Great Planes P-51D Mustang 40 Kit - GPMA0175 User Manual

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HINT: For a super-smooth and uniform finish on your deck,
cut a 2-1/4" x 11" strip of 320 or 400-grit wet-or-dry sandpa-
per, and work it like a "shoe-shine cloth" across the top of the
deck.

D 3. From a scrap of 1/8" ply, cut four small pieces and

tack glue them to the 1/16" ply spinner ring as shown, using
a very small amount of thick CA (these will be removed
later).

D 4. Now center your 2-3/4" diameter spinner backplate
over the spinner ring, and tack glue it to the 1/8" ply spacers.

ASSEMBLE UPPER COWL

NOTE: The upper half of the cowl is constructed from
wood, and is permanently attached and smoothly blended
with the fuselage. This method was chosen to avoid that

unsightly and unrealistic cowl line across the top of the
fuselage that is so apparent with the P-51 models that
employ a 1-piece cowl.

To build the upper cowl you'll need the following:

1/4" shaped balsa cowl sides (2)
1/4" shaped balsa cowl top
1/4" x 1-3/4" x 4-7/8" balsa sheets (2)

(The above pans are packaged separately in a bag)
Die-cut 1/16" ply spinner backplate

D 5. Slide the spinner ring / spinner backplate assembly

onto the driveshaft and temporarily hold in place with the
prop and prop nut. Notice the two embossed centerline marks
in the spinner ring... the spinner ring should be positioned so
these marks are exactly horizontal.

D 1. Accurately mark a horizontal centerline on F-1 to

represent the center of the engine.

D 2. Attach the engine mount to F-1, and attach the

engine to the mount. NOTE: Mount the engine IN-
VERTED for this process, even if you will later be side
mounting it.

D 6. Sand the ends of the 1/4" balsa upper cowl sides to

fit between F-1 and the spinner backplate. If you examine the
fuse top view plan, you '11 see that the outside edge of the cowl
sides should be approximately 1/16" outside of the fuse sides
and spinner ring. IMPORTANT: The bottom edge of the
cowl sides must be on the horizontal centerline that you

previously drew on F-l, and on the horizontal centerline
marks on the spinner backplate.