Matt Carlton

Built up foam is an interesting idea. I remember doing a sort of "hybrid" with a solid foam d-box and ribs slotted into it. Worked well but no real advantage. With the price of balsa now, its probably cheaper to get some obechi veneered cores made than to buy the wood to do built up.

Just received some rather nice vintage french motorsport graphics from a company called "I Say, Ding Dong" which I have used on an OD model which I am building. Very nice quality, very good range of sticker types (mainly motorsport related) as well as lettering, numbering etc. https://www.isaydingdong.co.uk/ourshop/

After a little while, some more progress was made. Needs a set of wings. As yet undecided on foam vs built up.

That's interesting as much if my flying is done at around 50ft or less, particularly with the model in question. That said, the installation has not changed, and there have not been any issues previously. I have however, only noted the issue since I changed club, so perhaps there's something in that. Still, it probably wouldn't hurt to update, the old "Spectra" module in the Eclipse is probably quite old hat tech wise and 2.4 is probably a bit more cluttered than it was!

I haven't thought about the open tx idea, but given that much of what I do is pretty simple in terms of demands on the tx, that's not a bad shout, at least it wouldn't waste my stack of hitec rxs, at least, I assume not.

Just wondering if anyone has one for sale anywhere? My old Eclipse 7 appears to be having some range issues.

That would do at a pinch, assuming that I could lay the three separate stripes down neatly. That said, I could cut a wider white stripe from film and lay the red and blue on top. Food for thought certainly.

I've pinged off a couple of messages and I'll see what comes back. Hangar 9 ultrastripe is a new one on me, I'll have a look. Might be able to get some sent over. Thankyou.

Hello, After a long and ultimately fruitless search on eBay, Google and Amazon, I thought I would ask for help. I am looking for some striping tape, like automotive pin striping or similar, in red, white and blue, around 9-12mm wide (ie each colour 3-4mm wide). I have found some 25mm wide which is too big, and some from the US at $85 for a roll, but so far, nothing else. There are hundreds of tapes of various widths, colours, styles, but nothing that fits the bill. If not, I'll have to lay it up from seperate strips, but I'm not great at that sort of thing. Any ideas? Matt

Generally we do leave the phones in the car, but with the number of devices using BT, I was just wondering. I hadn't read the Manny's Musing bit, I'll dig it out. With the frequency getting more and more congested, maybe its time to go back to 35 ?

I put a small dot of paint on the rx. A white spot on the side where the white (or yellow) strand of the lead goes, makes it very easy to see which way round to plug in the leads. That said, if there is space, I like to use a short extension lead anyway so that any unplugging puts less strain on the rx pins, especially if the rx is tucked away out of sight.

Hello, After a couple of flights where I seemed to suffer a bit of interference, I wondered if the number of mobile devices in various pockets might be affecting things. Bluetooth, I believe, works on 2.4Ghz, and although range is limited, ones own pocket or even car is usually quite near the tx! Possible? Obvious solution is to leave BT off when flying, but still. Ditto data transmission and satellite guidance for agricultural vehicles? Not BT obviously but a potential cause of issues?

I draw an outline, photocopy it a few times and use crayons. Or draw up a simple outline in MS Paint, save it and try different schemes, really easy way to do it.

I found this place on eBay, if anyone fancies a scale celebrity head for a model, give it a squint. https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/wholesalevip

Likewise, I might have commented more, but I had to have a word with myself and ask myself what kind of person I think I am.

Tonight, tailplane, rudder and elevator were roughed out. The fuselage fairings are attached to the fin, which slots into the tailplane. The tailplane will be covered, then the tail unit glued and faired into the fuselage. A bit of film backing taped onto the tp will protect it during that process. That way, I can cover the fuselage sides under the tp flat on a board without the fin/tp etc being in the way.

I was searching for a pilot figure. The expression of terror in this chap's eyes is obviously translating into some tense grippage...

One cut down Galaxy Magician canopy later and.... not too bad. It can always be replaced if I make it removable.

I don't think I could ever pass up a freeby to be honest. I'm down to two serviceable airframes at the moment! I'd say go for it, get it sorted, enjoy it for what it is, then decide.

I think the canopy for the Joker would probably be a touch small, the overall height is somewhere around 80mm but I'd need to have a proper measure up to be sure. There are a few companies out there doing some vac forms, but they don't all have an illustration or dimensions. I'll have to just bite the bullet, but thankyou so much, I'll have a look at the measurements in the morning

Well thankyou, I hope it will be. I have thought of the method you describe, I will mull it over, I don't want to spoil the ship etc, so there's no rush really. I might try vortex vac forms range of canopies and see if something is suitable.

Hi Danny, I've been reading through this thread in a long and rather fascinating sitting last night and this morning and thought I would chime in to say thankyou for the inspiration here. I'm no master builder and I don't have a fraction of the expertise you have demonstrated here, but what IS important for me is your approach to it and the realisation that quite a lot of the detailing work can be "kitchen table" modelling and impressing random bits and bobs. So, I am suitably inspired to look for a scale subject to model. Something simple, probably an existing plan (to at least give me a chance for the thing to fly) but lots of places to do fiddly bits. I remember poking my nose into Pete McDermott's DH9 a few years ago now and coming away almost demoralised, this is a different experience, so thankyou, I look forward to reading more. Cheers Matt

Ok, so this might sound stupid, but is anyone able to cut a couple of 1/16" ply rings for me? Basically 70mm outside diameter with a central hole of 30mm. I'm struggling to get them accurately circular by hand with my limited set of tools so I wondered how much it would cost to get them cut. PM me if you can help at all! Matt

Firebrand looks great so far. I think that getting a set cut as a one off is probably the way to go, but I have been a bit surprised at the cost I have been quoted so far. It might be that my brain is still stuck somewhere in about 1992.

I did consider doing the "pop bottle" method and I might give that a go, but getting the plug to an acceptable standard might be a pain. It would look much better though.