Scratch build Boeing F4B-4

[Skyediamonds]

As with the avionics box in my previous post, I made a large copy of the throttle face with the appropriate letters. From there, I stood at varying distances with my iPhone on comers setting & took a series of photos I felt would result in an image close to the desired size to fit within the model.

I then created a couple of near-identical copies of the throttle face. One was small to simply act as a spacer to make room for the throttle itself to be glued in between.

 

[Skyediamonds]

As these photos illustrate, the throttle is just a couple of identical laminations with enough space in between for the throttle & mixture.

I then used just a small dab of filler to close up the two sides.

 

[Skyediamonds]

The mixture was just a pin with a red painted ball at the end. These ball pins are easily available at most local arts & crafts stores.

 

[Skyediamonds]

The throttle is tubular shaped & featured a push-to-talk button on the end. This was accomplished by cutting a short length of suitable sized plastic tubing.

I then threaded a short piece of black thread into the tubing & pulled it until the end of the thread was just sticking out to give that button.

A small piece of cardstock painted silver acted as a "clip" for the wire for the mic.

Almost there…..

 

[Skyediamonds]

Finally, the throttle lock was just a series of eyeball-crossingly small pieces of pictures of the locking mechanism cut out & round plastic punched out & "skewarded" with a pin.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Voila'! One throttle for a P-51 Mustang.

Quick edit:

This style of assembly took me about two weeks in my spare time & can be applied to most throttles used on various airplanes.

Cheers,

 

[Wurger]

 

[Skyediamonds]

Thank you, sir

 

[Snautzer01]

Now now.. thats a thing. Well done

 

[special ed]

Fantastic work! As one of the judges at a few (very few) R/C scale contests, the only item I have noticed (and promise me you will make no changes) is on the throttle face. The original full scale documentation provided, uses all uppercase letters while you have used upper & lowercase. Keep in mind, one of the reasons why my control line scale friends and I were not invited to more contests as judges was because of the very loud protests of one of the favored participants when he began screaming, "They count the stripes". The particular model was one of a full scale demo team flying biplanes with a sunburst of eleven stripes on the top wing and the contestant had painted only three. One other occasion taught me to not stand near the judges while they are scoring. The model was a very nice PBY and was scoring high, when the owner standing next to me commented to his friend, "I didn't have time to complete the struts last night". I had completely missed the PBY had no struts because of the overwhelming quality of the build & finish. I had to change my score slightly.

 

[Lucky13]

Phenomenal work!

 

[Crimea_River]

Pretty cool stuff.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Fantastic work! As one of the judges at a few (very few) R/C scale contests, the only item I have noticed (and promise me you will make no changes) is on the throttle face. The original full scale documentation provided, uses all uppercase letters while you have used upper & lowercase. Keep in mind, one of the reasons why my control line scale friends and I were not invited to more contests as judges was because of the very loud protests of one of the favored participants when he began screaming, "They count the stripes". The particular model was one of a full scale demo team flying biplanes with a sunburst of eleven stripes on the top wing and the contestant had painted only three. One other occasion taught me to not stand near the judges while they are scoring. The model was a very nice PBY and was scoring high, when the owner standing next to me commented to his friend, "I didn't have time to complete the struts last night". I had completely missed the PBY had no struts because of the overwhelming quality of the build & finish. I had to change my score slightly.

Spl Ed,

Glad to hear you mention of the upper & lower case letters on the throttle face. I actually tried to squeeze in all upper case letters on the large template of the throttle face but I found out it didn't have the room! This is a classic example of trying to accommodate the letters with the existing template format.

The letters at the time only came in specific sizes & their shapes were more wide than the upper cased letters used on the full sized Mustangs. Not by much, but enough to make a difference between my choice of using both upper & lower case.

Good call!

Regarding the judges & their decisions on he contestant's models, according to several judges from RCSBuilders site of which I'm an active member, they're supposed to strictly follow the documentation. In other words, the judges are supposed to have no intimate knowledge of the subject being judged but rather rely heavily on the provided documentation.

This is where many builders of the model screws up. Most contest participants build their model/s & then try to find the documents to match. It should be the other way around.

The differences between scoring a place on the podium & losing is often within just a decimal point or two. The way a contestant can earn extra brownie points over another of the same aircraft type being modeled is through documentation. He/she must call to the judge's attention the subtle differences or addition of an accessory or a particular function of the aircraft.

