Terence Lynock

A scale Tiffie........to go wiv me Tempest V......I have just put Tony's name forward at the Vatican for a sainthood.... nice one T, regards, Terry (alias The Woodbutcher)

I have moved from one area of model making i.e ship model construction for museums and collectors taking anything up to 2500 hours to complete so building a flying model in a month is like a quick sprint to a marathon runner. I started a trainer and got the fuse framing built then started a 2 metre span glider to a 70's design and modified it fitting a spare 480 Race motor and 7'' folding prop in the process and this may well turn into my trainer but I will complete the original over the next few weeks anyway. I think there is far more pride and satisfaction in flying a model you have built yourself and like you I much prefer scale and was into FF and control line years ago and am now having a break from ship models to fly RC before I am too old and christmas crackered to do it, a nice big lazy glider with power if needed seems about right for me so that is the way I will go initially. regards Terry

Remember those little footballer figures with a big head of sumbody famous and the body the size of an ant? they are still around on car boot sales and charity shop junk boxes and most of them correspond to 1/10th or 1/12th scale. Collect a few out of your kids toy box or whatever, take one and chop his arms off then his legs (not too high otherwise you make his eyes water) then cut a lump of blue foam to make the body and drill a hole to fit the body of the figure into then carve to size and shape and bingo! a nice well detailed little pilot for yer hairyplane. These little figures are great for the job and it only takes an hour to turn one into a pilot complete with well detailed face and hair and virtually perfect scale, there were two sizes produced which is very advantagous if you like building to 1/10th or 1/12th scale like me. Either use as they are or coat with Latex and make a mold then hollow-cast them in resin using a foam filler-core to push out most of the resin then dig out the foam or disolve it with petrol, regards. Terry

The Arado 234 is also viable, although reservations abot glass nose Have a look at the Arado 234 P-5 which had a nose dome and smaller canopy something simular to a Mosquito, it was a very late varient but as far as I know nobody has modelled this one before, regards, Terry

I suppose it comes down to who supplies what and what will sell the most, a manufacturer will produce something that he knows there is a market for and items exotic do not come into it. I think of the heavy twins my favourites are the He219, Ta 154 and the Fw 187 Falke which I have not found plans for as yet, as I worked on the sole remaining Me410A in the early 80's this too has a place in my model making future. I have just managed to aquire a plan for an Arado 555/e3 which offer much promise for buzzing foam spitfires at a later date but as good as the original plan is it still needs adapting so a few hours on the drawing board (not CAD) are called for I think, regards, Terry

PS, those pieces of foam in the park? I don't think I've seen one do a full circle yet :) A 'fly-in' was held at one of the town parks few weeks ago with everyone turning up with their latest birthday present or purchase, after two hours there was more wreckage than the Battle of Britain and lots of long faces and mutterings about 'interferance' and flat batteries. A lot of them think that the signal from the transmitter only goes as far as their model not realising it can affect another half a mile away in all directions so there they are tweeking servos and adjusting bits and some poor sod is having heart attacks in the next field. regards, Terry

Model aircraft has gone the same way as fast food and everything else, if it comes in a box and can be ready in five minutes the 'want it now' brigade is for it, what is needed is more exposure for the older and more technical side of the hobby not just flying a piece of foam in circles at the local park, that isnt model making the same as a take away meal isnt cooking. Publishers of mags can have great influence on the future of our hobby by promoting the original concept of the hobby of build it yourself and see how it flies, to do this we need decent plans at a fair price not the £10 and £12 for one sheet most mags charge. What most people do when taking up a new hobby is think 'what is it going to cost' and if the first thing they are faced with is a £12 outlay for one sheet of plans they will just walk away and find something else, after thirty years in model ship building I can assure you that this is a major concern and has probably lost us many fine would-be model makers as a result.

