XP-67 Moonbat

[Willja67]

I can't sit on this anymore. The reason i have kept it under my hat for so long was that I didn't want to step on Nobi's toes. I started the project before I even knew that it was one of the choices in his poll let alone the top contender. I guess a certain number of you already know what it is but the attached screen cpture ought to remove all doubt.

Nobi I hope this doesn't get in the way of your doing the model if it wins in your poll. It often takes a long time for me to finish something. If it looks like the project is going to stall I will seriously consider handing over what I have. It should knock off a huge percentage of the time it normally takes to design a model.

I think if a person wanted to design a model that would be extremely difficult to design in paper they couldn't have done much better than the moonbat. As the thread title suggests I have had to create a lot of surfaces for this thing.

I'm trying to apply Nobi's philosophy of simplicity yet good looks. The only thing that is keeping me from going totally nuts with this model is the extreme lack of reference material. If I had more accurated references I would feel compelled to make it accurate to those references but since I don't, work has been proceeding fairly quickly.

[shrike]

Can't have too many XP67's

What sort of research materials do you have and what do you need? I've got an extensive collection of 3views and drawings

[Willja67]

I have 2 3views with cross sections. 1 of them came from that russian site with the huge selection of drawings the other I think came from a rc model forum and is the less accurate of the 2. Mostly what I want is pictures but I will take any reference material you have. But like I said the more i get the slower progress will be.

[shrike]

Oh, in that case,

NO DRAWINGS FOR YOU!

Now,when will it be done?

[Willja67]

If things go really well I'll have all the skin, sans prop blades and itty bitty junk done tonight which will leave the itty bitty junk, prop blades, frame unrolling, painting, instructions, and other tedium that I really hate and which always takes me longer than it should and you'll have your model. Maybe.

[Willja67]

Oh I forgot about the cockpit and landing gear.

[Willja67]

Well there are a number of parts unrolled at present I'm just trying to get some framework to drape it over. If there is anyone interested in being an Alpha builder let me know. I'm going to try and blast this one out so I don't lose interest in it. We'll see if that actually happens.

I'm going to get sections ready to build and send to the alpha builders as they become ready and the fuselage is almost there.

[Willja67]

First set of parts namely the framework has just gone out to the 2 volunteers (Texman and Shrike) so hopefully we'll see some paper cut and glued soon though Texman said he was rather short on free time at the moment.

As always let me know if you got them.

[shrike]

Here are my progress shots of the Moonbat alpha build.

So far everything has been fitting up very well indeed. Amazingly so given the shape of this thing.

I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves (even the not so hot ones) and get back to skinning the aft fuselage.

[birder]

That looks pretty cool Shrike!:)

[Willja67]

I'm consistently amazed by the quality of your work. It looks so clean I can hardly believe it. I'm very releived that everything seems to be fitting correctly as I made no attempt to see if rhino wasn't hiccupping as it unrolled it. Of course a good builder can hide a multitude of sins.

You will have to tell me if you think that the aft top and bottom fuselage pieces should either be joined on one side have tabs added or left as is.

The engine nacelles are almost ready. Most of the skin is layed out I'm just trying to figure out the best configuration for the frame. Again very excellent work!

[shrike]

Next batch of pictures.

No worries aside from the lack of a notch in 13t, but I think you had already mentioned that.

I would definitely not use any joining strips or tabs on the trailing edges of the chine. By just joining the edges you can trim them afterward in case of any misalignment that creeps in.

Only thing left now is the rudder, then I'm out of parts (hint hint)

[Willja67]

I'll do my best to have the next set to you sometime today but don't count on it.

[Texman]

Well, I posted earlier and it appears to have gone into the vacuum of cyberspace.
But, I am far behind you Shrike! Your doing an excellent job. I can say that even
with the medical and pre-retirement issues I'm working, I did have a little time. The parts scale down well, except for the slot portion of the parts. It becomes nearly invisible to see. From early parts, it does seem to be fitting well, even at small scale.

