126 MODEL AVIATION
Have your Ramrod ready for the 2008 AMA Nats!
[[email protected]]
Free Flight Sport Gene Smith
Also included in this column:
• Midkiff Zero
• Kate Byrd’s Pacific Ace
• Bill Schmidt’s Bellanca Cruisair
• Bob Schlosberg’s Aeronca
Champ
• Grant Carson’s Pietenpol
Peanut
• Richard Adams’ Fokker D.VII
• Derek Buckmaster and Charles
Schultz plans
• MMM Labor Day contest
• FAC Nats dates
• Informal rubber ROW event at
AMA Nats Mike Midkiff keeps turning out excellent models. This Zero is available as a short kit.
Midkiff photo.
Bill Schmidt produced a beautiful rendition of a 1947 Bellanca Cruisair. The 27-inchwingspan
model flies with an 8-inch Peck-Polymers propeller.
Kate Byrd admires the pink wheels on her Pacific Ace, which she
flew at the Pensacola meet last fall. Grabski photo.
Bob Schlosberg’s beautiful Aeronca Champ is powered by a CO2
motor. Schlosberg photo.
DON’T FORGET the Ramrod One Design
event at the AMA Nats in August. Enter
your Ramrod 250 with a Nostalgia-eligible
.049 engine.
The latest model out of Mike Midkiff’s
hangar is a Mitsubishi Zero. The 10-inchdiameter,
12-inch-pitch propeller uses
Mike’s tried-and-true blades made from 1/32
plywood that is boiled and then baked over
a form. A dowel is glued into a slot in each
blade, and the dowel is inserted into a hole
in the spinner.
The Zero’s finish is airbrushed Tamiya
paint with a final coat of matte Krylon clear.
The plug-in landing gear can be removed
for flight. Mike used white ink-jet decal
paper for the meatballs. His short kit
features full laser-cut parts, canopy,
building instructions, three-view, plainpaper
color decals, plans, and a materials
list.
The model spans 27 inches and weighs
Pensacola Free Flight Team (PFFT), is
shown readying the first Rubber model she
has built since childhood. Kate, who’s “on
the other side of 80,” is the wife of the only
remaining original PFFT member. She’s
also the sister of a longtime member and the
mother of a “younger” member.
With a little tweaking, the Pacific Ace
flew well. She attributes the flight success
to the pink wheels!
Bill Schmidt drew the plans for and built a
beautiful rendition of a 1947 Bellanca
Cruisair. It spans 27 inches and has an 8-
60 grams without rubber and landing gear.
Power is provided by one loop of 3/16-inch
and one loop of 1/4-inch rubber. The short
kit costs $30 plus $6 shipping. Short kits
typically include plans, canopy, and lasercut
parts but no sticks such as LEs, TEs, or
stringers.
Mike is going to make several of his
designs available as short kits, including his
great-flying Sea Hornet. You can see his
offerings on the Ozark Model Aviation Web
site.
Kate Byrd, who recently rejoined the
inch Peck-Polymers propeller. The model flies
well with two 22-inch loops of 1/8-inch rubber
braided to approximately 19 inches. Covering
is Japanese tissue.
Plans for this model and many other Rubber
Scale, Texaco Scale, and CL models are
available from Bill. Send him an SASE for the
plans list.
Bob Schlosberg’s immaculate Aeronca
Champ was built from old plans in MaxFax
(the D.C. Maxecuters’ club newsletter). The
model spans 18 inches and is powered by a
Brown A-23 CO2 motor.
In the last year I have mentioned several
ways to attach windshields. Bob has the talent
to do so with cyanoacrylate. He says he does it
very carefully! He uses the smallest applicator
tubing he can find and wicks the adhesive
under the edge of the canopy. He attaches the
canopy and windows when the painting is
complete.
Bob attached the side windows with
acetone, which he applied with a tiny brush.
The acetone melts the underlying finish and
bonds the window material.
One of the nicer bits of detailing is the trim
around the windshield. Bob uses striping tape
between the cowling and the window. He sands
the striping tape to improve the paint’s
adhesion, paints it the same color as the model,
and then applies it.
Bob uses a hair dryer to slightly heat the
striping tape, to accomplish the wraparound on
the wing root. If too much heat is applied, the
striping tape will curl and be ruined.
Bob uses Sig dope to paint all his models.
Another tip he passed on to me is to use a hair
dryer to help loosen masking tape when
removing it. I recently had a project that I
saved with that technique. The tape didn’t want
to let go until I applied a bit of heat.
Grant Carson says that the most challenging
part of building his Pietenpol model was
reproducing the Model A engine in an
extremely small scale. The spark plugs are pins
wrapped with paper strips.
