12-3-2015 N. American B-25 J Mitchell Arf ?Kit

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Neons
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12-3-2015 N. American B-25 J Mitchell Arf ?Kit

Post by Neons »

I purchased this at a local auction recently. I will put this so called Arf together. It has at least 100 parts to assemble and they call this kit an Arf. It is a extruded foam parts with plastic scale parts. It has wood bulkheads for different mounts like the wing, motors, and retract gear if used. Made by Styro Foam Flyers @ Czech Republic. Was sold some few years back through the old Hobby Lobby. Just a small project to put some time into.
This particular model is sold by http://www.flyingstyrokit.cz/ for 119.00Euros. about $130.00USD. So I feel at the $20 auction cost I paid it was a good deal. So this will be a small project on the cold winter days. I will modify it anywhere I feel it needs more strength. Bulkheads will get Gorilla glued. Most other parts will be hot glued.

Here is a short video of the parts that were in the box.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXJv97y ... e=youtu.be


A reminder for viewing: Click the picture once for larger. Twice for ZOOM

I will update any progress as it goes.
Attachments
12-3-2015 B25J Mitchell-Nose Art.jpg
12-3-2015 B25J Mitchell Decals.jpg
12-3-2015 B25J MitchellBox 01.jpg
12-3-2015 B25J Mitchell Arf (02).jpg
12-3-2015 B25J Mitchell Arf (04).jpg
12-3-2015 B25J Mitchell Arf (07).jpg
Last edited by Neons on Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:42 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: 12-3-2015 N. American B-25 J Mitchell Arf ?Kit

Post by Neons »

Oh! My Gosh! I found more parts inside the fuselage. Looking more like a kit now. Would not be good for beginners. The instructions are almost nil. Numbers do not match what they talk about in the plans.
Attachments
12-3-2015 B25J Mitchell Arf plan.jpg
12-3-2015 B25J Mitchell Arf plan (1).jpg
Wheels Packet, Nacelles Packet, and Wing Fuselage Packet of wood  parts. <br />Plastic parts are interior bulkheads and deck parts
Wheels Packet, Nacelles Packet, and Wing Fuselage Packet of wood parts.
Plastic parts are interior bulkheads and deck parts
Last edited by Neons on Sat Feb 20, 2016 10:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 12-3-2015 N. American B-25 J Mitchell -Interior

Post by Neons »

The interior is all molded plastic parts. Many parts like the crew are made in two halves. There is a lot of fitting and sanding then filling to get rid of the seams. Just to reach up to these photos is an easy 15 hours. I can say that not much fits well in this kit. The plans are almost non existent. It is mostly scratch building. I am just doing a little at a time when I can.
Attachments
12-27-2015 B25J Mitchell -Tail Gunner.jpg
12-27-2015 B25J Mitchell -Cockpit (1).jpg
12-27-2015 B25J Mitchell -Cockpit-Nose Gunner.jpg
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Re: 1-4-2016 N. American B-25J- Glass & Guns

Post by Neons »


Happy New Year 2016

In this segment I get all the plastic cut out for the molded canopy glass. I then went into making the machine guns. Many more hours went into these parts. Nothing fits properly. There are plastic belly pans to install on the fuselage next before the middle wings get worked on.
Attachments
1-4-2016 Canopies and Guns.jpg
1-4-2016 Canopies and Guns (3).jpg
1-4-2016 Canopies and Guns (6).jpg
1-4-2016 Canopies and Guns (2).jpg
1-4-2016 Canopies and Guns (5).jpg
1-4-2016 Canopies and Guns (1).jpg
1-4-2016 Canopies and Guns (7).jpg
Had to cut it all out first.
Had to cut it all out first.
Last edited by Neons on Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: 1-9-2016 Wiring harness - Landing gear- and Nacelle mounting

Post by Neons »

Got a bit done in the last 2 afternoons. Yesterday I started the Turnigy Plush 30 amp Esc and 5 amp Ubec layout. I installed sevo extensions for the ailerons and soldered the motor bullets in place. Today I fitted them into the wig cores. After that I slid the mid wings in place and secured them.

I was done early afternoon so I moved onto fitting both nacelles after a lot of fussing with the fit to the wing undersides. Then I made the twin bulkheads for the plug-in landing gear that attach to the wing spar inside each nacelle. The landing gear are plug in for flying on smooth ground or to fly without landing gear as in belly landing. The kit comes through with extra molded bottoms for the fuselage and nacelles to protect them from the scratching in belly landings.

