Graff

Hi all. As fall is upon us, and winter is coming (yuk), I have prepared my hobby room(s). It's amazing how much crap that can accumulate in a closed space.... Anyhow, this is how they look now. The general hobby bench left side.: Right side: I do need more storage below.... Airbrush station: Also some of the resin printers. Material storage: This isn't even all of it ..... Secondary hobby space in the half finished train room.... The rest of the train room, which is currently used as a hangar... I counted how many airplanes I have, and it is very close to 30.... Most of them will later be stored in my garage. Storage for wings: My wife's doll house is at the right of the picture. Thanks for watching how my workshop looks.

It's extremely disappointing when the seller is a hobbyist, as was the case with both the SE5a and the Jodel kits. It's also frustrating when people sell things that they have zero knowledge about... I'm also into model railways, and you often see steam locomotives for sale without a tender. Sometimes it is listed separately... In addition, they want to be paid what a complete one costs. Anyhow, today the last load of models went to the recycling station. I have been trying to give away old gliders and oldtimers for a long time without much success. It feels wrong to throw them away, but 30 aircrafts take up a hell of a lot of space. I still have a couple of nice gliders that will be donated.....

You must have been.... The only kits I bought the last two years that were complete was a Storch, a Fokker d7 arf and a Nieuport 28 arf.... There was 6 others that wasn't: The Puppeteer, the Se5a, a Dauntless, a Jodel, a Cessna 172 and a Cirrus.

You'd think that I should learn sometime…. This is probably the last time I buy a second hand kit. There was a Flair Puppeteer kit for sale on the Swedish version of evilbay. I bought it and upon delivery it turned out that it was actually a started and abandoned kit that was missing two thirds of all parts....... In addition, there were parts in it that did not belong to the kit. Luckily I got most of the money back. There is a Top Flite Se5a in my hobby room that I started after buying the kit used and it turned out it was missing half of the parts... The other kits I bought used that are not complete went to recycling today. I will probably only buy directly from dealers or manufacturers in the future, I really don't have the time or energy to deal with other people's unsorted junk. Rant over....

Not plastic, glass fibre.

The landing gear wing has struts added, which they added to some of the full size ones as well. No fun if that changes the angle of attack....

Hi all. I bought a half built Flair Fokker Dr.1 in quarter scale a while back. And with the article series in the magazine about Flair, I thought it would be nice to finish it. It is covered in Glosstex and then painted and decals applied. I use a Zenoah Titan 26 cc engine with a 18x6 propeller. Wing AoA. The wings are all mounted at the same AoA, i.e at zero. I'm currently installing the top wing. I have changed the original cabane with a bolted one. Just so the forward ones don't protrude in front of the wings when transported. I have also mounted the machine guns with magnets and a rod that goes through the wing. The guns are held in place by a piece of fuel line plus the magnets. The center of gravity is spot on with no additional weight. To really secure the lower wing, I used an original Fokker solution: support struts. One of the biggest challenges was to install the wires for the control surfaces... A lot of measurements were made before cutting the fabric. But all holes were positioned where intended. I use 15 kg metal geared servos on all control surfaces. 5 kg ones for the throttle and magnet cutoff. As I use one servo for each elevator half, I have mixed in Ailevators to them. My brother in law had one with the same setup, and it flew very well with Ailevators. The only thing left after the wings is the maiden.... I look forward to seeing it in the air.

I've been in contact with Skysport engineering (thanks!), and they can't remember what exact colour was used, but that there was some pigment variation back then. They do remember it being much greener. And that the body roundels were a darker blue..... "I think it was PC10, but I recall it being rather more green than we intended! The other Pup, BIAT, displayed in New Zealand, is a slightly more brown colour. But that was RFC, not RNAS scheme. The blue is slightly darker. They did vary though. We have some original fabric here and there are(were) differences with the pigments at that time ..." Maybe it was a slight variation between the RNAS and the RFC PC10? And that can be why there is so much debate about it? I know that Beardmore built most of the early RNAS Pups, and that may have been why it's not Sopwith standard? Skysport engineering states themselves that the original fabric they have has variations. But also that the N6452 ended up a bit greener than anticipated.

Hi all, I have some issues with my Sopwith pup documentation.... I competed with my quarter scale Pup N5182, but it wasn't up to snuff... I am currently building a new quarter scale Pup, and I want to build a Beardmore built FAA pup. The best example (besides the shuttle worth pup) is the replica at the FAA museum in Yeovilton. It has flown, it is weathered, it looks good and there's a lot of good photos of it. There's this huge problem though.... The paint and markings. What colours are they, it seems to not be the standard colours. The PC10 seems a bit too green, the roundels on the body are darker than the wing roundels. I tried to get the museum to verify the paint chips I have of the PC10 and the marking colours, but they couldn't help me. The paint chips I have is from the Camel at Hendon, and is considered to be a good representation of the correct colours. Does anyone know how to proceed? I could use a colour photo as documentation, but it's not ideal in any way. Living in Sweden has its drawbacks as I can't just pop over to the museum.....

Hi all, I have problem with my Saito Fg33r3. It worked last year flawlessly. This year it has been all problems without me altering anything.... It is began to be hard to start, and when running it is prone to stopping when I give it some throttle. It also lost rpm after some time and stopped.... It doesn't matter how I adjust the needle. It's like it doesn't get enough petrol. I have checked the ignition timing and it's correct, the carburetor is checked and it's clean and all membranes are good. The valves are checked. I don't get it...... What can it be?

I have a few more flights on it now, and it's great to see it in the air with the new paint job.

Hi all, I recently acquired a second hand Hobbyking Skyraider. I really don't like the grey on grey paint job on it (or the spelling errors... "Skyradier", "squadrox"...). It's really difficult to see on a overcast day. So, after 6 flights with it, I decided to repaint the Skyraider in a Vietnam era camouflage. I peeled off all decals (and it lifted off the paint...) and sanded the top side with 320 grit sandpaper. I masked the national markings and the canopy with Tamiya masking tape. The paints I use is Tamiya paints thinned with Tamiya thinner. The colours are custom mixed to match the paint chips I have. I used a Badger Sotar airbrush to paint the model. I found a mask template online that I used as a guide for the camouflage. The camouflage went on really easy. I removed the masking tape before I started the weathering. I mixed a dark brownish grey and brush painted the panel lines. I applied the wash liberally on the underside to simulate the oil leaks. I painted the shades and exhaust residues with the airbrush. This is how I like it to look, more on the dirty side. The exhaust stains are really a Skyraider characteristic.

I actually believe that they weren't as badly finished. In the field they had to repair with what they had, and paint with what they could.... That can surely make the foundation for some interesting finishes though. If you look at the photos from the time from the Fokker factory, you see that the craftsmen there really did a good job on them. If you look at the replicas built by Engel, you can see how they can look....

New"ish" model.... My refurbished Sopwith pup. Just a few more things to do (like glueing on the landing strut covering...), but mostly finished. Powered by a Saito fg33-r3 radial engine.

My Pup is now ready to compete with. I was supposed to compete tomorrow, but work and also the strong wind prevented this.... The only thing that is not finished is the scale propeller for the static judging. It is in the printer as I write this.