With that big radiator perpendicular to the
airstream, Grant didn’t expect the Peck-
Polymers Pietenpol to be competitive. He built
it because it has charisma. Forty seconds on a
loop of 3/16-inch rubber is the best flight to date.
The model tends to skid rather than bank in
a turn because of the minimal dihedral and the
parasol configuration, but that hasn’t kept it
from flying reliably.
Tim Goldstein now produces the Peck-
Polymers series of Peanut Scale kits. Not only
are the kits laser cut, but the wood quality is
excellent. Check them out on the Peck-
Polymers Web site.
Richard Adams built his Fokker D.VII from
a RockyTop Models kit. It went together so
well that he completed it in two weeks.
Rich chose the color scheme of Carl
Degelow’s Jasta 40 airplane after seeing a
picture of a plastic model done in those
colors. Rich covered the fuselage with
white and black Esaki tissue, with one thin
coat of acrylic white and black thinned to 50% and applied with a paintbrush.
The stag on the fuselage is a graphic Rich
worked up in Photoshop and printed on white
decal paper. The really neat part is that he
painted a white background on the model to
maintain the high contrast. Then he
incorporated a black border around the decal
so he didn’t have to be perfect when cutting
the decal or painting the white base.
Rich covered the wings with white Esaki
tissue, which had a five-color lozenge pattern
printed onto it using an HP ink-jet printer. He
applied the tissue with standard nitrate dope
techniques and then shrank it with alcohol to
prevent the ink from running. Then the wings
received one coat of 50% nitrate dope.
Rich brushed a piece of white tissue
stretched in a wood frame with light blue and
pink acrylic paint and then stripped the tissue
to make the rib strips. Blue went on top and
pink went on the bottom. He applied the rib
strips with thin white glue.
The crosses are white tissue with white
paint applied on the undersurface and black
colored tissue applied with thinned white glue.
After everything dried, Rich assembled the
Fokker and gave it an overall spray of glossy
clear Krylon—just enough to put a light shine
on the whole model. The guns, wheels, and
cockpit coaming were added last.
The D.VII’s weight without motor is 60
grams. The propeller is a standard 9-inch red
plastic P-30 style with the outer 1/4 inch cut off
and the tips rounded. The 24-inch motor is
made from two loops of 3/16-inch Tan Super
Sport.
This model has two second-place trophies
to its credit—one from Muncie last year and
one from the Western Flying Aces Club
(FAC) Nationals at Perris, California.
If you think Scale plans of Australian aircraft
might appeal to you, check out Derek
Buckmaster’s DB Design Bureau Web site.
Free plans for some neat airplanes are
available for download. The Wackett Trainer
“neo Dime” would be neat as a Dime Scale, or
it could be scaled up for the FAC low-wing
trainer event.
Charles Schultz has a great selection of plans
from the 1930s and 1940s. Most are Scale, but
there are also endurance and sport models.
They include designs from Berkeley, Burd,Comet, Megow, Hi-Flier, Whitman, Scientific,
and a dozen other kit manufacturers of the era.
Unlike some poor-quality reproductions I
have seen, these plans are beautifully
reproduced. For a buck you can get a complete
list from Charles F. Schultz.
Last year the Magnificent Mountain Men
(MMM) club in Denver, Colorado, expanded
its annual Labor Day contest to include FAC
events. That added another aspect to one of the
best contests in the country.
Check out the club Web site to see what is
in store this year. Faced with the loss of its
flying site, the MMM managed to negotiate
continued use of the site for at least this year.
This year’s FAC Nats in Geneseo, New York,
will be July 17-19. It will be Thursday through
Saturday instead of Friday through Sunday, as
in prior years. Scale judging will be
Wednesday afternoon.
See you there!
Bob Langelius and Abram Van Dover will be
sponsoring a very low-key Rubber rise-offwater
(ROW) event at the Nats this year in
Muncie, Indiana. It will be Tuesday August 5
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the ROW tank.
Any rubber-powered model with floats
(that floats unassisted for 30 seconds) will be
allowed. This is a fun event, so “maxes” may
be limited. The “tank” is in the center of the
field, so let’s show up and have some fun!
Contact Bob Langelius if you have any
questions. MA
Sources:
Bill Schmidt
4647 Krueger
Wichita KS 67220
Bob Langelius
[email protected]
Charles F. Schultz
910 Broadfields Dr.
Louisville KY 40207
DB Design Bureau
http://dbdesignbureau.buckmasterfamily.id.au/
MMM
www.themmmclub.com
Ozark Model Aviation
(817) 845-4189
www.ozarkmodelaviation.com
Peck-Polymers
(720) 833-9300
www.peck-polymers.com
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/07
Page Numbers: 126,127,129,130
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/07
Page Numbers: 126,127,129,130
126 MODEL AVIATION
Have your Ramrod ready for the 2008 AMA Nats!
