Trumpeter P-47D Razorback

[crazypoet]

14 hours ago, TJTX said:

Wonderful stuff. I'm working on my TBM engine and came here for ideas and inspiration.   I love the way you've brought the engine to life and especially the wiring harness. 

I am coming to really appreciate the ANYZ spark plugs and braided line

its sometimes a pain to connect, but it looks gorgeous when it’s done

[DocRob]

Great work on the engine. I also bought some of the Anyz stuff and will use it on my Arado 234 build. For obvious reason not for the engine , but for the braking lines, like Rick did on his Tempest build.

Cheers Rob

[harv]

Wondering witch Eduard set you used on this. The D or C version......harv

[Clunkmeister]

On 12/28/2019 at 3:12 PM, crazypoet said:

 

Now, on to stuffing all the plumbing inside and closing up the fuselage...  that will take a bit of hammering and sawing, and possibly some explosive 

 

 

Most of life’s problems are easily solved with an appropriate explosive charge. 

Stunning work so far

[Daniel_Roxy]

Damn that's all very detailed. Can't say how I'd do with that much detail. But your doing pretty damn well

[Clunkmeister]

Hey my friend, I’m curious which gearbox you decided to use on the engine?  I’m not hinting the longer version is more accurate for this installation.

[Sir Desmond Glazebrook]

This thread is a master  class.

[crazypoet]

Greetings all - it’s been a minute since I posted, for reasons that will soon become obvious! 

Ernie - the engine is the R2800-21, with the smooth crankcase casting.  I’m building this aircraft as a D-5 RE variant, and that’s the correct motor.  The two-piece crown-style crank goes with the later C-series motor, on later editions of the P-47.

that said... I cheated a bit on the valve covers.  The correct covers for this have, for lack of a better term, “fit issues”.  So after much frustration, I switched to the flat valve covers which happen to fit and align perfectly.  As it happens, they are also all but invisible after assembly, so I took a deep breath and made the switch.  This build will be cowl-on, with the only view of the valve covers being a wee sliver from behind via open cowl flaps.  It’s an incorrect pairing, but one that I’m happy with.
 

All that said...when we last met, I’d just about finished the engine and was starting to cast a stink-eye on the internal plumbing of this beast.

then... it happened.  Engine v1.0 just would not sit right.  After much head-scratching, it hit me.  It seems that I’d managed to route the air intake lines into the wrong connections on the back side of the cylinders very early in the process, shifting everything about five degrees off.

in hindsight, I realized that I’d sided with part fit over drawing accuracy.  As-cast, the intake lines simply do not fit where they are intended - the keys that align the intake manifold with the rear bank of cylinders only fit one way.  As it happens, it fits the *wrong* way.  It requires cutting off the alignment keys to make it fit properly.  Who knew?
 

so a conundrum!  I could take the approach that another builder did (cut off the back of the engine entirely, go with closed cowl flaps and use a magnet or similar approach to connect the engine to the firewall) or I could rebuilt it correctly.

i bit the bullet and decided to build a new engine.  Which involved buying a new kit.

I’ll eventually build a second complete aircraft and find a way to correctly mount engine 1.0 after taking a hacksaw to its backside.  
 

I’ve attached front and rear views of the two engines...

Note the odd alignment on the back of the engine on the right.

I submit myself to your abuse for the asinine assumption that someone at the factory had actually test-built one of these and that the part alignment was indeed correct.  Mea culpa!

so.  Now that’s fixed, and I have a whole spare kit to do other things with!

next, on to the whole -5-RE thing.

the obviously visible differences between the -5 (that I’m building) and -20 (what’s in the kit) variants of the P-47D involve the cowl flaps and external stores. The -5 still had the older squared-off cowl flaps, and no hard points/shackles on the wings.  The wing hardware is a simple adjustment - just don’t install the bomb racks.  Life is good.

the cowl flaps were a bit of a challenge as I had to *add* material.  This involved mostly cutting a piece of card to fit, plus some sanding and filling.  That’s all now done, except for redoing the rivet holes and painting.

and I am now back to where I was at the beginning of the holidaze, ready to stuff all this into the fuselage and close it up

[crazypoet]

On 1/1/2020 at 4:34 PM, harv said:

Wondering witch Eduard set you used on this. The D or C version......harv

Harv - I used the P-47D interior and exterior sets from Eduard, plus I’ll be using their gun bay set.  Beyond that, I’m using barracudacast wheels and Aber turned-brass gun barrels

i bought a set of cast metal landing gear from scale aircraft conversions, but the kit plastic actually looks better and weight shouldn’t be an issue

[harv]

I have the barrel set. I need to get the wheels. I have the Eduard external set, sending Ernie the internal set. I'll get another down the road......harv

[Clunkmeister]

One think I’ve noticed in all the builds shown online is that the tailwheel strut can’t hold the weight of the model, and as a result, the strut and wheel will splay to one side.  

Now, I was going to bend one go match using piano wire, but maybe the SAC tail strut might be better than the kit part?

[Clunkmeister]

I’m looking at your engine(s) and call me blind, but I don’t see an issue, although I’m not sure what to be looking for. The intake manifold is on the rear of the engine and I’m staring at the crankcase gearboxes.

I must be blind.

edit:  ok, duhhh, I never had the rear view pop up the first time I looked.  OK, I getcha now.   Now ain’t that the goofiest of issues...

[harv]

Yes yo uh are  kind. Look at what port the exhaust pipes come out of

[crazypoet]

9 minutes ago, Clunkmeister said:

One think I’ve noticed in all the builds shown online is that the tailwheel strut can’t hold the weight of the model, and as a result, the strut and wheel will splay to one side.  