Ray

[Willja67]

Okay guys the engine frames are in your inboxes without very much instruction but as I have used most of my Saturday on this I'm going to go have some fun now so I hope you like puzzles:D

btw Texman,

What scale are you building this in? Looking forward to some pics.

[Texman]

1/144, if I can get the frames to cooperate. Like I said, the lines tend
to disappear for me.

Ray

[Willja67]

1/144 are you nuts? After taking a look at what i just sent I bet I had you really shaking your head. I've never even tried building that small let alone designing that small. As it is I could probably lose a fair number of the frame pieces I have and still be okay.

[shrike]

1/144 is certifiably insane.

Here is the port wing structure. Once I got to dry-fitting the parts it was easy to get carried away gluing things together, so there aren't any in-between shot's. There's another one to do so there should be another opportunity for photography.

The white on white confuses the camera. I need to take some more with the flash off and a side light for contrast.

[Willja67]

The way I chose to mate the engine frames to the fuselage was improvised after you already had it built as I'm sure you could tell, do you think I ought to rework it for the final design or does this way work okay in your opinion?

Just a random thought; I think this thing is going to be pretty tail heavy and if anyone ever builds it with landing gear extended they are going to have to add a fair amount of nose weight to get it to stay on its nose wheel.

btw Do you think I over did it on the frames complexity? Most of the complexity stemmed from a desire to improve rigidity.

[Texman]

Well, I do think there are alot of frames. But the odd curves of this airframe
do require certain allowances be made to get alot of the subtle curves to work
properly.

Ray

[shrike]

The tabs and slots are almost the same, and proportionately larger than the ones that hold the wings on that monster Vulcan, so you're good there.

I haven't started skinning the nacelles yet, but no, I don't think the number of frames is excessive at all. As convoluted as the shape is I would much rather have too many frames than too few. In fact you might even want to consider boxing in the gearwells for extra rigidity.

Weight can go in the nacelle noses as well. That's where most of the weight really is anyway.

[shrike]

After putting part of the weeks RL adventures aside for a while I've been able to get in some more work.

Here are better pictures (sans flash) of the nacelle structure, followed by the skins going on.

I think that formers 1 and 2 of the nacelle might be slightly undersized, other than the fit continues t be excellent. Any gaps are, I think, the result of my own patchwork of joining strips.

Looking forward to finishing up the skins on the rest of the nacelle tomorrow night, then starting on the right wing just to balance things out then it's time to beg for more parts<g>

[Texman]

Looking good Shrike. Wish I was that far along. Have you encountered
any other difficulties? Mine seems to fit well, even after downsizing. Would
love to get some real (quantity) done this weekend. Still trying!

Ray

[Willja67]

Looks good! I have to admit that some of what you are building and have built is already obsolete. After watching that video you sent and studying the pics I have a little more carefully I decided that the nose and the radiator intakes were very innacurate and needed reworking so when it comes the Beta build is going to have some new stuff in it.

The nose was easy to do, the intakes are turning out to be a bear. I would almost like it if you would tell me the design is good as is and finish the rest of it. But I would probably ignore you.

[shrike]

That's it. No more research for you!

Part of me wants to say keep the intakes, if you no other reason than the fact that they fit surprisingly well, but they really aren't right. OTOH the proper shape looks like it might turn out to be easier to design. The inlet shape is actually closer to the form of the nacelle underside, removing that return curve.

I don't know what you have planned for final exhaust, but it looks more complex than a simple tube. Looks like two converging flattened tubes to me
Continuing to skin the nacelles. As of this writing I have the top done and getting ready to start on the bottom (which means in a few minutes I may change my opinion of the inlet fit<G>) Dry fitting it, it looks like the last skin may need some adjustment to get the trailing edge round and fitting the exhaust trunk. We'll see.

More pictures in a little bit

[Willja67]

That's it. No more research for you!



