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Guillows Series 500 - FW 190 by scigs30. Viewed 1672 times.
Build Thread
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| Image Comments |
| scigs30 | 12-Mar-08 23:29 | | All done. Final wt. 31.4 grams. |
| supercub | 12-Mar-08 23:35 | | How do you get the models so light? I don't notice any massive lightening - what's your trick? (I built a Guillows 500 Series Hellcat and I had to take out lots of material to get the flying weight down to about an ounce.) :-) |
| scigs30 | 12-Mar-08 23:43 | | I don't think 31.4 grams is considered light for a model with only a 17 inch wing span. This is the balanced weight without the rubber. Things I do to keep it light, I don't paint the tissue. I sand the wood smooth and I scalp the formers between the stringers with sandpaper before covering. |
| scigs30 | 13-Mar-08 01:46 | | My Guillows Messerschmidt Bf 109 was a complete overhaul. I used quality balsa and used a lot less balsa. I laminated the curved surfaces and used balsa instead of plastic. I covered with Esaki. right now with wheels, prop, all surfaces covered and doped. The Bf 109 is coming in at just over 10 grams. I still have to glue the rudder and stab on and some minor details and it will be done. But what a big weight difference. |
| David Duckett | 13-Mar-08 07:35 | | Do you have any pictures of one of your models actually flying? |
| hjlittman | 13-Mar-08 08:33 | | Although Guillow's has made a concious effort to get better balsa in recent years, there are still a lot of old stock kits in the pipeline. To see how long the kit has been on the shelf, check the date code on the back of the decal sheet in the kit. (Two digit, month-year.) The kit was packaged two to three months after that date. They are trying for ten pound balsa which will make a 500 series kit that will weigh 23 to 25 grams finished. Not spectacular, but quite flyable. They can't go much lighter in the balsa because the dies are worn and will mash, not cut, the lighter, softer balsa. I had to do the same thing that Dave did with my Bf-109 kit. It had the heaviest balsa I have ever seen. It calculated out to twenty-seven pounds per cubic foot, literally in the bottom of the range for red oak. The model, built with that wood, and the plastics, would have weighed about forty-four grams, dry. That would definitely not have been flyable. My Stuka, built with the typical, older Guillow's seventeen pound balsa and with lightening holes and sanding, weighs thirty-six grams and will fly nineteen seconds. That's really as heavy as you can go and still make one of these things fly. I have used a simple drill press thickness sander, designed by Orv Olm, to sand Guillows parts sheets with some success. The Hellcat, from sixteen pound balsa, sanded and with lightening holes, weighs twenty-seven grams, with hallast and rubber. Let's agree that we are all talking about flying weight, with rubber, here. The "dry" weight of these models includes the ballast needed to make them balance (Most 500 series kits are quite tail heavy.) and the rubber motor you put in them is normally fifteen to twenty percent of the dry weight. With 500 series kits, anything under thirty grams should fly reasonably well. |
| scigs30 | 13-Mar-08 13:04 | | I want to take pictures of my planes and Estes rockets flying, but my Kodak Easy share is a little too old and slow. My girlfriend has tried to take pictures but they don't turn out. We are looking into a new camera as we speak. |
| scigs30 | 13-Mar-08 14:39 | | These kits are not designed to win any contest. The best flying planes are built from quality plans. Model Builder produced a plans book years ago with WWII planes. These are nice looking birds and will fly great. The problem is I don't have the time or desire to put that much effort in a plane that is hanging from my ceiling. I am happy flying my Guillow kits for 15 to 30 second range. I started my BF 109 kit a few years ago and still not done. |
| supercub | 13-Mar-08 15:04 | | Yeah, I had the same problem with my Hellcat, it flys well and glides well, but that was only after lots of lightening and recutting of several parts, because it had mostly good balsa, but one sheet was so soft that you squeeze it thinner with your fingers, and one sheet was a VERY hard "C" grain balsa, but with some work, I got it down to about 3/4 of an ounce, (I only have a pelouze 0-5 lb. spring action mail scale.) and it flys well in the yard. (I haven't gone to the park and tried any long flights yet.) |
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