Focal Point
Southwest Douglas DC-3
Hank Greenberg (540 Cross Timbers Ct., El Paso, TX 79932; E-mail: [email protected]) built this colorful DC-3 from a Top Flite Gold Edition kit. He decided early in the project that there had been enough DC-3s in Eastern Airlines livery and that Southwest Airlines had none.
The model is powered by two Saito .40 engines and features Robart scale landing gear. Guidance is provided via an Airtronics RD8000 RC system with nine servos. Hank used Master Airscrew three-blade 10 x 7 propellers on the DC-3.
The paint scheme was copied from Southwest Airlines' Lone Star I shown on www.airlines.net.
Four-Star 60 Twin Conversion
Earl Acker (318 Peffer Ln., Fenton, MO 63026; E-mail: [email protected]) looked in vain for a twin kit (not an ARF) to build, and then he decided to convert a Sig Four-Star 60 kit for twin engines.
Walt Wilson designed the conversion to accommodate two Thunder Tiger .46 PRO engines with 8-ounce fuel tanks. It's controlled with a Futaba 6DA radio using six servos. Earl didn't want to build up cowls, so he made them from the tops of quart-size milk bottles.
The model is covered with red MonoKote, and the cowls are painted with Krylon Fusion.
"It flies much like a stock Four-Star 60 and is quite fast," wrote Earl. "It looks and sounds great."
The Easterner Sailplane
Carl Lorber (1442 Haydon St., Salem, VA 24153; E-mail: [email protected]) is a 71-year-old retiree who has been designing, building, and flying all types of gliders since 1944. The Easterner, his latest project, is a 12-foot-wingspan sailplane designed for all facets of RC soaring.
Guidance is via a Multiplex Cockpit MM seven-channel radio system that controls rudder, elevator, spoilers, and captive tow hooks. The model features a custom-built fiberglass fuselage and built-up wood flying surfaces. Carl's sailplane is covered with MonoKote.
Hog-Bipe
Lanny R. Coggin Sr. (649 Laramie Dr., Springfield, TN 37172; E-mail: [email protected]) really likes biplanes.
"This Sig Hog-Bipe is my second Hog and I have built the 'Flicka' by Bill Winters twice," he wrote.
This model has a Magnum XL-91RFS four-stroke engine. A Hitec Flash 5 transmitter, a Micro 555 receiver, and five Hitec standard servos make up the radio system. The biplane is covered with metallic blue and yellow MonoKote and weighs slightly more than 7 pounds.
The Jug
Herman Burton (2918 Sea Ledge Dr., Seabrook, TX 77586; E-mail: [email protected]) started with a Top Flite Gold Edition kit and built this P-47 "Jug."
He powers it with an O.S. .91 FX engine that swings a Zinger 16 x 8 propeller. The model features Robart retracts and scale wheels. It was covered with .06-ounce fiberglass cloth and painted with LustreKote paint.
Herman added a scale cockpit and a replica radial engine for realism. He also included the scale 108-gallon drop tank. Also featured are functional flaps and a Vailly Aviation scale pilot. A Futaba 6A radio handles guidance duties.
Scratch-Built de Havilland D.H.2
This 1/6-scale D.H.2 is Dick Scott’s (39521 Keiths Cir., Zephyrhills, FL 33542) first attempt at a scratch-built model. It took him more than a year to build the D.H.2 from plans he purchased from Alan Morgan in England.
All the rigging fittings were cut out by hand except the turnbuckles, and all the rigging was done with Kevlar. The struts and landing gear were cut from ash.
The covering is antique Superfabric from Hobby Lobby, and the top is airbrushed with enamel. The model has scale rib stitching from Scale Rib Stitch in Canada.
The D.H.2 spans 57 inches and has a flying weight of 6 pounds, 5 ounces. Power is supplied by an AXI 4120/18 motor and a 5S1P 3700 mAh Li-Poly 20C battery pack.
RC Bird
Nathan Chronister (582 Laurelton Rd., Rochester, NY 14609) designed and built this RC Bird ornithopter. He sent his CAD drawings to US LaserMade, which provided him with all the plywood parts for the body and gearbox. The model is powered by a GWS CN12-RLC motor and a two-cell 340 mAh Li-Poly battery.
The bird spans 24 inches and weighs 4.4 ounces. Nathan uses a Plantraco DSP4-SC receiver/speed-control unit that varies the rate of wing flapping. Two GWS Pico servos are employed to move the tail for elevator and steering functions.
To learn more about ornithopters, Nathan recommends www.ornithopter.org.
Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat
Joe Denicola (3620 Sarazen Dr., New Port Richey, FL 34655) had Precision Cut Kits produce a kit from a set of Ziroli plans so he could build this stunning 42-pound warbird.
It spans 96 inches, is powered by a 3W-75 gas engine, and features Robart retracts. A JR 10 radio with 11 servos is used for guidance chores.
Joe chose to present his Hellcat in the livery of VF-27, which operated off the USS Princeton in 1944. Epoxy paint was used for finishing, and Mike "The Brush" Marecki was pressed into service to hand-paint the menacing nose art.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
