H9 P-51 Blue Nose

[James40]

Not another P-51 kit !

Yep, I started the build on Hangar 9's new and very nice looking P-51 Blue Nose around 2 weeks ago, just doing around 45 minutes work on it in the evenings.  Early impressions of the kit are:

 

A great looking kit, Hangar 9 have added panel lines, rivets and hatches to the Ultracote and it's in a nice matt alloy finish that looks great.

 

The retracts are very nice, propper sturdy alloy with sprung oleos (it's going to need them as it's a heavy bird) that requires a retract servo in each wing so budget another £90 for two of those.

 The area in the wing where the retracts mount doesn't seen up to the job, the is no real strength or glue in that area for my liking, I added as much epoxy to the joins as I could get access to.

I know ARTF mean doing a bit of work but having to shave wood away from mountings to get the retract doors to fit flush with the wings seems to be stretching the Almost Ready a little too far.

 

The kit is nice quality as I've said but Hangar 9 have skimped on the little parts, control rods snap when you bend them, also they don't have a thread on the end, more of a collection of circles so the don't actually thread into the clevises, the clevises are very poor, some of the internal thread is off at an angle so it's impossible to have them running straight off the control rods.

 

I've replaced all the above with metal parts and new control rods so add that to your increasing model budget.

 

The tail wheel is next under the spot light, I'm guessing it will last 2 landings before it comes loose, it's just not possible to assemble the bushings tight enough to hold the tail tight enough so the whole thing has major play in it.  I'm going to adapt a nose wheel I think so add that too.

 

Finally, the machine screws Hangar 9 provide to assemble the kit are supposed to be a No1 Philips screw size, errrr no, well they might be the first time the screwdriver touches them but the warm cheese material they made them out of soon deforms at the first turn of the screwdriver meaning more pressure required meaning more epoxy to repair panel mounting lugs.

 

I'm only up to the tail wheel in my construction but I'll keep posting as I go along and keep you informed on what I find.

 

So far, I'm enjoying the build as I like a challenge but this is an expensive kit and I feel Hangar 9 have tried to save money by skimping on parts that really shouldn't have been, after all a clevis might only be small but it could be the difference between a nice plane and a pile of balsa fire wood.  Expect to spend a little extra on quality parts if you are building this.

 

[Tom Foreman]

Hi James, I've sort of written this Kit off after following the long thread on RCG but good luck to you in your build it sounds like you've already discovered the most offending parts. I am intrigued by your £90 of retract servos, I assumed cheaper servos could be used. Are you going glow, petrol or electric?

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

[Ross Clarkson]

Cool James, feel free to add some photos!

[James40]

Tom,

 

Don't write the kit off, it is a great kit, it's just a few niggly things that can easily be sorted.  It's just a shame that on a £270 kit they need sorting. 

I was working on the Futaba retract servo's being around £44 each and needing two of them, I'm quite sure two hi torque servos would cope though.

 

I did fancy going petrol with the FG-20 but it's an expensive little beastie at £400+   I would like to try the RCV-90SP with a 4 blade prop but from what I've heard the 4 blade props just don't work well which is a shame because it would look very nice on this kit.

 

I will get some photos added Ross,  I take it some links to photobucket works ok on this forum ?

 

[Ross Clarkson]

Yep, photobucket URL's fine.

 

Its got to be 4 bladed prop!!

[James40]

Well I just ordered the Saito FG-20 so 2 blade prop it is.