This was picked up while on a business trip to Manila. The model comes almost ready in real sense, that you just need to add your Rx and Bty paks, there is a version where even the Bty packs are installed.
All servos (5 of them), motor, ESC, UBEC, prop, electric  retracts are supplied and fitted, you just slap this thing together. In fact you could take the whole box to the flying field from the shop, assemble it there and fly.
Here are some pictures, of the supplied box and box contents     

A couple more shots

The first attempt, to fly this model, was made a couple of months back. Battery used was two 2000 MaH, 7.4 V packs in parallel, with the stock electronics supplied.
A Futaba 6 Ch FM Receiver was put in, servos hooked and the model took off in blue yonder in the hands of selected test pilot. Couple of circuits up and the dance of death started. The controls were badly glitching due to heavy radio interference. The flight ended uncerimoniously resulting in a bent motor shaft and busted wing. Post crash investigation revealed that with the Tx antena collapsed range was down to 4-5 feet. On this day, despite my religious following of the good practice, I had missed on conducting a range test. Oh well!!! You live and learn. Anyway the damage was not that bad, but it certainly did dent more than some foam!! :-)  

Later a spare motor shaft and spare props (fearing more would be required) were ordered from RC castle which arrived in no time. But something or other in the way kept me from working on the busted wing.

Finally, took the broken wing down this week, gave it a good lookover to decide on course of action for intended repairs. A trip to LHS to get some different dia carbon rods, and all was set.

The broken wing was repaired by cutting a span wise grooves of suitable length, inserting a carbon rod for the full length of the cut groove and everything secured with copious amount of epoxy.  As soon as the epoxy had cured, I was ready and back in business.

This time the Rx selected was a Futaba 6 Ch PCM one, a thorough range check showed no adverse affect, so the two packs were put on charge while I flew the IC powere ones.  

Happy to say that the maiden went off well and though a flight was put in it would still needs some tweaks especially in the CG department for it to be a nice flyer.

Here are some pictures for you people, Pradeep did a credible job with his camera

Here's a bit of info on the Jug named 'Tarheel Hal', I've been fascinated by that name since 1977.

Serial #: 44-90368
Construction #: -
Civil Registration:
  N4747P
Model: P-47D
Name: Tarheel Hal
Status: Airworthy
Last info: 2007
        History:
Delivered to USAAF as 44-90368.
- BOC: May 7, 1945.
- SOC: Aug. 28, 1947.
Delivered to FA Venezuela as FAV 490368/6.
- BOC: Oct. 28, 1947.
Steve Schulke, Orlando, FL, 1971.
- Along with 2 other airframes, deal not completed.
Jean Salis Collection, La Ferte Alais, France, 1975-1987.
- Noted stored in unrestored condition, La Ferte Alais, 1984-1985.
Charles A. Osborne, Louisville, KY, 1987-1991.
Charles Osborn/Blue Sky Aviation, Louisville, KY, June 1991-1998.
- Registered as N4747P.
- Restored to airworthy.
- First flight 1991.
- Flew as 4327773/4P-S/Big Ass Bird II.
Air SRV Inc/ Lone Star Flight Museum, Galveston, TX, 1999-2007
- Flown as 433240/IA-N/Tarheel Hal.

All the best!

Thanks for the background on Tarheel HAL. I am still puzzled what does it the name mean? Any info on that?

incredible cam job, hats off pradeep

70 mm ducted fan (on the box)

Where is it hidden captain?  JATO?

Statutory warning: Taking this  seriously can be injurious to.........

saw that, lol

Seriously, I had not seen that, till now .
Looks like thats a remenant from the artwork for the box FMS does for thier DF foamies 
The only place they could put that in is the mid fuse it is big enough to accomodate that  

Tar Heel (or Tarheel) is a nickname applied to the state and inhabitants of
North Carolina. There is a town in Bladen County, North Carolina, named Tar Heel. here is the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_Heel

So I guess, Tarheel hal refers to a person Hal who was from North Carolina.


Awesome model and really beautiful shots. May I request you for some bigger pictures at my email id? I'll be grateful.

Thanks for the link VC, that does explain quite a bit. PM me your email ID and I shall send you what I have

veecee27 -AT- yahoo.co.uk

Thanks a ton!

VC I did send you the pictures today morning, did you get those?

Since the bird looked too spick and span, thought it would be good to weather it down a bit.
How do we do it?
First try was with paint and brush, but no good, after some trial and erro hit upon the idea of using powder scraped off from pencil leads. So sons bag was raided for some used and discarded pencils from lead was scraped off to give a powder, this along with some crayons, were used to dirty up the wings.
Now I have to start the fuse and tail group
Here are some pictures  
1. The right wing with just a bit of touch up
2. Same wing after completion
3. Right wing underside, gun barells  still to be painted black
4. The left wing, with all the mistakes of first attempt with paint showing up

5. Left wing underneath
And you can even make out the two locations where grooves were cut and carbon rods buried in to repair the broken wing

I guess the dirtying has been a bit overdone, what do you guys think?

A few more pictures from todays outing. Better pictures are awaited, but these would sure give you an idea on the completed weathering/dirtying

Actually some one at the field commented that I needed to put in some bullet holes!!!!

Let them take a shot at it!

Looking real good Captain.

Thanks Susheel.
Sure will ask them guys to get thier Japnese/German/Italian automatics along if they want to take a shot at the Yankee warbird!

Double post, hence deleted

Here are couple more aerial and ground shots of the model after it was given the well used/war weary look.
Again  the man weilding the camera was same, Pradeep. Thanks to him I am able to share this pics with all

1. On starting to taxi it was realized that the rudder was reversed (this happened due to some work I did the previous day to modify the pushrod routing)
2. So it was back to quick set up at the field
3. Finally up and away

A video would have been nice

Some more flying shots

May be next time I take this model out, I would request Pradeep to take a video

And some more

Guys would appreciate some feedback on the before and after pictures (i.e. after the model has been diritied a bit), Do you think it looks the part as in war weary/well worked aircraft or does the weathering look artificial?

"Weather" it looks real or not, is pure perception. I think it's fine. BTW how is it as a flier?

One thing I learnt from Mike was how important weathering is in scale modeling. He was explaining how he did it on his latest model.  It does add a great sense of realism and a rustic feeling (for lack of a better word) to the model.

@ Susheel,
Nice flyer, Havent done any aerobatics yet as the wing fixing method does not inspire any confidence.
Both the wings slide on a carbon tube and are  plugged  into fuse cavity. I shudder to think what if... I pull a loop or roll ?
Thinking of modifying by making the wings attach permanently or by using velcro strips. Not yet decided

My own perception about the weathering which I did is that, it's too symmetrical to look authentic

How are they "plugged"? This would be the only area of concern, I would think, as the rest is pretty normal. Also, planes like these are very lightly loaded, in all manners of speaking.

Plugged as in just pushed in no means of fixing so that the wing halves do not slide out. Especially given the nature of foam to compress I am afraid that the after some time the friction fit would be lost. And I do not want that to happen mid air  

I have seen magnets help in this situation, if I understand this correctly.

Yes Anwar that should also work, think will try out velcro first (readily availble in my spares bin)