[[email protected]]
Free Flight Sport Gene Smith
Also included in this column:
• Midkiff Zero
• Kate Byrd’s Pacific Ace
• Bill Schmidt’s Bellanca Cruisair
• Bob Schlosberg’s Aeronca
Champ
• Grant Carson’s Pietenpol
Peanut
• Richard Adams’ Fokker D.VII
• Derek Buckmaster and Charles
Schultz plans
• MMM Labor Day contest
• FAC Nats dates
• Informal rubber ROW event at
AMA Nats Mike Midkiff keeps turning out excellent models. This Zero is available as a short kit.
Midkiff photo.
Bill Schmidt produced a beautiful rendition of a 1947 Bellanca Cruisair. The 27-inchwingspan
model flies with an 8-inch Peck-Polymers propeller.
Kate Byrd admires the pink wheels on her Pacific Ace, which she
flew at the Pensacola meet last fall. Grabski photo.
Bob Schlosberg’s beautiful Aeronca Champ is powered by a CO2
motor. Schlosberg photo.
DON’T FORGET the Ramrod One Design
event at the AMA Nats in August. Enter
your Ramrod 250 with a Nostalgia-eligible
.049 engine.
The latest model out of Mike Midkiff’s
hangar is a Mitsubishi Zero. The 10-inchdiameter,
12-inch-pitch propeller uses
Mike’s tried-and-true blades made from 1/32
plywood that is boiled and then baked over
a form. A dowel is glued into a slot in each
blade, and the dowel is inserted into a hole
in the spinner.
The Zero’s finish is airbrushed Tamiya
paint with a final coat of matte Krylon clear.
The plug-in landing gear can be removed
for flight. Mike used white ink-jet decal
paper for the meatballs. His short kit
features full laser-cut parts, canopy,
building instructions, three-view, plainpaper
color decals, plans, and a materials
list.
The model spans 27 inches and weighs
Pensacola Free Flight Team (PFFT), is
shown readying the first Rubber model she
has built since childhood. Kate, who’s “on
the other side of 80,” is the wife of the only
remaining original PFFT member. She’s
also the sister of a longtime member and the
mother of a “younger” member.
With a little tweaking, the Pacific Ace
flew well. She attributes the flight success
to the pink wheels!
Bill Schmidt drew the plans for and built a
beautiful rendition of a 1947 Bellanca
Cruisair. It spans 27 inches and has an 8-
60 grams without rubber and landing gear.
Power is provided by one loop of 3/16-inch
and one loop of 1/4-inch rubber. The short
kit costs $30 plus $6 shipping. Short kits
typically include plans, canopy, and lasercut
parts but no sticks such as LEs, TEs, or
stringers.
Mike is going to make several of his
designs available as short kits, including his
great-flying Sea Hornet. You can see his
offerings on the Ozark Model Aviation Web
site.
Kate Byrd, who recently rejoined the
inch Peck-Polymers propeller. The model flies
well with two 22-inch loops of 1/8-inch rubber
braided to approximately 19 inches. Covering
is Japanese tissue.
Plans for this model and many other Rubber
Scale, Texaco Scale, and CL models are
available from Bill. Send him an SASE for the
plans list.
Bob Schlosberg’s immaculate Aeronca
Champ was built from old plans in MaxFax
(the D.C. Maxecuters’ club newsletter). The
model spans 18 inches and is powered by a
Brown A-23 CO2 motor.
In the last year I have mentioned several
ways to attach windshields. Bob has the talent
to do so with cyanoacrylate. He says he does it
very carefully! He uses the smallest applicator
tubing he can find and wicks the adhesive
under the edge of the canopy. He attaches the
canopy and windows when the painting is
complete.
Bob attached the side windows with
acetone, which he applied with a tiny brush.
The acetone melts the underlying finish and
bonds the window material.
One of the nicer bits of detailing is the trim
around the windshield. Bob uses striping tape
between the cowling and the window. He sands
the striping tape to improve the paint’s
adhesion, paints it the same color as the model,
and then applies it.
Bob uses a hair dryer to slightly heat the
striping tape, to accomplish the wraparound on
the wing root. If too much heat is applied, the
striping tape will curl and be ruined.
Bob uses Sig dope to paint all his models.
Another tip he passed on to me is to use a hair
dryer to help loosen masking tape when
removing it. I recently had a project that I
saved with that technique. The tape didn’t want
to let go until I applied a bit of heat.
Grant Carson says that the most challenging
part of building his Pietenpol model was
reproducing the Model A engine in an
extremely small scale. The spark plugs are pins
wrapped with paper strips.
