The Toledo Show: R/C Model Expo
by Fred Cronenwett
clscale7@gmail.com
The Toledo Show: R/C Model Expo is sponsored by the Weak Signals R/C Club and is a great place to look at the stuff that we all use for our models, regardless of whether you fly Control Line (CL) or RC. The vendors show up with everything for our model airplanes and some offer show specials.
Although some vendors cater to the RC Giant Scale community, there is enough there for the CL Scale pilot. The swap shop had some good stuff. It is large enough that you could spend all day there and never get down the main show floor.
National Balsa was selling balsa, plywood, and laser-cut kits. Most of the laser-cut kits the company sells are considered RC Giant Scale, but the Nick Ziroli Plans P-47 with a 70-inch wingspan would be a great size for CL Scale. Buy the plans from Ziroli and the laser-cut parts from National Balsa and you are off building for next year. Another Ziroli kit that looked promising was the 80-inch wingspan Ercoupe.
For those who use fiberglass, a good stop was CST Composites to see what materials it had. The company offers a great selection of composite materials such as 70-ounce fiberglass cloth, which is easy to work with. We have so many choices when it comes to covering models—from iron-on film, silk, and Polyspan, to Solartex and fiberglass—that it can be difficult to decide which one is the best for you.
Dave’s R/C Electronics was present with an electronic timer to slow down the flaps. This simple board goes between the receiver and the flap servo. When the toggle switch on the transmitter is flipped to the down position, the servo slowly moves to that position, allowing you to change the elevator position to keep the model flying level. Dave also offers navigation lights and other electronic devices that will work with 2.4 GHz controls.
Dynamic Balsa and Hobby had its line of scale details that can be added to the cockpit to make a model look great. Using the latest 3-D printing technology, the cockpit details can have any shape and only need to be painted.
CL was well represented at the show with Brodak Manufacturing selling CL kits and accessories. Remember that any RC kit or ARF can be converted to CL, provided the motor is smaller than 1.25 cubic inches and weighs less than 20 pounds.
The show also featured plenty of vendors selling spinners, servos, electric motors, and all of the accessories that we use.
It’s a great chance to stock up on the hard-to-find stuff that your hobby shop does not offer.
Color Documentation
When you build a Scale model, you look at the full-scale aircraft to get the outline, scale details, markings, and color. The three-view is used for the outline of the aircraft, and the photographs are used for markings, details, and the color scheme.
Proving the color can be more difficult, especially if you build civilian aircraft. For military aircraft, historical information is available to determine the correct color based upon which nation flew the aircraft and the time period during which it was flown. Sometimes the small plastic model kits also have color information that can be used as documentation.
The Federal Standard (FS) 595 color chips are a complete set of color chips, each with a five-digit number that is used to document different colors. These colors chips are still available, but their
To determine the right color, put the fan deck up against the full-scale aircraft until you get a match. Notice FS 35164 matches the color of the full-scale aircraft, which also matches the information in the IPMS Color Cross-Reference Guide for the PBY Catalina during that time period.
cost has increased throughout the years. I have a set of Revision B color chips, but the Revision C color chips are currently being advertised. You can buy individual color chips or the fan deck. I like the fan deck because you can quickly compare several colors against the painted surface.
The International Plastic Modelers Society (IPMS) has published plenty of information documenting the colors that were used on military aircraft and they are linked to the FS 595 numbers. The IPMS Color Cross Reference Guide, written by David H. Klaus in 1992, lists
the color name, FS number, and how the paint was used by each nation. When you have an FS color chip number, you can have paint mixed to match the color chip. This information is available on the website listed in the “Sources” section.
While visiting an aircraft museum, I was able to compare the fuselage color of a PBY Catalina with the FS color chip fan deck. It matched FS color chip 35164, which also matches the information published by the IPMS Color Cross Reference Guide.
Using the PBY Catalina as an example, the fuselage would historically have been painted with 35164, which is identified as intermediate blue. The top of the wings would have been 35189 (blue gray). Color chip 36440 is the light gray color that would have been on the bottom of the aircraft. However, the aircraft I looked at only had two colors; the top of the wings and the fuselage were painted the same color.
Photographs of your documentation are used to prove the color scheme. The color chips are used to prove each of the colors that are on the aircraft.
Klass Kote was represented at the Toledo Show and offered premixed paint to match the correct military colors. The paints are listed by FS number, so you know you have the correct color that matches the historical information. More than a few CL Scale models flown at the Nats have used Klass Kote paint.
Another source for color chips is Iliad Design, which sells color chips for military aircraft. The color charts include Royal Air Force day fighters, US training aircraft, Japanese aircraft, and others.
If you get your photo documentation from online sources, it is often missing the color information and you have to make an educated guess about what color to paint the model. In one case I had to use the photograph as a color chip because I had no other information.
Contest Updates
Visit the AMA website for Nats results and consider checking out some of the Scale contests listed. If you have never been to the Brodak Fly-In, make plans to attend the 2016 contest. It will be the last year for the gathering. John Brodak has a done a great job with this event.
CL Scale Contests for 2015
- West Ohio CL Scale Contest, Dayton, Ohio: August 8-9
- Midwest Regional CL Championships, Sugar Grove, Illinois: September 6
- Broken Arrow 28 Stunt Scale Contest, Valley Park, Missouri: September 19-20
- NASA Scale Classic, Lexington, Kentucky: September 25-27
- Tucson 1cc Multi-Engine Scale, Tucson, Arizona: October 10-11
I welcome contest reports, upcoming contest flyers, and pictures and information about any projects you are building and flying. We are in the middle of the summer months, but it will soon be time to start thinking about your next building project.
Land softly!
SOURCES:
Dave’s R/C Electronics
(423)-544-1657
www.davesrce.com
Klass Kote
(612) 243-1234
www.klasskote.com
IPMS Color Cross-Reference Guide
www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/colorcharts.asp
Fed-Specs.com
(800) 962-3900
www.estore.fed-std-595.com
Iliad Design
info@iliad-design.com
www.iliad-design.com/charts.html
Dynamic Balsa and Hobby
(815) 856-2272
www.dbalsa.com
National Balsa
(413) 277-9500
www.nationalbalsa.com
CST Composite
(800) 338-1278
www.cstsales.com
National Association of Scale Aeromodelers (NASA)
www.nasascale.org
