I am kit bashing a Dynam P-61 Black Widow into an XP-61E. I won't go into all the details about the XP-61E, because the story can easily be found on the internet. Simply put, there were only two prototypes built, the P-82 was a better choice and the project was killed. Almost. The F-15 Reporter recon plane spawned from the project. The "F" designation is puzzling, since it was a photo recon plane- really ought to have been an "R". [I found out the 40's designations were different! See below!]

The XP-61E was a different airplane than the P-61 Black Widow. It wasn't hump-backed; it had a flattened deck, no third cockpit in the tail, and a bubble canopy. To make an XP-61E out of the Dynam model, the fuselage needs to modified and a new canopy crafted. In preparation for making the model, I researched the airplane and sought out any RC or static models of the airplane. So far, I haven't found any RC models of this airplane, and few references to static models.

I am halfway through the build, and working on an summary of what I've done up to this point. I have been posting bits on what I've been doing to the model on the Dynam Black Widow thread, but decided this is a more appropriate spot to have it. More to come!

Click on the comments to see the posts...

Updated 7/15/20

I had been posting updates of my progress on the model on the Dynam Black Widow thread up to now, but decided a separate build log would be more appropriate.

First, a disclosure. I'm not writing and posting this build log as a brag or showcase; it's to share the project so that others may be inspired or provide suggestions. I hope others make an XP-61E or F-15 Reporter out of the Dynam model.

I am not an accomplished or highly-skilled modeler. I don't have a workshop, nor do I have the slick tools that you'll see in builder's shops: No vacuum former, band saw, drill press or lathe, vinyl cutter, color laser printer...you get the point. I won't be filling and sanding the model eight times or applying glass cloth. My mods to the model are going to be what I can accomplish with what limited money, skill, tools, time, and patience that I have. If you subscribe to a higher standard, this blog is not for you.

That being stated, here is a summary of the build, in the order of completion:

Choosing a Canopy

Before I was willing to cut into the model, I wanted to see if I could get a premanufactured canopy that was close to the correct size and shape. After searching the various hobby websites, I found the Freewing T-33 canopy reasonably close, and only around $7.00. It has a support in the wrong position, and the aft portion does not extend as far as needed. Challenges to overcome.

Wheels and Landing Gear

While I was waiting for the canopy, I started to mod the landing gear. The Black Widow mains and wheels are far from resembling the prototype. Parts used include:
- Robart 3" diamond tread scale wheels. These are relatively expensive. I used a Flyzone Select Scale Corsair wheel for the nose.
- E-flight T-28 landing gear struts. These resemble the real struts, and I had a pair in my parts bin. They are the right length, too.
- The wheel faces from the stock Dynam wheels. The wheels are ridiculous, but the mold pattern resembles a real aircraft brake hub. I cut the disk-shaped parts off of the wheel.
- Aluminum tubing to extend the gear strut spindle enough to hold a collar.

I glued the brake hub disks to the outside of the wheels- spoked side facing inward relative to the airplane. This resembles the actual airplane. The T-28 struts needed the spindles to be extended a few millimeters to accommodate the collars, so I solder sweated some aluminum tubing onto them, drilled a hole in the tubing to fit the collar grub screw. The collar experiences very little lateral force, and just need to keep the wheel from wandering off the spindle.

The gear struts have bosses for mounting the gear door, so those needed to be cut off flush. The ends of the struts also needed flats cut for the retract set screws.

Dynam is notorious for poor QC, and my model doesn't disappoint. One retract mount wasn't glued in, and the nose gear mount was glued in crooked. Hot glue took care of that.

The 3" wheels are a little too large for the wheel wells. I initially enlarged them with a Dremel sanding drum, then made neater cuts with a knife. I had to also trim the plastic wheel well covers, because the T-28 gear struts have an offset to the inside that the stock struts didn't have. The foam appears to still have sufficient strength, so I did not add any reinforcing or make linings for the wheel well. My reasoning is 1) reinforcing adds weight, 2) No one is going to be looking into the wheel wells. There are no gear doors on the model (making some would be a complicated project) so I opted to paint the wells black so they would be better concealed while flying.

