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Hi
Inspired by two excellent P-51D Mustangs recently published here and on
Brickshelf by Douglas R. Clark and David Thomas Jr, I have rushed to complete my
own version of this famous and beautiful aircraft. You can see the first
CAD-renderings here. Photos of the real Lego-model will hopefully follow in a
couple of days
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=68751
David Thomas wrote the following about his fantastic P-51 "The last part that is
unique and really sells the authenticity is the dihedral angle of the wings.
Most WWII fighters have this angle, and without it, the models just don't look
right."
My model must have the same dihedral property, but could it be included in a
minifig scale model? You can see my solution by using hinge-plates locked by two
rotated Technic 1X4 plates in one of the pictures. This method gives a very
stable and compact solution. You will have plenty of room for the pilot in the
cockpit above.
Other parts that were a bit tricky are the engine cowling, the propeller and the
canopy. The standard Lego propeller is a bit small so I developed my own using a
round 2x2 plate and the same Technic 1X4 plates. For cowling the problem was
getting the exhausts look right Here I have used 1x1 plates with vertical clips
offcenterd by 1/2 stud in two directions. The solution for the Bubble canopy is
to use the fine starwars windscreen 41883 (for the moment a unofficial Ldraw
part) combined with the plane 1x4 windscreen 31661.
For decoration and nose-art I have used 1x4, 1x2 and 1x1 decorated tiles applied
on 1x1 bricks with headlights 4070 on the cowling and just below the canopy.
Here you can use what you have got in the spare-box.
The next step for improvements can be to incorporate the genius folding landing
gears invented by Douglas Clark, but I am not certain it will fit in my thin
wing.
Any comment are most welcome
Mattias
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In lugnet.announce.moc, Mattias Martensson wrote:
>
> http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=68751
Great looking model, Mattias! It's been nice to see a flurry of activity in
.military lately.
> My model must have the same dihedral property, but could it be included in a
> minifig scale model? You can see my solution by using hinge-plates locked by
> two rotated Technic 1X4 plates in one of the pictures. This method gives a
> very stable and compact solution. You will have plenty of room for the pilot
> in the cockpit above.
This is a truly elegant solution! I spent much of my time this weekend starting
(and finishing!) an Me BF-109, and I had the same goal - to mimic the subtle
wing angle. I had used several 1x2-to-1x2 hinges, with some appropriately sized
spacers, to come up with the right angle. Last night I put the finishing
touches on my model, and went online for a couple of moments. 10 minutes later
I was ripping the wings off to implement your new design ... it really is very
sturdy, the perfect angle, and compact, as you mentioned!
Nice job,
Shaun
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In lugnet.build.military, Shaun Sullivan wrote:
> Great looking model, Mattias! It's been nice to see a flurry of activity in
> .military lately.
Thanks Shaun
I am most happy to influence your model of the Bf 109. I am really looking
forward to see this new model of yours and to learn how you have solved the
problem with the canopy and other tricky parts.
Maybe I should arm my Mustangs now if air-to-air combat is coming up:) And
remember mine is suitable for mass-production with drawings just on the way out.
/Mattias
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In lugnet.announce.moc, Mattias Martensson wrote:
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Hi
Inspired by two excellent P-51D Mustangs recently published here and on
Brickshelf by Douglas R. Clark and David Thomas Jr, I have rushed to complete
my own version
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Wow, that is a really good MOC. I think it is really interesting how both of
our attempts take such different approaches & compromises to modeling the P-51
and yet both pull it off quite well. I cannot wait to see the photos. It would
be cool to see both of them next to each other sometime.
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My model must have the same dihedral property, but could it be included in a
minifig scale model? You can see my solution by using hinge-plates locked by
two rotated Technic 1X4 plates in one of the pictures. This method gives a
very stable and compact solution. You will have plenty of room for the pilot
in the cockpit above.
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That is really great and gets the angle just right. Though, I am reluctant to
rebuild my version of the P-51 for now, I will definitely be using this design
in my next warbird MOC.
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Other parts that were a bit tricky are the engine cowling, the propeller and
the canopy. The standard Lego propeller is a bit small so I developed my own
using a round 2x2 plate and the same Technic 1X4 plates. For cowling the
problem was getting the exhausts look right Here I have used 1x1 plates with
vertical clips offcenterd by 1/2 stud in two directions. The solution for the
Bubble canopy is to use the fine starwars windscreen 41883 (for the moment a
unofficial Ldraw part) combined with the plane 1x4 windscreen 31661.
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I like the way you did the engine exhausts. I really wanted to include the
checkerboard patterning on mine so I kinda copped out and used the 1x2 plates
with round holders. While trying to think of ideas for a P-40 MOC, I had the
idea that using town-minifig binoculars would make really great exhaust stacks.
The prop. does look right. The standard lego prop is too small for this scale.
I had thought about using the new starwars canopy on my version but could not
make it look right. Using the adventurers windscreen helps. How does it look
in real life? The detail gets alittle lost in the renders. Its kind of ironic
that we can design beautiful looking aircraft MOCs and work all sorts of
wonderful detail into them using the pieces that Lego gives us until we get to
the canopy/windscreen. It would be really nice if Lego would make a couple of
generic canopie parts that actually resembled real-life aircraft canopies..
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The next step for improvements can be to incorporate the genius folding
landing gears invented by Douglas Clark, but I am not certain it will fit in
my thin wing.
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The current version of my gear design reqires a total wing thickness of 4 plates
and the clips that hold the lightsaber rod & flag piece add one more plate
thickness to the overall assembly for a total of 5 plates of vertical space. On
my P-51 it was a challenge to incorporate the required thickness and still have
the wings look thin enough... One day I will try to incorporate your dihedral
design into mine and see how it turns out.
Thanks for sharing.... now we just need some German aircraft to shoot at!
drc
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