Ahsan posted on May 16, 2010 22:47
STEP 1: Taking out your ARF and investigating it.
I purchased this arf from our local hobby shop, Andy’s Hobby Town and the kit was flawless without any issues. I generally recommend picking up ARFs from you local hobby shop as you can inspect them and make sure nothing is wrong before going home; I have had too many issues with FedEx/UPS messing up shipments online because of bad handling.
STEP 2: The Build
The Century Jet retracts also arrived in good order, as you can see in the pictures they are quite beefier than the stock mechanical gear. After examining the gear, it was clear that some modifications to the gear bay would be needed; so make sure you have a dremel or rotary tool with a sanding drum available to you before you proceed. I decided to use a Slimline scale 1/6th scale pilot for this build, they are pricey but very well made and look great in your model.
The great thing about pneumatics are that you only need to worry about placing them in the retract bay, they have flexible air lines with quick connects so retract instillation goes by fairly smoothly. Note these retracts are a bit heavier than the mechanicals but you don’t need a large retract servo and they P-51 is a great flier and can handle the extra weight without any problems.
After modding the retract bays the new gear fit in great, but the stock wheels seemed a little small so I decided to get upgraded scale tread Robarts to replace them, these were also about a ¼ inch larger in diameter.
The rest of the assembly of the plane went by very smoothly. The only thing I recommend doing differently is skipping the tail feather install (rudder & elevator) until after you install the motor. This is because it’s a lot easier to install the motor without having to deal with a rudder and elevators as you can set the plane on its tail to position the motor and cowling.