Phil Fearn (MMFC chairman) retired from the Fire Service and is both a regular flier and highly experienced builder. He is often asked to build models for fellow club members.
Phil Fearn Email: 
About 2 years ago one such request was for the Pica kit P40 War Bird. 84 inch wingspan 77inches long weight estimated in the region of 25/28 lbs . As time allowed Phil got underway with the project which has been mostly carried out during winter months and the actual build time to date is around 4 months.
Phil has completed the basic build and glassed the airframe ready for final preparation before painting..
The engine used is a Saito 180 fourstroke which Phil has test fitted along with the throttle servo previously during the build and since removed to make work easier.
The fuselage has been rubbed down and given a coat of spray putty. This is a very high build primer/filler used to fill minor imperfections.
A word of warning from Phil on use of the filler that care is required not to leave too much of this filler as the weight can build up rapidly and make a very over-weight model.
The filler in turn will be given a thin coat of a dark colour and then rubbed down ,using a block and 400 grit wet and dry ,used wet. ,removing most of it and only leaving it in the low spots .
When satisfied with the surface the whole model will be given a thin coat of two pack primer before a thin coat of silver is applied.
The ABS mouldings for this kit are the thickest ABS Phil has seen on a model, nearly 3mm thick in places !! Which have proved very difficult to trim and fit.
Phil described both the Balsa selection and plywood parts in the kit as 'horrible'. Lightply parts were supplied in high stress areas which had to be replaced.with birch ply .
Wings have been sheeted & glassed shown with retract covers glued to the wing with 5 min epoxy ( after having balsa glued inside them to make a bigger contact area for the adhesive to work on) . The retract covers have a fillet of filler to flare them into the wing ( filler is made with 30min epoxy mixed with micro 
balloons) making an easy to sand, flexible fillet .
Gluing ABS mouldings can be difficult epoxy doesn't adhere well & cyano is too brittle.
Phil's remedy is to first glue a fillet of balsa to the ABS using cyano (shown on the belly pan moulding below)
(having cleaned the ABS with acetone/cellulose damp rag to remove any release agent used in the moulding process)
Then use epoxy to glue the balsa to the wings (as the 
wings had been skinned with epoxy) . If the Wings had been skinned with polyester then use either polyester resin or polyurethane glue to fix them.
Due to the shape of the belly pan molding the the balsa strip had to be built up in 2mm layers, using scrap balsa which is then sanded down level with the moulding edge before being glued to the wing with epoxy.
The Shell ejector plates were glued directly to the wing with thick cyano. These mouldings were quite thin but were a different size and shape to the outline on the plan ;they were trimmed to a "Scale-ish" fit.
Next the fuselage belly pan has to be fitted requiring the wings in place on the fuse. Fortunately Phil has a large workshop as 84" wings need a lot of space.
Next Phil aims to be doing some more preparation for paint . An update of progress will follow in a later issue of 'The Wet Weekend'.