I just stuck the wings on the spars just for the picture. They can be glued in place permanent after the spars go in or can be attached with pins and a screw. I may make them removable just for maintenance. The landing gear have molded scale shock tubes and wheel covers to install yet. I may make all the doors also removable with magnets. More to come yet.
Attachments
Outer wings just plugged in place with no glue
Outer wings just plugged in place with no glue
Mockup shot with nacelles and landing gear installed
Mockup shot with nacelles and landing gear installed
installed with additional servo Y for ailerons and a Ubec.
installed with additional servo Y for ailerons and a Ubec.
Measured layout with slack
Measured layout with slack
Last edited by Neons on Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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1-18-2016 N. American B-25 J Mitchell -Cowls,Engines,Wheels,&Wings

Post by Neons »

Getting to the home stretch soon. Here I spent the last week spare time setting up the plywood box extension mounts and fitting the cowlings. I had a pair of spare motors to work well with this plane. Maybe 7x6x 2 or 3 blade props should easily produce some great thrust. The props that came with this kit are much to large. The foam cowls have a vacu-form higher detail covers. The nacelles also have scale belly pans vacu-formed for no landing gear skid in landings. I vented the exhaust scoops to get air around the motors flowing. Good cooling.

The landing gear as mentioned are plugins. Fly with or without them. They have vacu-formed parts to make them scale like. The wheels also have spokes covers to look like the real planes. The landing gear covers are not on yet.

The wing could be permanently glued in place or use the slip on outer wings with a locking screw through the wing oil cooler scoops. They hold nice and make servicing the electronics so much easier. Pictures show the line up dowels and spar lock setup. I will keep the wings on for the most part.

The hours are piling on and I guesstimate at least 50 hours in the plane so far. Imagine calling this an Arf. Still more to come yet. I want magnet held wheel doors so I can remove them for hand launched no gear option. Still have decals to lay on. I have to setup my servos and receiver also. I have some creases in the plane that need fill and paint match also. I will use Home Depot paint scan samplers for a very close match. I will do light airbrushing of exhaust streaks too.

A reminder for viewing: Click the picture once for larger. Twice for ZOOM.
Attachments
1-18-2015 B25J Mitchell -Wing Joins (02).jpg
1-18-2015 B25J Mitchell -Wing Joins (01).jpg
1-18-2015 B25J Mitchell -Cowl-Motors.jpg
1-18-2015 B25J Mitchell -Landing Gear.jpg
1-18-2015 B25J Mitchell -Cowls.jpg
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1-27-2016 N. American B-25 J Mitchell - Decals

Post by Neons »

The decals were just a little problem as they are very thin and will break if pulled uneven. But they went on with no loss. They mat down to the contours and rivets very well. They need a clear coat to help them survive as I got a flake or two already. The next thing is filling in some creases from the packing and handling by others. I used the Home Depot samplers after I got the colors scanned. Very good matches.

A reminder for viewing: Click the picture once for larger. Twice for ZOOM.
Attachments
1-19-2016 B25J Mitchell- Decals (03).jpg
1-19-2016 B25J Mitchell- Decals (01).jpg
Last edited by Neons on Thu Jan 28, 2016 12:30 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: 12-3-2015 N. American B-25 J Mitchell -Nav lights and Landing lights

Post by Neons »

Put in some navigation and landing lights. I am not adding the nav. white lights usually on the nose and tail. The wire used is telephone extension wire and measured and put new JST ends on. I crimp the pins on with a tool. It took another day to make them and install them. These are the clear T1 3/4 - 4mm Leds. The first picture shows the harness laying ontop of the wing. The other 2 pics show the landing lights and port/starboard red and green lights

Got all the paint just about done with some blemish spackling to get it looking better. All the decals need a semi-gloss clear to help protect them as they are not the best quality. I have the servos all in place and need to do the pushrods. The receiver will go in when my smaller props come in for the run up soon.

A reminder for viewing: Click the picture once for larger. Twice for ZOOM.
Attachments
P&amp;S navigation lights. Landing bright white lights.
P&S navigation lights. Landing bright white lights.
Landing Lights
Landing Lights
Wiring Harness on the wingtop
Wiring Harness on the wingtop
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Re: 2-5-2016 N. American B-25J - Motor Runs Video

Post by Neons »

I am 99.7% done.Just a few landing gear screws and tie up wires and secure the receiver. Tuned the motors to start perfectly equal. The props are the one that come with the kit. Maybe 9x6x3 blades. They spooled up nice. I am waiting on may 8x4x 3 blades to let it turn faster and ease up on amperage usage. It will still have plenty of power. I have it tied to a hanging Come Along so in the last burst it pulls on it a little. Now for spring to maiden it. Time to start another plane soon.

The video is an mp4 file and should run with just about any good video player on your computer. You can see it here on YouTube


Here:
https://youtu.be/bb6QYp_1lAk
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2-25-2016 N. American B-25 J Mitchell- inal pictures Outdoors

Post by Neons »

Finally was able to take some sunshine pictures today. I sprayed all the decals with semi-gloss polyurethane clear.
Attachments
2-25-2016 B25J Mitchell -Finished (00).jpg
2-25-2016 B25J Mitchell -Finished (2).jpg
2-25-2016 B25J Mitchell -Finished (01).jpg
2-25-2016 B25J Mitchell -Finished (3).jpg
2-25-2016 B25J Mitchell -Finished (8).jpg
2-25-2016 B25J Mitchell -Finished (4).jpg
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