Small Scale Military Headquarters

eddie372 wrote:I'm wondering whether or not the same technique used on the P-51's flaps will work on the Corsair. Has anyone tried it?

No, it won't work for the Corsair. Unfortunately, as made, the bbi Corsair's flaps drop too far already. They weren't designed that well. Some even drop off on you. All can be forgiven though......

-Ski

Ski, I know you wrote this mod instructions a while back, but I just found your posting and really appreciate it. After i get some sleep today, I'm going to perform the mod just as you pointed out.

Thanks again for the excellent tip.

Eddie

Glad I could help! Which mod? Flaps or external tanks?

-Ski

The aileron counterweights on the bbi Zero are incorrectly reversed. You can fix this pretty easily by following these steps:

Remove the Counterweight. Pull on the horn part of the weight and pull it slowly towards the front of the aileron, the tab portion inside will start to pop out. Sorta like pulling on a lever. Don't try to pull it straight out. Once you get it out, just turn it around and re-insert it in the hole. You may have to use a spot of glue in the hole to keep it from popping out again. Check out these pictures:

This one is of the counterweight pulled out:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/127 ... 7890CSBWcK

And another showing it in the correct position:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/127 ... 7812CExCUY

-Ski

Ski, I was talking about the bombs and their support pods. Thanks again for the pictures and the suggestion.

So does anyone know what's the deal with the soft pitot tube that comes with the F-104? I put the hard, straight one on my airplane. I've never seen a soft pitot before!

Did anyone have trouble installing the horizontal stabilizer? It was hard for me but what I did was file away at both sides of the center groove and bingo, it just went right in with no problem at all.

Also, found the oxigen mask on the pilot a little hard to make it stay in place. Other than these very minor things, I have to say that this is 21C best to date. What do you guys think?

Adios amigos!
Ed

I haven't been posting long so please excuse the late post on the subject!

On the subject of heating monofiliment knots, don't. 16LB test should be enough to hang most anything, 20LB is just plane hard to break. I've fished all my life, 47yrs. One of the absolute golden rules of knot tying is don't heat monofil. Many still do so. Don't! Applying enough heat to melt the knot enough to freeze it in place will degrade the strength of the line at the knot by 80%. If you're using 50 or 80LB line it's probably not going to fail. But with lesser tests you're really taking chances. I've tied knots in everything from 2LB to 100LB mono. Your biggest problem is probably going to be knot slipage. Make sure you're making the knot correctly and pull it down snug. Slippage is usually the result of either a missed step or failure to pull the knot down snug. I know all about knot slippage, lost two one hundred pound class tuna (and two $10 trolling heads), back to back hookups, to slippage Get a book on fishing knots and practice!!!! Also, if your models are going to hang in direct sunlight, get a brand of line that's UV resistent, then change the line twice a year. UV breaks down monfil

Weigh the plane!!! I just got a 32nd scale P-47, The thing's big but it doesn't weigh much more than a couple of pounds. Six or eight pound will hold it fine. Large test line is harder to tie knots with, six to twelve pound is real easy to work with. I lost those tuna because I had no experience with knots in 50LB test. Weigh you plane and double it, I'll bet you'll never need more than 15LB.

For those who plan on hanging their 1/16 King Tigers I would suggest you look into learning how to twist piano wire

David

Wow David, thanks a lot for those very good tips. The things you learn in this forum are amazing, really. Very soory about the tuna getting away though.

Best regards...Eddie

This might have been mentioned, but upon the advice of another I use a dab of glue on the knot and there is no chance for slippage.
Thanks for the tip on the UV

Hello everyone. I've never posted on this thread before. I'll share with you people one thing I do to minimize clutter around the hobby room. When I open the carded figures I like to throw away the package. Having over 100 figures is too much to keep all that packaging. I bought a organizer at Wal-Mart for about $10. It's the plastic cabinet you usually put nuts and bolts in. The brand name is "Stack-On". I use the blue one that has 60 individual drawers. There's 3 different cabinets with different size drawers. I also take a Sharpie and write each figure's name on it and I keep all of their extra arms, weapons, pouches, and gear in them. I put S1 and S2's extras in the same drawer. I used to throw all of them in the same bag, but figuring out what belonged to whom was difficult. I can at least keep the US gear seperate from the German gear.

Thank you kevrut, it's a neat idea. One of my drawers is becoming rapidly fillied up with all sorts of parts. I use one of those storage boxes for small hardware stuff, but it never occurred to me to organize my hobby things this way.

