Rebuild of BBI P-51...

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Geo
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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Mon May 26, 2014 5:38 am

Pivoting the entire tail section now thows the bottom pan out of alignment. This proved to be a good thing since the bottom is badly formed, in that, its flat but should be round. This also impacts the bottom fairing of the rudder which would need reshaping. One must also consider how to accurately align the fuselage center section with the tail section. One problem always seems to beget another.

To begin restoration, realignment of the two sections was addressed. To guarantee proper alignment, locating pins were installed in the fuselage center section. Each half of the tail section then then had receivers installed into which the pins would slide. To locate the pins, molded in internal details were used for placement of the pins and their holders. The holders are made from center holed bar stock from Plastruct. A section is chemically welded into each half of the upper aft center section. A piece of ABS rod stock is the welded into the the center hole and left to protrude beyond the aft end of the center section. The receivers are then added to the tail section by sliding them over the pins, bringing the tail section up to its mating surface on the center section and while joined, the receiver is welded into place in the tail section.

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The receivers welded in place...

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Section alignment after installation of the pins.

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Mon May 26, 2014 6:18 am

Two mods now needed to be done. The stretch plug would need to be made and the bottom pan would need to come off.

The tail halves were joined permanently at this point. Pins were temporarily installed in the tail section receivers and the plug was added in place. The plug is a stack of .250" square ABS from Evergreen.

The bottom pan is removed and replaced with a lamination of .040" card stock.

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The plug is sanded to shape with the tail section in place to insure proper alignment between the two sections. Reshaping of the bottom pan will be next.Note that the dorsal fin fillet has been removed for later work.

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The flat nature of the bottom pan needs to be dealt with next. With the two sections still attached to each other, the bottom is sanded into shape. I should note that all this sanding was done using a finishing palm sander. it removes material very evenly and slowly but still makes the job go faster.

I neglected to mention the problem with the tail gear box. You can see from the photo the original on the left is remarkably large. To remedy this, as the bottom pan lamination was being laid in, each layer had the new opening for the tail gear box cut into it.

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Mon May 26, 2014 6:34 am

The last issue to be dealt with in terms of fuselage/tail section geometry is the bottom pan at its articulation point with the rudder. You can see by the photo the flat nature of the original and the result of the corrective action.
Because the bottom pan is a lamination, is leaves plenty of material to hog out in order to form the bottom rudder seat.

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Work next moved to reworking the rudder. You can tell by the additions of white ABS what changes were made. You can also see that the tail fairings have been mostly sanded away and the new leading edge of the fin has been established to bring this to
D-5 configuration. Because the tail fairings are different on the D-5, new ones will need to be made.

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Ill end it here for this update. Next we will look at reworking the flight surfaces of the tail and prepping the tail section for making the fairings.

Happy Memorial Day...hope everyone is well...

G

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by [CAT]CplSlade » Mon May 26, 2014 10:05 am

Been following this at LSP as well as here.

You're definitely in the top tier of modelers on that forum; hope to be as good as you all when I is all growed up.

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by A-10LOADER » Wed May 28, 2014 4:55 am

AMAZING stuff Geoff, simply amazing !!

Steve
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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by supersonicfifi » Wed May 28, 2014 7:17 am

Maybe i am not the only one but since i was a little kid I always thought the P51 D was with a mandatory tail filet : I was really surprised to discover anly a few years ago some picture of the firsts series : P51D - 5 :

Image

And then i was wishing for some new 1/18 mustang or early ones B/C but your customs are going to be a great First !

Keep us informed and post some more pictures of your great work ! The small tail mustang looks sportier & longer !
1/18 mirage 2000 & RAFALE should i say more ?

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by supersonicfifi » Wed May 28, 2014 7:19 am

Image

how good looking is that ?
1/18 mirage 2000 & RAFALE should i say more ?

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Thu May 29, 2014 1:18 am

[CAT]CplSlade wrote:Been following this at LSP as well as here.