It's ironic this topic is being brought up on this ww2aircraft site is because this very same subject is also currently being discussed on the RCSBuilders site. In this case, it's the Grumman A-6 Intruder series.

To hedge one's model of say, an EA-6B Prowler over a model of another EA-6B Prowler, both of the same kit, is to call to the judge's attention through documentation that only on the EA-6B does the inner gear doors close after retraction or extension just like the inner gear doors of the Mustang, whereas the two-place A-6 Intruder inner gear doors remain in the opened position.

To the contestant who protested, have them try to learn from their mistakes & improve. Funny that the PBY was judged & then revised based upon hearing another person's mentioning of the missing struts. If the docs show that particular aircraft had missing struts, then that model should be judged based on the merits of the presentation.

I could never match up to the overall quality of some of these models, both plastic displays as well as wooden R/C, but I learn from them & try.

Well done!

 

[special ed]

Your work is superior. I'm merely being pedantic. Regarding the PBY struts, the documentation showed them, I simply missed them being missing. You're exactly right about finding the documentation first. If you will pardon my bias, I feel the R/C guys are opinionated when judging (lowly) Control line models. Personal observations and experiences are:
1. At the AMA nationals a fellow club member's Mr. Mulligan was heavily downgraded because he used the photos of the cross country race where the carb was stuck in full rich leaving
a heavy black trail from cowl to tail cone. Actual photos were submitted, however the judges said that black streak was impossible.
2. I saw judges declare the wings of a B.E.2 were too far apart regardless of the three view documentation.
3. One nationals, I entered a .15 powered Bf 109E with throttle control. The tech crew from the R/C crowd did the math wrong and pull tested the model to 135 pounds. I heard the lines sounding like guitar strings, however it passed and then when I questioned, they found their math error. Fortunately I'm known for overbuilding, sorta like Grumman.

Regarding the guy complaining about us counting the stripes, it was his own documentation showing eleven stripes.
Please don't regard my comments about your work as negative. Keep showing your solutions.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Spl Ed,

Pedantic is good. I always enjoyed feedback however "pedantic" or insignificant it may appear to be. I never took your response as negative in any which way. To me, a healthy observation is always beneficial.

It's this type of approach to modeling that helps to push the boundaries of scale realism to higher levels.

I enjoy both plastic displays & wooden R/C model airplanes. I diligently read as much as possible about new modeling techniques.

I must admit that the plastic modelers do have greater access to aftermarket accessories than the R/C folks. I see several articles of incredible works that boggles the mind with aftermarket additions that takes an otherwise " good" plastic scale model to another level.

The R/C folks also have their own aftermarket venues, of course with scale wheels, 3-D printed cockpits & more.

Oddly enough, the R/C folks sometimes use plastic models as reference for construction & even color documentation.

Glad to hear about the streaks on Mr. Mulligan. I believe I've seen those b+w photos showing them trailing back nearly to the tail. Sorry to hear that the judge refused to accept the documents.

That judge of the B.E.2c must've had a "bad hair" day.

The control lines being pull-tested to 135 pounds must've been a stressful moment for you. I could just envision your weeks & months of work imploding upon itself because of some over zealous tech. Ouch!

Long story made short:
In my youth decades ago, I flew a control line model in my immediate neighborhood. The lines broke & the Curtiss SB2C flew straight into the kitchen window of one neighbor's house. Fun times!

Please keep observing.

Cheers,

Gary

 

[Skyediamonds]

Good morning everyone,

Today I'll cover this unique pipe with several openings. As it turned out, it's a fuel gauge. At least that's what the reference says. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm going to present my trial & errors in effort to get what I felt, would be good results.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Initially, I thought it would be a good idea to simply cut a grid pattern out of glossy soft-bound paper & wrap the results around a thick gauge wire.

The results weren't too bad but I felt I could do better.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Borrowing from my previous idea of making cylinders for the Wright Bros' engine, I thought I'd employ the same technique here.

I've enclosed a brief set of step-by-step photos in making the cylinders. It was just a matter of using a pin vise & drilling two holes opposite each other & cutting out the slot in between.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Skyediamonds]

I compared the two & decided my second approach yielded better results. From there c I slipped in a copper wire to simulate the fuel.