1. Gather your materials for the project. I’m using the Shinden Machine retracts, I worked closely with Lenny to develop a scale set of gear that works with my cockpit kit. You will need 1/8” ply, 1/32” ply, Ύ” high hardwood retract blocks.

 

 

  1. First we need to reinforce the nose before we remove all the material to open the cockpit area. This is done with  B - 1/32” ply that is cut in strips to fit between the formers as shown in the picture. A – It must start at the bottom of the stock cockpit floor and end at the wheel bay opening as shown. Do this the whole length of the wheel well.

 

 

  1. Next cut out the stock cockpit floor, make sure you leave about Ό” on the sides.

 

 

  1. With the stock floor removed you can finish laying the 1/32” ply behind the retract bay.

 

 

  1. Now we can start removing all unneeded material. Using your Dremel and a 1/8” drill bit, drill holes through the gear mount extensions and the hardwood side stringers to weaken them. After you have drilled enough holes you can use a heavy set of pliers to carefully twist them out.

 

 

  1. I used a Dremel and a cutting wheel to cut the ply formers free from the hardwood rail parts. This makes it very easy to snap them loose.

 

 

  1. Next we need to install the nose retract. I’m using the scale gear from Shindin Machine, it has a forward facing air cylinder so that it won’t interfere with the cockpit kit. I made a small template for the hole.

 

 

  1. I drilled lots of holes to weaken the plywood, and then just punched it out. Then use the Dremel with a sanding drum to clean up the hole.

 

 

  1. Here I glued in the Ύ” high hardwood mounts. My air nipple was on the side so I had to shorten one mount, this will not be the case on the production gear from Shindin. The stock mounts have a 3 degree forward rake built in and the gear have a 100 degree forward rake. This gives the plane the scale 103 degrees of forward rake in the nose strut.

 

 

  1. OK, now this is where you pay special attention. You must measure the floors out correctly if you want both your retracts and cockpit to fit. You have templates for both an upper and lower cockpit floor, the upper floor is the gunners floor, but first you want to measure and mark the location of the bottom floor. Measure from the TOP of the stock cockpit floor down and make a mark. This mark is the location of the TOP of the new floor, so you are measuring from the top of the old floor to the top of the new floor.  I made a simple stiff card stock measuring gauge to measure and mark the location of the floors.

 

 

  1. Use a small stick of balsa to mark a line along the lower part of the formers, these will be cut off at this line to help support the lower cockpit floor. Remember that the marks you made are where the top of the new cockpit floor will be, so I’ll need to cut off 1/8” of the former as shown (highlighted area).

 

 

  1. With the new floor parts cut out, you will no doubt need to do some trimming so that they fit right. The new floors will go in with the printed side up as shown, the hole is slightly offset because of the way the wheel fits on the strut. If you turn them around they will not fit right.

 

 

  1. Once the bottom floor is installed, glue in the top gunners floor. The back of the floor can be tack glued to the hardwood stringers shown at A. Then just follow your marks for the rest of the floor.

 

 

  1. In the case of the ARF version, you will need to trim away the covering on the top cockpit rail so that you can glue an extension on to make the cockpit deeper. I’ve installed cockpits in 2 VQ P-61’s now and I noticed that the stock cockpit rails very a bit in height. I used 3/8” strips of balsa but found that I had to add 1/16” to one end and then trim at least 1/16” off the other end. If I was doing another one I would make the balsa strips ½” and then just use the plastic cockpit sides as a guide in trimming them down.

 

 

  1. Add 1/8” balsa between the plywood floors as shown.

 

 

  1. Use a file to clean up the wheel opening, finish with some 320 and a small sanding block.

 

 

  1. Cut out your Radar Operators floor, use 1/8” ply.

 

 

  1. Pull up the stock floor.

 

 

  1. I used a Dremel to cut the hardwood rails out. You can also just drill holes in them and they will break free.

 

 

  1. Drop the floor in and mark to cut the rear former even with the top of the floor.

 

 

21. Trim the former down at A so that it matches the thickness of the top stringer. Take a Dremel to the hardwood rails where you cut them off and smooth them out B. Glue the floor in with medium CA and that concludes the fuselage mods!