I started the build on Sunday evening and without too much effort it completed ready for covering this Tuesday evening. Certainly the cheapest and fastest build of any model I`ve constructed to date. Here then are a few shots of the Banjo build with more to come once I`ve covered this little horror. I think it will go like stink...I wonder if I can keep up with it! Its definitely a Trevor type model. He loves  models that go like a rocket!

Mike

I`ve just ordered one of the typical "plan and timber packs" from Richard at DB. The kit is currently on special offer at £108 plus a tenners postage. This might suggest that Richard has a few on the shelf ready for dispatch. Previous order experience through DB suggests the kit may arrive with me in a couple of weeks if it has to be manufactured due to low stock levels. In the meantime I have a Seagull Steen Skybolt on order from Rob at Avicraft. I`m hoping to see that here sometime this week which should keep me occupied until the Twin Tub arrives.

Already to hand here are the wheels, coverings, two new fuel tanks with fuel tubing and filters, two OS.46 two strokes one of which has only been lightly run whilst its brother is new in box. Spinners and two new 13x6 props are to hand, various servo leads, Y-leads, control horns, wheel collets and most other commonly needed bits and pieces. I just need a few servos and some pushrod snakes.  The kit comes with a plan, pre-bent ali cabanes and landing gear, pre-cut major component parts and pre-cut wing ribs. In addition, an appropriate quantity of sheet balsa and strip is included together with pre-cut fuselage formers etc.

Watch this thread for further developments.

Mike

DBSS Twin Tub Instructions.pdf

Robs design is bullet proof. I suppose every modeller eventually has to have one in their hangar collection. As we know, the model is as simple and functional as it gets. The kit is distributed by J Perkins and produced in Pakistan. The timber grades are first rate and the laser cutting the most accurate I`ve yet seen.

The build was a doddle. Not perhaps easy for the first time builder but quickly put together if you have a couple of other model builds under your belt. My total build time was about 75hrs with probably around 12 of those hours being spent on the fiddly colour scheme.

You will need to find around £105 for the kit. On top of that, you will need to provide a fuel tank, wheels, control horns, clevises, link rods, cyno hinges, cyno adhesive and quick set epoxy,  glass wing tape, typical industrial slow cure laminating epoxy resin, piano wire for control push rods, clevis connectors and a bit of 5/16"dowel for the elevator push rod. You will also need to provide covering film, radio gear, power unit (glow or electric) and servos. My cost tot up comes to around £220 which includes a brand new and un-run SC .75 two stroke motor bought on eBay for just £28 including post.

My Panic was completed inside eight days. One wing was built, sheeted and covered in about ten hours. Robs foolproof constructional detailing ensures the wings come off the board, straight, true and flat. The final all up flying weight with seven metal geared servos, without any ballast and with a dry tank came out at 6.9Lb which Rob tells me is acceptable.

The colour scheme is a bit manic but apparently good for a Panic. It was Frantically applied by a Moronic....Nuff said!

What is the kit like then? Perfectly acceptable in my opinion; simple to build, easy enough to jam full of control gear. Nothing to it really. A nice problem free build with a quick result. Now lets see how it flies.....

Mike

This is the 60" Bi-stormer from the late David Boddingtons` drawing board. Essentially the model is a Barnstormer with two wings. The design is about fifty years old and is much loved as a medium sized, soft floater for balmy summer evening flying. Images below show progress made to date. A 72" version is also available but is a little too big for my storage and transport convenience. Build costs also escalate the bigger a model is. I found that out to my cost during the Midwest Extra build.

I bought the DB Sport and Scale kit last week direct from the makers in Wales. The kit is very much a "short" production type at £110 delivered. Delivery/production took about a week. DB Sport  has changed hands several times since the late David Boddington sold it on. The kit is not really a true kit when compared to modern offerings. Much of it is "missing". You get a plan, dural landing gear and cabane struts, pre-cut sheet balsa fuselage sides, a few ply bulkheads, two wing rib packs and a few other assorted air-frame parts. It is all very basic indeed but what do you expect for the money after the producer has made some profit?

