George Maiorana brought a new airplane to the Weak Signals’
Toledo Show and to Top Gun this year. It is a model of an aircraft I
haven’t seen before, but it looks familiar. Before static judging at
Top Gun, George was still adding parts to the aircraft. Talk about
waiting until the last minute!
I thought you might be interested in some background and some
of the processes that George went through while building the Tu-4
and the Chinese AEW aircraft, which are both powered by electric
motors.
There were three Boeing B-29 Superfortresses that made
emergency landings in Vladivostok in the Soviet Union in 1944.
The crews were allowed to leave, but the communist military kept
their aircraft.
Two of the airplanes were disassembled for detailed evaluation
and their parts were sent throughout the Soviet Union to be copied.
The third copy was kept in flying condition for evaluation. What
resulted was an almost exact copy of the Boeing B-29 that was
designated the Tu-4. More than 1,200 Tu-4s were built up until
1953.
George Maiorana and Skip Mast spent many hours collecting
information about the B-29 and documenting the aircraft in the US
Air Force Museum at Dayton, Ohio. They measured the different
parts of the aircraft, how high it sits off of the ground at different
points, and they took many photos for the design work and for
building the models that would follow.
This is the third airframe from the original design that George
built. The first was the Miss America ’62, which was powered by
four four-stroke engines. That model was demolished in a crash
after losing one engine, stalling, and going in. George decided that
that was it for “wet power,” and he switched to electric power for
all of his models; he reasoned that electric would be more reliable.
The second model was built as an electric-powered Russian Tu-
September 2003 23
A Russian Bear
George Maiorana’s Chinese AEW was on display at the 2003 Weak Signals Toledo Show in Ohio. Notice the scalelike aluminum finish.
MaxCim electric motors reside in the elongated turboprop
nacelles. Note the scale exhaust outlets.
You can see the rotating radar dome that sits atop the
Continued on page 27 fuselage behind the wing. An amazing effort
September 2003 27
4 covered with Flite-Metal. During the past
three contest seasons with the Tu-4 and the
numerous wins in Team Scale with pilot Dave
Pinegar, George’s belief about electric power
seems to have been proven correct.
George contacted Tom Cimato of MaxCim
Motors, gave him the most recent B-29’s
specifications, and with Tom’s help he knew
that electric power would be possible for the
competition Tu-4. The MaxCim coreless
motors with the gear drive would make the
large Tu-4 fly well in whatever configuration
George wanted.
With George’s craftsmanship in the shop
and Dave Pinegar’s piloting skills, the two of
them have been a scourge of the Team Scale
circuit in the past couple years. They have won
at Top Gun, the Scale Nationals, and the US
Scale Masters Championships.
This new effort came from the idea that the
Chinese version with early-warning radar
dome and turboprop engines would be
different, and it would be an exciting model for
the builder, pilot, and judges.
George wanted to make the early-warning
radar work/rotate while the model was in
flight. It took some time to figure out exactly
how he was going to do it, but a servo in the
dome serves as the motor for turning the dome.
It works like clockwork, and the dome doesn’t
impede the flight controls at all.
One of the more interesting aspects of the
model is the aluminum finish. These types of
finishes have been difficult to achieve in the
past, and they’re not for the faint-of-heart
modeler who is short on building time. George
says he gets several questions about the
model’s finish. They’re usually:
1) What is it covered with?
2) What did you use to apply the rivets and
how many are there?
3) What did you weather it with?
The answer to the first question seems to
surprise most modelers. Although aluminum
tape has been used to cover Scale models for
many years, most modelers believe that it is
too heavy or too difficult to apply. George
thinks both notions are false.
If you are interested in using aluminum
tape, George will refer you to Ed Clayman’s
Scale Aero site. There is a wealth of
information there, so browse around and click
on “Flite-Metal,” and you will have all of the
information you need to buy and apply the
aluminum finish for your new model.
The aluminum panels are assembled
starting from the back and bottom of the
aircraft and working forward on the fuselage.
Some aircraft have little or no overlap with the
aluminum panels. Using a template for each
panel is a good idea, and it will decrease the
number of errors you may make when
installing the panels. The rivet process requires
its own article, so I’ll save that one until later.
