Andy-H

Hi Clive. I have an old one of these in my shed, awaiting a healthy dose of TLC. I picked it up last year when a local modeller gave up the hobby due to health reasons and his family were clearing out his garage. I have some of the building manual with pictures but I don’t have any drawings, I’m afraid. Mine has the wrong spinner but the front of the cowl suggests a 50mm spinner might well have originally been fitted. The top of the rudder is missing on mine, above the fin, but I can give you a few measurements for the main part, if that’s of any help. Measured from the hinge line, the rudder is 80mm wide at its widest point, which is about 80mm from the bottom of the rudder. The rudder then gradually narrows to about 45mm at the top of the fin. As the top of my rudder is missing, I’m afraid you’ll have to guesstimate that bit. If you play around with a French curve, I’m sure you should be able to come up with something that’s about right. If by the large nose cone, you mean the cowl that forms the front of the fuselage and covers the engine, look up the eBay seller Steve1590 who makes & sells cowls that fit Chris Foss models. I’ve an idea he can also supply a front cowl for the d’Agostini Spitfire. I think his are a bit longer than the original but possibly better looking. Alternatively, I think Vortex-vacforms can supply cowls and cockpit canopies for this model. Hope this helps.

So I finally chickened out of building a Lion field pack in favour of buying a 50Ah 12v Lifepo4 battery, due to be delivered today. Before buying a suitable charger from the same company, I thought I would try out the chargers I already have, namely a ToolkitRC charger which has a setting for charging LiFe batteries (set the cell count for voltage) or alternatively, I have CTEK MXS 5.0 car battery charger which charges at 14.4v and then float charges at 13.6v. Any thoughts, advice or experience on charging this type of battery, and whether I should use a purpose built lifepo4 charger or something such as I’ve mentioned above ?

Thanks for the suggestion but the problem still persists. I suspect the charger’s USB socket has gone awry. Most of the updates though seem to relate to other countries so at least the unit still operates.

Both good practical suggestions, thank you. I have ordered a spot welder as mentioned above, which seemed less likely to cause heat damage.

Thanks all. Will mull it over - on the one hand a diy pack Li-ion pack would be cheaper & lighter, but with risks associated with soldering 30+ battles together. On the other, it would be simple to just buy a couple of 30ah Life batteries which are fairly small. Very interesting to hear others’ views on the subject.

I’ve been reading up on this forum about assembling a battery pack from li-ion cells for field charging, say 6S5P to give me 24v 30ah capacity or 6S8P for 40ah. I can understand why they are preferable and potentially safer than using big lipo packs. However, my concern is I believe e-bike batteries use this type of battery and there’s lots of press coverage about them catching fire. The alternative might be to use a couple of LiFePO4 leisure batteries, but they would be heavier. Is the difference that e-bike batteries tend to be fast charged, which is when problems can arise, whereas a battery pack for field charging use is likely to be slow charged ?

As it happens, this Spit was heading for a skip if I didn’t take it ……..

Thanks All. Interesting idea around separate treatments for the open and sheeted areas. I did think it might be worth installing independent servos for each aileron, but plenty of food for thought. Fortunately, although I don’t have the plan, I do have all of the magazines covering the build sequence, so I can see how it was put together. This will be one of my winter projects so once under way, I’ll post some pics. Thanks for your help and advice, much appreciated as ever.

I’ve recently been given an old model Spitfire by someone who has given up the hobby due to health reasons. It’s in need of a lot of TLC as the original covering (shiny iron on film ) is peeling badly so it really needs to be recovered. I’m also intending to convert to electric (from Leo 2 stroke motor) in the process. The model was built from a DeAgostini weekly magazine kit. Wings are built up with front & rear sheeting and open structure capped ribs in the middle. Rudder & tail surfaces are built up. Fuselage seems to be fully sheeted. Wingspan it’s c.56” This would be my first attempt at a warbird (my experience is mainly with building Mr Foss models) and I’m very taken with the Warbirds Replica approach but I think the open structures probably wouldn’t suit a brown paper solution. I would hate to spoil the model by duffing the finish so would really appreciate advice on ideas for replacing the original shiny film. Your thoughts & advice would be most welcome. Many thanks.

Thanks Both. E.D. - that sounds like a very practical solution, so much appreciated. Jon, it was your guidance that informed my understanding of tank location in the first place, so that’s very helpful. I’ll move the back tank into a position where I can set it the correct level.

Firstly, thanks to everyone who contributed to my request for advice on 4-stroke engines earlier in the year. I picked up a very clean OS 48 Surpass engine at the Old Warden show, together with some SMC Laser mix fuel. Put it in a test stand this week and lo & behold, it fired up almost immediately, thanks to the good advice received from the forum. Quite separately, I picked up an old Flair Puppeteer airframe (no engine) off eBay, initially with the thought of converting to electric. However, the firewall seemed to have been tailored for a 4-stroke, probably an OS48 as my engine ended up as a straight shoe-in. A couple of questions, if I may. Firstly, the tank previously installed was a Slec square tank sitting on top of the engine bearers behind the firewall. Earlier advice was for the top of the tank to be positioned roughly in line with the centreline of the carb. However, in this case, the top of the tank is about 2cm above the centre-line of the carb. Is this likely to be a problem ? If so, I can always relocate the tank into the centre bay of the fuselage, behind the old tank location, and set it at the correct height. Secondly, this OS48 has a choke fitted to the carb. Do I need to use this to prime the engine manually before using an electric starter, or would fuel be drawn in once the starter is applied ? I think later engines do away with the choke. Many thanks

Great stuff ! Thanks everyone, this is all really helpful.

