Warbird Information Exchange

Folks,

I'm building a Monogram 1/48 B-29 and can not find photos of the wheel wells. I'm particularly interested in photos of the nose gear wheel well, especially the aft wall. The model has two cylinders there, but I have no idea of what they are for and what color they should be. If someone is taking pictures of FIFI, I would appreciate it if they could take a few of the wheel wells and post them.

Thanks in advance,
Bill

Just a quick update on "FIFI"!
Still planning on running the new engine on the airplane in the coming weeks but still waiting on cowling, exhaust and prop. I'm still trying to get all the other stuff done that I need to finish up, in order to run. One thing I finally got finished was the new mag panel. here's a pic of the old one and the new one.

This is the old one that was accurate to the B-29.



This is the new one that has the mag swiches we need to use for the new engines. What took some time was these switches were old and reconditioned internally but externally they looked like crap. I just couldn't put them in the engineers panel the way they looked. so, I cleaned the old paint off them and repainted them.
First the black, then the red on the switch itself. The next one was the hard one. the letters are just slightly raised and needed hand painted! It took a while but I finally found a local artist that could do it and was very pleased with the results. Once that was done, I clear coated them and installed them in the new panel I fabricated. Next time you see it, it will be installed on the engineers panel, all wired up with the wires that Shorty ran.

Oh, go check out the Airplane parts for sale section and see two very cool items I just posted.
Dave

Why would the original mag switches not work with the new engines ?

_________________
Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
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Guess I should have explained that! It starts with the new engines ignition system! The old was High Tension. The new is Low Tension. The difference is the low tension mag runs 4 sets of points instead of two. This is why we had to run two more sets of wires to each nacelle, from the engineers panel. The old switches don't have room for the extra wires to connect to. Also with this setup, each set of points in the mag, fires 9 plugs, instead of 18. Better system, better Mag, longer life!

Dave

I assume the 4 switches were originally installed side by side on an overhead panel in a DC-7 so #1 would be on the left and #4 on the right. I don't see any numbers on this panel to identify them. Maybe you just turn a switch to OFF momentarily to see which engine it's hooked up to!!!!

Nice work you folks are doing. Keep up the good work.

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It's what you learn after you think you know it all, that counts.

Thats a good one. Exactly what I was thinking. It will really keep Flight Engineers on there toes. Only I, know where they are hooked up???
Really, I just haven't labeled them. They will be just like they were so the F/E's are somewhat familiar with the layout. Remember we sit backward so it will look backward! More to come!

Dave

Of course, if you think logicly about it, shouldn't #1 and #2 be on the right and #3 and #4 be on the left? Remember, facing backward!!
3 1
4 2

Comments?

I like that idea Dave. Have you considered also doing it so that the outers and inners are together to make it easier when wanting to run 2 engines on the ground (if you ever do it)? Make it something like -

4 1
3 2

That way if you want/need to shutdown opposing engines, you're dealing with going straight across instead of diagonals.

I think I'd stick to the way the factory did it.

It worked for 60yrs, and looked better as well.

_________________
Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
Check out the Ercoupe Discussion Group on facebook

Well, I need to clarify a bit......
I mean I feel the numbering should be as the factory had it. The switches did need to be changed, so that's unfortunate, but necessary.

Gary

Gary, you know I'm all about keeping it as original as possible but.....
The numbering is; 21 top, 43 bottom

Does that make any sense??
Tell me the logic in that one.
If they were the same switches, I'd agree. But the aren't.

I'm trying to make it better, safer, less confusing.

Please don't give me that "ya'll do what you want"

Dave

All I'm saying is that the
2 1
4 3
setup worked okay on the original switches.

I'm not sure why you'd need to change that. I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm just saying that the old setup worked fine for me, John Shauer, Looney, and the other FEs on the airplane. That's not to say that changing it is a bad thing though. Heck, I've made plenty of changes to the airplane, so I'm not gonna get onto anyone's case for that. I just don't know if changing the mag positions is necessary.

So y'all do what you want.

Gary

Like we used to say in car racing, the golden rule is if it ain't broke, don't fix it !

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Michel C
Thousands of a/c pics at Passion-Aviation