Your Great Planes P-51 sure is coming along nicely. I built the same kit about three years ago and like Xanadu I elected to use electric power. The model really is a very nice flier. Once you get some flying experience with your trainer you will really like flying your nice P-51.

One minor change I made to mine since it is electric powered and does not have engine vibration was to make the forward fuselage section above the plastic cowl removable. In effect I created a split cowl. The two halves have plywood lugs that slip into plywood pockets that are glued to the firewall. The cowl halves are removed vertically and held in place with magnets. This makes access to the motor very easy without having to remove the prop

For your reference I have included a few photos of my Great Planes P-51

Paul Bradley

Hello Paul

Thanks for posting the pictures of your plane. It looks really neatly built and I like the finishing. I have gotten quite a bit further on my build than posted here and am trying to decide how to cover it.

I really like the panels lines you have added, it finishes it off nicely. I don't think mine will look as smooth as yours but i will use a lot more filler now to try.

Dorian

Its been a while since I posted anything as I got short of time and a bit lazy. Anyway here is an update of where I am now. Nearly everything is done except for final sanding and fixing up all the stuff I broke manhandling it. Here are the photos of the progress.

The next steps are the wheel wells for the retracts, filling in the gaps between the wing flaring and the fuselage and finally lots of sanding. The wing fairings need a bit of work still. As I was not looking forward to covering it, it looks difficult, I decided to build a SIG LT-40. I am at nearly the same stage with that build and will post some photos below.

As mentioned I was building a trainer to practice flying and covering, here are some photos of that. Not so many photos as it pretty much flies together. Still not sure yet if I will cut the wing cheeks off and install a cowl. I will probably not as I want to see what covering is like and a cowl wont make it much prettier.

Need to but the tail feathers on still, then sanding and covering so its pretty far.

Cuts? More like tears. Given the good reputation of SIG I would have expected better. Remind me not to complain about laser burn-marks again. Still, it seems like a decent trainer and I wish you luck/succes with it!

They were only stamped through 2/3s in places. So no amount of cutting with blades or sanding the back worked. After a couple of breaking blades I decided to just break them out instead of loss a finger. There were some problems with the preshaped ailerons and leading edges on the wings but other than that it was an easy build. I checked internet and seems nobody else had these problems so guess I got the last batch before they change the dies or go to laser cutting for it all.