Radio Control: Scale
TOMORROW MORNING I'll be packing for Indianapolis, Indiana, for a visit with the good people of ISC International. ISC International is a familiar name to most of us, primarily as the North American distributor of Zenoah Engines, GMS (Gemtec Machinery Systems) Model Engines of China, and that great ISC ARC/ARF 1/4-scale J-3 Cub. Following my day at ISC, I'll drive to Muncie for the RC Scale portion of the National Aeromodeling Championships and my first look at AMA's new Indiana home. Everything on the grapevine says the new location is a marked improvement over the Reston, Virginia facility, and I honestly can't wait to see it. I'm taking along a lot of film, so you can share the experience.
Radio Control: Scale
MODELERS' PROJECTS: I met Bob McKenna at the WRAM show in New York a year or two ago. He promised to send a photo of the Ultimate he was building, and the pictures finally arrived. Bob's blue-and-white Goldberg airplane is finished in 21st Century Fabric and 21st Century Paint. The markings are from Paul and Dan Major at Major Decals (a division of Northeast Screen Graphics). These markings are based on dumentation received from Bob Banka's Scale Model Research. A Super Tigre .90 two-stroke provides plenty of power up front. Nice airplane, Bob; it looks real good against that friendly Florida sky.
Choose the Correct Finish
The kit box is empty, the instruction manual has all of its little boxes checked, but your airplane's still in bare bones. Now what? What do you do when construction is done and finishing time comes around? A countless number of techniques and an even greater number of materials are available for finishing model aircraft, but how does one decide which is the best material or method? Choosing finishing methods and materials has long been one of modeling's major dilemmas and one of its most controversial battlegrounds. Every modeler you speak to has his or her own idea of which finishing methods and materials are best. Who's right? Who's wrong? What do you use and why do you use it?
Radio Control: Scale
FABRIC COVERINGS: Many Scale models are covered with fabric, then primed and painted to precisely match the full-scale aircraft they're emulating. Without a doubt, fabric coverings are some of the easiest-to-handle model finishing materials, but they still have their share of quirks. Have you ever covered a model with a polyester fabric (such as Colortex, Solartex, Super Coverite, or Worldtex), painted it with more than one color, then experienced a major disaster when the masking tape pulled away every layer of the paint job when it was removed? If it's happened to you, and it has probably happened to most of us, don't be too quick to blame the products you're working with. The problem is more often caused by the method than by manufacturing. Even if the products you selected were individually the best, the combination of the products may not have been the best.
Radio Control: Scale
THIS YEAR, the previously titled "youth issue" of Model Aviation has been more accurately dubbed the "Newcomer issue." The purpose of this special annual issue was never to compile topics relating only to children, but rather to provide useful first-step information in each of aeromodeling's many categories to neophyte modelers of any age group. You don't have to be a beginner to modeling, but if you happen to be a beginner to a specific discipline, like RC Scale, then this is your issue and you've got your nose in the right place. Radio Control Scale modeling is considered by many to be taboo territory for those who are relatively new to the hobby. I'm here to let you know that this doesn't have to be the case; you can fly a Scale model as a low-time RC pilot if you pick your subject carefully. At its upper levels, RC Scale can be a difficult and wholly consuming discipline, but with more casual involvement, it can be easy, fun, and especially rewarding. The prerequisite to success in Scale (or any other undertaking) is primarily dependent on knowing your abilities and choosing appropriate projects that will complement your skills.
