DIY Foamboard P-61 Black Widow

[CrshNBrn]

Yes, it needs to be 65 degrees fahrenheit or above.

I know, right? "Can't fix stupid."

 

[The Hangar]

Here's my effort- I was able to use leftover decals from other projects to finish it out. The wrinkling is due to spray painting in a cold garage- I seem to have to relearn that lesson over and over again.

While it wasn't my prettiest build, the 13th Squadron P-61 was a fun and challenging project. I can't wait to see it in the air. Thanks for the plans, Neiz13!

Beautiful build sir!

 

[CrshNBrn]

Beautiful build sir!

Thanks, Hanger. As a fellow foamboard addict, that means a lot coming from you!

 

[CrshNBrn]

The weather was decent enough today to get in a couple of flights. I'm using an 3S 850 battery as far forward as my short wires will permit, as well as 2.5oz lead in the extreme nose to balance the CG. Larger batteries or longer wires may require less ballast. There's space in there for a bigger battery if you have one.

It IS a sweet flying plane. Differential thrust means no theatrics on launch. A few clicks of elevator trim to compensate for my crooked horizontal stabilizer and it was off to the races. It's zippy like the other twin engine planes from 13th Squadron and with its smaller size, folks can fly it on fields that may be little tight for the larger Master Series planes.

Interestingly, on my second battery I think I had my first "brownout" where I totally lost all signal for a bit. I'm trying the cheap Lemon receivers for the first time and think I had my antenna too close to the battery. Would that cause a loss of signal? Fortunately, the P-61 came down fairly decently and just about landed itself. Only required a quick repair with hot glue and it was back up in the air within the hour.

Go build one today and use the black foamboard to do it (hat tip: FoamyDM).

 

[FoamyDM]

Here's my effort- I was able to use leftover decals from other projects to finish it out. The wrinkling is due to spray painting in a cold garage- I seem to have to relearn that lesson over and over again.

While it wasn't my prettiest build, the 13th Squadron P-61 was a fun and challenging project. I can't wait to see it in the air. Thanks for the plans, Neiz13!

ARE you Kidding!? that one looks great! I am still working out the Pod sections. I have the Front, and the back done, figuring the skin and formers out.

Musing:
Has anyone considered if a MINI-radar could be built? (say to 200 ft. ) with a mini Screen. (just in-case a 3x scale one is in order)

 

[paradawks]

Just finished up building this one, with a couple small tweaks. Hasn't flown yet, but that will come in the next week or two.

 

[tomlogan1]

I have been working on this design for a while now and happy to show everyone how it came out! This P-61 has a 48" inch wingspan and runs off of a A Pack Twin with a 3s 850mah. I tried to make sure to get all of the iconic angles and oultlines of the real thing as I could. With school in full swing, it took a lot longer than I thought. Don't know what the story is with plans yet because I still have to finalize them. Here's a link to some flight footage filmed by @jaypbennett from the Flite Crew.

Jack's P-61 "Black Widow"

Also, here's a link to Instagram for more photo's and a video of the moveable gun turret.

Instagram/niez13rc/P-61 Black Widow

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My father was a POW in the Philippines during WWII. He was interned at Camp O'Donnell which the Japanese had converted to a prison camp. There was a planned raid to liberate the camp and the Army used a P61 as a deterrent to keep the Japanese busy with the plane while the liberators moved around to assess the vulnerabilities of the camp.

 

[Niez13]

Just finished up building this one, with a couple small tweaks. Hasn't flown yet, but that will come in the next week or two.

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That came out amazing! Great build and great scheme! Just curious what were some of the tweaks?

 

[Niez13]

My father was a POW in the Philippines during WWII. He was interned at Camp O'Donnell which the Japanese had converted to a prison camp. There was a planned raid to liberate the camp and the Army used a P61 as a deterrent to keep the Japanese busy with the plane while the liberators moved around to assess the vulnerabilities of the camp.

