Building a P40 Master Series

Burnhard

Well-known member
I am a bit late for this year’s winter project. Thought I try something new an decided to go for a P40 Masters Series.

Basis for this is the mighty mini version I built last summer. When I got the kit, I xeroxed the foam sheets and made a scan thereof. I have now scaled the scan to 200%. Wingspan should be around 150cm.

In addition I plan to add retracts (yes, the rotating ones), flaps and a stearable tail wheel. The wings will be fully closed (not the open setup from the mighty minis). Looking for a 3s/4s motor setup.

Will post pics of the build progress. Stay tuned.
 

Burnhard

Well-known member
200% was a bit ambitious. When putting together the sheets it dawned me that this is more an XL format. Tried a print out at 160%. Looks much better. A bit over 120 cm wingspan.
 

Tench745

Master member
As a reference, the Simple Scout is about 155% of the Mini Scout and the Scout XL is about 155% of the Simple Scout. That means the Scout XL is about 240% bigger than the Mini Scout. If you scaled up a mini-sized plane 200%, you're sitting somewhere between mid-sized and XL. Of course, the mini p-40 is kind-of middle-sized between a mini and a mid-sized already so.... -shrug-
 

Burnhard

Well-known member
As a reference, the Simple Scout is about 155% of the Mini Scout and the Scout XL is about 155% of the Simple Scout. That means the Scout XL is about 240% bigger than the Mini Scout. If you scaled up a mini-sized plane 200%, you're sitting somewhere between mid-sized and XL. Of course, the mini p-40 is kind-of middle-sized between a mini and a mid-sized already so.... -shrug-
I was looking at that more from a wingspan perspective. The P40 mighty mini has 75cm. 200% would have been 150cm. Compare to that most of the MS warbirds have about 120cm. So 160% of 75 cm is about 120cm.
 

bwarz

Master member
excited to see your build! after my P36 design I started to do a redesign onto the P40 but then life got busy and the project got shoved off to the side. maybe your build will motivate me to get going on it again :unsure:
 

Tench745

Master member
I was looking at that more from a wingspan perspective. The P40 mighty mini has 75cm. 200% would have been 150cm. Compare to that most of the MS warbirds have about 120cm. So 160% of 75 cm is about 120cm.
Yeah, I didn't think to look up the Mini P-40 wingspan until just before I posted. Should've done that first and saved myself looking silly.
 

Burnhard

Well-known member
Did the first cutting and gluing of the formers today. More cutting and gluing to follow.

Also put together the print outs for the fuselage. In hindsight, when I xeroxed the foam sheets of the mighty mini, I should have xeroxed the individual parts rather than the full sheets. Some of the larger parts now consist of multiple pieces which is hard to align in an exact way and the fine lines of the symbol mapping are sometimes hard to see on the printouts.
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agupt108

Member
Did the first cutting and gluing of the formers today. More cutting and gluing to follow.

Also put together the print outs for the fuselage. In hindsight, when I xeroxed the foam sheets of the mighty mini, I should have xeroxed the individual parts rather than the full sheets. Some of the larger parts now consist of multiple pieces which is hard to align in an exact way and the fine lines of the symbol mapping are sometimes hard to see on the printouts. View attachment 234136
I was wondering how you xeroxed the plans onto the foam as I am looking for ways to better transfer plans to foam without any laser printer or something like that. Thank you!
 

Burnhard

Well-known member
I was wondering how you xeroxed the plans onto the foam as I am looking for ways to better transfer plans to foam without any laser printer or something like that. Thank you!
There is a misunderstanding here. I did not xerox the plans onto the foam but created the plans by xeroxing the foam sheets from the mighty mini. In that sense I am still using the old school way with printing plans on paper, putting that with needles on the foam and then cutting the foam.
 

agupt108

Member
There is a misunderstanding here. I did not xerox the plans onto the foam but created the plans by xeroxing the foam sheets from the mighty mini. In that sense I am still using the old school way with printing plans on paper, putting that with needles on the foam and then cutting the foam.
Oh that makes more sense! That seems like a very good way to get the patterns, especially because I have many pins lying around! Thank you!
 

Burnhard

Well-known member
There is some slow progress. I have cut all parts from the fuselage and have finished the tail and middle section. What’s interesting is that the spline (although I made it from two sheets rather than one) seems not high enough so far all pieces pretty much fit together.

