!  Not to mention the research to get the right config.  How did you do it so fast?  

[Oldbaldguy]

Is it my imagination or did I read somewhere that during the war, pilots and crew chiefs often took delivery of their airplanes new in crates and still covered in cosmoline or some such and then had to assemble them themselves?  Seeing as how the fuselage simply bolts to the top of the one piece wing, I’d think that would be entirely do-able even in a bare base situation.

[JayW]

2 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Is it my imagination or did I read somewhere that during the war, pilots and crew chiefs often took delivery of their airplanes new in crates and still covered in cosmoline or some such and then had to assemble them themselves?

 

Oh I do not think that is your imagination.  But i also know some aircraft were flown to their destinations by women pilots.

[brahman104]

6 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Is it my imagination or did I read somewhere that during the war, pilots and crew chiefs often took delivery of their airplanes new in crates and still covered in cosmoline or some such and then had to assemble them themselves?  Seeing as how the fuselage simply bolts to the top of the one piece wing, I’d think that would be entirely do-able even in a bare base situation.

 

Sure did. That's how the first P-40s arrived in Australia. If you read up on the RAAF 75 SQN history of the defence of Port Morseby in 1942, most of their initial aircraft arrived without coolant or much in the way of tooling/ trained maintenance crews. But they got them bolted together and into the fight!

 

Craig