Royal P-38 Pics

[TonyL1]

hi, as promised here are some pics of the free P-38 Kit I obtained, made
excellent progress on it, in the 9 days I've had it, 1 pic shows the
2 fuselages and 2 show the many blocks of wood that must be carved
to make this plane as well as other parts, welp got all winter lol

[Tom Hastie]

:eek: A ****load of balsa trees were killed in the making of this P-38.

Guess those royal guys never heard of a truss structure.

Tom

[Dave Rees]

Ahhh, yes.......... lots of balsa:) I see days of sanding and balsa dust throughout your house in the near future:p

I'm jealous.

Just a thought, that's be an excellent candidate for twin e-power. Couple of AXI 4120's or Hacker B40's or........or........or. Then I think it should be shown off at NEAT Fair next year. I can think of someone who'd be willing to take it there and fly it for ya!! :rolleyes:

Can you tell that I am regretting not picking this pane up:(

Cheers,
Dave

[Tom Hastie]

That's a great idea Dave... hmmm... someone must have done this before.

*does search*

Here:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=428693&

He's doing it on twin AXI 2826/10's, but nowadays there are tons of combinations that would work.

That'll give you some inspiration Tony. Lots of pictures that look very similar to yours.

Remember... the second biggest killer of twins is engine failures. Going electric will keep those engine failures to a minimum.

Tom

[Dave Rees]

Why didn't I think of that:confused:

Search function Good!!:p

I guess I overestimated on the power, guess I figured on 300w/lb:D

Cheers,
Dave

[Jinker]

hi, as promised here are some pics of the free P-38 Kit I obtained, made
excellent progress on it, in the 9 days I've had it, 1 pic shows the
2 fuselages and 2 show the many blocks of wood that must be carved
to make this plane as well as other parts, welp got all winter lol

Heheheh, looking at that second picture makes me laugh. So, basically, they give you a really thick profile version of the airplane, and tell you to carve it out!

There must be twice as much balsa in the box as actually goes into the airplane. You should weigh it before assembly and after, I bet even with glue it will come out a lot lighter than when you start.

Those vertical stabs crack me up! I bet you could save a fair amount of weight by adding lots of lightening holes and using thin sheeting over top...

-Greg

[Tom Hastie]

I was thinking the same thing about the vertical stabs. I don't understand why they when with solid construction. Even if it was to get the airfoil shape on them, you'd think that they could get the same effect with a spar/rib construction. Add some sheeting, and some rib cap strips, and you won't know the difference once it's covered.

Only thing I can think of is that the extra weight back there will help to balance the pair of 0.30 engines on the nose. They're not all that far forward of the wing.

Tom

[Jinker]

I was thinking the same thing about the vertical stabs. I don't understand why they when with solid construction. Even if it was to get the airfoil shape on them, you'd think that they could get the same effect with a spar/rib construction. Add some sheeting, and some rib cap strips, and you won't know the difference once it's covered.

Only thing I can think of is that the extra weight back there will help to balance the pair of 0.30 engines on the nose. They're not all that far forward of the wing.

Tom

There's also more efficient/adjustable ways of adding weight to an airplane. That much balsa equals a fairly small chunk of lead.

I can't help but think that Royal either had a cheeeeap balsa supplier, or, alternatively, their woodcutting was extremely expensive for some reason. ;)

I find faming something up and sheeting to be less troublesome than shaping a part by sanding, personally.

That being said, I'm not knocking the kit! You'll certainly be able to brag when it's done. :) Not quite the same thing as shaking the box and having the tabbed laser cut parts just about assemble themselves!

-Greg

-Greg

[TonyL1]

hi all, just a couple of pics showing how the P-38 is coming,
this thing is complex to work on lol , tons of carving and sanding
I seem to be doing well in that regard and havent ended up with
any ugly shapes lol, nice contours so far,

[TonyL1]

hi, just a couple of pics showing how the P-38 is coming along ( slowly lol)
first pics shows my scratch built cockpit, consisting so far of 104
pieces ( yes i counted them) out of a possible 150 maybe, lots to go yet
other 2 pics show the plane itself upside down

[Sev Fontaine]

Very nice job with the P-38 Tony!
The cockpit is very impressive. I can't wait to see this thing fly. Do you plan on maidening this one in the spring?

[Dave_Sawatzky]

I see you are now an expert in balsa planking! It looks great! Will it be ready in time for the concourse?

[Dave Rees]

WOW!! :eek:

Looks great Tony. Can't wait to see it flying.

Cheers,
Dave

[Insagor]

Tony,
I just found this thread and wondered if you ever finished the P-38 and if so, if you could post some more pics? I acquired an old one myself that has been built and flown and is need of a LOT of TLC and I'm in search of any of the Royal P-38 builds with pictures of the progress and the controls. I don't understand why, but the person that had this ship before me put all of the servos, except the elevator servos, in the wing.

Thanks!

Dave

[TonyL1]

Insagor, I still have the P-38 its currently sleeping right now in storage
It's not complete, I stopped on it, caused It burned me out lol
also I have many concerns about it, first its a brick , second it needs
and requires at the least 11 servos and 2 good engines so its costly
so for now Ive gone on to more simple planes, the wing loading on it
is very high for its weight ratio 721 SQ inches I think for a plane that
will be 14 pounds at my crude guess , but I do have a large file of pics
which includes many pics of other people's p-38's in progress for ideas
the build on it burned me out, cause I think at the time, i spent about 3 hard
months on it, which included a lot of previous bad build work that I had to undo.
like breaking the wing in half to redo the center section better etc, I was spending about 2 hours a night on it sometimes 4 , well it did teach me
how to strip plank, i was impressed how that came out having never done it
before . feel free to ask em more k, If ya like i could take a pic of how it looks now tacked together, now that i have a better cam

[maximebeauvais]

Wow...amazing !!!!