Radio Control: Scale
POWDERED METAL FINISHES. Simulation of the finish on a bare aluminum airplane has always been a problem. Some modelers have used actual aluminum sheet on the exterior surface, and this may be the best solution. However, it requires skills in metalworking that are beyond the abilities of most Scale modelers, and it also introduces the possibility of radio interference. We can remember two all-metal models that were unmanageable in the air. The popular aluminum sheet scrap from printing establishments doesn't have the necessary polished surface.
Radio Control: Scale
TOLEDO. Two familiar planes were top prize winners at the Toledo Expo. Bob Nelitz's 1/3-scale Piper J-3 Cub was an easy victor in the Precision Scale class, as it should have been. The Cub must be the most nearly perfect Scale model ever built, and all of us will set our future standards by its quality. Every detail, right down to the tiny cowl fasteners, has been duplicated in a most flawless manner. The 30-lb., 12-ft.-span Cub, powered by a Quadra engine, required 1,200 hours of construction time. Finish is butyrate dope that had been flattened slightly to obtain a semi-matte luster. Construction materials were balsa, spruce, plywood, and birch dowels. The landing gear flexes in the prototype manner with operating shock cords, and the stabilizer trim is by means of a screw jack.
Radio Control: Scale
NEEDLE VALVES. Most of us in Scale modeling have a common problem-adjusting the needle valve of a completely cowled engine without making a hole in the cowl. All of our older models have the unsightly hole, but in recent times we have found methods of indirectly adjusting the needle.
Aeroscale '82
THE SEVENTH RC Scale World Championships, known as Aeroscale '82, was by far the most successful competition in the history of the event. Forty-three entrants represented 14 nations, and for the first time the Stand-Off Scale models outnumbered those in the F4C (Precision) class in a world competition. Quality of the airplanes, as well as of their flight, was very similar in the two classes. When all were assembled in the display and work hangar at Reno-Stead Airport, it was only possible to tell them apart by their label cards in most cases. As in the U.S., the two classes have almost completely blended into one. This opinion was shared by members of the official jury and the judges.
Radio Control: Scale
SCALE DOCUMENTATION. We seldom see Precision Scale models that are not scratch-built, but often see Sport Scale models built from kits. A scratch builder rarely needs help with documentation. If he can design and build a model from three-view drawings and his own photographs, he is usually blessed with an over-abundance of data. His only real problem is in the weeding out process with respect to which items to use in his documentation book.