With that big radiator perpendicular to the
airstream, Grant didn’t expect the Peck-
Polymers Pietenpol to be competitive. He built
it because it has charisma. Forty seconds on a
loop of 3/16-inch rubber is the best flight to date.
The model tends to skid rather than bank in
a turn because of the minimal dihedral and the
parasol configuration, but that hasn’t kept it
from flying reliably.
Tim Goldstein now produces the Peck-
Polymers series of Peanut Scale kits. Not only
are the kits laser cut, but the wood quality is
excellent. Check them out on the Peck-
Polymers Web site.
Richard Adams built his Fokker D.VII from
a RockyTop Models kit. It went together so
well that he completed it in two weeks.
Rich chose the color scheme of Carl
Degelow’s Jasta 40 airplane after seeing a
picture of a plastic model done in those
colors. Rich covered the fuselage with
white and black Esaki tissue, with one thin
coat of acrylic white and black thinned to 50% and applied with a paintbrush.
The stag on the fuselage is a graphic Rich
worked up in Photoshop and printed on white
decal paper. The really neat part is that he
painted a white background on the model to
maintain the high contrast. Then he
incorporated a black border around the decal
so he didn’t have to be perfect when cutting
the decal or painting the white base.
Rich covered the wings with white Esaki
tissue, which had a five-color lozenge pattern
printed onto it using an HP ink-jet printer. He
applied the tissue with standard nitrate dope
techniques and then shrank it with alcohol to
prevent the ink from running. Then the wings
received one coat of 50% nitrate dope.
Rich brushed a piece of white tissue
stretched in a wood frame with light blue and
pink acrylic paint and then stripped the tissue
to make the rib strips. Blue went on top and
pink went on the bottom. He applied the rib
strips with thin white glue.
The crosses are white tissue with white
paint applied on the undersurface and black
colored tissue applied with thinned white glue.
After everything dried, Rich assembled the
Fokker and gave it an overall spray of glossy
clear Krylon—just enough to put a light shine
on the whole model. The guns, wheels, and
cockpit coaming were added last.
The D.VII’s weight without motor is 60
grams. The propeller is a standard 9-inch red
plastic P-30 style with the outer 1/4 inch cut off
and the tips rounded. The 24-inch motor is
made from two loops of 3/16-inch Tan Super
Sport.
This model has two second-place trophies
to its credit—one from Muncie last year and
one from the Western Flying Aces Club
(FAC) Nationals at Perris, California.
If you think Scale plans of Australian aircraft
might appeal to you, check out Derek
Buckmaster’s DB Design Bureau Web site.
Free plans for some neat airplanes are
available for download. The Wackett Trainer
“neo Dime” would be neat as a Dime Scale, or
it could be scaled up for the FAC low-wing
trainer event.
Charles Schultz has a great selection of plans
from the 1930s and 1940s. Most are Scale, but
there are also endurance and sport models.
They include designs from Berkeley, Burd,Comet, Megow, Hi-Flier, Whitman, Scientific,
and a dozen other kit manufacturers of the era.
Unlike some poor-quality reproductions I
have seen, these plans are beautifully
reproduced. For a buck you can get a complete
list from Charles F. Schultz.
Last year the Magnificent Mountain Men
(MMM) club in Denver, Colorado, expanded
its annual Labor Day contest to include FAC
events. That added another aspect to one of the
best contests in the country.
Check out the club Web site to see what is
in store this year. Faced with the loss of its
flying site, the MMM managed to negotiate
continued use of the site for at least this year.
This year’s FAC Nats in Geneseo, New York,
will be July 17-19. It will be Thursday through
Saturday instead of Friday through Sunday, as
in prior years. Scale judging will be
Wednesday afternoon.
See you there!
Bob Langelius and Abram Van Dover will be
sponsoring a very low-key Rubber rise-offwater
(ROW) event at the Nats this year in
Muncie, Indiana. It will be Tuesday August 5
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the ROW tank.
Any rubber-powered model with floats
(that floats unassisted for 30 seconds) will be
allowed. This is a fun event, so “maxes” may
be limited. The “tank” is in the center of the
field, so let’s show up and have some fun!
Contact Bob Langelius if you have any
questions. MA
Sources:
Bill Schmidt
4647 Krueger
Wichita KS 67220
Bob Langelius
[email protected]
Charles F. Schultz
910 Broadfields Dr.
Louisville KY 40207
DB Design Bureau
http://dbdesignbureau.buckmasterfamily.id.au/
MMM
www.themmmclub.com
Ozark Model Aviation
(817) 845-4189
www.ozarkmodelaviation.com
Peck-Polymers
(720) 833-9300
www.peck-polymers.com
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/07
Page Numbers: 126,127,129,130
126 MODEL AVIATION
Have your Ramrod ready for the 2008 AMA Nats!