I warned you how dangerous reference material was. Just for anybody who thinks that the 3-views available might be in the neighborhood of accurate, they most definately are not. New and accurate reference was what shut down the Super Corsair project for the time being. My visit to see the real thing yielded a number of measurments that told me that most of what I had was way off and that discouraged me.

I have the main gear designed and am working on the nose gear at present. I'll finish up the wings and cabin area soon so you won't want for stuff to fill your spare time, but mercifully we are getting to the end of the alpha build. Mercifully meaning that progress has been surprisingly fast on all fronts design and construction.

[Gil]

Will,

You're suffering from indecision. This is one of the most difficult stages for a designer. The only advice is to just make a decision, give the design a version or dash number and move on.

No one member of an aircraft series was ever built exactly the same. They all differed in one way or another - add engineering change notices to the process and without a truckload of file cabinets from the original manufacturer there is no way that a specific time and model can be reproduced accurately in miniature. A model is a 3D miniature representation of a subject at a specific time in history and close will be more than good enough. I'd think more about the effect you want the model to have on the beholder than on what will scale as a minute inaccuracy...,

+Gil

[Willja67]

Well Gil I thank you for your encouragement and I admit that I am frequently guilty of trying to find an exact guilded lily to model but in the case of the Super Corsair I got fairly precise measurments for the cockpits aft bulkhead and the firewall and that showed that my proportions on the whole thing were way off, the whole profile shape would be different. But I guess you covered that point as well. I should just fudge the rest of it to fit what I know is right and move on.

In any case my original Moonbat radiator intakes and profile of the whole front of the engine nacelles were not even on the ballpark of accurate. I had followed the 3 view I had but picture reference clearly showed how wrong they were. I have pretty much finished the redesign and promise it will stay locked in and all of you can hold me to that.

[shrike]

Here are the final nacelle skinning pictures, obsolete tho' they may be.

Fit is still really good. I would be better if I had planned out joining strips instead of cobbling them together as I went.

[Willja67]

I'm glad it's still working out so well.

You mentioned the exhaust and I was planing on changing it to more accurately reflect the real thing but I'll leave it up to you. Do you want me to leave it as is and thus move up the final release date or make it more accurate and complex?

[shrike]

Oh fine. Make ME the bad guy<g>
I'd say go for the more accurate exhaust.
Shouldn't be a major delay, shorten the existing tube about 3mm and add the exhaust inside. That's still the cooling air outlet anyway.

[Willja67]

That's still the cooling air outlet anyway.


I thought that was the exhaust for the turbochargers and the cooling air exhausts were on either side directly behind their respective radiators.

[shrike]

Looking at the film, I do believe you're right. Probably still a lot of misc. air coming out of there drawn out by the blast of the exhaust (what blast there is after the turbocharger) Exhaust augmented cooling is rather common too.

Still a fairly simple fix. The outer tube is good. Changing the inner tube to a pair of angled oval ones should be easy, and effective at conveying the original

[shrike]

Here we go on the second time around, this time with cockpit, gear wells and colour

The fuselage frames are similar to the previous version, with the same good fit.

The cockpit tub went together well, even if I screwed up and cut out the location for the head rest cushion. Never fear it'll get fixed up soon. The former (#6) that wraps around the tub makes putting all together a little fiddly, but it all works out in the end.

I probably should have assembled the nosegear bay into a box first and then attached it to the rest of the frame, but again it all works out.

[willygoat]

Looks nice Shrike!

[Willja67]

The head rest shouldn't be a big problem since the part for the area right behind it should cover the back and installation of the head cushion will cover the hole but it wouldn't suprise me if you had already figured that out and maybe even had it built by now.

