ShankRC (AviationStation.net)

The Century Jet air retracts will be replaced with Lado electrics.

Inside the fuse which will be gutted and reworked.

Old battery hatch will not be reused.

Another shot of the battery hatch.

Spaghetti monster of air lines and sound system wiring that will all be removed.

Sound system speaker in each wing will be removed.

Opposite retract.

Small air cylinder in the wing center section will have to go.

Closer shot of the missing main spar with the air tank removed.

A few screws for good measure I suppose.

Another random screw.

Center section somewhat cleaned up.

Two new ribs and a top main spar cut to size.

Ribs and spar glued in place.

New 1/8" ply joiner box sides cut to replace the balsa ones supplied in the original ARF.

Joiner box sides epoxied in place.

Rib pattern made from the left wing to fix the right side. Cap strips in place as well.

Replacing the CA hinges on the ailerons with Robart hinge points requires extra blocking.

The inside front of the fuse was fiberglassed...most of this will go away.

Ahh, the elusive tailwheel retract servo. This will be relocated to an area that is accessible.

Drawing out the first new former.

First former in place.

Left side stringers back in place. Right side will remain open until all of the pushrods are routed.

New cockpit area sheeting.

Down to whats left of the original former.

The main stringers were cut out of the tail section which weakened it considerably.

Shaping the new tailwheel former.

Tailwheel mounted to the new former.

Making up the servo tray.

Servo tray fastened to rails with 6 mounting screws.

Cleaning off the old sheeting.

New sheeting in place as well as the pushrod housing for the elevator.

Remainder of the fuse front sheeting removed and firewall cleaned up

Spacers for the rear of the firewall.

Adding some meat back into the firewall for the correct mounting hole locations.

Because I didn't originally put this ARF together, I've added a few epoxied dowels through the stab mounting plate for peace of mind.

View of the backside of the reworked firewall.

Front view of the firewall. Should get plenty of cooling air movement.

Battery tray...the post will prevent the batteries from being pushed up against the motor mounting screws.

Batt tray glued in place.

Right side sheeting in place.

Bottom front sheeting in place.

Rough shaped with a razor plane.

Final sanded and ready for filler if needed.

1/4" removed from the leading edge and solid balsa glued back on.

Robart hinge points will be used throughout the model.

Tail surfaces all hinged and ready to go.

The Lado electric retracts have arrived so its time to dig into the bottom side of the wing.

First wheel bay all cleaned up and ready to start over.

Cutting out the built up radiator inlet.

No machine guns are needed for the Race 57. Some balsa dowel fills them in nicely.

The original aileron servo mounting needs a little work.

The original gear mounts don't have enough meat left on them to be of any use so they have to go and be replaced.

Another shot of the gear mounts looking from the back.

Anything that I can pull up by hand is leaving.

The original triangle stock will be used to reinforce the new gear mounting plate.

Reinforcing the plywood spar that was previously chopped away.

I have to assume the plywood joiner isn't glued inside the box since it wasn't in the center section. The outer ones aren't as easy to get at so I've drilled and epoxied 2 1/4" dowels through the joiner.

1/16" balsa wheel well floor added.

This rib needs touched up to accept sheeting.

A little rib reinforcing at the aft aileron servo hatch screws. These ribs tend to crack or break if you use too much pressure when installing the servo hatch.

Starting the fuselage covering in the cockpit area.

Corners and edges done first so that your cuts don't have to be exact every time.

The fuselage will be covered in 3 pieces...one top center to bottom center on each side of the rear fuse and one to finish off the front.

Main fuse covering completed.

Only one side of the tail feathers is covered before hinging so that I can inspect the glue joint on the hinges.

Tail feathers hinged and covered.

Fin/rudder tip trim.

Making a pattern and cutting multiple trim pieces ahead of time makes life simpler. Just be sure to make mirror images of each piece where required.

Stabilizer top.

Using the pattern to set a few benchmarks to place the markings.

Here I've marked the edges of the 5 and 7 with a black Sharpie. When done placing the graphics, the Sharpie will wipe away with a little denatured alcohol.

Use masking tape to hold your graphics position and orientation.

After peeling the graphic from the glass, tape it in position and run your iron right over the masking tape making sure to get the edges sealed good.

...and placed the same way as the 57

Left side graphics and trim tape complete.

Battery wiring harness with a safety shunt and high voltage spark arrester.

Outside view of the shunt/arrester.

All pushrods hooked up to their respective servos.

Fitting the P-51 style canopy.

The longer Lado struts have arrived so I can now build the wheel wells.

The wheel well diameter works out to be a Sig Stix-it can. I've wrapped the bottom with paper and tape to build out flush with the lip on the can.

Vertical walls in place. I used the can while gluing in place to ensure it stayed as round as possible.

A shot with the wheel retracted.

Sanded to the wing contour and ready for sheeting.

Left side sheeting completed. As I snapped this picture I realized I forgot to run the aileron servo extension wire...awesome. I was able to cut out the bottom of the strut tunnel and miraculously fish the wire through.

Masking off the cowling.

Masking off the canopy.

Embedding some 1/4" aircraft ply in the ailerons to mount the control horns to.

Completed fuselage...turned out nice.

Bottom center section will be left uncovered until the fiberglass belly pan is mounted.

Bottom left wing sunburst pattern.

Bottom left wing graphics and servo hookup.

Well that's disappointing....fiberglass belly pan doesn't mate up to the fuselage.

Laying out the remaining formers using the fiberglass part as a guide.

All formers and center stringer in place and ready for sheeting.

Paper tube cut and sanded flush with the belly pan.

Remaining half of sheeting glued in place.

Finished product ready for delivery.

Right side view.