[[email protected]]
Free Flight Sport Gene Smith
Also included in this column:
• Midkiff Zero
• Kate Byrd’s Pacific Ace
• Bill Schmidt’s Bellanca Cruisair
• Bob Schlosberg’s Aeronca
Champ
• Grant Carson’s Pietenpol
Peanut
• Richard Adams’ Fokker D.VII
• Derek Buckmaster and Charles
Schultz plans
• MMM Labor Day contest
• FAC Nats dates
• Informal rubber ROW event at
AMA Nats Mike Midkiff keeps turning out excellent models. This Zero is available as a short kit.
Midkiff photo.
Bill Schmidt produced a beautiful rendition of a 1947 Bellanca Cruisair. The 27-inchwingspan
model flies with an 8-inch Peck-Polymers propeller.
Kate Byrd admires the pink wheels on her Pacific Ace, which she
flew at the Pensacola meet last fall. Grabski photo.
Bob Schlosberg’s beautiful Aeronca Champ is powered by a CO2
motor. Schlosberg photo.
DON’T FORGET the Ramrod One Design
event at the AMA Nats in August. Enter
your Ramrod 250 with a Nostalgia-eligible
.049 engine.
The latest model out of Mike Midkiff’s
hangar is a Mitsubishi Zero. The 10-inchdiameter,
12-inch-pitch propeller uses
Mike’s tried-and-true blades made from 1/32
plywood that is boiled and then baked over
a form. A dowel is glued into a slot in each
blade, and the dowel is inserted into a hole
in the spinner.
The Zero’s finish is airbrushed Tamiya
paint with a final coat of matte Krylon clear.
The plug-in landing gear can be removed
for flight. Mike used white ink-jet decal
paper for the meatballs. His short kit
features full laser-cut parts, canopy,
building instructions, three-view, plainpaper
color decals, plans, and a materials
list.
The model spans 27 inches and weighs
Pensacola Free Flight Team (PFFT), is
shown readying the first Rubber model she
has built since childhood. Kate, who’s “on
the other side of 80,” is the wife of the only
remaining original PFFT member. She’s
also the sister of a longtime member and the
mother of a “younger” member.
With a little tweaking, the Pacific Ace
flew well. She attributes the flight success
to the pink wheels!
Bill Schmidt drew the plans for and built a
beautiful rendition of a 1947 Bellanca
Cruisair. It spans 27 inches and has an 8-
60 grams without rubber and landing gear.
Power is provided by one loop of 3/16-inch
and one loop of 1/4-inch rubber. The short
kit costs $30 plus $6 shipping. Short kits
typically include plans, canopy, and lasercut
parts but no sticks such as LEs, TEs, or
stringers.
Mike is going to make several of his
designs available as short kits, including his
great-flying Sea Hornet. You can see his
offerings on the Ozark Model Aviation Web
site.
Kate Byrd, who recently rejoined the
inch Peck-Polymers propeller. The model flies
well with two 22-inch loops of 1/8-inch rubber
braided to approximately 19 inches. Covering
is Japanese tissue.
Plans for this model and many other Rubber
Scale, Texaco Scale, and CL models are
available from Bill. Send him an SASE for the
plans list.
Bob Schlosberg’s immaculate Aeronca
Champ was built from old plans in MaxFax
(the D.C. Maxecuters’ club newsletter). The
model spans 18 inches and is powered by a
Brown A-23 CO2 motor.
In the last year I have mentioned several
ways to attach windshields. Bob has the talent
to do so with cyanoacrylate. He says he does it
very carefully! He uses the smallest applicator
tubing he can find and wicks the adhesive
under the edge of the canopy. He attaches the
canopy and windows when the painting is
complete.
Bob attached the side windows with
acetone, which he applied with a tiny brush.
The acetone melts the underlying finish and
bonds the window material.
One of the nicer bits of detailing is the trim
around the windshield. Bob uses striping tape
between the cowling and the window. He sands
the striping tape to improve the paint’s
adhesion, paints it the same color as the model,
and then applies it.
Bob uses a hair dryer to slightly heat the
striping tape, to accomplish the wraparound on
the wing root. If too much heat is applied, the
striping tape will curl and be ruined.
Bob uses Sig dope to paint all his models.
Another tip he passed on to me is to use a hair
dryer to help loosen masking tape when
removing it. I recently had a project that I
saved with that technique. The tape didn’t want
to let go until I applied a bit of heat.
Grant Carson says that the most challenging
part of building his Pietenpol model was
reproducing the Model A engine in an
extremely small scale. The spark plugs are pins
wrapped with paper strips.