ATM, my thoughts are to probably start off trying to print small parts - eg something like Mike has shown above - just to learn the basics. Also, there are designs for parts like scale pilots, vintage wheels to practice on. I’m playing with Fusion 360 to see how to put together a small design such as a receiver clip mount, and build up from there. I’m a long way off wanting to build a complete airframe just now !

Thanks. This is going to be my winter project, learning how to use one of these gadgets. Current thinking is either Ender 3 V3 / Bambu Labs A1 for ready assembled or at the other end of the scale, possibly a kit build Prusa MK4, based on a recommendation from a friend who’s given me a demo.

Great, thanks all. I did wonder whether ABS capability might be useful later on, so the guidance on what to use for what purpose is very helpful. Thank you.

I am thinking of buying a 3-d printer. One of the main parameters of which printer to buy seems to be the type of filament likely to be used. Just wondered what range of filament people use when printing parts for rc planes, bearing in mind component strength requirements and exposure to the elements, given the fact that these are flown outside. Would welcome any guidance on this.

Thanks all. I’ve tried an at-home range test on reduced power at c.40m and didn’t seem to have affected the signal so will give it a go. Needed to drill new holes for the fixing and the resultant swarm was definitely plain plastic so can’t see that interfering with any signal.

I bought this s/h transmitter tray at Old Warden yesterday with a view to trying it with my NX10 transmitter. I’ve not tried using a transmitter tray before so I thought it worth having a go. This tray seems to be made of plastic with a faux-carbon finish on the outer surface (plain black plastic underneath). Main attachment seems to be a clamp at the top that holds the tx handle to the tray. I’m aware the NX transmitters incorporate an aerial in the handle moulding. Just being super cautious - is there any reason why this tray might interfere with the transmitter signal ? Has anyone used this type of tray with a Spektrum Tx or any other make with an aerial in the handle ?

I have only just seen this - thanks. Hadn’t heard about these gadgets so I’ll try one.

The Magnatilla plan is available again on EBay so for the sake of a tenner, I’ve ordered a copy. Alongside my mk2 puppeteer plans, I ought to be able to put something together, particularly if I can buy a ready cut rib set. At the same time, Four strokes in the 48/52ish range seem to crop up quite frequently and are a notable margin less expensive that larger engines so it’s probably a good plane & motor combination to start with. Building a Magnatilla wing would also give me some useful experience for when I get round to building the Puppeteer.

Thank you - well spotted !

Thanks both, that looks to be line with my own findings. Having checked the plans in the puppeteer kit with an image I’ve found for the Magnatilla, extrapolating dimensions from one to t’other shows they are broadly similar. Should be fairly straightforward to scratch build something workable.

Does anyone have both a Flair Puppeteer and a Magnatilla ? If so, do the main fuselage dimensions appear to be broadly similar ? They both use same dia cowl, and the fuselages are balsa covered at the front and built up at the rear. I’m kicking ideas around for a four stroke project. I ask as a laser cut rib set for the Magnatilla (mk 2 version) I can be bought through eBay. From the info I’ve found, it looks as though Flair used a similar construction approach for both models and they have a similar wingspan. Although Magnatilla mk 2 plans don’t seem to be available anywhere, I have an untouched Puppeteer Mk 2 kit and am wondering if I could use the Puppeteer plans as a proxy template to build a Magnatilla wing and use the fuselage parts as a template for the main components, adapted to take account of the different wing location. An EBay vendor does offer plans for the Magnatilla, but they are for the mk 1 which is smaller. Also, out of stock. Many thanks.

Thanks Jon. You are absolutely right. I could easily fall into the trap of buying cheap, then buying twice ! Point about old Lasers noted. My mind is set on a modern engine with the rounded rocker cover. If I have to wait for the right motor to turn up and it costs a bit more, so be it. Same principle with other makes, go for a good one. I know what you mean about the videos, though. TBH, I’m only interested in the nuts and bolts aspect, to see how they are put together. If you know how they work, you can fix em if they go wrong. A bit like kit building, when it crashes, you can repair it.

Thanks - that was a very helpful question as it’s made me think about what I’m trying to achieve. I have an old Acrowot fuselage looking for something to do, so first step will probably be to adapt that for a four stroke and find a suitable new or lightly used engine. I guess that needs a 65/70 size. Further down the line, I am taken with the idea of an Astro Hog so I would hope the 65/70 engine might go in there afterwards. Either pick up a second hand model or build from a plan this winter, possibly to 90% of original size to give a span c.65” which I would think ideal for a 65/70. Full size might need an 80. I saw a guy flying a Hog at Chobham Common many years ago, doing big sky aerobatics and I’ve hankered after one ever since. Have only recently returned to the hobby so one step at a time. Later on, I will look for something a bit more used to tinker with, really to understand how these engines are put together. YouTube is a very helpful resource.