For those of you who might have purchased my Super Corsair when this kit becomes available you will notice that I stole quite a few items from the cockpit of the Corsair for this model. The dimension from the forward bulkhead to the headrest bulkhead is the same, the seat and rudder pedals all came along for the ride as well. Shrike chided me slightly for the seat (there shouldn't be any cushions) but I just choose to say that the pilot left his seat pack in the plane for emergency scrambles and he installed a back cushion cause he was short and needed a little help getting to the rudder pedals.

[shrike]

The build continues. Fit, as before, is excellent.
Unlike the first time, I'm holding off on the last segments and the horizontal stab until I get the skins as it takes a beating otherwise.

Next is moving on to the nose. Before skinning I need to create and add as much weight as I can in the small space to improve chances of it sitting on the gear correctly.

[Willja67]

Looks really good! You'll have to let me know once you get the rest of the nose on if you like the reshaping I did.

What are your impressions of the colors and particularly the lighter green patches?

[shrike]

The lighter coloured patches around the edges look good.
Coming out of my printer, though, it seems a little dark overall. What few panel lines there are so far (the panels next to the cockpit, and the few on the rudder) could use a little more contrast.
Of course that's a subjective artistic choice.

The nose skins will be next. I haven't done a direct comparison from old parts to new yet (probably should take a peek, I suppose)

I did make a little experiment that had pleasantly positive results.

DISCLAIMER: Don't try this at home. Try it at someone else's home. If you try this at all, do it outside with plenty of fresh air , wear safety glasses and wash your hands afterwards. Lead can be nasty.

OK, with that out of the way, I discovered that you can use cardboard as a mold to cast custom shaped lead weights.
I used some 0.5mm card made in roughly the right shape, some left over solder (probably 50/50) a propane torch and an old spoon that shall be used for nothing else.
There was a little bit of charring on the card, but nothing too bad. PVA glue (Elmers) held and it all went according to plan.
I glued the weights in with PVA knowing that even if it doesn't hold in the long tern the weights can't go anywhere anyway.

[Don Boose]

Excellent work, Mark. Very innovative approach to putting weight in the nose.

I anticipate that Gil will now start working on a way to make lead out of paper.

Don

[Gil]

Shrike,

Nice work on Will's new attention holder. Casting lead with a paper mold is a great way to obtain snug fitting nose weights. A very slightly thinned coating of spackle on the mold interior will help prevent the ultimate smoke and flames failure mode...,

+Gil

[Willja67]

Just to give some idea of how much weight is needed to keep this thing sitting on it's nose gear here (http://www.inpayne.com/models/xp-67b.html) is a link to a build report of a resin XP-67(last pic on the page). Granted this guy couldn't stick his weight as far forward as we can but still I look at this model and marvel at how much airplane is behind the main landing gear.

[shrike]

Skinning the nose. Slightly different profiles than the previous version. A little smoother, not so much of a strake on the first 'fuselage' segment (blended wing and all that.


I'm counting on the fact that I'll still be able to add weight in the nacelles if I need to.

[shrike]

Turtledeck.

Some wonderfully convoluted sections here. OTOH that describes most of the skins on this beastie.<g>
Once preformed and shaped they laid down really quite well. Only thing I'd change there is that I'd do a 1-2mm colour 'bleed' inside the locating outline just in case things don't line up perfectly. I have a little ghost of a white line showing. (on the starboard side - not shown in the pics of course)

Moving ahead to the aft-most glazed section and here is a design change I would make. As elegant as the radio shelf/internal frame/joining strip is, it counts on too many things being perfectly aligned. I think separating the elements will improve buildabilty, and allow for some adjustment during construction. The openings in the inner frame seem too small and don't line up quite right.
I'm going to try to cut things apart and see how that works moving forward to the rest of the canopy.

I imagine if this had gone into production we would have seen the biggest bubble canopy in the world in the D model <g>

[Willja67]

Mark i must confess that I had a severe case of designers block while doing the cockpit section and finally just threw something together and hoped it worked. In other words there might be some major problems there that need fixing.

