Matt Carlton

https://www.modelshopleeds.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=26_69&sort=1a&products_id=9389 Just one (albeit out of stock) option, I'm sure there are many others.

I prefer the tiny screws from model fixings, for the simple reason that it renders the canopy/screen removable if necessary. I have tried covering after canopy/screen is glued in place but it has generally been rather unsuccessful.

For what it's worth, I just use tracing paper. Trace the parts with a thin sharpie or rotring pen. Cut out, glue the paper pattern to the wood with pritt stick and draw around it with a pencil. Then just cut to the inside of the pencil line.

Hello all, My venerable Eclipse 7 tx has chewed up its Nimh to the point that it won't hold charge for very long. Rather than change tx, which I think is unnecessary, I was trying to find a new pack. No problem stateside, but here? Seems a rare beast. I asked Overlander but they won't make one up with an Elco plug. So, does anyone know where I can find a Futaba female to Elco male adapter? Or alternatively, a 9.6v square pack with an Elco plug (ideally Eneloop)

If you were to cut a hole in the fuselage under the wing, you could potentially move the servos back. That would leave space for a small Lipo. It looks like you could conceivably fit the power unit for an F5k model in there. Something like this: https://www.armsoar.com/products/f5k-armsoar-powertrain-1806-kv2450-20a-esc Which is very compact and on 3S would be ample. So the quick answer is yes, depending on how much effort you are willing to make to acheive it.

Just because the photo's came out quite nicely.

After a bit of a delay and indecision about covering, we're nearly there.

Read the plan, get to know it and understand what the designer intended and how to get there. Visualise how things fit together. If you can't make sense of it, ask before you get started. Cut out all of the bits as much as you can and put those bits in a box and make a kit. That way, you won't be scrabbling around to try to make/cut pieces on the hoof because you need part x to make part y fit to part z. It is a lot less hassle than trying to cut parts as you need them. Make a list of all the other bits that you will need and get them ready. You might find that some of them (snakes, servo mounts etc) need to be fitted during construction. Nothing more annoying than eg not being able to fit a top decking because you need to fit snakes inside first. Keep all the offcuts, however small. Scrap is really useful for fillets, gussets, filling gaps, making supports etc. Plan ahead and don't build yourself into a hole. For instance, finishing a fuselage before fitting the wing could mean accessing formers for wing dowel holes becomes difficult. Don't assume that the position of various holes in formers on plans will be right for your motor/servo/snake/pushrod etc. Lay your rc installation out on the plan and work out where those holes etc need to be for YOUR equipment. Take breaks. Stand back. Take your time. You can easily get caught up in something and get too far before you realise you made a mistake earlier and find it difficult to undo. Making templates from card or paper is sometimes more accurate than following a plan for windshield patterns, decking sheeting patterns and so on. Some things, like stringer slots in formers, are better done from the model than from the plan. Use the plan as a guide, but ultimately, there can be mistakes, errors or variation which means that the right position to get a good fair stringer line (for example) is slightly different to the plan. If you find it hard to make a particular piece (for example cutting thick ply) then cut two from thinner ply and laminate them together with epoxy, rather than struggle to accurately cut the thicker material. Making sure that your model is straight and true is more important than sticking slavishly to a plan. If something looks off, check, especially if printing plans yourself or using very old (possibly distorted) plans. Plan your covering before you build. If you have projected seams over an unsupported area, a bit of thin scrap as a covering support can save a lot of headaches later on. Hope some of that helps somewhat! Cheers Matt

After deciding that my previous effort at "Amelia" didn't really pass muster, I've decided to build another. A few lessons from the first time round, a few inconsistencies and draughting errors on the plan (possibly age related distortion?) and a couple of weeks got me to this point. Lots of fiddling, sanding, fiddling, sanding etc to go, but looking ok I think.

Regardless of whether you stick with the engine you have or change it to another, it will always be worth exploring different props and matching them to the airframe. The effects can be quite dramatic and transformative. Well worth the cost imho. Too many people have decided a model "flies badly" and given up on it, when in fact, some tweaks to prop size, cg, control throws etc could totally transform it. Recommendations (prop size, cg, control throws and so on) are a starting point, not an end point. Fly, note, tweak, repeat. Standard practice in Free Flight and something I think we could apply much more in RC than we typically do.

Jon - do the Turnigy props run fast because of some advanced design, or are they just "optimistically pitched" as it were?

12x5, possibly 13x5, maybe even an APC 13X4W, the point being that a larger prop spinning at a reasonable rpm is better on this kind of model than a smaller one rotating faster. We need reasonable static thrust, we don't need huge pitch speed. With all the drag of the airframe, trying to go quicker isn't going to happen, but we can use a big, low pitch prop for reasonable acceleration and braking at the lower speed bracket it'll be flying in.