Hi David, we are now into the September issue(?) and this year have had only one scale plan as you mention the Pioneer which although an interesting aircraft in itself is not what I would call an eye catching spectacle. I would take out a 12 month subscription to any mag that can promise me a decent scale plan every three months leaving the other two months for the brightly coloured strange shaped planks so many others seem to be interested in manufacturing from blocks of foam.I am one of the old school that still believes in the working of wood as any true model maker worth his salt should be able to do. I just wish one of the mags would do plans like the Arado 240, Westland Welkin, Blackburn Firebrand, Me 410B, FW 187 and the like and give us the chance to build something different and worth the effort, regards, Terry

Can we PLEASE have some plans of aircraft that actually existed instead of all these 'another plank' model plans that all look alike and in 99% of cases are of aircraft that never existed, I had to buy the plans catalogue to get a decent Spit plan. If RCM&E carry on publishing plans for the mag like the last few months I am out of here and so is my direct debit, I know the publishers cant produce a scale plan if they dont have one but they do have plenty in the archives so republish a few of those. The type of free plans should be much better balanced instead of month after month of aerobatic/stunt/shock or whatever, give us one decent plan every three months for scale modellers and we may just keep the origins of this hobby alive instead of something resembling a foam filled teddy bear, regards, Terry

Dont you think these plastic pilots are too 'fat' or perhaps the wrong scale for the aircraft like squeezing a 1/10 into a 1/12 because it was the closest they could get?. Even in a full sized Spifire there is plenty of space around the pilot even for a 210 lb lump like me but when I see models the pilots look like they were shoe-horned into them like F1 racing drivers without a bit of space to spare. Perhaps if the pilots looked a bit more anorexic they would look better, I think when you look at an aircraft in flight you shouldnt notice the pilot until ytou look for him as he should be part of the whole not standing out like some work of art or cartoon character. If you must stick a cartoon character in the seat then make it Yogi Bear or Tigger.

Problem is the plastic pilots always look too bright and squeeky clean, bright pink faces and not one suntan in sight. Just for the hell of it I decided to do something different just to upset the perfectionists so one a/c has Winnie the Poo in the seat and another has Bob the Builder complete with yellow hard hat, if I am going to have summat stupid in the cockpit it may as well be worthwhile.

Hi Allan, no problem with weight as far as this Porter goes, it only weighs a few grams and so small and delicate the best place for it would be under a glass dome. The actual molding dies are laser etched to get the very fine detail and finished I think it is only about 4'' long, kit will still cost you about $92 though ( about £50) to buy new!.

if you are interested in loco's I have a Grandt Line kit for a Porter 0-4-0T saddle tank sitting in my drawer for a few years now untouched, of no interest to me.

Hi Danny, email me oof-list at [email protected] and I will send you a nice 3-view showing most of the wing structure of an ASK 18, Sorry Danny, the above message was meant for Michael Deardon, my clicky finger was off target, regards, Terry

If you turn out a creditable set of plans for a Me109 G6 or a Spit 9, Mustang or other WW2 bird you know it will sell, I use CAD all the time and also a 60'' x 48'' drawing board and can tell the difference. When a plan is given away free in tha magazine an over-run of a few hundred is always allowed, the unused plans are probably the ones you then end up paying £15 for or whatever if you want a second copy, they have cost very little because they were accounted for in the original production run and I know this happens because I have worked in the printing industry too.

Hi Danny, email me oof-list at [email protected] and I will send you a nice 3-view showing most of the wing structure of an ASK 18, regards, Terry

But most of these plans were given away free with the mag to start with so the printing costs must be very low as they will still have the masters and plates to print from and you cant say the paper is the worlds best, not exactly Wooky Hole Hand Made Cream with a watermark is it?. With CAD it is quite a simple and straight forward job designing an aircraft model working from a three-view drawing, now if these designers had to work like I did in my yeuf on a drawing board with parallel and a slide rule/proportional dividers then I would agree that they earn their money.

Do other people find plan prices over the top? anything between £10 and £20 for a couple of sheets of paper turned out on a printing press by the thousand is somewhat extortionate in my view. For what a plan costs I can build an airframe, there was a time when building from plans was the cheapest option, at these prices for plans thank god for eBay.

I use a piece of MDF with cork tiles glued down on it, the tiles are cheap at B&Q (nine sq feet for three quid and are nice and smooth being pre-sanded and take pins well.

I use cork tiles bought from B&Q, stick them down on a thickish board with any decent glue and they will last for years, regards, Terry