RC Combat
Greg Rose, 1312 NW 196th St., Edmond OK 73003
IT'S TIME to put a plug in the column for the 2001 Radio Control (RC) Combat Nationals (Nats) in Muncie, Indiana.
If you missed last year's Nats, don't miss it this year. It promises to be even bigger and better (and hopefully drier). As many as 60 pilots will compete in Scale and Open class Combat July 3–5.
Even if you don't fly Combat (yet), come out and catch the excitement of some top-notch RC Combat action.
You can check for up-to-the-minute details about the Nats and other Combat events on the Radio Control Combat Association (RCCA) Web site at www.rccombat.com.
Zigg's Original
After a decade of producing literally thousands of 1/12-scale kits for Combat modelers, Zigg's Original has decided to call it quits.
The continued popularity of Zigg kits, even in the face of current competition, has been a testament to their high quality and good design. However, Kurt Zeigler decided that it was time to pursue other interests and bring production to a halt.
I talked to Kurt and he told me that all is not totally lost for Zigg's Original fans.
"This will give me the time to pursue some of the designs that I always wanted to make, but never had the time because I was busy making kits. Like the 1/12-scale B-25 for sport flying that has been on the back burner for years," he said.
He also left the door open for an occasional limited run of his popular Me 109, Spitfire, F4U, F6F, Zero, or Fw 190.
Kurt has been a pioneer in the development of Scale RC Combat in the US, and his contribution to the growth of our sport has been appreciated by me and by hundreds of RC Combat fliers.
Check Six Plans
Check Six Plans (9164 Graff Ct., Mechanicsville VA 23116; Tel.: [804] 559-9635; E-mail: [email protected]; Web site: www.checksixplans.net) has made some minor changes to its product offerings.
Using the plus-or-minus 10% allowed in the 2610 Scale rules to enlarge some of the smaller designs, Check Six now offers a mix of 1/12-scale designs for the 2105 or 2610 event, or slightly larger Scale versions for the 2610 event.
Offered for 2105 or 2610:
- P-40 Warhawk (37-inch span version)
- F4U Corsair (41-inch span)
- Hawker Hurricane (41-inch span)
- Douglas Skyraider (50-inch span)
- P-51 Mustang (37-inch span)
- P-39 Airacobra (35-1/2-inch span)
- Dewoitine D.520 (35-1/4-inch span)
- Yak-9 (35-inch span)
New, larger 2610 plans:
- Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX (40-1/2-inch span)
- Supermarine Spitfuel (38-1/2-inch span)
- P-40 Warhawk (41-inch span)
- Hawker Hurricane (44-inch span)
- P-51 Mustang (41-inch span)
- P-39 Airacobra (37-1/2-inch span)
- Messerschmitt Me 109G (36-inch span)
- Me 109H (long-winged, 45-inch span)
Check Six plans are of all-balsa-and-plywood construction, are CAD-drawn, and come with an excellent construction guide that rivals the detailed instructions in the best kits.
Ferr-O-Plane (Armadillo Hobbies)
A few issues ago I mentioned Armadillo Hobbies (96 Public Sq., Leitchfield KY 42754; Tel.: [877] 994-9100; Web site: www.creative-net.net/~armadillo) and their new Ferr-O-Plane Almost Ready to Cover (ARC) for Open Class A Combat.
I've finally included the picture I promised, but before I go any further I should point out that I have never built a kit exactly the way that it was intended to be built. I'm always tweaking and changing something, trying to make it better—or at least look different.
Since the Ferr-O-Plane is a ready-to-cover (well, almost) balsa-and-plywood design, there wasn't much I could change, but I wanted something that looked different.
I tossed out the vertical tail, cut a different-shaped tail from the same-thickness balsa, added a leftover canopy I found in my workshop, slapped on some paint, and voila! — a stand-real-far-back, squint-a-lot, cartoon-scale version of the Reichenberg 4.
There really was a manned version of the V-1 Buzz Bomb, promoted and test-flown by the infamous German aviatrix Hanna Reitsch, but fortunately (especially for the pilots) it was never used.
The Ferr-O-Plane is nothing like the V-1, but it did make an interesting-looking model.
The ability to make anything you want, any way you want, is one of the great features of Open-class Combat.
After talking to Ron Ferrer of Ferr-O-Plane, he decided he may have to build the runner-up design I had considered: a Ferr-O-Plane A-10 Warthog!
Wallace RC and Sticky Stuff
Wallace RC (91 Sylvan St., Avon CT 06001; Tel.: [860] 673-2000; E-mail: [email protected]) has a new product for RC Combat flyers.
The company already offers two kits: the MiG-7 (44-1/4-inch span) and the Ki-64 Rob (48-inch span). Both feature fiberglass fuselages and Fome-Core® wings.
The new product isn't a kit; it's a four-ounce squeeze bottle of Sticky Stuff. Last year's Combat rules changes made streamer-grabbing sticky wings legal in Scale and Open events.
You apply Sticky Stuff to the leading edge of the wing and tail of your model, and smooth it out with your finger.
One clear advantage Sticky Stuff has over some of the spray-on contact adhesives used is that it does clean off easily, without leaving a dust-gathering film tacked to the wing.
Sticky wings seem to be here to stay. Just remember not to have any Sticky Stuff on your hand when you launch!
Building tip: Polyurethane glues
In the last issue I promised to put in a few building tips every so often, so I decided to write about some building experiences with polyurethane glues.
Several brands, including Elmer's® ProBond and Gorilla Brand Gorilla Glue®, are available. These tough glues are being used by many Combat model builders—particularly for wing skin laminations.
As with working with cyanoacrylate (CyA) adhesives, there are a few tricks you need to know to use the urethane glues successfully.
- Although they go on looking similar to a typical white glue, the polyurethanes react with water, rather than evaporate, to set up. That means water has to get to the bond line in order for it to cure.
- On some materials the humidity in the air will provide enough water, but substances that don't let water pass readily through them have to be misted with water before they are put together. Even balsa sheeting on a foam wing core should be dampened slightly before the balsa and foam are mated.
- During cure, the urethane glues will foam slightly, filling small voids and pushing their way deep into the gaps of foam or wood.
Gene Smith of Stillwater, OK, told me a trick that allowed me to use this foaming action to repair a crushed bay on a built-up wing. By putting hollow microspheres in a plastic bag and adding urethane adhesive, I was able to mix the two into a paste, clip off the end of the plastic bag, and squeeze the mixture into the damaged area of the wing.
The adhesive expanded to fill the bay from rib to rib and pushed out a little excess, which was easily sliced off and sanded to shape the next day.
One word of caution about the urethane glues: they contain diisocyanates, and should not be used by anyone who is sensitized to them.
Closing
That's all for now. I hope to see you at the Nats, but until then, fly safe, fly Combat, and be sure to check your six! MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
