Radio Control: Giants
BACK IN THE "GOOD OLD DAYS" practically every full-scale airplane was covered with fabric. Fighters, bombers, transports, racers, and even homebuilts had doped muslin or linen to give them shape and aerodynamic substance. Speeds were 200 mph and below, so the cloth covering was more than adequate. Besides, it was light, cheap, and looked great when it was painted. However, the aeronautical state of the art progressed apace and it became necessary to stitch the fabric in place, particularly on control and support surfaces. Just doping the fabric to ribs and spars was clearly inadequate, because at speed, the fabric would "balloon" and destroy the airfoil shape. It soon became necessary to specify the number of stitches per rib as a function of anticipated airspeeds. This poses an interesting problem from a Scale model viewpoint. To be truly detailed, the covering on a fabric covered model should display rib-stitching at a scale spacing. But most research information seldom (if ever) includes this sort of nit-picking detail.
Radio Control: Giants
FEBRUARY 12, 1944 was a bitterly cold day in Douglas, Georgia. We'd had a light dusting of snow overnight but it didn't stick to the wings of the silver-painted Stearman PT-17s out on the flight line. I really didn't look forward to the day's flight in the open cockpit of the primary trainer. I had about nine hours in the PT and knew that I'd soon have to make my first solo flight. In anticipation of the biting cold, I bundled up in the Air Corps' winter flying gear. That included the fleece-lined pants held up with broad suspenders. Over that I wrestled into the thick fleece-lined jacket and pulled on the fleece-lined flying boots. When I put on the leather flying helmet, with its Gosport tube "ear muffs," I resembled a brown leather snowman.
Radio Control: Giants
IT WORKS BOTH WAYS! While most of us Giant Scalers are interested in going from large to small, there are many aircraft manufacturers who swear by going from small to large. Take, for instance, the folks at Lockheed. About 20 years ago they wanted to investigate whether their C-130 Hercules could be redesigned as flying boat. What did they do? They had their design produced as a large-sized RC model. Where computers and wind tunnels couldn't provide the necessary operational data, their big model could and did. The model information thus generated helped dissuade them from building a big, wet Hercules.
Radio Control: Giants
PAUL D. CRABTREE OF NORMAN, Oklahoma is some kind of Giant Scale modeler. When he received a set of Nick Ziroli's 1/5-scale drawings for the North American AT-6 as a 1987 Christmas present, he started on a mission to duplicate the Advanced Trainer that he'd flown for Uncle Sam. But he wasn't satisfied with just the externals; he also wanted to model the 6's internal scale details. And he did-to perfection! It took a massive research effort. Fortunately, he'd saved the AT-6 flight manuals that he'd acquired back in WW II. He also purchased several history books on the North American trainer, as well as its maintenance and erection "tech orders."
Radio Control Giants
ONE OF THE MORE exacting tasks facing a Scale builder comes when the aircraft is almost completed. The model has been covered and painted or has a smooth plastic covering in place with its basic color scheme. Now's the time to add the appropriate markings that identify the airplane as a miniature of a specific prototype. There are four primary techniques that may be used to add scale markings. They include the old standbys: decals, paint, and covering film cutouts. The fourth marking method uses the relatively new dry rub-on markings. Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of each marking type.