Your airframe’s weathering is your choice,
based on your documentation; it can be shiny,
grimy, have exhaust carbon, oil streaks, etc. To
dirty up the Tu-4 and show off its rivets,
Russian Bear George generously applied black latex paint he
purchased (in a 2-ounce bottle) from a craft
store to the airframe.
He allowed it to set briefly, then he
continually wiped the surface with a damp
cloth until he obtained the desired effect. Some
panels can be taped off with blue masking tape
and polished with any compound. (Go easy
here; it only takes a few seconds to polish a
panel.)
The model has to be handled carefully
because the thin metal finish can be damaged
by too much touching; some people just have
to see if it’s really metal. George has put
together an additional panel to show off the
metal and the process of making the rivets on
the skin, of which there are approximately
120,000.
According to some modelers, there are
many technological advances in this airframe.
George describes his efforts as putting together
existing technology from different sources to
construct this model.
Team Scale has had a positive effect on
Scale modeling. It brings new and sometimes
different models not only to competition, but
for all of us to enjoy.
Thanks to George Maiorana for the
technical information about the AEW
turboprop.
Fair skies and tailwinds. MA
—Stan Alexander
Specifications:
Wingspan: 115 inches
Wing area: 1,150 square inches
Weight: 30 pounds
Propellers: Custom homemade carbon-fiber
four-blade
Scale ratio: 1:15
Motors: Four MaxNEO-13Y
Gearing: 2.73:1
Fuel: 48 Panasonic 3000 mA NiMH cells
Radio: Futaba 9ZAP
Sources:
MaxCim Motors
57 Hawthorne Dr.
Orchard Park NY 14127
(716) 662-5651
[email protected]
www.maxcim.com
Flite-Metal
Scale Aero (Ed Clayman)
16115 Espinosa Dr.
Houston TX 77083
(281) 530-5823
[email protected]
www.scaleaero.com
Continued from page 23
Edition: Model Aviation - 2003/09
Page Numbers: 23,27
Edition: Model Aviation - 2003/09
Page Numbers: 23,27
George Maiorana brought a new airplane to the Weak Signals’
Toledo Show and to Top Gun this year. It is a model of an aircraft I
haven’t seen before, but it looks familiar. Before static judging at
Top Gun, George was still adding parts to the aircraft. Talk about
waiting until the last minute!
I thought you might be interested in some background and some
of the processes that George went through while building the Tu-4
and the Chinese AEW aircraft, which are both powered by electric
motors.
There were three Boeing B-29 Superfortresses that made
emergency landings in Vladivostok in the Soviet Union in 1944.
The crews were allowed to leave, but the communist military kept
their aircraft.
Two of the airplanes were disassembled for detailed evaluation
and their parts were sent throughout the Soviet Union to be copied.
The third copy was kept in flying condition for evaluation. What
resulted was an almost exact copy of the Boeing B-29 that was
designated the Tu-4. More than 1,200 Tu-4s were built up until
1953.
George Maiorana and Skip Mast spent many hours collecting
information about the B-29 and documenting the aircraft in the US
Air Force Museum at Dayton, Ohio. They measured the different
parts of the aircraft, how high it sits off of the ground at different
points, and they took many photos for the design work and for
building the models that would follow.
This is the third airframe from the original design that George
built. The first was the Miss America ’62, which was powered by
four four-stroke engines. That model was demolished in a crash
after losing one engine, stalling, and going in. George decided that
that was it for “wet power,” and he switched to electric power for
all of his models; he reasoned that electric would be more reliable.
The second model was built as an electric-powered Russian Tu-
September 2003 23
A Russian Bear
George Maiorana’s Chinese AEW was on display at the 2003 Weak Signals Toledo Show in Ohio. Notice the scalelike aluminum finish.
MaxCim electric motors reside in the elongated turboprop
nacelles. Note the scale exhaust outlets.
You can see the rotating radar dome that sits atop the
Continued on page 27 fuselage behind the wing. An amazing effort
September 2003 27
4 covered with Flite-Metal. During the past
three contest seasons with the Tu-4 and the
numerous wins in Team Scale with pilot Dave
Pinegar, George’s belief about electric power
seems to have been proven correct.