Cutting the Deck

Once I received the canopy and verified that it would reasonably fit, I began planning my cuts to the humped deck. The XP-61E had a flattened deck that was nearly flush with the wing. I had two choices:
1) Make a deck that was nearly flat and level fore-to-aft. The prototype is nearly flat, curving slightly from the canopy rearward to the tail cone. The model's wing has a much greater curvature than the actual airplane, and to make a flat deck would require the aft end to be raised way too high. I tried make a deck that was flat and inclined toward the tail, but I couldn't get the construction foam to do what I needed. I also didn't want to have to deal with sealing and sanding the delicate structure. With enough time and patience I'm sure it could be done, but I opted for an easier (and less accurate) route.

2) Use the existing wing profile and cut the aft deck flat (where the radar station is on the Widow). I just had to trim off the aft end of the canopy hatch, the mid-section hatch mounts, and the radar station. This made a point of inflection at the end of the wing, but the results were clean, and heck, the model itself is not 100% scale.

I filled in the wing mounting screw pockets with blue foam, making holes to extract the screws, if need be. Then, I covered the entire length of the deck with 0.5 mm polystyrene sheeting. Again, I made holes to access the wing mounting screws. I trimmed the edges of the sheet with strips of aluminum tape to clean up the edge and make it look like aluminum panel.

If I had a vacuum former, I probably would have made a polystyrene deck.

Special note here: If you are going to be doing this kitbash, make sure you take off the wing and deal with the wiring mess first, however you wish to remedy the absolute rats nest of wiring. Verify that everything works before you start making mods! I had an extension servo wire to fish out of one wing.

Tail Cone
I made the tail cone out blue construction foam. I followed the lines of the plane when I shaped it. However, I chose to make it more rounded than the prototype to make it less fragile/ less likely to be mushed while handling. I coated the blue foam with four coats of PVA white glue, which seals and smooths the surface. If you don't seal the foam, rattle can paint will dissolve it! I never have liked using blue foam. It's easy to shape, but getting a nice, smooth surface is hit-or-miss for me. I hope to make a more scale-like replacement cone out of plastic. The foam one will do for now.

Canopy
The canopy fits the width of the hatch, but need to have some foam mount points fitted where it tapers toward the nose. On my Black Widow, I cut the floor out of the hatch to make a more detailed cockpit. I opted to leave the floor in with this build. The battery hatch is rather thin, and I cut a large piece of foam off of the aft end, weakening the structure. I can always cut it later and spend time including structural support (sounds like a side future project!)

As I mentioned before, the aft end of the canopy is cut short of extending all the way to the deck. I remedied this by:
1) Trimming the end of the canopy, leaving about 2.0mm of the canopy support width.
2) Forming a transparent sheet of plastic over a soda can with a hair dryer. The curvature is very close to the canopy's.
3) Making a template out of cardboard for the canopy extension. It took some trial and error fitting.
4) Using the template to cut the proper shape from the polystyrene sheet. I used scissors.
5) I taped the extension in place, so that the canopy end overlapped the extension by about 2.0mm. Then, I drilled holes in the bottom edge of the extension, near the forward corners. I used screws and some polystyrene tubing to make a brace that would hold the extension shape and serve as a mount point to the model. The aft edge of the extension is held down with aluminum tape.

The extension is mounted to the airplane, the canopy to the battery hatch. The two overlap when the hatch is in place. I haven't permanently mounted either yet.

Seams
This model, like the Dynam B-26, has some awful assembly seams. I decided not to mess with filling them like i did on my Black Widow. I opted for sanding the worst smooth and covering them with an aluminum tape panel.

And that brings us up to the present. I just painted the model with Rustoleum 2X aluminum, and the cowls and spinners yellow with Krylon Shortcuts paint. Next up- making cowl flaps and finishing the canopy.

