Morphing a Cobra into the P51 concept

[mr bruce]

Pittsburgh

[STEVE-O]

Originally Posted by Metal-morphous

We have started a real unique project , we are going to create the p-51 concept cobra just like the attached photo with even a few few more of the aircrafts options.
First we are going to aluminum plate the entire body with our metal plating process and add panel lines and fasteners. We are going to use the same technique we use on the scale aircraft we have done.


Concept cobra


Here's a 1/5 scale jet that we morped. This cobra will be getting the same treatment




The ERA being morphed

They just had this on a show called Fantom Works. They also added 3 machine gun ports to the nose.

1965 Shelby Cobra | FantomWorks

[Metal-morphous]

Steve phantom works used paint to create an aluminum effect and the guns on the hood are somewhat over kill if you know what I mean.
We are aluminum plating the body with REAL aluminum and like the concept photo the details will be subtle. The panel lines and fastener details will be real not painted on,,, stay tuned!!!

Here's my 1/5 scale p-38 that we applied our plating to, notice it's not paint and how we can add detail with just some steel wool

[Metal-morphous]

Picked up the doors from our plating facility this morning and I've posted a few photos.

The dark color is oxidation that happens durring our plating process but it is easily removed with steel-wool.







The polishing begins


Time laps

At this point all the oxidation has been removed and the first of our 3 step polishing process is done.

[P-51 Cobra]

Ron,

Wow! Looking great!

Can't wait to see steps 2 and 3!

[Metal-morphous]

P-51,,, I just realized that the black out on your hood is going to be functional like the full scale mustang, the glare from the sun would be blinding !!

[ACademic]

I'm looking forward to seeing how you apply the rivets and then seal it all in. I assume with the rivet details you can't simply give this job an occasional polish/tune-up like you do on other under hood treatments you have shared with us (that are not clear-coated)? Great learning as this one comes to life!

[P-51 Cobra]

Originally Posted by Metal-morphous

P-51,,, I just realized that the black out on your hood is going to be functional like the full scale mustang, the glare from the sun would be blinding !!

Ron,

I think you're right!

P-51

[ItBites]

that is why the P-51s have the black in front of the canopy... just sayin'

[Buzz]

Beautiful work with the plating and definitely the right philosophy when it comes to the subtlety of the details. This will be one special build. Keep the pics coming!

Buzz

[KevinW]

One of the most interesting threads for a long, long time. Keep the updates and pics coming.

[SpecOp1]

This is going to be awesome...well played.

[Metal-morphous]

Body is back from plating and we started polishing it .
We masked off the areas that are to be painted to help keep them from getting the polish on them since our polish does contain a wax which could create a problem when we start the paint work.

I guess this makes it a KirkERA

[FatBoy]

Originally Posted by Metal-morphous

P-51,,, I just realized that the black out on your hood is going to be functional like the full scale mustang, the glare from the sun would be blinding !!

I did a similar thing on my polished Kirkham for the same reason:



It isn't so much the glare from the hood and fenders because the angle is so low that it vary rarely happens. The bigger issue is the reflection of the body on the inside of the windscreen, which is why I put matt black vinyl on mine across the top of the dashboard.

Paul

[P-51 Cobra]

Ron,

Looking good!

Were the masked off areas plated also or are they in primer?

[Metal-morphous]

Since the cost and labor of the aluminum plating is much more than paint we make sure it's used wisely, so any large areas that are to be paint are masked off with a thermal masking product.

We already had some fun with a person that was convinced it was an unpolished sheet aluminum body, hard to believe it's fiberglass

[Dimis]

Originally Posted by Metal-morphous

We already had some fun with a person that was convinced it was an unpolished sheet aluminum body, hard to believe it's fiberglass

You'd have me fooled... Looks like it turned out great!

Just one question, if I may... how much polishing can you get away with before you're into the glass?


Great project too by the way!
Good luck with it and keep posting them pics.
Thx

[Metal-morphous]

That's a great question. We can vary the thickness of our metals from our micro plating,which is approximately 2 thousands thick and used mostly for our flying model customers that have weight restrictions to our standard plating that's 10 thousands thick. Keep in mind that's 10 thousands of metal ,,,I have one of the first items I plated some 17 years ago and I have machined polished this thing MORE than 50 times and it shows no signs of wear through, in fact it just gets a deeper shine.

So in short it can be polished as offen as the owner likes and we prefer them to use a machine to get quick results.

[Tommy]

Please forgive this slightly off topic tangent to an otherwise fascinating thread, but why is your handle "Metal-morphous" and not "Metal-morphosis"?

[carmine]

Hello Metal-morphous
Am impressed with what i see and am looking forward to seeing more.
The question i have is wouldn't the fiberglass and aluminum plating expand and contract at different rates thus create surface or spider / stress cracks in the finished aluminum surface over time?