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One challenge I faced in the past with MS scratch builds was that it was close to impossible to get the paper overlapping when gluing the parts together. With my first SBK I noted that the laser cuts away half a mil of foam under the paper. Tried to replicate that with the top of my glue gun slowly melting the foam which worked pretty well.

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Burnhard

Well-known member
It’s slowly coming together. Fuselage is done. Apparently scaling plans ist not that easy. So when I put tother the rear of the fuselage I noted that the skin seemed a bit large for the former. However the mid section fits quite nicely. But then on the front formers (where the skin wraps full circle) it appeared that the skin was too large (had to cut almost 1 cm on each side. I believe the reason for this is, that with the scaling it comes that the foam thickness also increases (at least for the sake of the build). Solutions might be to either add to each former the percentage of thickness of the foam or what I did in my case, to shorten the skins. It looks about right and the canopy also fits with the rear and the mid section.

Next are the wings. There are a couple of things to do here. The mighty mini comes with a rather tight wing. Mine will need to fit the retracts, wheels, extra servos for flaps and I need to figure out where to put the carbon for the stability of the wing.
 

Burnhard

Well-known member
It’s slowly coming together. Fuselage is done. Apparently scaling plans ist not that easy. So when I put tother the rear of the fuselage I noted that the skin seemed a bit large for the former. However the mid section fits quite nicely. But then on the front formers (where the skin wraps full circle) it appeared that the skin was too large (had to cut almost 1 cm on each side. I believe the reason for this is, that with the scaling it comes that the foam thickness also increases (at least for the sake of the build). Solutions might be to either add to each former the percentage of thickness of the foam or what I did in my case, to shorten the skins. It looks about right and the canopy also fits with the rear and the mid section.

Next are the wings. There are a couple of things to do here. The mighty mini comes with a rather tight wing. Mine will need to fit the retracts, wheels, extra servos for flaps and I need to figure out where to put the carbon for the stability of the wing.
 

CrshNBrn

Elite member
It’s slowly coming together. Fuselage is done. Apparently scaling plans ist not that easy. So when I put tother the rear of the fuselage I noted that the skin seemed a bit large for the former. However the mid section fits quite nicely. But then on the front formers (where the skin wraps full circle) it appeared that the skin was too large (had to cut almost 1 cm on each side. I believe the reason for this is, that with the scaling it comes that the foam thickness also increases (at least for the sake of the build). Solutions might be to either add to each former the percentage of thickness of the foam or what I did in my case, to shorten the skins. It looks about right and the canopy also fits with the rear and the mid section.

Next are the wings. There are a couple of things to do here. The mighty mini comes with a rather tight wing. Mine will need to fit the retracts, wheels, extra servos for flaps and I need to figure out where to put the carbon for the stability of the wing.

I had the same issue with my 132% Spit: Saggy skins over the too-small formers. I wound up cutting some extra foam shims to fit around the formers and it doesn't look too bad for a first attempt. Good luck with your build!
 

Burnhard

Well-known member
I had the same issue with my 132% Spit: Saggy skins over the too-small formers. I wound up cutting some extra foam shims to fit around the formers and it doesn't look too bad for a first attempt. Good luck with your build!
Many thanks. Interesting part will be when I add the wing to the fuselage. Waiting for the last bits for the landing gear and my latest order of servos. Will probably take another two weeks till the wing is done.
 

Burnhard

Well-known member
The interior of the wing is done. For the spar, I slightly deviated from the build of the might mini and rather used the one from the MS Mustang. Did some tests on closing the wing and that seems to work just fine.
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Burnhard

Well-known member
Wings are closed. Used some Wonderfill on the wingtips to close the gaps. Will sand the wingtips tomorrow. Will take a few more days before I can attach the wing to the fuselage as I need to get some new servos. The ones I got behave in a wired way.
 

Burnhard

Well-known member
Did the maiden today. Good news, it flies. And it has ample of power. After 3 minutes I still had 70 per cent battery left. It‘s a rather fast flyer. Did not dare to land with the retracts but rather did a belly land, which worked just fine.

Next steps are the spinner (the one on the pic is from the FT P40), the housings for the retracts and then the paint job. I am going for the flying tigers paint scheme.
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Burnhard

Well-known member
Retract housings are installed. I used the 3d printed parts for the mini and scaled these up as well. Had to add about 3-4mm of foam board under each side so that it fits the wing.
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Also made the spinner using the well tested foam and bottle top method.
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Next stopp is the paint shop.