The nacelles are coming somewhat slowly. Ther are presently sexty plus pieces for just one side! And I haven't even done the prop blades yet! I think the idea of following Thaipaperworks motto of easy but beautiful is a dead dream. I'm not going to do any greater level of detail than already shown but this dang thing takes a lot of parts to get those curves to come out halfway decent.

[shrike]

I'm really glad to hear you say that. Whenever I hit a snag like that I always wonder if there's some simple brilliant idea that the designer had that I just didn't get.


Here's a picture of the fix. I reprinted the outside frame on bond paper and used it for the inside. Not perfect, but it does the job. While I was in there I added some 1mm card for the radio boxes.

[shrike]

Here's the latest pic. The rudder fairing. I know the serial is offset. Will sent me an updated file, but I'm in the middle of switching to a new computer and OS, convincing it to reliably talk to the network and such, so I went with the one I had already printed. It'll be an easy replacement later.

Only things I have left are the canopy and the gear doors, which I like to do last, lest they get buggered up in handling

[Willja67]

So do you like the new design for the last piece of fuselage and the fin?

[shrike]

Yes, indeed. Much more 'buildable'

[billy.leliveld]

Just wondered how you guys are doing on this (sofar) excelent project...

[shrike]

I just finished the PWS10 build, and Will sent me more pages, so I'll be back at this very soon.

[Willja67]

I spent a fair amount of time up till about two weeks ago on this project getting it ready so Shrike could work on it when he finished the PWS-10. Hopefully what I have sent will keep him busy long enough for me to get the next batch out.

[shrike]

I got to cutting on the new wing and nacelle structure. Changes include a completely revised nose contour to the nacelles and a thoroughly boxed in landing gear bay. Aside from the box, the frame went to together with Will's normal precise fit.

Two small glitches, neither too important. The bulkhead at the rear of the gear box is mirrored (see picture) The side marked as aft facing, should face forward, and the small false rib at the outside of the nacelle needs a tab to fit the notch in the wing spar (no picture)

Now to do the other side and attach them to the fuselage and start skinning

[Willja67]

Awesome! Glad it's going together well so far. Hopefully the skins will work okay.

This is the kick in the butt I need to get back on it. After getting the nose gear 90% designed I just couldn't stand looking at the model anymore and have put in some time on the Super Corsair. I really should take some screenshots along the way but I have made significant progress on the last portion of the exterior that has really given my fits. Enough of that I should post that in the appropriate thread.

The only things left to do on the model are rework the canopy, finish the nose gear, and put the nose art on the make beleive version, design the prop blades, then make instructions for it.

I won't spill any beans on details but I told Shrike he could come up with the markings (for the theoretical version) and I decided it wasn't quite loud enough so I enhanced it a little. Shrikes last comment to me was "It's obnoxious, I love it!"

Hopefully the homestretch won't take long.

[Texman]

Yea Will! Can't wait to see the finished plane!

Ray

[Willja67]

Thanks to bad weather and the cement guys not being ready I got the day off work today and put it to good use. Although it's a little bit misleading in a way I got ten pages of parts done today! Mostly that just means I put them in their final format and have yet to number them but they are colored and ready to be built. I also got the nosewheel designed and the noseart in place. I neglected to mention in my previous post that I still have about 50% of the horizontal tail surfaces to do but they should be pretty easy.

Well hopefully I can maintain the pace. Of course seeing it coming together helps in that regard hint hint <g>.

[Willja67]

35 pages worth of parts are now for the most part complete. Obviously whatever errors Shrike finds as the test build continues will need fixing and I have to number all the parts and create instructions but for the mose part it's done!

[shrike]

I have been getting some building done in the last few days.
The second wing went together the same as the first one, then both attached to the fuselage so far. This is not, by the way, a small airplane. Wingspan is right around half a metre. 55-foot (16.76m) span puts it midway between the A-20 and B-25, or really pretty big for a single seat fighter.

