Radio Control Scale - 2008/01

THE 2008 Scale National Championships
will take place in August. It will be held, as
it has been for many years, at AMA’s
International Aeromodeling Center in
Muncie, Indiana.
The weather for the 2007 Scale Nats was
great, with no major storms or weatherrelated
issues that were serious enough to
cancel the event. August in Muncie may be
on the warm side, but the rest of the
conditions are normally excellent.
Unlike many Scale contests, the AMA
Nats hosts all the classes listed in the AMA
Competition Regulations handbook. Within
the different categories you can find an
event for whatever skill level you can
participate at, from Fun Scale Novice to
FAI F4C, which is a class of international
competition in which many contestants
scratch-build their models and fly them.
Terry Nitsch, a Top Gun pilot, won Fun
Scale Open with an electric-powered
Hangar 9 P-51 Mustang. He flew it
realistically and included all the mechanical
options that are available for a P-51,
including bomb drop, flaps, and retracts.
Joe Hass took first place in Fun Scale
Novice with a P-51 from EZ Models. He
powered it with an O.S. .46 engine.
Billy Thompson took first place in
Sportsman with his 1/3-scale Sopwith Pup,
which featured a dummy engine that was
newly installed before the Nats. The
difference between Fun Scale and
Sportsman is that in the latter you have to
build the model. After winning several
Sportsman trophies, Billy will be ready to
step up to Expert class.
Jack Buckley took first place in F4C, in
which many modelers design their own
plans and then construct and finish their
aircraft. Jack’s model came from a set of
someone else’s plans, which is also
acceptable.
You see the most beautiful aircraft inF4C world competition. It’s a natural
progression from Sportsman to Expert and
then finally to F4C. The rules for all these
classes are similar.
Nats Team Scale included a pair of old
hands and younger ones, plus a father-andson
team, all of which helped populate this
class with great modelers. Dale and Jeremy
Arvin took first place with their SNJ-5 built
from a Yellow Aircraft kit.
Dave Johnson competed with two
scratch-built World War I models. One was
an Albatros D.III and the other was a later
model of the same aircraft type: an Albatros
D.Va. He won the Expert division with his
D.Va and took second place in Designer, just
behind Hal Parenti and his Ryan Fireball,
with the D.III.
In many columns I’ve written that in Fun
Scale you can enter a model you bought or
enter Sportsman class and build a model
from a kit or semikit. You can do all this
while working on that Scale model you’ve
always dreamed of, such as a P-51B, that
you don’t see a kit of and have to build from
plans.
Sometimes I have problems finding
enough room in the shop to work on a new
project. One of the cars may have to sit
outside this winter!
Scale Nats sponsors were Airborne
Media, Pacer Zap Glue, Balsa USA, Barbee
Construction, Brodak Manufacturing Co.,
Great Planes, Futaba, R/C Report, Bob’s
Aircraft Documentation, Dynamic Balsa,
FMA Direct, Lone Star Models, Master
Airscrew, Micro Fasteners, Nick Ziroli
Plans, Northeast Screen Graphics, Precision
Cut Kits, and Vintage R/C Plans.Experienced modelers will notice that in
this and many future columns I will be
writing about the basics of Scale or modeling
in general. That’s because we have to
cultivate a new generation of Scale modelers,
and quickly. We want to—no, we
desperately need to—encourage new
modelers to enter the fold, and providing
them with the basics can only help.
I’ve started a new project. At the Toledo
R/C Expo I saw three little scale electricpowered
gems at the Great Planes area:
the ElectriFly Fokker Dr.I, Fokker D.VII,
and S.E.5a ARFs. I thought they would
make great models with different paint
schemes.
The original finish on the Dr.I is similar
to that of the Red Baron, and with a little
work it would be easy to duplicate. But I
wanted something different and haven’t
decided what the finish will be yet.
Each of these kits costs approximately
$99, and then the rest of the radio gear will
cost you roughly $175 if you have your
own receiver and radio. So you’re looking
at slightly more than $300 for the entire
airplane and the gear needed to power it.
To begin the strip job, get out a new box
of hobby blades. Change the blades often. If
you get to the point where you catch yourself
sawing back and forth, it’s past time to swap
the blade. I usually wrap used blades in
masking tape so I, or somebody else who
accidentally drops something in the trash, canretrieve it without getting cut.
Since there were three wings to strip on
the Dr.I, I began taking the MonoKote off the
lower wing first. I noticed that the covering
was glued to each rib and all the surfaces.
That is important to remember for when I recover
the model.
I managed to get almost all the covering
off, and I saved the iron-cross graphics on the
fuselage and the wings. I’ll use those as
templates for the new graphics I will add.
I went on to strip the middle wing and then
the top wing. I saved the smallest and most
delicate parts until last, such as the ailerons,
stabilizer, and elevator.
The fuselage covering was also adhered to
all the Dr.I’s surfaces. Many models on which
the covering is already applied have just the
edges secured, and then the covering is
shrunk. But I’m guessing that the designers
did the covering this way with this small
model to add strength to the overall structure.
I selected Coverite Microlite at the local
hobby shop. This material weighs only .06
ounce per square yard. It is an iron-on
covering with the glue already on the
backside. You don’t have to use brushed-on
glue in the covering process.
I lightly sanded the Dr.I in preparation for
covering, and then I started again with the
bottom wing of the three. The Microlite
requires a medium-heat iron setting; if your
iron has a setting of 1-3, put it on 2.
I didn’t use a heat gun for this finishing
technique. If I had, it may have warped the
airplane’s structure.
Cover the bottom surface of the wing first.
Cut the edges of the covering flush with the
edge of the surface after you iron it down the
second time.
On the top surface, as with the bottom,
start in the middle and work your way out to
the wingtips. I leave approximately 11/2 inchesof extra covering on the outside edges to have
something for my big hands to hold onto.
Don’t stretch the material too tight; you’ll
tear it. Let the glue do its work, and you’ll
have a good-looking covering job.
Work the same way with the fuselage.
Start with the bottom, then do the sides, and
then finish the top and turtledeck, behind
where the pilot sits.
The ailerons were the hardest for me to
cover. They were delicate with small balsa
ribs and could be damaged easily if not
finished with covering material.
The kit comes with many screws, cabanes,
strut mounts, and other hardware. Always put
these in a plastic bag with a resalable opener.
This will keep all the parts in one place, and
you won’t be in a panic looking all over the
shop or the floor for parts.
I’ll have more about this project next
month.
At the Mint Julep Scale Meet I flew Dave
Johnson’s S.E.5a. It was already trimmed out
and flew beautifully. I did have to add rudder
in the turns, as you do with many World War
I aircraft, so don’t think you can go out and
sport-fly this model with ailerons only; it
needs the rudder too.
You have to use the rudder or make some
ugly turns at the very least. In calm conditions
you can take off with the model from asphalt
or you can hand-launch it if you want. Yeah, I
made a few ugly turns too, until I caught
myself. Dave graciously let almost anyone
who wanted to fly the S.E.5a take a turn.
His full-time job is as a product designer
for Hobbico, and he loves to fly Scale models
in his own time. That part isn’t a requirement
of his job, but an added perk to allow him to
compete more often and go to trade shows.
Fair skies and tailwinds.