The traditional construction of the model is sticks, twigs, sheet and the odd bit of ply. Building the kit is rather like constructing a Keil Craft Super 60. To complete the model it is necessary to purchase wing sheeting, leading and trailing edge material and balsa square section for the fuselage longitudinal members together with control horns and snakes, wheels, collects, coverings, etc. By the time you have all the parts together, you are looking at about £240 as a finished model. Price wise, a pre-covered ARTF makes better financial sense but I wanted a nice model to scratch (or nearly scratch) build so obtaining a near ready to fly model wasn`t an issue or was value for money much of a consideration. Perhaps price wise as a kit, its probable value is little more than £70. The extra £40 can be regarded as the makers slender profit for getting it into a box and flinging it in the post! This type of cottage industry produced kit will always be quirky and relatively basic. It is what it is and it ain`t what it ain`t! So you accept what it is and get on with the build.

The build is quick and easy once you have rounded up all the extra required timber scantlings. The majority of construction has been done with Screwfix CA adhesive or Toolstation 4 minute epoxy. Both products are as cheap as it gets and have become my favoured adhesives. I don`t use much alaphatic white glue but when I do, I`ve used Gorilla Glue which seems to set up quickly and is water resistant.

I usually do between eight and ten hours building each day. The fuselage and tail feathers have therefore taken about seventy hours work. It is not so much the volume building that takes the time but the attention to detail. That said the experience of building this model to date is very pleasing. It is a pretty little bi-plane which is known to fly extremely well. I now have to build the wings and cover the whole model. I envisage about another one hundred hours needed for that. If all goes well, the model should be capable of flying within the next three weeks subject to all continuing to progress well. Elevators and rudder are a little larger than standard. Many builders have said the larger elevators help when it comes to three pointing the model when landing. The top wing will loose its dihedral in favour of a flat wing. Ailerons are also described as a little non reactive so I expect to increase size slightly and perhaps to include ailerons on both wings. Advice will be sought from Rob Newman today when I go over to Bromley for further building supplies.

Colour scheme? Not really thought about yet but the model has strong likenesses to the Stearman. I do quite fancy a silver machine with white and red checker and RAF markings. Pre-war the University Air Squadron operated Tiger Moths and Hawker bi-planes at airshows of the period. Essentially those guys were the forerunners of the Red Arrows. If you know the Shuttleworth Tiger Moth, then you will have some idea of what I have in mind.

Power will come from the auction sourced £4 SC.61 which is now in fine order having had its carburetor cleaned out and a missing needle valve spring replaced. Compression is excellent and it is quite clear this motor hasn`t seen much action. It is the right size and "shape" for this model but if power is marginal, then I have a brand new ASP.75 which has identical external sized components to the SC.61. Both motors were built in the same Chinese factory but are just badge engineered as an SC or an ASP.

The dead Dynam Hurricane pilot has been resuscitated and lives to fight another day in this model. Harry Hawker flies again! The remains of his air-frame have donated a bullet-proof windshield which fits the top deck to perfection.

More on this model as it progresses.

Mike.

I’m coming to the end of my next scratch-built project, the Sphinx VTOL (photos on my Instagram page orange_rc_pilot), and I was wondering to what extent I can run my motors beyond their max current rating. I’m using 3 of these: https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-d2836-9-950kv-brushless-outrunner-motor.html on 4s and 1147 props, and I got 27.4A max current, whereas they’re rated for 23.2A - is this all right?? (My ESC is a plush 30A one so I’m not worried about damaging that)

I’d only ever be at max throttle for a few seconds on takeoff/landing, or perhaps not at all if I can get away with just 80% throttle or thereabouts. So it’s not like I’m constantly going to be pulling 27A - but I don’t know how long these motors can handle being pushed beyond their limits. 

Any ideas at all would be greatly appreciated - I’m still learning! I’ve spent over 150 hours on this project and I’d hate for something as stupid as a burned-out motor to cause a crash. 

Thanks,

Sevan. 

Thanks, Gavin!

B  

I have been gifted a brand new mini frantic kit by a friend. As most of you should now know I'm hopeless at anything that doesn't say ARTF or RTF on the box. I have been given a motor and a few various bits. Has anyone got one so I can ask them a few questions?

B  

Does anyone know the answer to this? I am building a CAP232 from scratch (don't ask why, it's just one of those things I have to get out of my system). Something I have never really thought about before, should the angle of attack of the tailplane be parallel to that of the wing or should it be tilted slightly up (to give the tail some extra lift) or down (for whatever reason)? If the angles are different, by how much?