Pre-forming the skins as well as possible is really important on this plane. I don't think there is a flat panel anywhere.
The skins on the top of the nacelles go on the same as the previous version. Some changes around the revised intakes, but similar overall and they fit well. The colour change is printer related. Not sure if I can blame it on switching to Vista from the firat half to the second, but I may as well try.

The new intakes are smaller and less striking, but more accurate, than the previous version, but fit just as well if not better with one exception. One the alpha version the bottom panels ahead of the gear well were three seperate pieces, and this version has them joined together. I had a bit of a misfit with this panel (certainly my fault), and ended up cutting them into 3 pieces and fiddling with the joining strip to get the fit back and to get things aligned for the subsequent panels.

Oh, and it looks like the cast nose weight will be enough to keep it nose down. Now I should go back and figure out what they weigh.

[billy.leliveld]

Can't wait to get my hands on this one, are you goining to sell it trough Ecard models?

[Willja67]

I am making arrangements to sell it both through Ecardmodels and Gremir.

[birder]

That looks awesome great job!( to both of you!)

[member_3]

Hmmmm....maybe I could apply for a government economic stimulus grant to be spent helping out the depressed paper model industry. I have PayPal at the ready for this one! Nice job, guys!

[NOBI]

Just saw this thread, Don't know why I miss this thread...no problem about who will design this Moonbat but Gil, you did a great job. I wonder how you make Moonbat go along with very nice shape. Really admire your skill...

Excellent job so far. Can't wait to see a finished model.

[Willja67]

I had no idea how misleading that must have been. I sent off PM's to both Mike and Chris (Gremir and CGutzmer) last night to start arranging for the distribution of the model and neither of them had seen the thread or in Mikes case even knew what the XP-67 was. So in the hopes that maybe more people will find the thread I asked Rick if he would change the name of the thread which he graciously did.

I called the thread Patchwork quilt because this airplane has so many curves in it and I had to break it up into so many pieces that when I looked at the 3d model it reminded me of a patchwork quilt. I had to use just about every trick I knew and maybe came up with a new one or two in order to reduce the number of seams in the model to a satisfactory level. Hopefully I succeeded.

Shrikes extraordinary skill in building has made this model possible because I know I would not have been able to finish it this soon if not for his help and he's done a lot better than I would have.

[Alcides]

This is going great. A very difficult shape to model but the beta looks very good.

[Willja67]

Thanks Ron, Glen, Nobi and Alcides for the kind words.

Nobi if you are interested I could send you the Rhino file to look over if you want to study it. Also if you are interested maybe we could discuss hosting the model on your site?

[NOBI]

Thanks Ron, Glen, Nobi and Alcides for the kind words.

Nobi if you are interested I could send you the Rhino file to look over if you want to study it. Also if you are interested maybe we could discuss hosting the model on your site?

I really appreciate that...will be my honored to have your model at my website

[Willja67]

Well I guess there will be 3 distribution outlets. Thank you Nobi.

I will send you the Rhino file when I have cleaned it up a little. It's pretty big and messy.

I just sent off the last of the parts to Shrike this morning so he should not be wanting for parts anymore. A mistake I made was having 2 Corel Draw files for the parts one for the fuselage pages and one for the nacelle pages. For some reason when publishing to PDF from Corel Draw if you have more stuff in the file than just what is in the area that you see in the PDF it incorporates that into the PDF so the file size is disproportionately large (1.7 meg for one page). The PDF size depends on how much stuff was in the original Corel file but I had to go back through and make a seperate Corel file for every page of parts and now the average PDF size is down near 100kb. Much more manageable.

Now I am also faced with the problem of the alternate version of the model. It would be nice to have some pics of the completed version before it goes on sale. But given the size and complexity of the model I'm not sure if that will happen. Hopefully I can have it ready before anyone could build it and I want to start selling soon.

