One design at the Nats
NOW IS THE time to get your 1/2A Viking finished and trimmed for the Nats in Muncie, Indiana. Don’t forget the event for past 1/2A One Designs on Tuesday, July 19. Get out your Mini Pearl, Starduster X, Bounty Hunter, or Country Boy, and put it in the air. Remember that it must use either a Nostalgia-legal engine or a Cox TD .049 or .051.
Mylar and Esaki tissue covering
As my good friend Karl Gies has been doing, Craig Limber has been using Esaki tissue over 1/4-mil Mylar for almost all of his models. He has taken advantage of this Mylar base to apply beautiful, intricate designs to his airplanes.
One thing Craig is doing differently is using Future floor polish instead of dope to stick on the tissue. A few years ago Future was being touted on several free-flight blogs. I hadn't heard much about it recently, until Craig mentioned that he was using it. He said that the smell of dope was really getting to him, so he started looking for alternatives. The Future is working out for him.
It goes on easily, is water-based, and allows the tissue to go around moderate compound curves. The tissue grows roughly 3% as it is applied, so Craig keeps that in mind as he tries to match up edges.
He experimented with domestic tissue because it's available in many colors; however, he found that it doesn't work well in this application — it falls apart while being applied.
The good news is that since Craig heard about coloring Esaki tissue with chalk, he has been able to create any color tissue he wants. Applying chalk also helps make the color opaque. Not having to deal with the dope smell has allowed Craig to get ambitious with his coloring schemes. The Mylar/tissue covering is not too heavy, either. His Senator weighs 56 grams minus rubber.
One of the key tricks Craig has learned while experimenting with this technique is to go over the results with a hot iron to melt the Future. It sticks the tissue in a consistent manner and it looks kind of cool.
DT and stabilizer improvements
Since losing his previous Senator when the stabilizer failed to drop down on DT, Craig fabricated a spring system that has been more reliable. He made use of an idea from Bernard Guest, one of his modeling compatriots in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Bernard suggested having the stabilizer swing 225° to DT position, so that it won't be first to hit the ground when it comes down. Craig was skeptical at first, but he found that it works well.
Recent builds and kits
Lynn Fehr built a beautiful MiG-15 jet from the Easy Built Models kit. He plans to fly it with either a Jetex 50 or a Rapier L-3 motor. Unfortunately, neither is currently in production. Lynn sealed the silver tissue covering with two coats of clear nitrate dope diluted by half. The model's landing gear plugs in and rotates 90° to lock in place. He also crafted a set of landing gear doors that plug in for flying and a cockpit interior to enhance the scale appearance.
On the topic of Easy Built Models, its laser-cut Smoothie kit is a winner. I recently completed mine and found that the wood and laser cutting were excellent, as were the plans. The included markings speed up the finishing process. Many of the fuselage formers looked similar, so patterns (not full scale) were included so you could organize them before assembly.
My model almost flew "off the board" but did need a bit of extra right thrust and downthrust. Don't they all?
You might not have heard of CB Model Designs, but I can tell you that owner/operator Clint Brooks sells a quality product. My grandson, Matthew, built his Yardstick kit and was quite pleased with the result.
- The laser cutting and balsa were first-rate.
- A complete hardware package and detailed instructions were included.
- The DT setup for a viscous timer was shown on the plans, so my grandson didn't have to engineer his own.
Matthew's model flew very well.
Clint also kits his Boomer MIKE P-30, which won that event at the last two US Free Flight Championships. The design has other wins to its credit. There is also a Curtiss P-40 scale model kit in the works, which should be available by the time you read this.
You might recall David Scigliano's beautiful Comet Curtiss Robin build from the January column. Scigs has done it again with his version of the Guillow's Series 900 Mustang kit.
Consisting primarily of warbird models, the 900 series is a favorite of mine. The kits are quick to build, capture the essence of the full-scale aircraft, and are relatively easy to trim for flight. The airplanes are a nice size, with 17- to 18-inch wingspans. And unlike in some of the other Guillow’s kits, the wood is usually light. The structure is basic stick-and-tissue, with 1/20 balsa fuselage sides.
Scigs normally uses paint to create a silver finish, but he used this project to experiment with tissue. He selected Easy Built Models silver tissue, because it weighs essentially the same as Esaki tissue and is close to a quarter of the cost. Scigs said that the Easy Built tissue went on easily and shrank well. In fact, he found it necessary to seal the edges of the seams with Testors Wood Cement to prevent the tissue from pulling away when shrinking. He brushed on two coats of thinned Aero Gloss dope to seal the tissue.
Stick-and-tissue resources
If you think you might like to try stick-and-tissue construction, I strongly recommend the Yahoo! Groups Free Flight CookUp. This group, which John Ernst ran for many years, is now ably moderated by FAC member Doug Beardsworth, who is full of useful information about both building and flying these models.
Members of the group vote on projects they would like to do as an online group build. That way, they can compare problems encountered and solutions devised on similar models. As I write this, there is a Guillow’s 900-series kit CookUp underway. It will be finished by the time you read this, but all the information about the build will be saved in the archives.
Flying Aces Club (FAC) updates
The Flying Aces Club (FAC) is the place to be if you are interested in free-flight scale or small free-flight duration models. Do not be intimidated by the flawless aircraft you see in FAC Nats coverage. You do not have to be an experienced modeler to enjoy FAC. I have found the members to be helpful to all, beginners included.
Ross Mayo, commander in chief of the FAC, has worked very hard to keep the organization in proper order since the passing of long-standing commander in chief Lin Reichel. One of the strong points of the organization has been its bimonthly newsletter—Flying Aces Club News—which Lin ably produced for many years with his wife, Juanita, and other valued volunteers.
Rich Weber, a longtime modeler and FAC member, is now editing the newsletter, which features several model plan sets in every issue. If his first effort is any indication, Flying Aces Club News is in capable hands.
The FAC had no formal website until this year. Thanks to David Mitchell’s hard work, now it has one that contains contest rules and membership information.
No computer? Become a member of the FAC by sending $18 to Rich Weber. If you live in the Denver, Colorado, area, check out the big WESTFAC III contest that will be held there June 22–25.
Sources
- Easy Built Models
(334) 358-5184 www.easybuiltmodels.com
- CB Model Designs
Box 50018 Long Beach, CA 90815 www.cbmodeldesigns.com
- Guillow’s
(781) 245-5255 www.guillow.com
- Yahoo! Groups Free Flight CookUp:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ffcookup
- Flying Aces Club
- Rich Weber
9154 Eldorado Tr. Strongsville, OH 44136
- National Free Flight Society
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