With that big radiator perpendicular to the
airstream, Grant didn’t expect the Peck-
Polymers Pietenpol to be competitive. He built
it because it has charisma. Forty seconds on a
loop of 3/16-inch rubber is the best flight to date.
The model tends to skid rather than bank in
a turn because of the minimal dihedral and the
parasol configuration, but that hasn’t kept it
from flying reliably.
Tim Goldstein now produces the Peck-
Polymers series of Peanut Scale kits. Not only
are the kits laser cut, but the wood quality is
excellent. Check them out on the Peck-
Polymers Web site.
Richard Adams built his Fokker D.VII from
a RockyTop Models kit. It went together so
well that he completed it in two weeks.
Rich chose the color scheme of Carl
Degelow’s Jasta 40 airplane after seeing a
picture of a plastic model done in those
colors. Rich covered the fuselage with
white and black Esaki tissue, with one thin
coat of acrylic white and black thinned to 50% and applied with a paintbrush.
The stag on the fuselage is a graphic Rich
worked up in Photoshop and printed on white
decal paper. The really neat part is that he
painted a white background on the model to
maintain the high contrast. Then he
incorporated a black border around the decal
so he didn’t have to be perfect when cutting
the decal or painting the white base.
Rich covered the wings with white Esaki
tissue, which had a five-color lozenge pattern
printed onto it using an HP ink-jet printer. He
applied the tissue with standard nitrate dope
techniques and then shrank it with alcohol to
prevent the ink from running. Then the wings
received one coat of 50% nitrate dope.
Rich brushed a piece of white tissue
stretched in a wood frame with light blue and
pink acrylic paint and then stripped the tissue
to make the rib strips. Blue went on top and
pink went on the bottom. He applied the rib
strips with thin white glue.
The crosses are white tissue with white
paint applied on the undersurface and black
colored tissue applied with thinned white glue.
After everything dried, Rich assembled the
Fokker and gave it an overall spray of glossy
clear Krylon—just enough to put a light shine
on the whole model. The guns, wheels, and
cockpit coaming were added last.
The D.VII’s weight without motor is 60
grams. The propeller is a standard 9-inch red
plastic P-30 style with the outer 1/4 inch cut off
and the tips rounded. The 24-inch motor is
made from two loops of 3/16-inch Tan Super
Sport.
This model has two second-place trophies
to its credit—one from Muncie last year and
one from the Western Flying Aces Club
(FAC) Nationals at Perris, California.
If you think Scale plans of Australian aircraft
might appeal to you, check out Derek
Buckmaster’s DB Design Bureau Web site.
Free plans for some neat airplanes are
available for download. The Wackett Trainer
“neo Dime” would be neat as a Dime Scale, or
it could be scaled up for the FAC low-wing
trainer event.
Charles Schultz has a great selection of plans
from the 1930s and 1940s. Most are Scale, but
there are also endurance and sport models.
They include designs from Berkeley, Burd,Comet, Megow, Hi-Flier, Whitman, Scientific,
and a dozen other kit manufacturers of the era.
Unlike some poor-quality reproductions I
have seen, these plans are beautifully
reproduced. For a buck you can get a complete
list from Charles F. Schultz.
Last year the Magnificent Mountain Men
(MMM) club in Denver, Colorado, expanded
its annual Labor Day contest to include FAC
events. That added another aspect to one of the
best contests in the country.
Check out the club Web site to see what is
in store this year. Faced with the loss of its
flying site, the MMM managed to negotiate
continued use of the site for at least this year.
This year’s FAC Nats in Geneseo, New York,
will be July 17-19. It will be Thursday through
Saturday instead of Friday through Sunday, as
in prior years. Scale judging will be
Wednesday afternoon.
See you there!
Bob Langelius and Abram Van Dover will be
sponsoring a very low-key Rubber rise-offwater
(ROW) event at the Nats this year in
Muncie, Indiana. It will be Tuesday August 5
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the ROW tank.
Any rubber-powered model with floats
(that floats unassisted for 30 seconds) will be
allowed. This is a fun event, so “maxes” may
be limited. The “tank” is in the center of the
field, so let’s show up and have some fun!
Contact Bob Langelius if you have any
questions. MA
Sources:
Bill Schmidt
4647 Krueger
Wichita KS 67220
Bob Langelius
[email protected]
Charles F. Schultz
910 Broadfields Dr.
Louisville KY 40207
DB Design Bureau
http://dbdesignbureau.buckmasterfamily.id.au/
MMM
www.themmmclub.com
Ozark Model Aviation
(817) 845-4189
www.ozarkmodelaviation.com
Peck-Polymers
(720) 833-9300
www.peck-polymers.com
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/07
Page Numbers: 126,127,129,130
126 MODEL AVIATION
Have your Ramrod ready for the 2008 AMA Nats!