George contacted Tom Cimato of MaxCim
Motors, gave him the most recent B-29’s
specifications, and with Tom’s help he knew
that electric power would be possible for the
competition Tu-4. The MaxCim coreless
motors with the gear drive would make the
large Tu-4 fly well in whatever configuration
George wanted.
With George’s craftsmanship in the shop
and Dave Pinegar’s piloting skills, the two of
them have been a scourge of the Team Scale
circuit in the past couple years. They have won
at Top Gun, the Scale Nationals, and the US
Scale Masters Championships.
This new effort came from the idea that the
Chinese version with early-warning radar
dome and turboprop engines would be
different, and it would be an exciting model for
the builder, pilot, and judges.
George wanted to make the early-warning
radar work/rotate while the model was in
flight. It took some time to figure out exactly
how he was going to do it, but a servo in the
dome serves as the motor for turning the dome.
It works like clockwork, and the dome doesn’t
impede the flight controls at all.
One of the more interesting aspects of the
model is the aluminum finish. These types of
finishes have been difficult to achieve in the
past, and they’re not for the faint-of-heart
modeler who is short on building time. George
says he gets several questions about the
model’s finish. They’re usually:
1) What is it covered with?
2) What did you use to apply the rivets and
how many are there?
3) What did you weather it with?
The answer to the first question seems to
surprise most modelers. Although aluminum
tape has been used to cover Scale models for
many years, most modelers believe that it is
too heavy or too difficult to apply. George
thinks both notions are false.
If you are interested in using aluminum
tape, George will refer you to Ed Clayman’s
Scale Aero site. There is a wealth of
information there, so browse around and click
on “Flite-Metal,” and you will have all of the
information you need to buy and apply the
aluminum finish for your new model.
The aluminum panels are assembled
starting from the back and bottom of the
aircraft and working forward on the fuselage.
Some aircraft have little or no overlap with the
aluminum panels. Using a template for each
panel is a good idea, and it will decrease the
number of errors you may make when
installing the panels. The rivet process requires
its own article, so I’ll save that one until later.
Your airframe’s weathering is your choice,
based on your documentation; it can be shiny,
grimy, have exhaust carbon, oil streaks, etc. To
dirty up the Tu-4 and show off its rivets,
Russian Bear George generously applied black latex paint he
purchased (in a 2-ounce bottle) from a craft
store to the airframe.
He allowed it to set briefly, then he
continually wiped the surface with a damp
cloth until he obtained the desired effect. Some
panels can be taped off with blue masking tape
and polished with any compound. (Go easy
here; it only takes a few seconds to polish a
panel.)
The model has to be handled carefully
because the thin metal finish can be damaged
by too much touching; some people just have
to see if it’s really metal. George has put
together an additional panel to show off the
metal and the process of making the rivets on
the skin, of which there are approximately
120,000.
According to some modelers, there are
many technological advances in this airframe.
George describes his efforts as putting together
existing technology from different sources to
construct this model.
Team Scale has had a positive effect on
Scale modeling. It brings new and sometimes
different models not only to competition, but
for all of us to enjoy.
Thanks to George Maiorana for the
technical information about the AEW
turboprop.
Fair skies and tailwinds. MA
—Stan Alexander
Specifications:
Wingspan: 115 inches
Wing area: 1,150 square inches
Weight: 30 pounds
Propellers: Custom homemade carbon-fiber
four-blade
Scale ratio: 1:15
Motors: Four MaxNEO-13Y
Gearing: 2.73:1
Fuel: 48 Panasonic 3000 mA NiMH cells
Radio: Futaba 9ZAP
Sources:
MaxCim Motors
57 Hawthorne Dr.
Orchard Park NY 14127
(716) 662-5651
[email protected]
www.maxcim.com
Flite-Metal
Scale Aero (Ed Clayman)
16115 Espinosa Dr.
Houston TX 77083
(281) 530-5823
[email protected]
www.scaleaero.com
Continued from page 23
