Selecting your first plan-built model
by Stan Alexander
onawing4602@att.net
It’s that time of the year when many of us start looking for our next airplane project. Whether it is an ARF, kit, or plan-built model depends on the amount of time, tools, and skills you have to invest in an aircraft.
The quickest project is an ARF. I’ve assembled my share. Kits give you a sense of accomplishment that ARFs just don’t, plus you can choose your own color scheme and markings.
Either of these choices limits you to what I call the standard group of models: warbirds such as P-51s, P-40s, and the ever-popular P-47s, and civil aircraft such as J-3 Cubs, various Cessna aircraft, and, if you’re lucky, a few others.
When you start looking at plan-built models, your choices increase in both size and subjects. Know this—not all plans are created equal. Some are excellent, others are good, and like some three-view drawings, a few are downright poorly done.
I recently built a J-3 Cub for my grandson. I selected a 76-inch Goldberg J-3 Cub kit with an O.S. .48FS engine. A model of this size can be flown at local airfields—not just at national or regional events. It’s intended to be a fun airplane and a tool to teach skills such as using the rudder in turns, etc.
The biggest scale error in the outline of the kit is the ailerons, which are strip ailerons. Because of past experience, I added solid balsa sheet to the bottom of the wingtips for small landing errors.
It built into a nice model and we finished it with MonoKote Cub Yellow. The markings that came with the kit were tossed out because, at approximately 1/5.5 scale, there were no markings that really fit. I contacted Callie Graphics for new markings, which made the model stand out. The markings were $28 postpaid.
I used the stock cowl and other items that came with the kit. The only modification that I made was to add two servos to the ailerons instead of one. Beyond that, the cowl is pretty much stock.
Guy Forshey’s P-51D Mustang
Guy Forshey has been busy with his latest labor of love, a Dave Platt P-51D Mustang kit. He bought the kit from a local aircraft mechanic for $100, including the Platt retracts.
The newspaper that was wrapped around the canopy was dated 1982 and the plans crumbled like the Dead Sea Scrolls when he tried to unfurl them. Guy ordered new plans sheets.
Guy said, “I like to detail to the max, so I spent all of last winter scratch-building the cockpit features. I also applied thousands of flush rivets in the primer surface using a 1/16-inch brass tube as a cutting tool. Kudos to [my] machinist friend, Keith Hall, for fabricating the offset forks for the landing gear struts.”
Guy covered the model with ½-ounce fiberglass cloth and resin, and primed and painted it with Klass Kote epoxy paints. He selected a DLE-55RA engine for power and a scale Biela four-blade propeller. A Futaba 2.4 GHz radio system was installed as well. Great job, Guy!
Cessna Airmaster Lighting System
Meanwhile, I have had other projects going on in the shop, including my Cessna Airmaster.
The G-26 engine fits snugly inside of the Airmaster’s cowling with the firewall and mounts for it. If I built another Cessna Airmaster, I might make the main landing gear one piece instead of two pieces. I also like three-piece wing construction with a wing tube.
The lighting system is pretty cool and I met the owner/operator of Dave’s R/C Electronics at The Toledo Show: R/C Model Expo, in April 2016. I placed my order there and when I returned home, I sent him
all of the specifics for the 6-volt system.
The Cessna has seven lights—two navigation lights, two strobes on the top and bottom of the fuselage, and two landing lights mounted in the bottom of the wing. It also has a clear marker light on the rudder. All of this is included in the lighting kit. I merely have to place them in the model and build the brackets for the landing lights. The lights will come on when the model is turned on, and servos will activate the landing lights.
The main reason why I selected this Airmaster is because of its black, international orange, and white pinstripe scheme. I have seen an Airmaster in solid white, one in red, and a yellow one, but I had never seen this scheme until I searched the internet.
Finding the owner of a full-scale Cessna Airmaster and being able to
communicate with him has also been a big help. I plan to visit the owner and take some detail shots and close-ups for the interior. I’m looking forward to going back to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to attend EAA AirVenture and going to Green Bay, Wisconsin. Go Packers!
National Naval Aviation Museum
Pensacola, Florida, has been the cradle of naval aviation since the early 1900s. This is the home of the famed Blue Angels air show team, as well as the air training center for all branches of the service.
You can feel the history before you arrive on base as you drive west on I-10 and see the bridges that are adorned with Blue Angel aircraft pointed upward. When you arrive on Blue Angels Boulevard on your way to the base, the U.S. Navy’s presence is all around. To say Pensacola has a long history with the U.S. Navy would be nothing short of an understatement—and the city is proud of it!
The National Naval Aviation Museum has many facets. You can’t see it all in a day—or two days for that matter. There is the research center, the restoration facility, the aircraft outside on ramps, the movies inside, and models of aircraft, ships, and virtually every aircraft carrier that the Navy has in its vast inventory.
I’ll concentrate on a brief visit to the