Here are some pictures of the prototype:

Here are some photos of the build:

I trimmed the canopy with aluminum tape and have test fit the four 50 cal. nose guns. The guns still need to be glued in, and I plan to add aluminum tubing barrels. The first XP-61E had the guns in a box arrangement in the nose, which I copied. I still have some trim to do on the aft canopy extension, then I'm going to make cowl flaps out of polystyrene. I also placed an order with Callie Graphics for the correct tail number and insignia, but who knows when that will come.

So far, so good!

Oh- you might notice that I haven't yet painted the nose wheel, too.

I made cowl flaps out of polystyrene sheet and aluminum tape. They were polished on the original airplane. I chose to make them make them closed, because they would likely be when the airplane was flying, and they are less likely to get knocked off when I'm handling the model. I also did not put cowl flaps on the lower 1/4 of the cowl circumference, so if I have problems with the Dynam retracts or otherwise have to belly-land I won't rip them off.

I also glued the nose guns. Based on the few photos I can find, it looks like Northrop changed the guns several times. In one photo, they appear to extend equally, in others one row protrudes more.

One problem I'm going to have to work on is how the aft canopy section is secured to the deck. For now, I am holding it in place with aluminum tape and trimming it with thin strips of black electrical tape. The aluminum tape is tenacious, but doesn't conform to inside curves, whereas the black elect. tape stretches but doesn't adhere well. I might make a bead of JB weld around the canopy edge.

I added some metal sections aft of the cowl, to simulate the panels in the photo. Unfortunately, the proportions and shape of the model isn't exactly the same as the prototype, so I wasn't able to mimic the shape accurately. I made a directional radio loop out of a plastic flashlight bezel and polystyrene tubing formed with a little heat.

The fuel and oil stains are Inda ink and Tamiya weathering powder. I can easily get rid of them if I decide they look hokey tomorrow. There were heavy fuel and oil stains on plane in the overhead photo.

Painted the fuel caps red. I don't have enough red pin striping tape to do the walk-zones on the wing, so that will have to wait. I might start sorting out the wiring while I'm waiting for the stickers to come in the mail.

Nice job of kit bashing!

In the 40's, 'F' was used for photo-recco, as in the Lockheed F-4 recco version of the P-38. 'R' was used to designate 'restricted' aircraft, such as the RP-322 version of the P-38 (both engines turned in the same direction, plus the turbosuperchargers were omitted -- hence the RP-322 also being known as the "Castrated Lightning"). A lot of the nomenclature changed when the USAF split from the US Army (although we kept wearing many of the same uniform items for over 30 years...).

I did a Northrup F-15 many years ago (twin ferrite 05's on 14 800 AR cells). Since I was an active duty USAF Weather Officer, of course I did it in Project Thunderstorm markings). Your ship is far, far more scale than mine was!

CD

Originally Posted by Captain Dunsel

Nice job of kit bashing!

In the 40's, 'F' was used for photo-recco, as in the Lockheed F-4 recco version of the P-38. 'R' was used to designate 'restricted' aircraft, such as the RP-322 version of the P-38 (both engines turned in the same direction, plus the turbosuperchargers were omitted -- hence the RP-322 also being known as the "Castrated Lightning"). A lot of the nomenclature changed when the USAF split from the US Army (although we kept wearing many of the same uniform items for over 30 years...).

I did a Northrup F-15 many years ago (twin ferrite 05's on 14 800 AR cells). Since I was an active duty USAF Weather Officer, of course I did it in Project Thunderstorm markings). Your ship is far, far more scale than mine was!

CD

Fantastic Info! Thank you for that clarification, for commenting, and for the complement. I wish you had pictures of your F-15 model. Maybe you ought to get the Dynam Widow and do a Project Thunderstorm!

The wiring that comes with the ARF is a mess. They use multiple extensions and Y-connectors that makes a huge rat nest. Usually, the wiring is routed upward through the wing, and the receiver positioned under the central gun hatch of the P-61. I eliminate that option, so the wiring has to route into the battery area. When I pulled the wing off, there were loops of servo wire mashed between the wing and the fuselage. Seems like the assemblers at Dynam had trouble getting the mess stuffed away, too. Unfortunately, I didn't force myself to trim the wiring when I had the wing center section off, which is a pain to mount. I fought with getting the mounting screws to take for the better part of an evening, and I'm not looking forward to taking it off again.

