Nick Rees

Thanks Phil for the info however it was a little late for me by the time I read it. I used the tracing paper method that I found on other forum threads. Although your method might have saved me time and the £1 for the tracing paper. I got my sides cut out and started on the triangle sections. I did notice that you have to watch the cut angles when fliping sides but the old addage, measure twice cut once. I've also cut and tidied all my formers and made up F3 and F6. Good progress so far, hopefully more tonight and maybe even a end of week beer.

Only manged a little work this evening due to getting home late from work. Started by covering the plan in some clear cellophane floral wrap I picked up earlier from Hobbycraft. Hopefully it will keep my plan in good nick during the build and at just £4 for 20 meters it's pretty cheap. So I can replace it several times if need be. So with only an hour or so available I managed to get the fuz sides sorted. After much deliberation in my head I think I've got it right. Being a noob at building from plan I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to transpose the fuz side shape to the balsa.

Hey Tony, I can't comment on how balsa ages but for the cost of the material I would say if in doubt swap it out. Your kit part becomes a cutting template for the new stuff. I actively support my local model shop but Balsa Cabin's wood quality is superb. Their website is a little cumbersome but their great to deal with. I've also bought of Slec and got consistent good quality material.

I've started and created my build blog PSS A-4 'Thunderbirds' Skyhawk Early days and who knows what mess I'll get myself into

OK, so what's the Thunderbirds thing all about? Well I appreciate 1:1 scale stuff but with my models I like to have a bit of fun with the livery. Most of the time it’s simply vinyls printed and added to stock ARTF airframes. However the Skyhawk is a build from plan and having not covered a balsa plane for over 25 years I didn’t want to stretch myself too much. So with a good big of Googling I found the gallery of Clavework Graphics on Deviant Art and decided his Thunderbird 1 inspired Bae Hawk was a great target. Three simple colours and some stock vinyl’s should pose an achievable target on this Scooter build. Edited By Nick Rees on 01/03/2016 23:34:41

So it's St Davids day here in Wales but also the start of the Skyhawk mass build project. Thankfully my 'Set' turned up from Traplet yesterday and with a clear work bench I decided to make a start. Well I didn't so much as get started building but spent most of the evening laying out the battlefield for the next couple of months. Now having just turned forty I'm very much a metric man so all this old school imperial measurements isn't that natural so it taking time to get used to holding the rule the wrong way round! So i decided I'd label up all my sheets to spend less time measuring. So I've cleared the bench popped on my styrofoam building board and got my timber sorted. Hopefully with a bit of luck I can really get stuck in tomorrow.

I've not seen the plan yet as I'm waiting for my set to come through but the tops of Morrisons spices are 44mm OD. Bit cheaper than a tube of Liz Earle, unless your misses like that stuff i guess.

Windex is pretty hard to get in the UK. Also Windolene's current formula doesn't have Ammonia in it and the key ingredient is 5% ammonia, so the cheapo supermarket own brand window cleaner is usually a better bet. The scale modellers love their Windex from using it as a thinner for acrylic paint to simple paint stripper! If the usual discount outlets don't have anything suitable try the smaller discounts shops on the high street. They frequently have older stock with the 'better' chemical mixes Edited By Nick Rees on 18/02/2016 15:10:07

Well that's my order for the set done. Having just got off the phone to them, sounds like Traplet are backed up with these kits. Quoted 10-14 days on delivery so fingers crossed for 1st March. Time to sort out the other bits...shopping yipee!

I don't see the point of registration. This is something that the US has been debating for months now and the same arguments against registration are valid here. Like others have said it’s the reckless few that will ignore the rules, ignorant or not. I don't think we can entirely blame the CAA or EASA for this storm and is down to the media. They started to highlight the less than good flying and then branded them as drones. Now it seems we all fly drones and not just the RAF. So the tar brush has already been slapped on all of us. The recent article in the BMFA news (you know, that thing you usually put straight in the bin) page 6. Seems to indicate that the EASA are not interested in getting involved with the control of RC flying in the UK and are leaving it to the CAA which in turn are happy with how the BMFA are managing RC flying. This also seemed to be the case in the December CAA / BMFA meeting minutes. That they see no issue with how were doing things now and see no reason to change. From the recent Mill Hill incident report it appears that regular civil pilots are more reckless than us and they are registered! My interpretation of the report shows that the pilot had no idea of his altitude and also failed to research local airfield information about recommended approach patterns and the mention of RC gliding at that point. If you take some of the altitudes in the report and do some maths the pilot was barley 100ft of the deck. Sounds like showboating to me. Hypothetically if we did end up with some sort of pilot registration like the FAA, who is going to enforce it? The CAA probably doesn’t have time or resources to do it and not everybody is a member of a club. As a ‘country’ flyer I have no desire to get caught up in the politics of a club. Right I’ll put my soap box to bed now.

It's good that I'm not fixed to a 'real' livery. The Red Bull is on the list but other energy drinks are available Haven't ordered my wood pack yet (waiting for traplet to send me a voucher) I did however get something in the post to inspire and for 3D reference during the build.

As I’ve just posted on the Skyhawk thread I’m new to this whole PSS stuff but digging into it I’d like to get my hands on a plane asap. The Scooter is going to take up most of my time come March and I have a 3m Pilatus B4 just about finished on the bench. So I’m wondering if anybody has something their looking to pass on that’s pretty much RTF? I’d want a jet based plane and optionally something that is a good all-rounder. Thanks, Nick

Just wanted to say hello to everybody and stick my head above the bunker to say I'm getting involved with the Scooter build this year. Phil has had my email about PSSA membership and I’m hoping to get the set ordered this coming week. I’m new to PSS but love my semi-scale gliders. So I’ve been trawling the web for PSS related stuff and vids which has only added to my desire for this side of sloping. However, having looked at pictures of other PSS events I’m a bit worried that anything I produce might not be up to scratch. I haven’t done a traditional built up plane since I was a teenager and although I should be able to build something that resembles a Scooter I like to add a twist to all my RC builds. So I’d like to go with a non-prototypical livery for my Scooter like a Red Bull sort of thing such as this; I’m worried that this might be frowned upon but the established PSS community. Am I worried over nothing or do I need to pick a more ‘real’ livery? Btw, I don’t add pilots to my planes. Only time I’ve done it resulted in a 10 second maiden and the whole thing going in the bin. So it’s just a bad omen for me