It is interesting that some "classic pattern" models, for instance, Terry Westrop's "Loaded Dice" use quite a lot of side thrust. I assume that in this case, it is there to try to keep some purity of line in vertical manoeuvres? Especially prior to the advent of rudder/throttle mixing etc.

There's a tendancy to assume that unless a model flies like an overpowered WOT4, takes off in 2 yards, climbs vertically out of sight and "hauls ass" then it is underpowered. There is absolutely no need to overpower a model like an SE5a, especially if you want it to fly like one. Pretty much every Flair Se5a I have seen or flown is happiest with a 52 size 4 stroke at most. Decent diameter, low pitch, wide bladed prop and you don't need a 1:1 power to weight ratio, that's what wings are for. Takeoffs can be longer than 10 yards, it's quite nice actually to fly scale and "on the wing", especially when there's a lot of wing area as with the SE.

That's a very good point to be fair, but I'm never particularly satisfied with my models, I can't seem to stop myself rushing the build even though I really enjoy the process and rushing inevitably causes c**kups!

I had a Selestra for a time, which was reasonably competent in a breeze if ballasted. Plans are on outerzone. Possibly a bit outdated today. http://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=12334 I also had a Valenta Dragon F3b glider which was very good without needing too much ballast, so quite versatile. Moulded though, so may not suit you. http://www.valentamodel.cz/en/index.php/dragon-29-a65

That's a point GG, especially when it seems that particular servos become unavailable quite regularly to be replaced by a similar one that won't fit in the place you planned for it

On a similar topic, I was looking through an old "AA Book of the Car" from about 1970 and it was quite telling how many "jobs" were considered a normal part of owning a car, things that the modern car owner would never even contemplate doing.

Given the price of new servos now, it's hardly worth trying to buy second hand ones. Even if the seller is genuine, a friend, club mate, whatever, you don't necessarily know how old the servo is, how it was installed, whether crashed, bashed or left in an oily dusty drawer for 17 years. In moving servos around, I do wish that all the servo manufacturers would settle on a universal spline size/type/number, it would make things much simpler.

Model set up table has built in vertical posts to restrain the LE, then a bungee cord over the rear fuselage in fron of the fin to hold the tail down. Usually sufficient for smaller models. Very large/powerful models I would probably want to use a helper if I could, but my models are usually sub 60" and no more than 40 size or electric equivalent.

Well, not my finest covering job (so no zooming in please!) but I'll excuse myself as I've been off work with Covid for the last week. LS Special 02, in suitable livery, waiting for a pilot figure.

As much as I really do want to be able to support my local model shop, it can be a very frustrating experience to go in with a list of items and only find one or none of them. It is ultimately far more logical and efficient for me to find an online vendor who has everything I need in stock. That £5 p&p is not such a sting when a package of £50 of everything I need arrives at the door. We hear a lot about how we should support our local shops and of course it would be great to do so, but ultimately, spending petrol money to get to a shop which has nothing I need doesn't help either them or me, nor can I realistically afford to buy things I don't need just to put some cash in the till. Of course, I can ask for the shop to order things in, but ultimately, as much as "browsing the boards" is an absolute joy and chewing the fat with the staff is lovely, leaving empty handed feels awful, so I suspect that people just avoid it. Again, another nail in the coffin, especially for those (unlike me) for whom building is a means to an end, rather than an intrinsic part of the hobby, and a big driver in making the choice between ARTF and plan/scratch/kit.

I have to agree that you need to put a reasonable price on everything, so wood, covering, hardware etc, otherwise its a bit disingenuous, many people don't have any stocks of wood or hardware. My estimate for a similarly sized model would be: Wood = £120 Covering = £30 Undercarriage = £10 Linkages, hinges etc = £30 Glue = £10 So maybe £200 for the airframe alone, plus probably the same in motor, radio gear etc.

My biggest bug bear from a building perspective, and something that does make a substantive difference to the overall cost of a build is those "bits and bobs" which one tends to forget. Threaded rod, hinges, screws, horns, a single sheet of wood etc which are fairly cheap but come with a minimum shipping charge that is often double the item cost. Petrol prices now have a significant impact too, a round trip to my local model shop uses a gallon of unleaded at getting on for £10, which is doubly annoying if they don't have the right thing. I realise that there are a lot of forum users with apparently inexhaustible wealth, but for those on a tight budget, these things have an impact on the choices made and for a lot of people, an rtf with everything in the box avoids those issues.

Perhaps I didn't explain very well. I meant as someone looking at soneone else's build, it would be nice to be able to "like" the entire build as a whole rather than liking (as in, pressing the like button) an individual post within that thread. It's a fairly trivial thought, so probably not worth expending much thought on!