I removed extensions where I could and shortened the mile-long rudder control wire. The biggest mess is the flap wiring- two Y connectors. I didn't feel like pulling the wing off (total PITA) and trimming the flap wiring, so I bundled the wiring to take up the least space. The other huge mess is the LED wiring, which I left out to save space. Even with the changes, there isn't much room for a receiver, wires, and battery.

Future plan is to pull off the wing, cut a recess in the fuselage foam for the wiring, and shorten as many wires as I can. I might get inspired (or irked) enough to make the changes before long, depending on how long my vinyl stickers take to arrive from Callie Graphics.

The stickers I ordered from Callie Graphics came this week. Unfortunately, I guess the communication that I wanted the tail number to be the same as the XP-61E was lost in the electron flow. I fretted a bit, then decided it was alright. No biggie.

If the stickers were for a scale model that I had been laboring over for years I would have mentioned something. But, this is a foam model with warts and dings and will have many more after it has been flown several times. I'm not going to enter the model in a scale competition, either. Who will know that the tail number doesn't match the prototype, except a few people on RCG that will scrutinize the photos?

Callie included some nice engine decals and Curtiss prop labels that I wasn't expecting, so hey, Thanks! I appreciate your services.

I also applied some aluminum tape over some of the more ugly seams, then shot them with some paint to make them less noticeable. Hopefully, I'll get some red pin stripe tape to make the walk-area lines on the wings (or whatever they are called.).

Nose gear needs to be flipped so the strut is on the other side.

Added red striping where the spoilerons would exit the wing.

The props were a pain to install. There was a burr on one of the prop adapter threads that I cleaned up with a metric thread file. Then, I noticed that Dynam had the wrong adapters on the motors- the CCW/CW are on the wrong sides, so that the nuts could loosen over time. I will eventually swap those around, but I'm not in the mood just yet. There is nothing to grab onto to keep the adapter from spinning when tightening the prop nut. I considered grinding a flat in the end of the adapter, but nixed the idea because I would want to run a tap over the threads afterward - and not left-hand tap in my kit. Instead, I stuuck the end of a torx driver into the face of the motor, carefully avoiding going far enough in to touch the windings. It gave me enough resistance to tighten the prop.

I also added a small screw to the aft canopy as a hold-down. The tape I had been using was getting pulled up. The screw seems to have fixed the problem, and isn't very noticeable. I plan to re-trim the canopy before all is done.

I took the plane out to the garage to get a photo. Ug! My cave really needs a lighting upgrade. There are lots of details that need addressing that I didn't notice, so I guess I'll be doing the final steps out in the garage where I have decent light.

Only a few more steps to go before the maiden flight!

(Replaced photos with better ones...)

Looks great. Hope the maiden goes as well as the build did.

Originally Posted by RCvertt

Looks great. Hope the maiden goes as well as the build did.

Thank you!

As I mentioned earlier in the build, my workshop and skills are modest, so I'm pleased that the hack came together well. I hope that others try to make the conversion of this model.

I added the wing striping today. I made the stripes by cutting them out of a missile red Monokote self-adhering trim strip. The wing panel proportions don't match the prototype, from what I can tell. I eyed up the position of the lines in relation to landmarks on the airplane, but distances and panel lines aren't the same on the model. So, I used the decal sheet that came with the model as a guide, slightly changing the positions and lengths to better match the photo. My printer is broken, or I would have printed a 3-view and scaled the lines to the wing and ignored the panel lines. But, that wasn't an option and I wanted something to do

All that is left is some minor detailing, a protective coat of Polycrylic, and the maiden flight.

I hope other hobbyists will be inspired to try this kitbash.

Wow, your F-15 Reporter is amazing!