P-51D House of Balsa 1/10 kit Build Thread

[max2112]

There were two sessions of sanding. One medium grit and one fine. After that I worked on mounting my motor and squaring up the nose. I had to make an intermediate firewall from scratch and the nose had to be tweaked. It couldn't really be helped. This kit was designed for older, heavier motors and batteries. Here are pictures of my final results.

Only time will tell if my changes work!

[max2112]

Like the title says, the wing is complete. I went ahead with the red wingtips. I like the way they look!

I have a loong way to go before I can claim competency with a covering iron. You can see I made many mistakes and wrinkles that are too much to shrink up. Overall I am happy so far!

[stuart]

hi max,there is a trick i use to get wrinkles out like those i see on the wings te. first,set up some test covering on scrap balsa you punched out the die cut parts from,then burn a deliberate hole in it with the heat gun. i have had success with going near the wrinkle close and quick or stay high and wait for the hot air to do its job,but sometimes just to burn thru.


so here's a trick i'v used. take your covering iron over the wrinkle and heat it up real good,then use a can of aerosol air[like what staples sell to blow dust off computers]to cool the surface quickly.i have used the same method with the heat gun and watched to most stubborn coverings tighten right up to a drum tightness.be careful as you may over tighten using this method.

again. it's so worth putting together tests to push the limits of removeing wrinkles then to waste time recovering the model.
all in all ,your doing a great job with this p51 and i'm enjoying the build thread very much. stu

[max2112]

Originally Posted by stuart

hi max,there is a trick i use to get wrinkles out like those i see on the wings te. first,set up some test covering on scrap balsa you punched out the die cut parts from,then burn a deliberate hole in it with the heat gun. i have had success with going near the wrinkle close and quick or stay high and wait for the hot air to do its job,but sometimes just to burn thru.


so here's a trick i'v used. take your covering iron over the wrinkle and heat it up real good,then use a can of aerosol air[like what staples sell to blow dust off computers]to cool the surface quickly.i have used the same method with the heat gun and watched to most stubborn coverings tighten right up to a drum tightness.be careful as you may over tighten using this method.

again. it's so worth putting together tests to push the limits of removeing wrinkles then to waste time recovering the model.
all in all ,your doing a great job with this p51 and i'm enjoying the build thread very much. stu

Thanks for the tips Stuart. I'll try some of them out.
I've made some more progress on the fuselage. I've just got to shrink the pictures and post them up.

[max2112]

Well, more lessons learned and some bright spots too. here are some more pictures from the progress this week.

[max2112]

More fuselage pics.

Not a lot to comment on or caption here, just trying to improve my covering skills.

[max2112]

I un-covered and re-did the rudder assembly. I changed my original plan and want to go with a red tail scheme.


CAUTION: The red covering takes a MUCH lower temperature setting on the iron to work with. I ruined at least 10 square inches trying to find the right temp.

[max2112]

Here are a couple of static photos to show what I've got so far.

I'm very happy with this model!
I HOPE IT FLIES!

[max2112]

Tonight I finished up mounting the tail feathers and some touch-up covering work. But more importantly I dry hung all the servos and installed them.

After that I put her back together and built a memory slot in the 'ole DX7.
I used the stock accessories for the servo horns and such. The only thing I didn't like is the linkage has too much flex in it for my taste. I may replace it before the maiden.

As always.... here are the pics.

[stuart]

hello john, i like the way this p51 is turning out,i love covering and know from experience that a smaller model with curved shapes is very tough to cover. and if i read right...this is your second build! nice job my friend.

i also know how it feels to post pictures and wonder if any one is watching. ,we are and i thank you for posting this build and sharing so many great pictures along the way. looking foward to seeing the finnishing details and then the report on how she flys. stu


if you spell out "house of balsa" in your title,anyone typing that into a google search will find your build thread and learn from what you found during the build.

example:my "sig hog bipe" has 7000+ hits,the "aerocraft skimmer"has 6000+ views.......the "gp rv4-40" only has 1400 views and doesn't show up when googled. either that's the reason or no one cares for the rv4-40....lol.

[max2112]

Thanks for the kind words, Stuart. I took your advice on the title.

I figure with > 700 views, folks are looking, and if they don't drop a line or ask a question, that's OK.

Well, today began the finishing work. I finished setting up the model as far as servo sub trim and expo settings and such yesterday.

Today was all about the looks. Prepped and installed the cockpit. Finally decided on my final theme and completed the nose covering.

Like all of the other days' works, I learned some things, made some mistakes and redirected as best as I could.

All that's left are the exhaust pipes and landing gear. I am very happy with the way she is looking!

[Angler-Hi]

Awesome thread John!! I've been wanting to do a kit for years, but haven't taken the plunge yet, lol. I hope you're not in the field right now, as I see this last post was done at the end of last month. Keep us posted, especially on the maiden. Miss you friend.

Mike

[max2112]

Originally Posted by Angler-Hi

Awesome thread John!! I've been wanting to do a kit for years, but haven't taken the plunge yet, lol. I hope you're not in the field right now, as I see this last post was done at the end of last month. Keep us posted, especially on the maiden. Miss you friend.

