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Warbirds Replicas P51 Mustang


RICHARD WILLS

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Posted by Nigel Dell on 25/11/2020 10:37:35:

Rich

Spent many an hour at Andrews field back in the day, was somewhat shocked to see all the industrial there a few years ago but it had to happen I guess.

On the subject of Polish pilots Lanny Lanowski is not widely known, a Polish colleague who was very much into WW2 aviation and around the time the film 303 came out which he thought was pretty poor had not heard of him, I and many other visitors to the Fighter Meet shows at North Weald in the early 80’s were lucky enough to meet this guy who had an R/C model, built as static, of a P47 on top of his beige mini metro, he had various memorabilia on a table in front of him, initially you thought he was selling stuff off but no it was far better than that, he was telling of his flying exploits in Poland, UK and finally the US Airforce, this was my first of many encounters and most pleasurable audiences with Witold ‘Lanny’ Lanowski.

His son Krys keeps a Facebook page to honour his Father and he does talks on the subject and what a subject!

Lanny’s book ‘Out in Front’ is a must read for those that thrive on wartime pilot biographies like I do.

Witold ‘Lanny’ Lanowski

Edited By Nigel Dell on 25/11/2020 10:39:02

I realise it's not a Mustang, but a Jaguar pretending to be a Hurricane paying tribute to 303 Sqn. It's been wrapped to perfection, and the noise from the free flow exhaust makes the engine sound like a Merlin.

image.jpeg

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no massive progress but the flap servos are fitted. This is a information only picture as the other models will have a different arrangement. As I have used 2 servos I needed to reverse one. Doable with these particular servos but as the motor terminals are soldered to the control board took a bit of work. But hey good job I am an electronics engineer by trade...wink

I put a how to on the 109 forum if anyone needs to reference that, but there are guides all over the web as well.

flap servos in.jpg

I feel the screws in the torsion bars will loosen over time as the wood compresses so a little epoxy might not go adrift here.

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I spoke to Graham R yesterday as he has been experimenting further with the 38 micron laminating film .

I do think this may be the way to speed and simplify finishing for some models .

Both Ron Gray and myself have fiddled around with it , but Graham has been using it for while .

I wont steal his thunder , but it's worth listening to his findings .

Lets all sit quietly , while he gets out of pyjamas and into his velour, one piece playsuit .embarrassed

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Good afternoon all, are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. As Richard mentioned, I have been experimenting with some 36micron film he sent me. He was having mixed results on different materials and foam seem to cause the most problems which I replicated fairly easily. I also had problems with balsa laminated structures similar to the Spitfire wings. It was proving almost impossible to obtain a decent bubble free finish.

What I found out is most people turning their heating iron up to full and then trying to iron it down.It works but leaves lots of bubbles and little creases which are impossible to remove.

The solution I have found is to simply turn on the iron at a much reduced temperature. Keep testing it on a piece of laminating film and adjust temperature until film goes clear.

place film on structure and iron all the way down the centre using the iron in a small circular pattern. Then iron from centre out and hey presto a nice bubble free surface.

On my hoity toity , arty farty,Mincy wincy , new fangle dangle iron (Richards description. I think he is trying to covert it) temperature is around 100 degrees.

Hope this helps

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Posted by RICHARD WILLS on 10/12/2020 10:19:23:

Both Ron Gray and myself have fiddled around with it , but Graham has been using it for while .

Hmm, not strictly true, I've been using it for over a year now on open framed structures, foam and balsa, oh and veneered foam too! May still be classed as fiddling I suppose but the long fiddlers are the best.

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But before we cover the 'covering'..

I had to wait for a good dust mask too turn up as after covid was told to avoid fumes, dust etc as still got a few problems due to it.

Anyway managed to sand the wing tips and leading edges of the wing... boy what a mess..surprise

Good job I waited for that mask...

wing tips and le sanded.jpg

Also put in those rib supports that my kit needed after removing a lot of wood where the flap torsion bar was a pain.

You should not have this problem as the production models were corrected.

rib supports.jpg

 

Next started planking the top of the wing and servo box, left room to be able to connect and sort out the links.

rib servo tray being sheeted.jpg

job done..

top of servo tray complete.jpg

Now just got finish the bottom skin and the front locating dowels, fill in the dinks and cover the wing.

laugh

Edited By Paul Johnson 4 on 20/12/2020 18:43:37

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Good progress Paul. Been finishing a Lanier Stinger 10 kit that I have had for 25 years and learning that I can make new mistakes. How about using Tamiya paint on top of Solarfilm? Not a good idea as it does not adhere!

My kit is wrapped up and under the Christmas Tree. 5 days to go! Will be starting it early in the New Year.

Wishing all a Merry Christmas.

Gordon

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Posted by Paul Johnson 4 on 20/12/2020 19:21:55:

Graham

Can I sell you any balsa shavings? Very rare.... very cheap £100?

I would be interested Paul if you could join all the shavings back together again. We could then sell them back to Richard for his next release of warbird. He would never know.

Happy Christmas all WR fans.

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