Lieutenant Loughead

I received a GWS P-40 in today's mail. I decided to take some pictures, and post them here, with a build thread.

It should be noted, I am building this model for someone else. If you like what you see, and are interested, I can always build one for you!

First picture: A GWS P-51 Mustang wing, compared with the GWS P-40 wing. I must say, I thought the GWS P-40 would be significantly larger...

Second Picture: A GWS P-51 Mustang fuselage, compared with the GWS P-40 fuselage. Again, I thought the GWS P-40 was supposed to be significantly larger... Note that the Tanic 3s 2220 mAh LiPo fits in the battery area with plenty of room to spare.

However, this is good news for me, it means my existing power systems will fly this airplane with authority.

Water Boy

All man gotta sign up for this. I just saw the other day that GWS was making the P-40. I really want one bad. Love the 40. Whats the scheme gonna be? Flying Tiger?
This is just what I need another ARF to sit around and not get worked on.

smokejohnson

What power system will you install in the one you are building now? Will you get a chance to fly it?

Lieutenant Loughead

Yes -- the kit comes with two really nice waterslide decal sheets. See below for the picture the owner sent me to base the paint scheme on.

The owner is going to send me a few different motors to test on my thrust bench. He is leaning towards the Park 480. He has not asked me to test fly it for him, and I would prefer not to, in this case (simply because this is an "Early Bird" kit, and I can't replace the kit until it is released a few months from now).

When I build mine, I will probably install a Himax 2025-4200, with a 5.67:1 Cobri gear box. This is my standard "Himax Hemi" power plant, and I use this in nearly every airplane I fly.

tommytorino

It might also be nice to note that a 4s 2100 fits like a glove as well.

Tommy D

Lieutenant Loughead

LOL -- yeah, if you're willing to squash your pilot!

tommytorino

For 500+ watts, you bet I am!

crxmanpat

LL,

Yeah, it doesn't seem much bigger than the P-51 when comparing parts, but just wait until you get this thing together. Then it seems humongous!

I'm finally getting mine painted up. The Scorpion 2215-18 with the new GWS 3-blade 1060X3 works just fine.

Saucerguy2

Reading about the p40 in the RCG thread, it appears the canopy and cowl stock has much to be desired, it melts in the sun. I highly suggest making a plug from your's so you can vaccume form a new one, that, or leave them off while flying or you are going to end up with a melted mess.

Lieutenant Loughead

Uhhhh -- yeah... That sounds easy...

(Where's my "easy" button?)

I've been super-busy with work, soccer tournaments, and night school... I plan to take the airplane to my son's soccer practice tonight, and begin the sanding... If I'm lucky, I might be able to glue the wings together (and maybe the fuselage together as well).

tommytorino

I'm sure your well aware of it, but be careful when joining the wings

Saucerguy2

Looking at that tommy just makes me feel good about my own p40 kits I make in house, using a hand wire cutter and a little elbow grease. These guys have the entire world at their disposal to play around with the cool, and very expensive toy's to produce anything they can imagine to absolute precision, yet looking at that photo of the wings being so off....... take note, you have another thanks added to your rep...

tommytorino

Thanks for the thanks.... hey, whats a thanks? =)

Ok I guess Ill thank you and see what happens.

Anyways I can say that if I were to employ a hot wire cutter on a solid wing core, out of 4 cuts, I got 1 decent wing. By decent I mean it's didn't have so many waves down the side that you could surf of it!

Best of luck to you in your venture!

Tommy D

Saucerguy2

The hardest pull on that particular plane is the aft end of the fuse, the taper is rather complex. I hear you on the rejects area, I'm accumulating quite a bit of them, some go towards becoming packing material, others, I can still use them for when I want to add onto my fleet regardless. I'll be setting up a gravity based system next for better accuracy and more consistancy. What's ironic, I've implimented a couple of elements that can be used on the GWS version and you can get the materials at local sources, mainly bashing out the cowl from pink foam and using sheet styrene folded for the canopy. The former is good if you are going to use a different motor since you can customize it towards your needs.

Lieutenant Loughead

Thanks Tommy -- I remember that picture from your post on RCGroups.

However, I'm somewhat confused -- should the top of the wing be flush, or the bottom of the wing be flush?

Either way, I figure I'll have to sand and spackle...

Saucerguy2

I'd measure both of them, if they are the same thickness, then it looks like you are only having to sand/fill the belly pan area, so the top being lined up should technically have the bottom line up automatically. Just my 2 cents on it.

crxmanpat

I guess I got lucky with mine. Although there was a difference, it was very slight. See the first post of my build thread. So far I have not noticed any adverse effects in flight performance.

tommytorino

If you want to get technical I suppose you should assemble the wings with a glue that has some working time before it sets up. Mount the wings into the fuse saddle and check the alignment however you feel best.

In my case I used a meter. Also I had to do some sanding of the alignment joints to get it correct. Its far more important to have the wings square/true in the saddle vs a nice smooth seam on the bottom of the wings.

Good Luck.

Tommy D

Lieutenant Loughead

I started the build last night -- the airplane is officially sanded. When I reached for the spackle, I guess I left the lid off last time I used it, and it was all dried out!

I ran to WalMart on the way to work this morning, and picked up a new package of spackle. I will spackle tonight, and sand tomorrow (the spackle requires 24 hours to dry, before sanding). Then, the sanding and spackling will be done.

I am including a picture of WHY I like to sand GWS airplanes, before building and finishing... The mould release marks and injection points are just plain ugly to a perfectionists eye...

The good news is that I've found the most recent GWS kits (P-38 and P-40) to have mostly "outie-type" mould injection points. This makes the build go much easier because I can sand the foam down without needing to add a lot of spackle to fill in the "innie-type" mould injection point. (Does that make sense at all? )

Lieutenant Loughead

Well, for what it's worth, today I placed an order for a GWS P-40 of my very own.

In other words, the kit looks good enough for me to purchase one for myself.

crxmanpat

LL,

You made perfect sense. I sanded off all the little "flowers" as well, along with the "dimples" on top.

So how off were the wing halves? I don't recall reading what yours looked like. I know you said you were spackling and sanding.

Lieutenant Loughead

I have not glued the wings together yet, but the wings looked pretty even, after initial inspection.

tommytorino

There is a good chance the wings LL has in his hands ARE the wings in my photo.

Tommy D

crxmanpat

Oh yeah, that's right.

Lieutenant Loughead

LOL -- after looking back at Tommy's picture, I think I DO have the wings in his photo.