That's a pretty cool story. Did they do that during the night or the daytime?

 

[tomlogan1]

That's a pretty cool story. Did they do that during the night or the daytime?

Night time. Actually, Dad had already been shipped to Japan as a POW and the remaining captives were move to an adjacent camp called Cabanatuan. Here is a link to describe it in much better detail than I did.

Raid at Cabanatuan - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[paradawks]

That came out amazing! Great build and great scheme! Just curious what were some of the tweaks?

Nothing too big. In the build pictures there's alignment pieces holding a bunch of the formers in line, but it's not on the plans so I made that bit up. I tweaked a couple of the front formers to get the canopy hatch lined up and opening the way I wanted. The most obvious one is something I do with most Flite Test style planes - I double up the thickness of the horizontal and vertical stabilizers if they aren't already. That leads to some other necessary change to fit them in, but nothing very difficult. Most of the damage to my foam board planes comes from transport / hanger rash and doubling those up helps to reduce that and I haven't had it affect performance in noticeable ways yet.

 

[Niez13]

Nothing too big. In the build pictures there's alignment pieces holding a bunch of the formers in line, but it's not on the plans so I made that bit up. I tweaked a couple of the front formers to get the canopy hatch lined up and opening the way I wanted. The most obvious one is something I do with most Flite Test style planes - I double up the thickness of the horizontal and vertical stabilizers if they aren't already. That leads to some other necessary change to fit them in, but nothing very difficult. Most of the damage to my foam board planes comes from transport / hanger rash and doubling those up helps to reduce that and I haven't had it affect performance in noticeable ways yet.

Oh yeah I see that now. That will definitely help. Funny enough those piece for holding the formers don't actually need to be there lol. They are more just there so when I build the plane I can easily find the shape of the molded pieces. It won't affecting anything at all but just make the plane the slightest bit heavier.

 

[Niez13]

Night time. Actually, Dad had already been shipped to Japan as a POW and the remaining captives were move to an adjacent camp called Cabanatuan. Here is a link to describe it in much better detail than I did.

Raid at Cabanatuan - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I guess that makes sense being a P-61 lol. If I could thank you're dad for his service I would. I'll have to read more about the raid there. From quick glance of reading it looks like the next paint scheme I would make for a P-61 would be "Hard to get".

 

[paradawks]

Happy to report it flew great! Needed some elevator trim and I’ll probably put some down thrust into the mounts or mix in some elevator with the throttle as it wants to climb hard under power, but it was manageable and should just take a few flights to dial in. I haven't really put it through its paces yet as I made it for a scale fly-in tomorrow, but I'll push it a bit after that.

For anyone else making one - I used DYS 2826 2200kv motors, 40A ESCs and 3 blade 645 props. All balanced nicely with a 2200mah 3S battery, and it has plenty of power.

 

[Niez13]

Happy to report it flew great! Needed some elevator trim and I’ll probably put some down thrust into the mounts or mix in some elevator with the throttle as it wants to climb hard under power, but it was manageable and should just take a few flights to dial in. I haven't really put it through its paces yet as I made it for a scale fly-in tomorrow, but I'll push it a bit after that.

For anyone else making one - I used DYS 2826 2200kv motors, 40A ESCs and 3 blade 645 props. All balanced nicely with a 2200mah 3S battery, and it has plenty of power.

Great! Glad to hear it went well. I want to get around to building another one so I will have to see if I can make those adjustments. How did the scale fly in go?

 

[paradawks]

Great! Glad to hear it went well. I want to get around to building another one so I will have to see if I can make those adjustments. How did the scale fly in go?

It won best plane at the event! Now, we have a tiny club and there wasn't much competition, but still, it was a really nice build. Thanks for the plans!

 

[Niez13]

It won best plane at the event! Now, we have a tiny club and there wasn't much competition, but still, it was a really nice build. Thanks for the plans!

That's awesome no matter what! Thank you for building it.