Mike

You called it Mike. We just did a 2 week FTX up in Baumholder. Froze our nuggets off! -10 Farenheit was the coldest day. So now I've caught up on field laundry and re-packed, I can get back to the build!

It sure is great to see you home Safe Mike. I wish I was still at Hood with you.

Anywho: More progress and pictures soon, I promise!

[max2112]

Hello everyone. I hve applied all of the decals that came with the kit. They are done very well and are the self adhesive variety.

Cosmetically, there's not much left to do. I mentioned earlier that this model be named "Bear". So I am deciding wether to have a silhouette of a bear walking on all fours or maybe just a cursive "Bear" on the nose and a claw in black on the verticle stab.

I have finished the landing gear to about the 95 % solution. They are mounted. I have my very un-scale wheels on but I have to tweak and trim the piano wire, cap the axles and permanently attach the landing leg covers.

The maiden flight is probably a month away and I'm already Nervous!

Here are the latest pics.

[max2112]

She is starting to shape up really nice. I did a poor job on the canopy. It will come off at some point and be redone.

All that's really left for the build is to finish up the landing gear and paint / mount the exhaust stacks.

[max2112]

Last Sunday I had the great fortune to complete a successfull maiden flight of this wonderful model and better yet, I had a good friend there to take pictures!


She flew strong right away. The first flight I spent the whole time applying about 50% right aeleron and 15% down elevator. I was pretty anxious the entire flight and after landing I made the appropriate sub-trim and control arm adjustmets. The second battery went much more smoothly and the landing was a bit more relaxed.


Short answer: I couldn't be more happy with the HoB P-51D!!
I really look forward to getting more flights in on this model.

[max2112]

Every good flight deserves a good landing! This time I was able to deliver.

Here's the rest of the flight.

[Bill G]

Originally Posted by max2112

Every good flight has a good landing!

Here's the rest of the flight.

Good to hear it's flying Maxx. I was just thinking about this build when logged on.

You motivated me with your build to get back on mine, and I guess I have no excuse to not fly it now. With the old brushed Cobalt motor and low rated linear BEC on the heavily loaded brushed ESC, I finally installed a switching BEC a few days back, which had been my lingering concern. Should be ready to go now.

[RUSH]

Great job on the Mustang and congratulations on the maiden! Excellent pictures too.

[max2112]

Thanks Bill and Rush! I appreciate the kind words.

I was able to give the wing a much closer inspection and the need for a lot of aeleron correction stemmed from a mis-aligned/hinged right aeleron. I saw it when I was setting up the control throws and I just made the inboard part of the surface level with the top of the wings' trailing edge. I guess that was a bad guess!

Right now she's trimmed for hands off flight and the inboard part of the control surface is above the wing surface a mm or 2 and the outmost part is flush. Go figure.

Maybe next time I'll just build it straight and level, huh?

[CHELLIE]

Super Nice looking Plane John Congrats on the Maiden Flight Take care and have fun, Chellie

[max2112]

Originally Posted by Bill G

Good to hear it's flying Maxx. I was just thinking about this build when logged on.

You motivated me with your build to get back on mine, and I guess I have no excuse to not fly it now. With the old brushed Cobalt motor and low rated linear BEC on the heavily loaded brushed ESC, I finally installed a switching BEC a few days back, which had been my lingering concern. Should be ready to go now.

I would love to see pictures of yours flying Bill! Looking forward to thr flight report, too!

Originally Posted by CHELLIE

Super Nice looking Plane John Congrats on the Maiden Flight Take care and have fun, Chellie

Thanks Chellie! The build was very relaxing. The anticipation and the maiden were nerve-racking and now I am a bit more relaxed with it.

[max2112]

I flew her for two more batteries yesterday morning and they were a joy. I was able trim the plane out really well and was able to explore the flight envelope. I also tried a ROG from our grass field and she did just fine. The wheels are a bit larger than scale and that definitely helped.

Stalls were an easy medium. The nose just mushes downward and slightly to the left. Very easy to re-gain some airspeed and pull right out.

I finally got her on the scales.
The empty weight is 26.05 oz and the AUW w/ a Zippy 25C 2200 is
32.65 oz.

So just a hair over 2lbs for a 46" warbid.
Sounds like a good candidate for e-tracts to me!

Here are some new pics from this weekend.
I am now officially a huge House of Balsa fan!

[stuart]

a great plane and very nice pictures are a super combination for a flying day. she a beauty in the air. the retract would definantly look cool.


congrats on the maiden!

[Bill G]

The 32.6 oz AUW is really good for this plane. I think one of the things that's helping you, is that your outrunner is clear in the front. I used a gearbox setup that was closer to what was on the plans. Even though my motor is heavy, it's further rearward than yours, and the plane needed considerable nose lead to balance, even with a 3s-2500 lipo fully forward in the batt compartment.

The wing is definitely thick enough for the electric retract units, although they would have to be back a bit. The plane is probably really easy to takeoff and land, with the forward landing gear. Looks similar to what H9 did with the PTS Mustang.