T-51D "Sentinel" Trainer

[Spellbinder99]

Thanks for the welcome John and Tophe. I remember seeing the Mustang conversion in the aircraft parking area at Canberra airport in about 1978. I remember thinking it quite ugly at the time, but that picture I posted actually flatters it a bit.

I think it would look great with some COIN stores, RAAF Vietnam era markings and weathered to hell ( Yep, I am another one of those TSR-2 loving Aussies!)

I am an aircraft engineer by profession, 13 years in the RAAF and have been working in the Middle East for the last 6 years, so you might say I keep my hand in.

Cheers

Tony

[Tophe]

I remember seeing the Mustang conversion, thinking it quite ugly at the time, but that picture I posted actually flatters it.
I am an aircraft engineer by profession.
Tony

Yes, double-welcome engineer Tony . Our dear Evan/Elmayerle was already helping us - mostly foolish enthusiasts, while Ollie is our link to the pilots' universe - to mix love and understanding, but we would be very happy to see both of you present different opinions about aircraft technical logic.

Below is the picture from the nice book "Mustang" by Stewart Wilson, Sovereign Series, Aerospace Publications, 2001 - rather beautiful too, maybe your ugly judgement is just a faded memory  

[Tophe]

Below is the picture from the nice book "Mustang" by Stewart Wilson, rather beautiful too

I will try to post a version with aesthetic surgery (my way) on my Mustang Book topic...  

[John Howling Mouse]

Some of the internal plugs and braces (note that the tail has been shortened by about 20 scale inches, give or take a cubit from a JMN)...

^_^  

[John Howling Mouse]

The shortened tail reassembled...as with any decrease in length to a tapered shape, the two reattached ends will never match up again...some work ahead!

[John Howling Mouse]

Cowling plugs where the exhausts used to be.  

What is not really visible in this pic is how the mating (outer) surface of the plasticard is shaped to conform with the inside curves of the kit's cowling parts.

This gets a bit tricky as the lower front fuselage also has a removable engine cover which must be cut to match without buggering up any of the angles involved.  

[John Howling Mouse]

As this will be a completely unarmed trainer, the casing ejector ports and the guns themselves must be removed.

[John Howling Mouse]

Underside of wings with main landing doors in place.

Since the main landing gear must be re-located as far aft as possible, the current doors in the closed position must be neatly made to disappear altogether.

New wheel well aperatures to match the wheel wells from another Mustang kit will be cut and the donor wheel wells shaved down to fit in the narrower cross-section of the aft wing.

In reality, there would not be enough depth for the landing gear to fully retract into the wing.  Fortunately, I'm a wee bit nutz and do not have to worry about such details....



By the way, the red putty, which admittedly looks horrendous in this pic, is Bondo's "Glazing & Spot Putty" which goes one with the consistency of a gel toothpaste, dries to sandable hardness in minutes, and wet-sands with the ease you've only dreamed of!!    

[Ollie]

Jeffrey, I agree on using the Black Box pit from the Trojan for the T-51D, but I'd go for a smaller canopy, something more streamlined.  And although the canopy on the T-28 offers incredible visibility, I wouldn't want to be in a Trojan during some ground attack, since the plexiglas ends at about your waist.  Talk about your waist.  No protection at all...

Barry, good job!  Keep on rocking!

 

[elmayerle]

Underside of wings with main landing doors in place.

Since the main landing gear must be re-located as far aft as possible, the current doors in the closed position must be neatly made to disappear altogether.

New wheel well aperatures to match the wheel wells from another Mustang kit will be cut and the donor wheel wells shaved down to fit in the narrower cross-section of the aft wing.

In reality, there would not be enough depth for the landing gear to fully retract into the wing.  Fortunately, I'm a wee bit nutz and do not have to worry about such details....



By the way, the red putty, which admittedly looks horrendous in this pic, is Bondo's "Glazing & Spot Putty" which goes one with the consistency of a gel toothpaste, dries to sandable hardness in minutes, and wet-sands with the ease you've only dreamed of!!  

Since you're making this a tri-gear aircraft, I think I'd use the center section from a T-28, complete with nose gear well, as a "quick and dirty" way of doing the gear.  In 1/72, the bottom center section of the Heller kit appears to ge just about the right size for this.

As to the canopy, perhaps a modified T-33 canopy?

[nev]

 

I still can't quite comprehend the magnitude of your kitbashing/scratchbuilding/madness.....  

 

[Patrick H]

magnitude of your kitbashing/scratchbuilding/madness.....

Madness is the corect word   . couldn't call it any other way. But still, I have to admire the skills involved in mutulating the plastic.

Great job JHM, looking forward to see the finished product.



Patrick

[Ollie]

True Jefrrey, but a good aluminium skin might deflect a bullet or shrapnel, but the plexi won't do it.

I'm not bashing the Trojan, eh!  I'd just like my uncle to fly his more often!!

   

[John Howling Mouse]

Well, a pretty bland photo due to the Krylon primer grey but here are some elements of the T-51 trainer so far.

The lower wings:
- gunports filled in
- ejection ports filled in
- wing pylons removed, gaps filled
- main gear doors glued in and about 2 mm of putty over them and you can STILL see the inconsistencies in the skin as slight depressions from the closed doors!

On to the fuselage:
- this segment of the fuselage shortened by about 5 mm then re-attached/smoothed out
- rudder removed, tip of tail clipped
- tail-wheel opening blocked off (this will be a tricycle gear plane in the end)
- roots for the stabilizers/tailplane removed, plugged and sanded to shape but I'm still not satisfied with the vestigial remains of the original features (another 2hrs of sanding will hopefully take care of that)

[John Howling Mouse]

A comparison of regular fuselage and my own, slightly shortened version.

You can also see the chopped nose halves with their engine exhaust slots faired over with a combination of styrene and 3M's red glazing putty.

Ultimately, while the tail is shortened a bit, there needs to be a 10 mm wide form-fitting nose plug inserted b/w the leading edge of the fuselage segment and the rear edge of the nose to add some length to the front of the aircraft.