AREA 88: "Rocky's Arrival" (C-47 Skytrain)

Spanjaard
with motors in both engines 🙂

Greg Baker
Yep. I figured I should get all the engines projects sorted out at the same time. I don't know why... I guess I like pain. 😉 So far though my forced "practice" seems to have paid off, I was able to get the motors placed inside the drilled out engine parts for the T-6 Texan and the Zero, so I figured I just go for broke and drill these babies out too. I've learned a few tricks and a few lessons, so hopefully I'll be able to put that to good use.

Spanjaard
and the C-47 should have a bit more space available 🙂

Spanjaard
sorry DC-3 🙂

Greg Baker
Yeah... the wires will go right into the wings and get sorted out properly inside the fuselage. Wouldn't want to make it TOO easy though... so I've got another little surprise planned.😉

Martin Oostrom
I can't wait.....

Donald Dickson II
Hmmm...

Greg Baker
Yep. It works. Two lights, two engines humming (one's a bit squeaky) and a couple of friends flying in formation for moral support...

Martin Oostrom
One engine running hot! What else do you do to recreate a combat zone??? You really take your stuff to the limit 👍

John Thomas
Greg, what kinds of motors do you use and where to find them?

Greg Baker
Heh... thanks Martin. Hopefully I can lessen the authentic combat zone noises a bit though, or it might not survive my wife's sensitive hearing.

John, I just got these 3v dc motors off eBay for a couple of bucks. They're the motors used in cellphones (minus the lopsided weight) to create a vibration function. just search for 4x8mm 3 volt DC motors and you should find them easily enough.

John Thomas
OK, Thanks

Daniel Klink
AH the group build😉 Following

Nikolaos Kouzinis
The noise will not be when you put the propellers.You will listen only the propeller to tears the air. But I think that you must seperate the engines from the lights. Sometimes the engines take more power from the battery and cut it from the lights. I have the same problem with a Sunderland. When I put the propellers the resistance of air made the engines to want more power so the lights were dead. May be not to be that problem to your C-47 because it has two engines but look for it before fix the model. See my Sunderland
Youtube Video
and my C-47 1/48
Youtube Video

Nikolaos Kouzinis
The motors you have bought are not for cellphones. Motors for cellphones are smallest. I have the same motors they have 15000 rpm/min so they want "rich" power. They are very noisy, they "smoke" and drink much.

Nikolaos Kouzinis
b.scdn.gr/images/sku..s_gia_iphone_5c.jpeg
This is motor for cellphones

Nikolaos Kouzinis
You must too , to fix the propellers with the motors very very strong because the high rpm of motors they will shake them off

Greg Baker
Thanks for sharing nikolaos! They are slightly bigger than the motor I tore out of my old iphone 4, mostly used for small drones I think. I've put separate resistors on both the lights and the motors so that the power draw should be even. I haven't tested it with the propellors attached though, so that might be a good idea. 1/144 propellors won't add much weight to the motors, so I'm hoping it won't affect them much.

Part of the reason I added the resistors to the motors was to drop the RPMs. 15,000 RPM is a bit too fast and I didn't want the props coming off (as you said), so I added the resistors as a "poor man solution" to fix the RPMs at a lower speed.

Greg Baker
Thanks for the videos though. They look great! How big were the motors that you put in the 1/48 scale Dakota? I've been thinking about adding some motors to my 1/72 scale builds (which should be a lot easier than the tight fits in 1/144). But I've been wondering if I need bigger motors or not since I haven't tested the ones I have by turning larger propellors. They seem to have enough power, but I've noticed they stop very quickly if they touch the sides of the shaft hole at all.

John Thomas
Cool video, more great work

Nikolaos Kouzinis
I put the motors in C-47 1/48 of the picture
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They are biggest so I cut the interior parts of wheels nest . But they have lower rpm and lower voltage. In 1/48 scale C-47 must cut the pieces as I said and to put longest axis to fix the propellers. The axis can be from plastic tube. In the other motors of 15000rpm the axis must be from metal. I tried with plastic tube and it cut it in few minutes. You can use axis from lighters gas pipes. They are beautifull and for metallic barels of machine guns. The have smal diameter hole to fix safe the high speed motors with the propellers. I used polyurethane glue to fix them with the propellers because the cyanoacrylate glue was not to strong between metals. Good luck

Greg Baker
Thanks nikolaos. I got the cockpit windscreen in place and I masked all the windows. Since she'll be coming in for a landing, I also cut the flaps off and re-glued them in position.

Greg Baker
Paint on... do I see a seam? Gah!

Martin Oostrom
The plane is wired okay. Still have my doubts about the builder 😉

Spanjaard
LOL looking good Greg

Greg Baker
Have no doubts, Martin, the builder is wired as well...

Has anyone else heard the rumour that if you find you can still see a seam after one coat of paint that you should just keep painting it until it goes away?😉

Spanjaard
i tried that a long time ago... i still have nightmares about my F-14 Tomcat... it had so much paint on it, that it is hard to know if it had raised or recessed details 😄 😄

Greg Baker
ok... so after much sanding, putty, repeating, I've decided I have to live with the shadow seam along the top of the fuselage. It was getting to the point of mutually assured destruction. I might've been able to get rid of the seam, but only by killing all the rest of the details with it. I decided to live and let live instead.

Spanjaard
what seam??

Donald Dickson II
Yeah, I see no seam. 😄

Greg Baker
Oh it's there... staring me in the face... mocking my low-rent talent...

I glued the support beam in place, but not before I opened up the seem on the underside as well. Gah. I had to add a bit of glue, do a bit of sanding and hen repain the underside aluminum. I also did some paint chipping and then decided it looked crappy, so I had to repain the green as well... I left a bit of chipping on the edge of the wings hour, just so it wasn't a total waste.

Nils Steyaert
looks great 🙂

Greg Baker
Thanks Nils! I still had a bit of fiddling to do, but I got all the odds and ends glued on, gave it a panel wash and then decaled up a base. The wing lights gave me a bit of a problem. The LEDs stick out just a tiny bit, but threw the whole thing out of alignment. So it's not a particularly good fit, but since I couldn't really change it without risking a greater calamity... I'm calling this one done! 🙂

Check out the video for the lights and moving bits... 😄

Youtube Video

Greg Baker
Apparently I don't know the difference between ailerons and flaps...😉

It seems the DC-3 had underwing flaps that weren't visible on the upper surface... so a quick break and a bit more carefully placed glue... and the wings are now flat again...😉

Donald Dickson II
Very nice indeed!

Greg Baker
Just added a few final pics for my blog posting - strobez.ca/wp/index...144-a-rocky-arrival/

Spanjaard
Well done Greg!

Greg Baker
Thanks Spanjaard. I like uploading my completed builds to my blog because I'm able to provide a little more background (including in this case, the scene from the Area 88 manga that it's based on). I'm slowly starting to get a handful of visitors almost every day... but it's mostly for me anyway.😉