I jumped the other thread for this P51, https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=533749...
I am building this one for my Youngest Son who is currently in the Army and deployed in Afghanistan, He will be back in December so I need to get busy!!!
So I decided to start my own thread of my build. I have a friend getting ready to cut the fuselage out on his Phlatprinter. I already have the wing started and progressing along good. I did not like the design of the original wing due to the fact that I am building this plane a little bigger and I did not feel that the original wing would stand up to the increased size. Also going to be adding Retracts and flaps and the original design did not allow this. The New wing is more to scale in design and it is covered with Dollar tree foamboard with the paper stripped off. I will post photos of the build as it progresses... Mudman1959

Neat! I want to make some ribbed wings with real airfoils, not just an ibeam. Is there any other way to do this with foam other than using balsa as the LE? You can tape the fold line and fold blucor over, but it's still too tight to fit the ribs snug at the LE. Maybe you could glue the ribs to the bottom skin first, then glue the top skin and sand the LE?

I'm looking for an accurate way to do this as I will have a Phlatprinter soon and want to do as much pre-fab on the machine as possible.

- Jeff

My experience with the Dollar Tree foam is that I have found it to be quite flexible when bending it around things. I have bent it around a pencil to form a part for one plane I built so I believe that you could pre cut the ribs and glue them to the foam and bend the foam around them. I am building this P51 for durability in the wing since it will have retracts and I do not want a failure. I know that with the balsa and known building techniques... I know it will be strong. I have not worked with Depron yet since it is much more expensive than the Dollar Tree foam which has worked good for me so far. The fuselage is going to be cut out of Fan Fold foam which I think will be stronger than Depron. My friend is making a few changes to the original design to make the plane look more scale in appearance. I will post more as the build continues... Mudman1959 Thanks for looking

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Nice mudman!

I am a big $Tree foam fan also but I like depron for making formers because it is harder material than the Redi Board and FFF but is more brittle than both FFF and redi board.
I am building a66" wing span full fuse AC-130 out of Redi Board.
i am building one piece fold over wings by bending the LE which is plenty strong for the type of wing it is,
I agree 100% that a wing that supports landing gear needs good framework
and a spar that will support the stress landings exert on the wing.

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This is encouraging! I bought several sheets of dollar tree foam a while back. I've been trying to find people who have been using it to see what applications it's good for.

Law... Most of my builds are using Dollar Tree Foam with the paper removed or a combination of DT foam and Blue Fan Fold as this model will be. Look at my blog and you will see that my prefered foam is the DT foam. It's easy to work with and has a good durability for those "Landings with style"... Mudman1959

11/23/10
Started on the other wing panel this afternoon and I have it ready for the top sheeting. I should get a chance tomorrow to put that on. I found a couple of Carbon Fiber arrow shafts at the local Meijers store for $2.50 ea. They would have cost me $15 or more from my local hobby store. Still need to make the plywood support braces for the middle of the wing and then build the wing/fuselage box... Mudman1959

Mud is there a PDF for the built up wing ? I'd love to do about a 50" size , its about all my trunk can handle

This is where I got the design for the wing...

[http://www.willingtons.com/mymac/mmacphome.htm

Your looking for this file... Free Plans.... P51D/25cu/DWG File/P Pastorino

I used Solidworks E drawings to open the files.... Hope it works... Mudman1959

11/24/10
I finally had a little spare time today and got the second wing panel on. Now to make the support braces and the wing box... Mudman1959

Thank you very much . Thats a nicer looking P51 wing , i started cutting parts for the Fuselage last night , resized for a 50 wing .

Wilfor... Post some pics of your build as you go... Never enough P51's... Mudman1959

Need some help with these.... I need a good set of retracts to fit this 60 inch wingspan. Not real interested in air retracts. Looking more at the mechanical ones. There are so many different ones on the market so I am looking for some advise on which ones that you might have used and the pros and cons about them. Any help will be greatly appreciated... Mudman1959

i'll be sure and try to post picks . I messed around with that wing a little in sketchup , got it resized and printed out . It's about 2 1/4 " wider at the Fuselage then the original wing so i have to take a look and see what needs to be done there before i cutout anymore fuselage parts . Ive gotta try and figure out the retract thing but will probably go with something Cheap from HK cause i roll like that errr i mean i can usually sneek the little stuff past the wife