[[email protected]]
Free Flight Sport Gene Smith
Also included in this column:
• Midkiff Zero
• Kate Byrd’s Pacific Ace
• Bill Schmidt’s Bellanca Cruisair
• Bob Schlosberg’s Aeronca
Champ
• Grant Carson’s Pietenpol
Peanut
• Richard Adams’ Fokker D.VII
• Derek Buckmaster and Charles
Schultz plans
• MMM Labor Day contest
• FAC Nats dates
• Informal rubber ROW event at
AMA Nats Mike Midkiff keeps turning out excellent models. This Zero is available as a short kit.
Midkiff photo.
Bill Schmidt produced a beautiful rendition of a 1947 Bellanca Cruisair. The 27-inchwingspan
model flies with an 8-inch Peck-Polymers propeller.
Kate Byrd admires the pink wheels on her Pacific Ace, which she
flew at the Pensacola meet last fall. Grabski photo.
Bob Schlosberg’s beautiful Aeronca Champ is powered by a CO2
motor. Schlosberg photo.
DON’T FORGET the Ramrod One Design
event at the AMA Nats in August. Enter
your Ramrod 250 with a Nostalgia-eligible
.049 engine.
The latest model out of Mike Midkiff’s
hangar is a Mitsubishi Zero. The 10-inchdiameter,
12-inch-pitch propeller uses
Mike’s tried-and-true blades made from 1/32
plywood that is boiled and then baked over
a form. A dowel is glued into a slot in each
blade, and the dowel is inserted into a hole
in the spinner.
The Zero’s finish is airbrushed Tamiya
paint with a final coat of matte Krylon clear.
The plug-in landing gear can be removed
for flight. Mike used white ink-jet decal
paper for the meatballs. His short kit
features full laser-cut parts, canopy,
building instructions, three-view, plainpaper
color decals, plans, and a materials
list.
The model spans 27 inches and weighs
Pensacola Free Flight Team (PFFT), is
shown readying the first Rubber model she
has built since childhood. Kate, who’s “on
the other side of 80,” is the wife of the only
remaining original PFFT member. She’s
also the sister of a longtime member and the
mother of a “younger” member.
With a little tweaking, the Pacific Ace
flew well. She attributes the flight success
to the pink wheels!
Bill Schmidt drew the plans for and built a
beautiful rendition of a 1947 Bellanca
Cruisair. It spans 27 inches and has an 8-
60 grams without rubber and landing gear.
Power is provided by one loop of 3/16-inch
and one loop of 1/4-inch rubber. The short
kit costs $30 plus $6 shipping. Short kits
typically include plans, canopy, and lasercut
parts but no sticks such as LEs, TEs, or
stringers.
Mike is going to make several of his
designs available as short kits, including his
great-flying Sea Hornet. You can see his
offerings on the Ozark Model Aviation Web
site.
Kate Byrd, who recently rejoined the
inch Peck-Polymers propeller. The model flies
well with two 22-inch loops of 1/8-inch rubber
braided to approximately 19 inches. Covering
is Japanese tissue.
Plans for this model and many other Rubber
Scale, Texaco Scale, and CL models are
available from Bill. Send him an SASE for the
plans list.
Bob Schlosberg’s immaculate Aeronca
Champ was built from old plans in MaxFax
(the D.C. Maxecuters’ club newsletter). The
model spans 18 inches and is powered by a
Brown A-23 CO2 motor.
In the last year I have mentioned several
ways to attach windshields. Bob has the talent
to do so with cyanoacrylate. He says he does it
very carefully! He uses the smallest applicator
tubing he can find and wicks the adhesive
under the edge of the canopy. He attaches the
canopy and windows when the painting is
complete.
Bob attached the side windows with
acetone, which he applied with a tiny brush.
The acetone melts the underlying finish and
bonds the window material.
One of the nicer bits of detailing is the trim
around the windshield. Bob uses striping tape
between the cowling and the window. He sands
the striping tape to improve the paint’s
adhesion, paints it the same color as the model,
and then applies it.
Bob uses a hair dryer to slightly heat the
striping tape, to accomplish the wraparound on
the wing root. If too much heat is applied, the
striping tape will curl and be ruined.
Bob uses Sig dope to paint all his models.
Another tip he passed on to me is to use a hair
dryer to help loosen masking tape when
removing it. I recently had a project that I
saved with that technique. The tape didn’t want
to let go until I applied a bit of heat.
Grant Carson says that the most challenging
part of building his Pietenpol model was
reproducing the Model A engine in an
extremely small scale. The spark plugs are pins
wrapped with paper strips.