You're definitely in the top tier of modelers on that forum; hope to be as good as you all when I is all growed up.
CAT

I'm glad you looked in and thank you for your far too gnerous comment. I don't do anything special other than to invest a lot of time and don't stop until its right. I always tells folks, what you see, doesn't include all the screw ups .

I hope you'll continue to look in. This 1/18 stuff has me totally addicted.

Cheers

Geoff

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Thu May 29, 2014 1:22 am

supersonicfifi wrote:Image

how good looking is that ?
In my book, there is nothing prettier...don't tell my wife I said that. :-)

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Thu May 29, 2014 1:24 am

A-10LOADER wrote:AMAZING stuff Geoff, simply amazing !!

Steve
Steve,

Thanks much, bit its no more amazing than you big Cat. How did the canopy come out?

Geoff

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Thu May 29, 2014 1:38 am

supersonicfifi wrote:Maybe i am not the only one but since i was a little kid I always thought the P51 D was with a mandatory tail filet : I was really surprised to discover anly a few years ago some picture of the firsts series : P51D - 5 :

Image

And then i was wishing for some new 1/18 mustang or early ones B/C but your customs are going to be a great First !

Keep us informed and post some more pictures of your great work ! The small tail mustang looks sportier & longer !

Phillips,

I know exactly what you mean. Most don't realize that the bulk of the Mustangs in combat were D-5/10/15's. However, they were all disguised once the field mod kits for the dorsal fillet addition arrived in theater. You might not know this, but even the B/C's' to some degree had the dorsal fillet added as well.

There are external ways to tell which version it is. The most telling is the opening for the gun camera. The D-5's and 10's had round openings. Later versions had a square opening. Or you can look to a little intake low on the port side cowling just in front of the wing. It was to provide ventilation for the battery compartment after the battery was removed from behind the pilot. This signals a D-20. The currently available Mustangs all have it which tells me they used a later production airplane as a model.

Its a pity there are no surviving D-5's.

Cheers

Geoff

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by supersonicfifi » Thu May 29, 2014 6:28 am

great work ! i can't wait to see the results !

Here is some inspiration for you : another great custom :

http://www.largescaleplanes.com/article ... hp?aid=939

keep us informed !
1/18 mirage 2000 & RAFALE should i say more ?

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by supersonicfifi » Thu May 29, 2014 2:27 pm

P51B : i knew about the P51 B tail filet and did read somwhere that the B/C version was slightly faster and directionnaly stable than the D version (hence the tail filet ...)

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1/18 mirage 2000 & RAFALE should i say more ?

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by pickelhaube » Fri May 30, 2014 5:29 am

Now that one is news to me. I have not seen a B/C with the tail fillet.

You do learn something every day !!
Kirk Douglas : Mine hit the ground first
John Wayne : Mine was taller



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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Fri May 30, 2014 8:15 am

pickelhaube wrote:Now that one is news to me. I have not seen a B/C with the tail fillet.

You do learn something every day !!
I try to...

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Fri May 30, 2014 8:18 am

Heres a rare one...saw it out in California at Paso Robles AP

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Fri May 30, 2014 7:28 pm

All,

The Empennage, as you can see from the last photo, at that point, was ready to have the horizontals attached in order to make the Empennage ready for the next step. As you can see, the aft end is free of all detail, especially the tail fairings. The tail fairings of the
D-5 are different because the dorsal fin fillet has been removed.

Mounting the horizontals is straight forward. The problem now is, because the H stabs seats have been corrected to the proper to the proper shape and dimensions, the H stabs are twice as thick as they should be. Because the TE's of each stab was already exemely well formed and thin, and I didnt want to lose that. The decision was made to remove the excess material from the inside surfaces.

Note the thickness of the H stabs. This thickness would need to be removed with appropriate reshaping of the LE to match the stab seat.

