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| hjlittman | HJL Models OD-17 Plain Plane | Parked | 17-Oct-17 18:40 |  | | Views : 819 | | Another one built for the contest |
| hjlittman | HJL Models OD-17 Plain Plane | Parked | 17-Oct-17 18:39 |  | | Views : 861 | | One of the models built by an O.F.F.C member for the One Design Contest |
| hjlittman | HJL Models OD-17 Plain Plane | Build | 24-Aug-17 13:53 |  | | Views : 1082 | | Here's what it looked like at the end of the next day's building session. |
| hjlittman | HJL Models OD-17 Plain Plane | Build | 24-Aug-17 13:50 |  | | Views : 833 | | Every summer, when my grandson goes to science camp at the California Science Center, I sit in the food court of the Science Center and build model airplanes while I'm waiting for his class to end. This year I build the definitive version of the OD-17 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and started on the production version of my Irish Jumping Bean, Bo0stonian, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I get about two hours of working time each day. Since I also become something of a museum exhibit I am also answering the question of passers by. The redesign of the OD-17 is subtle (Compare the "bones shot" photos.) but it is now even easier to build and what I consider some weak spots have been eliminated. I don't know how much time I will get to test it at the O.F.F.C. meeting on Wednesday, since there is a contest, but I will attempt a video. Some of the comments that people make when seeing someone building a stick and tissue model are interesting: The best millennial comment was, "Doing something like that is like Chitty Chitty Bang Band old!" One teenage girl asked me how long it would take me to build the model I was working on (Irish Jumping Bean). I told her about 10 hours. She turned to her friends and said, "OMG, ten hours for just one of those? I can't imagine working on anything like that for 10 hours." The best one was the 8 or 9 year old kid watching me pin down the plans. "What's that?" he said pointing. The kid had never seen a thumb tack! This pic was on 07/24. |
| hjlittman | HJL Models OD-17 Plain Plane | Build | 24-Aug-17 13:47 |  | | Views : 784 | | Another view with the skin on. It flew quite well but I decided to make some changes to the structure of the fuselage to make it easier to build, |
| hjlittman | HJL Models OD-17 Plain Plane | Build | 24-Aug-17 13:45 |  | | Views : 769 | | This year, I am the CD for the O.F.F.C. One Design contest in October. It's usually some very simple model, either an old classic from the 30s or 40s or something the CD dreams up himself. Some of the members (a few in their 90s) complained that they were beginning to have difficulty building frames with 1/16" square stock. Since I manufacture my own kits and have a laser cutter I decided to design a model with sheet sides, a heavier wing structure, with laminated formers and tail group outlines that could be built more easily, by someone loosing the feeling in their fingertips, while still being a good flier. My intent was to kit some up for the members who wanted to enter. I announced it and showed the prototype at the meeting last Wednesday and, so far, I'm producing a dozen. This model, the OD-17 (One Design 2017) should be an easy and satisfying project for a beginner. I'll be sending a few to selected modelers to get feedback as to whether or not I should make it into a regular production kit. The photo is the first prototype stuck together for a "bones shot" on July 07. |
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| hjlittman | HJL Models Beanberg DI | Parked | 16-Jul-17 00:46 |  | | Views : 628 | | Close up of the Beanburg D1. Anyone recognize the pilot in the picklehaub? |
| hjlittman | HJL Models Beanberg DI | Parked | 16-Jul-17 00:40 |  | | Views : 643 | | This is my latest Bostonian the Beanburg D1. It's a bit like the Red Baron meets Dick Dastardly, but flies quite well. |
| hjlittman | HJL Models Beanberg DI | Parked | 23-Jun-17 13:45 |  | | Views : 605 | | Do you ever think that non-modelers just don't get it? |
| hjlittman | Dave Diels Engineering, Inc Kit #1, Boeing F4B-2 | Reference | 03-Jun-17 18:07 |  | | Views : 626 | | The real F4B was not a very big airplane. Pilots claimed that you could make it do a 180 degree turn by hanging your arm out of the cockpit. |
| hjlittman | Guillows Series 300 - Cessna 150 | Parked | 01-Feb-17 18:28 |  | | Views : 1398 | | I finally got my Cessna150 together. It's not one of my better efforts, but it's done and it flies. It is a straight out-of-the-box build except for the removable nose and the locating pins for the wings. Now, here is a comment on the quality of the current Guillow's wood...it weighs 48 grams! While not contest material, at that weight (It would be no trouble to get 10 grams out of it.), with that much wing area it is a more than adequate sport flier on four strands of 1/8" tan sport rubber, about 1-1/2 times the hook to peg length. That's quite an improvement over the die-cut days, the last 300 series model I built out-of-the-box weighed 78 grams ready to fly. Don't get me wrong, the old one flew, but not as well as this one. Interestingly enough, with enough ballast in the nose to fly well (8 bb shot) it still doesn't have enough weight in the nose to sit on the nose gear...curious. I had a minor disaster when I used a new paint pen to draw the door outlines on the fuselage. The line bled badly on the floral spray painted tissue. It looked terrible! The paint in the pen is waterproof and I was about to respray the fuselage when it occurred to me that the paint might no be alcohol proof.. Sure enough, 91% alcohol and some Q-tips took the paint right off. Unfortunately, it also took off some of the floral spray leaving a smudged outline where the bad door outline had been. I still had to re-spray the side of the fuselage but I already had markings and windows in place so I had to mask. This is where I first used Frog Tape For Delicate Surfaces. It worked beautifully and did not damage the tissue or painted surfaces at all. I would have normally used air brush frisket, but I had no spray bleeding at all with the Frog Tape. It's something I'll be using from now on. (No, that was simply a tip, not a paid commercial!) Unfortunately, the real Cessna 150 this was modeled after was written off in a hard landing accident a few years back. |
| hjlittman | HJL Models Wright Amount of Wrong | Parked | 31-Jan-17 15:29 |  | | Views : 986 | | Finally! The production version of the Wright Amount of Wrong Embryo. Available on my web site 02/02/17. Yes, there are Wheel pants in the kit. |
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