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| hjlittman | Trillium Balsa LC004 Citabria | Parked | 06-Sep-11 17:08 |  | | Views : 1552 | | You ever have one of those conversations that starts with "What if you...", or "I wonder what would happen if..."? Well, this is the result of one of those conversations, a tailless (well, elevatorless) model made of a foam picnic plate. Yes, it does fly! It.was a complete b**** to trim, but flies better than the improved Citabria. |
| hjlittman | Comet Kit #3204 - North American P-51A | Build | 06-Sep-11 16:57 |  | | Views : 1414 | | Mustang is putting on weight. Plastic spinner is from another Mustang kit to the same approximate scale. I will make a lighter plastic for flying. Still needs control surface outlines on wings and exhaust stacks. Trying to keep it under 30 grams with rubber. |
| hjlittman | Trillium Balsa LC004 Citabria | Parked | 06-Sep-11 16:51 |  | | Views : 1194 | | Modified for "white prop". New prop is much lighter so required another rebalance. This time weight in nose. Still weighs 17 grams. Needed a 1/32" shaft for new prop so I drilled 1/8" hole in Guillow's thrust button and slipped Peck thrust button in hole. Works fine. |
| hjlittman | Comet Kit #3204 - North American P-51A | Build | 30-Aug-11 14:48 |  | | Views : 1374 | | Well, I got the wing recovered, but I'm still having trouble with the metallized tissue. I have other projects to attend to and this is not for competition, so I amd going to try a heat gun on the wrinkles, declare it done, and finish it. I'[m sure it will fly OK anyway. |
| hjlittman | Trillium Balsa LC004 Citabria | Build | 25-Aug-11 19:29 |  | | Views : 1095 | | Citabria on the balance rig for rebalance after a small change.. |
| hjlittman | Comet Kit #3204 - North American P-51A | Build | 25-Aug-11 19:27 |  | | Views : 1384 | | Covering on. Fuselage is OK, but this is the first time I tried to cover a wing with pre-shrunk tissue. Metallized Esaki is not the best choice for a first attempt at any technique. I'm going to rip it off and do it again. |
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| hjlittman | Trillium Balsa LC004 Citabria | Parked | 15-Aug-11 16:32 |  | | Views : 1170 | | Trillium Balsa, kit LC004, Citabria. It is not produced currently. It was on my shelf for years,so I decided to build it right out of the box. The laser cut kit had excellent strip wood, but sheet wood that was about 18 pounds per cubic foot. The laser cutting was clean and it went together quite quickly revealing some inaccuracies in the front former shapes that were sanded out. The .025" acetate material supplied for the canopy would have been great for a U-control gas job but not a peanut so I replaced it with some .005" acetate that is reasonably light. The canopy pattern on the plan was way off and it took a couple of tries to get the front of the canopy to fit over the wings. Light silkspan was supplied in the kit, which I used, but Esaki tissue would be better. The front end supplied in the kit was Guillow's 500 series stuff. and actually made the model nose heavy. It took a half gram of clay in the back to balance it. All up, ready to fly, including the nice piece of rubber that came in the kit it weighs 17 grams. Surprisingly enough, it actually does fly, but is very sensitive to small thrust line adjustments. It does need more thrust and a little less weight. I could just give up on it and put it on the shelf, but I am going to change to a "white prop" with a Peck bearing to see if the performance can be improved. After all, it meets the primary goal of flying and landing without breaking itself, and it is rather cute. |
| hjlittman | Comet Kit #3204 - North American P-51A | Build | 11-Aug-11 10:46 |  | | Views : 1444 | | Mustang ready for covering. The framework has been sealed with 50/50 IPN finish and water. The fuselage is strong enough to cover wet, but Iam going to use pre-shrunk tissue on the wings and tail feathers. |
| hjlittman | Comet Kit #3204 - North American P-51A | Build | 11-Jul-11 17:14 |  | | Views : 1397 | | Extra spar in wing, based on past experience. |
| hjlittman | Comet Kit #3204 - North American P-51A | Build | 11-Jul-11 17:12 |  | | Views : 1566 | | Added daigonal bracing in center fuselage bays, detachable nose block. and bottom spar in wing. Didn't remember this series being quite this light in late '40's and early '50s...Oh, yes! This strip wood is Balsa! |
| hjlittman | Easy Built Heinkel 112 | Parked | 03-Mar-11 13:35 |  | | Views : 1344 | | The motor jammed back onto the peg. This makes a model this light really out of balance. At least the prop, peg, and motor are salvagable. |
| hjlittman | Easy Built Heinkel 112 | Parked | 03-Mar-11 13:33 |  | | Views : 1725 | | OK, I ^%#$@&* give up! It wasn't a very good scale replica of an He-112B anyway. The Comet one is more accurate but still has some errors, so I think I will draw one up myself. You would think that the way it floated around that it was too light to hurt itself, but the motor came off the hook as it climbed out and it did an indescribable series of mamuvers before impacting the grass. That's what I get for using the hook that came in the kit instead of my usual prop shaft or a Gizmo Geezer front end. |
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