Martin McIntosh

MDS again. In 1992 I changed career, moved house and gave away most of what I had. I worked in Texas for over a year and on a visit home I heard models flying in a local field. Started collecting stuff. The model press was full of praise for MDS motors so I got a 48, computer gear, a kit etc. The throttle kept jamming fully open because the carb slot had been machined to a letter P shape! Motor ran well but throttling was an issue. I discovered that 10% nitro and a cooler plug fixed everything and clubmates were amazed at the slow idle and fast pickup. I eventually almost gave away the airframe and motor to someone who was struggling but he could not start it.

No pangs at all. It was an early Elfin and a bit battered but at least it started OK. I later obtained one of a later mk and it was the most benign diesel I ever owned.

Flicking through the replies I see the Bantam cropping up. Got one for Christmas when I was aged 11, along with a c/l Spitfire. Never could get it to start. My mate faired better with a Mills 0.75 powered KK Champ so we taught ourselves to fly using that. I later cobbled together a Cardinal and an experienced modeller saw me struggling to start it and got the thing going. One and only flight saw it end up in a lake where it spent two hours drifting across. Swapped the thing for an Elfin 2.49. Good riddance!

The West system is by far the best for laminating or finishing but gets a bit expensive initially if you include the pumps.

Looking good. Polyc must be better on nylon than glass because I could not get it to stick too well on the latter. I take it that you intend to fill the weave with primer/filler. When you come to paint it do not use Guild dark earth because it it very `orangey` in colour. Humbrol is spot on for a Lanc. Their olive drab is fine though.

I used to have two vehicles and house insurance with Direct Line but when they increased the whole lot by a silly amount I told them where exactly to shove it. They seem to conjure up these figures from thin air with no explanation. Surely this amounts to blatant fraud?

I have a Movano van which is primarily used to transport my large models. However, I took it off the road under SORN in March because I had to await cataract surgery, now complete and am able to fly normally so I renewed the MOT and enquired about insurance with Direct Line. In 2022-3 it was £224 then £291 in 2023-4. Just got their quote for now and it is £641 for the same cover would you believe, an increase of 220%! Best quote on a compare site is £503 but they would not match it so bye bye. Usual excuses like `there have been lots of accidents in my area` or `well, it is a van not a car`. I do not intend to continue with this rip off so it would seem that I shall have to sell some models plus the van.

I have used a diesel heater for some time now. It eventually failed, so I stripped the thing down and dug out the considerable amount of carbon. Plug was OK but relaced anyway, the culprit being the tiny protective gauze which the plug sits inside. If the temp. is likely to go below freezing I use a small oil filled heater overnight to protect the considerable amount of paints, resins, glues etc. My 5x3m wooden shed is insulated with 25mm polystyrene covered with white faced hardboard. This is so effective that the inside stays cool till lunchtime in very hot sunshine (remember that?).

Heck of a long time since I covered with nylon and it was always stuck down with clear shrinking dope. Tried PolyC on very thin glass cloth and it was reluctant to stick the awkward bits down. Regarding home brewed sanding sealer, I use a mixture of Halfords brush on grey primer, baby powder and a little dope on top of the cloth since coating the balsa first would only discourage adhesion. Coat, sand then coat again until the weave is filled.

You will probably laugh at this, but when I was flying F3A around 50 years ago, we mistakenly raked the horns forwards, even though the wing section was symmetrical. When I came back to the hobby with computer sets they said to rake the horns back. I made up a simple test jig and they were correct. In the old days, servo outputs tended to be square and to change the centre was not always easy but now they are splined so you have the choice of mechanical or Tx controlled differential. My Stampe and Tiggys have 2:1 up/dn, mostly mechanical. For a general fly everyday model you probably would not notice a slight barreling of rolls.

I cannot open the vid or last pic. It comes up unavailable. In my experience you do not need a stabiliser on a model of that size and do be careful with the weight of all those extra bits since the TN CNC stuff tends to be on the porky side to start with. I think that mine turned out at around 12kg (28lbs).

In the 70`s many of us mixed our own fuel because it worked out very much cheaper and was generally 3:1 castor/methanol would you believe? Pylon race motors were required to run on this as did my OPS 60s which were ABC high compression. Nowadays of course we use synthetic oil at a much lower percentage but the ingredients are not so readily available, especially nitro. I could buy the stuff at a local oil dealer.

Not as yet quite sure what you are up to from those pics but I expect that it will become clear later. Do remember that TN models are not generally as light as they could be, especially the laser cut ones, so I would be careful with the details you are adding. Otherwise, your build looks very impressive. Mine took 5 years on and off it.

Followed the above link and now have an a/c set up with RC Japan. Managed to order a couple of YS throttle arms and a check valve which I was unable to obtain elsewhere, plus 3x OSF plugs. Total cost inc. shipping £34.46. Thanks for the info.

I have one of those, I bought it because it will operate on a 12V supply or mains. Using it is almost exactly the same as other Overlander single chargers, HK ones etc. There are programs for Lipo, Nimh or LiFe (if you go to user programs and change the cell voltage). Nimh is auto cell count so just set the required charge rate and press enter; Lipo cell count has to be set manually but if you get it wrong the screen will flash up a warning. Only niggle is that it will not discharge above 0.4A. You will soon get used to operating it.