Top Flite P-47 ( red box )

I scored this kit on E-bay.  I think the planets lined up for this one ( The "buy it now" price was the equivalent to $34 in 1976 ).  It amazes me how many of these old kits are still laying around.  Now, I just need a Gold Edition razorback to go with it.  Of course, it will have flaps, retracts and a four-stroke.

The prototype of this model competed in the 1974 NATS and finished 2nd, behind Dave Platt and his Fw-190D in the standoff scale catagory.  What a fun rivalry that must have been.

I'm having a hard time choosing a colour scheme.  Here are the choices,

1.  "Oh Johnnie", flown by Raymond Knight in Italy.  The only P-47 pilot to receive the medal of honor in the European theatre.  The other was Neel Kearby, in the Pacific.

2.  "The Irish Shillalah", flown by James Finnegan.  He caused Adolf Galland to crash land his Me-262.  They met after the war.

3.  The default kit markings of Glen Eagleston, even though he scored all his victories in the P-51.

4.  A Russian example, in honor of Alexander Kartveli and Alexander de Seversky

5.  A Chinese example, pg 183 of Bodie's book.

6.  Francis Gabreski, the 56th Fighter Group was the first to fly the P-47 and they never traded them for P-51s.

What are the chances of finding 5 more kits? haha

Looking at the plans,

The wing seems to have a reasonably accurate outline, with root chord of 14" at the centerline and half span of 30".  Aileron movement is shown as 3/8" up and down ( 8.5° ) at cross section C-C.  This seems ideal to give a realistic roll rate.  I would program this as the low rate at 60%.  The real airplane had differential ailerons, deflecting 16° up ( approx 11/16" ) and 12° down ( approx 1/2" ) , or 14° average.  The flaps should have a travel of 40°.  Installing retracts is left up to the builder.  For accuracy, the gear was angled back in plan view by about 12° and also angled forward in side view by the same amount.

Machine gun barrel sleeves can be made from 1/4" OD aluminum tubing or dowels, spaced 3/4" apart and staggered by about the same amount ( or 25/32" if you want to get picky ).

The canopy is too large and needs to be cut down some.  For reference, the aft part of the canopy was 62" long on the real plane and should be 7-3/4" on the model.  I measured over 9".  Correct sized wheels for 1/8 scale would be 4-1/4" for mains and 1-3/4" for tail.

Build and flight videos to follow on YouTube.

Sterling Models F-51 Mustang ( kit number FS10 )

Sometime in the late '80s, I was given a model of a Mustang.  At the time, I was a teenager and had no idea what it was.  I had never heard of Sterling Models.  This was the first 'scale' warbird I had ever flown and the first with flaps.  It did not have retracts.  It was painted a dull grey, as I recall.  After a short period, it was either sold or given to someone else who showed an interest in it.  Perhaps they recognized it as the piece of radio control history that it was.

This kit ( FS-10 ) was produced in the early 1960s.  There were models in competitions in 1962, so it predates that.  It was still in production as of the 1975 catalog, but sometime before 1983, it was discontinued.  

The markings are completely fictitious, with tail number 886414.  However, if you flip those numbers around ( 414886 ), you have the serial of a P-51D-15 model.  I'm not sure why Sterling ( or Phil Breittling sp? ) didn't choose a real subject.  Just two airframes later ( 414888 ) is the famous "Glamorous Glen III", flown by Chuck Yeager.

While the model is very "stand-off" scale for a D model, it looks better as an H model.  The kit doesn't specify but, I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be modeled after the H model, with how the landing gear looks, the missing leading edge extension and the smaller dorsal fin.

The top airplane is a D model, while the bottom is an H model.

The instructions are printed on the plans.

The balance point for radio control is shown exactly 1-1/8" behind that for the control line setup.  The wing plans are on the other side of the sheet.

I'm going to build the kit as stock as possible, right down to the sewn hinges and brass sheet landing gear doors.  All I need to do is find a Veco S7 2-3/4" spinner, T29D clunk fuel tank and some period 3.5" wheels.