Will Aldridge's XP-72 Gamma Build - Page 2

**YankeeBoy** · #11 04-14-2012, 06:19 PM

LOL - (I have to laugh or I'd blow my brains out) - added to my dental work and surgery I now have the joy of an infected computer. I'll be missing for a few days while it is being scrubbed and rebuilt...back in a few.

**Willja67** · #12 04-14-2012, 07:04 PM

Sorry to hear that. Hope things start getting better. Of course we can always think how lucky we are not to be in others shoes. I just got home from helping to clean up a car wreck. Guy must have had a heart attack(there were no brake marks), he veered off the road and imbedded his car into the corner of someone's house, knocked the corner clean off the foundation. He died at the scene. Fortunately no one else was hurt.

**Don Boose** · #13 04-14-2012, 08:40 PM

I'm very sorry to hear of Ron's current travails, but while he is away, I will answer Will's earlier question about machine gun barrels.

Today, I met with Rick Steffers, Kevin Stephens, Karl Warner, and Don Weeks (RockPaperScissors) at the Army Heritage and Education Center to plan for Paper Modelers at Army Heritage Days. While there, I stopped by the Military History Institute Reading Room and mentioned to my colleague, Rich Baker, that I was looking for the TM on the M2 .50-caliber machine gun. Rick, Kevin, Karl, Don Prime, and I went to lunch and when I returned, Rich had located the documents.

The images below show the researcher sign-in sheet, the manuals, and the relevant illustration from the 1942 Training Manual: Caliber .50 M2 Browning Machine Gun, Aircraft, Basic.

The barrel jacket is just a tad over 2 inches in diameter. As I calculate it, in 1/33 scale, a 1/16-inch diameter aluminum tube is an almost perfect match.

Don

**Willja67** · #14 04-14-2012, 09:12 PM

Thanks Don. Glad your efforts turned up such favorable results. I would have had to make changes if I was way off. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

**YankeeBoy** · #15 05-10-2012, 02:53 PM

I guess I owe the thread followers and Will an explanation. In short, I have been cursed over the last few weeks with crumbling teeth (all fixed), nasty cysts on my back (mostly done - 1 still healing) and an unidentified computer virus from H*** on the Windows side of my iMac. That turned out to be the most time consuming and eventually required a "start from a new partition" Boot Camp re-install of Windows. That of course required that I re-install all my applications, games, passwords and I had to bother Mike at Gremir for the nearly 100 unlock keys for all my Gremir products. Needless to say, I haven't been doing much paper crafting of late. I hope to get this thread back on track this weekend and get this project finished up shortly thereafter. Thanks for your patience.

**Willja67** · #16 05-27-2012, 06:34 PM

Sorry this project has been backburnered. There is some work going on. I was just digging for some more reference on the XP-72 and came across pictures of a couple of resin kits and screen caps from flight sims that show the anti glare panels fore and aft of the cockpit to be olive drab not black as I have currently depicted(see attached). Can anyone comment on the accuracy of the color?

**YankeeBoy** · #17 05-27-2012, 06:48 PM

OD would have been a more likely color in the WW2 timeframe. It seems like black anti-glare panels are more of a post-war thing. I'll scrounge through my references but feel more comfortable with OD for this model.

As to my lack of progress (discussed with Will) - I am in a modelling "dead zone" at the moment. I started back to work on the Gamma build only to find that something I did in the fuselage frame is preventing the fuselage skins from fitting as nicely as they did on the Beta build. This is going to require that I start from the beginning and I just don't have it in me at the moment. Hopefully one (or both) of the other builders will cover for me until I "get my groove" back.

**Willja67** · #18 05-27-2012, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YankeeBoy

As to my lack of progress (discussed with Will) - I am in a modelling "dead zone" at the moment. I started back to work on the Gamma build only to find that something I did in the fuselage frame is preventing the fuselage skins from fitting as nicely as they did on the Beta build. This is going to require that I start from the beginning and I just don't have it in me at the moment. Hopefully one (or both) of the other builders will cover for me until I "get my groove" back.

It's funny that soon after your last email to me Robert sent an email with his latest on the instructions, he's got a fair amount done and without either one of you this project would still be years away from completion. I'll send you what he sent me if you like and see if you have any contributions to it. I did send him all the pics you took so he could use them where needed (hope that is all right).

Me being me, little details get me bogged down considerably. I finally got the bomb racks done, but there is a little wing fence right where the rack goes and it looks like the racks actually bolt onto this "fence" at least on the aft end. I haven't been able to find much reference on it. Can anyone help?

The first pic shows the location, the second shows what I think is the aft end of the fence sticking out past the end of the bomb rack (on a stock P-47).

**YankeeBoy** · #19 05-27-2012, 08:07 PM

Yes, please pass Robert's info to me when you can. I can offer no help on the bomb racks however.

**3Turner** · #20 05-27-2012, 09:07 PM

Wouldn't know about the racks either Will....but I do think there are some walkaround websites which may have the answer your looking for.

Here is one with a couple shots...though not clear: http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft...47_walk7.shtml

And another with a closer shot in the mix: http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft...47_walk3.shtml

Ron, sent you a link to the instruction draft with edit capabilities...let me know if you can access.