Thanks again for the excellent suggestion. I'm sure many guys here will benefit from it, when one considers that most of these guys collect tons (literally) of these items.

Best regards.
Eddie372

Thats a good strategy for organization. I use a similar tool box with the little drawers to hold all the extra weapons, arms, and figures that I have. Mine is not just specifically for XD, but also my old GI Joe figures & parts as well as Star Wars figures & accessories.

Another option for storing figures is the utility boxes with adjustable inserts. They were similar to this, but the inserts were removeable

http://www.planomolding.com/3618.htm

Walmart used to sell 3 for $10. I tried the bolt organizer box before and prefer this, although its not as compact. But, you can make spaces for 12 figures in each box, and its easier to see who's in the box. Also, you can keep group similar figures in each box, such as "Germans", "Vietnam", and "Modern". And, if you want to stack more than one figure in a slot, you can get about three guys in each one, meaning each box can hold about 36 guys. These have been a lifesaver, but have been hard to find lately.

Thanks guys,
the Stack-On cabinents I was referring to are not sold at Wal-Mart any more. I have checked about 12 stores since I wrote about them, they don't even carry them any more. I was needing another one too. (Drats!) They do carry smaller ones though. I'll keep checking other stores or look them up on line. Talk at you later, Kevin.

Kev, Home Depot is selling something very similar in their "storage cabinet" area. Check it out.

eddie

Will do Eddie, thanks. I deliver to Home Depots about 5 to 10 times a week. (Duh.) I'll take a minute to check it out next time. Kevin.

I discovered that using a simple paper coffee filter simulates canvas perfectly,...when painted,..and especially using it for "bed-rolls" and such. ....Another thing I do is flatten back out the toy boxes,..like they are before the production process begins when the product is loaded into them,...and put them all in plastic storage bins. ....I keep all the holder accessories in separate bins. ....I hope this helps out.

Has anyone attempted a tire change, from the original to a more realistic rubber tire on any of their XD airplanes?

If so, I'd like to know which tires you used, and how you went about re-configuring wheel wells, etc.

At this point I'm considering doing these changes to one of my P-47s. I'll be using black, DC electrical wire to simulate brake lines as well.

Any advise or information will be appreciated.

Thanks.
Eddie

For electronic accesories, such as very powerful navigation, rotating beacon, and landing lights, etc., check out the following link:

www.towerhobbies.com

They have an impressive amount of useful devices that we can certainly use in customizing our XD machinery.

I also found the "Ram Radial Engine Sound" devise at:

www.ramrcandramtrack.com

This is a digitally recorded sound of a radial engine which sounds very realistic. In fact, you can download the sound sample and listen to it from your computer.

I'm using two of these for my B-17 project. I can hardly wait to take pictures and post them. This baby will have the works: Independently moving props with radial engine sound, Nav lights, powerful, directed beam landing lights, rotating beacon, lighted cockpit and bomb bay, and I'm working in a blue smoke generator for each engine start (a real challenge so far).

Enjoy the sites and think of the possibilities.

Ed

daverose1 wrote:
On the subject of heating monofiliment knots, don't. 16LB test should be enough to hang most anything, 20LB is just plane hard to break. I've fished all my life, 47yrs. One of the absolute golden rules of knot tying is don't heat monofil. Many still do so. Don't! Applying enough heat to melt the knot enough to freeze it in place will degrade the strength of the line at the knot by 80%.

David

Hi Dave,
I agree with everything you said, however, I didn't suggest heating/melting the actual knot itself.I only suggested one could heat the 'tag end' so that it forms a 'glob' on the end so that it can't pull through the knot in case it slips.

Got my Green Zero in the mail last night.

Put it together and have a small gap on one side of the wing. The other side just "snapped" in place. But this side is no co-operating.
I tried sliding a thin knife from the top and tried to pop the wing in place without much luck.
It's not a really big gap, but enough to be noticed...

Any suggestions on how to fix this??

You might try using a little Squadron putty,...then sand it lightly,..then paint over it. I hope this might help,...Razor.

Or you can try,...with your knife,..get a little "super-glue" in there. ....Hope this helps too.

Razor, I just got my green Zero and found exactly the same problem. I think it is a manufacturing defect because my original Zero has the same problem.

I'm thinking about filing out the bottom of the cockpit assembly with my dremal to see if that helps. I'll let you know what happens.

Ed