Wingspan: 57"

Fuse length: 48"

Happy Easter

I thought this might be of interest to some; in my current build I was trying to find a more accurate way of jigging and lining up on the fuselage than just eyeballing vertical lines drawn on formers. I found that my cross-line laser level fixed to a rafter in my workshop and pointed directly at my SLEC building jig is a very nice solution.

Screen Shot 2015-06-10 at 21.35.39.png[/attachment]

Current state of the wing for my SLEC Fun Fly is:

Anyway ... Came across this blog today my Matt Poots. Very nice blog about building large scale (200cc) kits from scratch.

http://www.aerobatics-ni.org.uk/wpc/

Any recommendations of paints to use and what to fuel proof them with? Also any tips on making it "look right" without using 100 different colours (which most of the guides on Internet seem to mandate) would be gratefully received!

I've got acrylics handy, but have a feeling Humbrol enamels or maybe even artists oils might be better.

more specifically a martin mars seaplane.

as what im going to be doing is building 1 from scratch using plywood for the struts and basic structure with and sheeting with either ply or another hard wood and the fibre glassing the whole fuselage.

heres a picture of it:

heres the actual measurements of the real plane:

wing span: 200ft

wing width: 18.43ft

wing area: 3686ft2

plane length: 117.3ft

plane height: 38.5ft

and heres the measurements of the finished project (or im hoping for anyway):

wing span: 12.5ft

wing width: 1.15ft

plane length: 7.0825ft

plane height: 2.4075ft

this works out to be 1/16th scaling of the full size plane.

anyway, what do you all think of the idea.

http://www.tonynijhuisdesigns.co.uk/Spitfire46.htm

Alternative would be a Cambrian Fun-Fighter, but I prefer the built up wing of the Nijhuis.

BALANCING A BIPLANE

Usual Start point 25% - 23% MAC, but what is the MAC................

The MAC is the chord that represents the wings as a whole about which lift, drag and pitching moment forces act.

The MAC for a constant-chord, straight-wing biplane with no wing stagger is the chord of the top wing, since they are the same.

The MAC for a biplane with staggered wings (as Mini-Panic) is simply the combination of the top wings chord and the horizontal stagger distance.

To find the start CG, measure 25 percent of the MAC back from the top wings leading edge.

To find the MAC for a biplane with a swept top wing and a straight bottom wing (like an Ultimate), once you have determined the MAC as above, measure 25 percent of the MAC back from the leading edge and mark it on both top wing panels.

Connect the two points with a line, and then balance the biplane along this line.

Tune from this to your liking/after dive test, etc.

Firstly, I was asked where you get EPP sheet from. Well there is Avicraft, but they only have black carbon loaded EPP, which is significantly heavier, marginally stiffer, and difficult to decorate without adding LOADS of weight.

Foam from here:-

http://www.flyingwings.co.uk/store/index.php?cPath=87

Is the real deal, light and strong enough.

Now two suggestions for cheap easy to build EPP foam planes that are a HOOT:-

1.) The Simple Delta

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthre ... mple+delta

The Simple Delta, designed by a friend, is pretty quick with a range down to hover performance on only the same cheap motor as the FireFly, SP A2204, and a 500mAh 3S, copes really well with wind. If you can't build one of these in an evening there's no hope for you. Good Outdoors, pylon racer indoors!

2.) The Sumo

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthre ... light=sumo

The Sumo, and particularly the Mini-Sumo, is a fine "back garden" capable outdoor/indoor stunter with vertical take off and considerable high alpha slow fly potential! Bit more build skill required, but well worth the effort, as slow rolls are SO much fun, as is the challenge of landing back vertically!!

Am at that point in the build of my Magnatilla when I need to think about fuel proofing the front end of the fuselage. What do you all typically use for this task and how much of the fuselage should be coated (I'm erring toward the entire liteply structure if you know the Mag)?

I've heard some versions of Ronseal are perfectly good fuel-proofers. Can anyone elaborate as if I can pick it up from Homebase will be much better as I have little chance of getting near a model shop this weekend and don't want to wait for mail order if possible.

Cheers.

Arun

When building over a plan what do you all use to cover the plan to stop sticking and having to fly with the plan atached.

Any help welcome

Rod

The plane flew very well and handles well great roll rate and smooth as can be in flight. Behaves better than most delta's with a small drop in high on tight turns.

Pics attached.

Will fit the full pipe and shorten the manifold for next time.

Andre