Now, I was going to bend one go match using piano wire, but maybe the SAC tail strut might be better than the kit part?

For the tail wheel you may be right.  The main gear seems pretty substantive.  When I get to that point I’ll clean up the metal gear - the castings are pretty rough - and see which works best

 

thanks for the feedback on the tail!

[Clunkmeister]

I have a bending jig as well, so I was going to attempt bending music wire and drilling through the mount...

[crazypoet]

7 minutes ago, Clunkmeister said:

I’m looking at your engine(s) and call me blind, but I don’t see an issue, although I’m not sure what to be looking for. The intake manifold is on the rear of the engine and I’m staring at the crankcase gearboxes.

I must be blind.

I went in through the out door on the first engine - I plugged the intakes into the exhaust ports.

 

if I’d paid closer attention I’d have realized that - despite everything still sort of fitting, the whole back of the engine was twisted slightly to the left.  The exhaust and collector ring still - oddly fits, even in the wrong ports, but it screws up all the connections to the firewall 

 

doh!

[Clunkmeister]

Just now, crazypoet said:

I went in through the out door on the first engine - I plugged the intakes into the exhaust ports.

 

if I’d paid closer attention I’d have realized that - despite everything still sort of fitting, the whole back of the engine was twisted slightly to the left.  The exhaust and collector ring still - oddly fits, even in the wrong ports, but it screws up all the connections to the firewall 

 

doh!

Yep. I never had the rear view come through right away.  That’s the goofiest of issues I’ve ever seen.

[crazypoet]

What tricked me was the everything fit perfectly when assembled incorrectly 

until I went to connect the firewall and nothing lined up

even when I did v2, it took me finally having to shave off the alignment tabs and use a bit of force to make it fit correctly 

just bad engineering from Trumpeter

 

but it got me a second kit to

play with, so it was kinda worth it

[Clunkmeister]

 

Trumpeter Marketing gimmick?

[Sir Desmond Glazebrook]

It is called an "up sell".

Heard in a local shop, "always try to up sell the punters". 

[crazypoet]

Ha!  It worked out for them this time, didn’t it?     

[crazypoet]

With the engine finally done, I dusted off the cockpit and crammed all the plumbing (well, actually *some* of the plumbing - only that which was visible, necessary for fit or both) into the left side of the fuse, took a deep breath and closed the door

its pretty much a one-shot thing, since the wing spars are a very snug fit and don’t like to pull back out.

(sounds like me as a teenager, come to think on it)

so everything fit, with the exception of one slightly stubborn gap in the belly, which will resolve with some judicious pressure and virulent chemicals.

i haven’t glued the sides yet, But this thing is finally starting to look like an airplane 

 

 

[GusMac]

5 hours ago, crazypoet said:

its pretty much a one-shot thing, since the wing spars are a very snug fit and don’t like to pull back out.

(sounds like me as a teenager, come to think on it)

 

Bit of oversharing there me thinks! 

[crazypoet]

Greetings all - been a somewhat crazy time this year, to say the least.  I work at CDC, and we’ve been a wee bit busy of late.

Even with all the madness, quarantine has finally proven to be useful.  I’ve been puttering around here and there with the P-47 - wonderful stress relief!

Sooooo... What’s been done?  I have the fuse joined up and some fiddly work done in getting some of the Eduard PE to fit properly.  Doesn’t look like much, but it involves a fair number of curses and I’m still not 100% happy, but it’s good enough to move forward.

I’m working the wings now.  I have the Eduard Gun Bay set, so these will be open.  I like their approach, and so far all the bits are fitting with no more than the usual amount of cursing and throwing things.  Getting the assembly and painting into the proper sequence was more of a challenge than I thought it would be, but it’s clicking along nicely.

Ailerons and flaps both have PE pieces on the exposed ends, which took some judicious filing and sanding to fit.  Plus, they had to be finished and mostly painted before I could join the wing halves and finish the interior of the gun bays.  That’s where I am now.

I have a nice set of turned brass barrels for the guns, which all also need some mods and PE additions.  I’ll finish these after I get the interior of the bays mostly done.

After painting the upper sides of the flaps and ailerons, I realized that the Tamiya Olive Green is a bit dark.  I’ll tone it down a bit with some light overcoats and washes - the color was a bit faded after these sat out in the sun, not to mention the occasional patch and such.  That’s where I plan to have a lot of fun.  Ditto the neutral gray for the underside; Tamiya Neutral Gray is a bit dark, so I’m starting with Royal Light Gray, and will fiddle around with it as I go as well.

All in all, once working through the utter insanity of the interior, this is coming along happily.

I will face something of a conundrum with the Ammo belts though.  The kit has some not-terrible flexible plastic belts, but they aren’t as long as they should be *and* may also not fit well inside the PE feed chutes. The Eduard PE belts are just... nasty.  They are two layers of PE, which look nothing so much as, well, two layers of PE... No link details, nothing rounded...  I’m going to likely end up using a bit of both.  PE to add some length and depth under the kit belts and also to fit inside the feed chutes if the kit belts don’t work.  It’s not going to be at all boring any time soon!

 

[Guest Dekenba]

CDC?

I've been told by a very, very high-up government source that I should be drinking or injecting myself with disinfectant, whilst grilling myself with UV light, in order to kill that darned virus. So, being a trusting sort, I'm planning on doing so this evening.

It was great knowing you all.

No flowers.