With that big radiator perpendicular to the
airstream, Grant didn’t expect the Peck-
Polymers Pietenpol to be competitive. He built
it because it has charisma. Forty seconds on a
loop of 3/16-inch rubber is the best flight to date.
The model tends to skid rather than bank in
a turn because of the minimal dihedral and the
parasol configuration, but that hasn’t kept it
from flying reliably.
Tim Goldstein now produces the Peck-
Polymers series of Peanut Scale kits. Not only
are the kits laser cut, but the wood quality is
excellent. Check them out on the Peck-
Polymers Web site.
Richard Adams built his Fokker D.VII from
a RockyTop Models kit. It went together so
well that he completed it in two weeks.
Rich chose the color scheme of Carl
Degelow’s Jasta 40 airplane after seeing a
picture of a plastic model done in those
colors. Rich covered the fuselage with
white and black Esaki tissue, with one thin
coat of acrylic white and black thinned to 50% and applied with a paintbrush.
The stag on the fuselage is a graphic Rich
worked up in Photoshop and printed on white
decal paper. The really neat part is that he
painted a white background on the model to
maintain the high contrast. Then he
incorporated a black border around the decal
so he didn’t have to be perfect when cutting
the decal or painting the white base.
Rich covered the wings with white Esaki
tissue, which had a five-color lozenge pattern
printed onto it using an HP ink-jet printer. He
applied the tissue with standard nitrate dope
techniques and then shrank it with alcohol to
prevent the ink from running. Then the wings
received one coat of 50% nitrate dope.
Rich brushed a piece of white tissue
stretched in a wood frame with light blue and
pink acrylic paint and then stripped the tissue
to make the rib strips. Blue went on top and
pink went on the bottom. He applied the rib
strips with thin white glue.
The crosses are white tissue with white
paint applied on the undersurface and black
colored tissue applied with thinned white glue.
After everything dried, Rich assembled the
Fokker and gave it an overall spray of glossy
clear Krylon—just enough to put a light shine
on the whole model. The guns, wheels, and
cockpit coaming were added last.
The D.VII’s weight without motor is 60
grams. The propeller is a standard 9-inch red
plastic P-30 style with the outer 1/4 inch cut off
and the tips rounded. The 24-inch motor is
made from two loops of 3/16-inch Tan Super
Sport.
This model has two second-place trophies
to its credit—one from Muncie last year and
one from the Western Flying Aces Club
(FAC) Nationals at Perris, California.
If you think Scale plans of Australian aircraft
might appeal to you, check out Derek
Buckmaster’s DB Design Bureau Web site.
Free plans for some neat airplanes are
available for download. The Wackett Trainer
“neo Dime” would be neat as a Dime Scale, or
it could be scaled up for the FAC low-wing
trainer event.
Charles Schultz has a great selection of plans
from the 1930s and 1940s. Most are Scale, but
there are also endurance and sport models.
They include designs from Berkeley, Burd,Comet, Megow, Hi-Flier, Whitman, Scientific,
and a dozen other kit manufacturers of the era.
Unlike some poor-quality reproductions I
have seen, these plans are beautifully
reproduced. For a buck you can get a complete
list from Charles F. Schultz.
Last year the Magnificent Mountain Men
(MMM) club in Denver, Colorado, expanded
its annual Labor Day contest to include FAC
events. That added another aspect to one of the
best contests in the country.
Check out the club Web site to see what is
in store this year. Faced with the loss of its
flying site, the MMM managed to negotiate
continued use of the site for at least this year.
This year’s FAC Nats in Geneseo, New York,
will be July 17-19. It will be Thursday through
Saturday instead of Friday through Sunday, as
in prior years. Scale judging will be
Wednesday afternoon.
See you there!
Bob Langelius and Abram Van Dover will be
sponsoring a very low-key Rubber rise-offwater
(ROW) event at the Nats this year in
Muncie, Indiana. It will be Tuesday August 5
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the ROW tank.
Any rubber-powered model with floats
(that floats unassisted for 30 seconds) will be
allowed. This is a fun event, so “maxes” may
be limited. The “tank” is in the center of the
field, so let’s show up and have some fun!
Contact Bob Langelius if you have any
questions. MA
Sources:
Bill Schmidt
4647 Krueger
Wichita KS 67220
Bob Langelius
[email protected]
Charles F. Schultz
910 Broadfields Dr.
Louisville KY 40207
DB Design Bureau
http://dbdesignbureau.buckmasterfamily.id.au/
MMM
www.themmmclub.com
Ozark Model Aviation
(817) 845-4189
www.ozarkmodelaviation.com
Peck-Polymers
(720) 833-9300
www.peck-polymers.com