[cgutzmer]

If you cant get a pic of the secondary model before sales begin I will make an offer here.... :)

The first person to post pics of a competed build of the second model will get $10 to spend at my shop. Pics must be of a good quality so no camera phone pics ;) those pics will go up on my site as well (with proper credit to the builder) to help sell the model!
Thanks
Chris

[shrike]

Some continuing build pictures.

Have one wing out to the tip. I started skinning the other side then realized what I really need to do next is build up the landing gear as part of the test build

[birder]

I don't think those gear are too bad, and your desk is beginning to resemble mine.....:D

[member_3]

I hope that you guys will not think less of me if drool uncontrollably...that bird is yummy!

[Willja67]

Thanks to you Billy, Ron, and Glen for your interest and praise. I really do like hearing the comments (just hope I can fit my head through the door afterwards).

Ron hopefully we can have the model released before you flood your house.

Chris thanks for the incentive to someone to actually build the thing when it's released.

[member_3]

A great promotion for this model would be to give everyone who buys it a free Moon Pie (bring your own RC Cola!) Did I read correctly - there will be two versions? Is the other a racing version to go with the Super Corsairs? LOL - I crack me up sometimes.

[dansls1]

The free Moon Pie would be a deterant for me to purchase one - blah!

I do think this is a cool plane, someday I'd like to have one of these as well as a Flying Pancake on my shelf (I know, Dr. Zarkov has a very nice Flying Pancake model already) ;)

[Willja67]

Did I read correctly - there will be two versions? Is the other a racing version to go with the Super Corsairs? LOL - I crack me up sometimes.

Yes there are 2 versions the second is a totally fictitious combat squadron but it is certainly gaudy enough to be a racing paint scheme. Actually I'm not sure if I've ever seen a racer that was as obnoxious as this thing is.

I guess I'll try and get a profile view done soon so I can display the livery shall I? I'll need it for the sale pages anyway.

[shrike]

Well....there was a metallic purple* SeaFury at the Phoenix 500.....





*A dozen or so coats of purple tinted Future floor war over bare metal - gave a great depth and luster, but scrubbed (mostly) off aftewards. Good thing too since the sponsor stiffed the owner.

[redhorse]

Moon Pies & RC Cola? How did that enter this one :D We just had that for a birthday deal at work not too long ago...

[Willja67]

Well some progress is being made for those wondering and I thought I would post a little preview of the wild paint job on the fictional airplane and a couple of pages of the instruction diagrams that I have made thus far. I have numbered some of the parts on the pages that get cut but haven't numbered many of the diagrams yet.

The basis of the paint job was Shrikes wanting yellow and black Polka dots because he had never seen a USAAF squadron with those markings. There was a Navy Corsair squadron in Korea with a white band on the cowl and pink polka dots and I also remembered seeing a picture with a bunch of B-29's lined up on either side of a taxi way and one of them had all the chrome parts (prop spinners landing gear hubs and legs etc) and the prop tips painted hot pink so I thought why not? And this is the result. Are any of you who were wanting one still going to buy it when it's released?

[member_3]

As long as there is a "real" version, I'm in for both.

[Willja67]

The real version is what Shrike is building now. Prototype and fictitious aircraft will both be included.

[zot]

I'm still in.

[John Bowden]

Well at least you didn't offer a burned up one, like what happened to the original.......:p

Moon pies......... OMG yes! Never did like RC Cola though.:rolleyes:

Really neat job on this way before the times bird Will.

john

[billy.leliveld]

My Paypal-password is ready , it doesn't get more ready than this...
Or do we have to wait till you finish the snake-skin version of the Moonbat?:D

[billy.leliveld]

Hey Shrike,
As you may have noticed I 'm doing the Polka-dot version, but how is yours comming along? I just follow your way of building, as there are no instuctions yet, anything I should know?:D

[Darth Windius]

Some continuing build pictures.

Have one wing out to the tip. I started skinning the other side then realized what I really need to do next is build up the landing gear as part of the test build

Really god job :):)

I stay tuned to your work....