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Once the stabs were welded into place. the tips were blocked with epoxy putty so they could be reshaped. The next addition was to begin building the spanning radius between the LE of the stab and the side of the fuselage. Getting both radii to math was difficult and took several iterations to achieve. Ironically, they wont be seen once the new fairings are in place, but the need to be as close to perfect as possible because they will be part of the moldwhich will be made of the empennage.

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The finished mold. The process is repeated for each side.

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The finished hard resin mold that will be vac formed. One for each side.

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This is the resulting vac form which forms the new fairing.

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This is the vac form after it has been cur down, sanded and fitted to the empennage.

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Last edited by Geo on Fri May 30, 2014 8:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Fri May 30, 2014 8:16 pm

All the components are now in place. It must now be finished sanded, primed, and readied for molding. This was the make or brake aspect of this project. If the fairings couldnt be made, the project would stop here. Its a drawn out process. Tamiya primer wa sused throughout with wet sanding between coats with 400 paper. This will requireseveral more sandings after primer to remove all trace of the original surface details.

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Once satisfied with the finish, a dam made of clay was built up around H stab creating the cavity into which the the silicone mold material will be poured. once cured, the silicone mold will be boxed and resin will be poured into it in order to form the vac form plug.

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Fri May 30, 2014 8:48 pm

At this juncture, the fairings are fitted to the tail.

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The fairings will not be attached permanently until the control surfaces are completed.

Thats it for now.

Hope everyone is well

Best

Geo

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by supersonicfifi » Mon Jun 02, 2014 3:55 pm

Image
1/18 mirage 2000 & RAFALE should i say more ?

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Warbird Kid » Wed Jun 11, 2014 7:10 am

WOW. Some serious skill here. Great work!!!!
Keep Em' Flying,
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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by supersonicfifi » Fri Jun 13, 2014 3:31 pm

next step ? corsair wings ?

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1/18 mirage 2000 & RAFALE should i say more ?

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Wed Jul 02, 2014 9:47 am

Greetings All

Summer has arrived and properly disrupted my building, but i saved up some stuff to post.

What is that thing with the bent wings? Please...take that outa here. Thats hideous.

Ok, heres the rest of the empennage. This part of the project took months to complete, and there were times i questioned my ability to to pull this off. It turned out to be more a scratch building project than a modification.

The goal was to create a "one of a kind" Mustang in this scale. Granted, there is a very long way to go but now that Im past the empennage, the goal seems more attainable.

Here are some photos of whats been accomplished...

The elevators have been reworked to proper configuration along with new trim tabs. The taping detail has yet to be added.

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The pinking detail was added using pressure sensitive foil tape. The same process was used on the rudder.

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The trim push rod fairing has been added along with the control horn on the trim tab. All is made from shaped aluminum.

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A good coat of primer subdues the tape thickness, and IMHO, gives a good representation of the fabric covered surface.

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Wed Jul 02, 2014 10:36 am

Heres where it all ends up...The fasteners details have been added to the now permanently affixed tail fairings. All that remains now is to permanently attach the trim tabs but that wont happen till final assembly is begun.
The fasteners will be plugged in using .030" rod stock

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Looking down at the tail, the pinking tape detail is better visualized here. Making all of the different surfaces come together cleanly, squarly, and properly aligned and still meeting print was a real concern. I think everything lines up well. You can make your own decisions.

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Re: Rebuild of BBI P-51...

Post by Geo » Wed Jul 02, 2014 11:21 am

The all up fuselage before addition of the surface details. Again, this wont be done until the fuselage sections are mated permanently.

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These shots are actually from early test fittings to look at alignment ofthe empennage with the fuselage center section. Youll note early work on forming the windscreen and its framework. Note that the curved aft surface doesnt stay that way. I left material there to give it some extra rigidity while working on it.

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The much reshaped nose can be readily visualized in this shot. Key to it is the broad almost flat area that makes up the front rocker cover covering, much like the spitfire.

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The center section with completed nose and tail sections in place. For me, the lines of the Mustang without the DFF look much cleaner and sleeker.

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