Alan Gorham_

Hi Alan Yes, it has been done! John Ranson (who is something of a pioneer of scale electric flight in this country) completed an 83" Spitfire Mk IX earlier this year. If you join the RCScalebuilder site (www.rcscalebuilder.com) you will be able to follow the build and have all your questions answered. Follow this link to read the build thread: http://www.rcscalebuilder.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10065&PN=2  One small point: why would you want to fit a 3-bladed prop when the full size had a 4-blade?!!

Tony You certainly will see me at Basingstoke. I was there last year with my "Grand Slam" Lancaster and parked not far from you. Stick me down for a plan and canopy set please... Kind regards  Alan

Stephen  The canopy IS definitely the same. The mould for it was made by a British modeller called Alec Cornish-Trestrail so that the clear canopy could be offered as an accessory for the free plan.

Steve  The thread on rcgroups is here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65703. The MAN plan I quoted IS the same plan that you are building from, except that it was originally published in MAN many years before it was published in RCSQ. Another interesting point to note is that the Magicalia plans service still offer the clear plastic moulded canopy to fit the MAN/RCSQ plan you are building, even though they don't offer the plan anymore.  Go to www.myhobbystore.com and search on  CANRC1664 CANRC1664 - £7.45 inc. 17.5% VAT Note that the Traplet fantrainer is a different design completely and the canopy won't fit the model being discussed in this thread.

Ken Plans used to be available from ASP/Nexus/Magicalia plans service, but I can't find them listed on the website. The original design was done by Paul Willenborg for MAN magazine in the USA. Plans are definitely still available from this source as I ordered myself a set a couple of months ago. Website is https://secure.rcstore.com. Go to plans sections, then planes, then ducted fan and the plan is number FSP01901 X01901 price $14.95. Hope this helps.  Stephen, lovely looking build. Have you seen the designers own conversion thread on RCGroups where he used a Mega 16/15/4 inrunner?

Shaun Traplet offer a plan by Chris Golds. MW2996, price £20.00. Wingspan 60.5", 480 sized brushless, WeMoTec fan. Build feature in QEFI OCTOBER 2002......

Al  You can get the canopies and all the other accesories for Brian Taylor plans from Traplet Publications (the opposition!) following Brian's decision to sell his business.  If you type in "Traplet" to Google and look for online shop you will be able to browse their catalogue. The section you need is "Construction Plans" - "Aircraft Plans" - "Brian Taylor Scale plans" and the Bf110 canopy is part CA3326CY , cost  £9.00. Job's a good 'un....

Hi Tony  Can you please tell me if you will be flying at Basingstoke again this year and if so, if you are planning on taking any Sunderland packs along with you? I've had my eye on this one for ages now...  Any idea when it might go in the mag too?  Kind regards Alan

I said "performated" in my last post. An interesting combination of "perforated" and "preformed". Or just lousy typing.... Chris, if you can't find paxolin (and bear in mind my offer to send you some if you're stuck) you may come across GRP sheet which will be at least as strong, if not stronger than paxolin, so you could substitute this material. Just get the same thickness sheet and you will be OK.

Chris - if by Vero PCB you mean Veroboard that already has holes performated in it and has copper strips on the back - do NOT use it!! As Eric says, it is nowhere near as strong as either paxolin or "proper" FR-4 grade glass-epoxy board. It WILL crash your model for you! If you're stuck for paxolin - give me a pm and I'll send you some. let me know how much you need and what thickness....

I still think paxolin would be stronger and less likely to split than birch ply - especially when most horns would require quite thin ply. I do agree that finding and then buying a piece of Paxolin is one extra bit to a building project, but I would still feel happier using it than ply for a reasonable sized model. I do know that my local model shop keep Paxolin so it shouldn't be a great hardship to find.

Chris  You can buy Paxolin in sheet form from your friendly local model shop. I think MacGregor industries distribute it and it comes in various thicknesses. Basically, your plan will show you the shape of the horn. You will have to transfer that shape to the sheet paxolin and cut it out - a fretsaw will work well. You will also have to drill the hole in the horn for the control linkage. I suggest you have a go as not only is it very satisfying, you will have learned a method of making control horns to suit any location as opposed to just buying a pcket and bolting then onto your model  Have fun.

John  Please don't take my observation as a criticism, but one one hand you state that you followed the build article and yet on the other you state that you have used olive drab Solatex to cover the upper surfaces of the model.  In Tony's build article he stated that he used silver film to cover the model with a light spray of paint to finish. By using Solartex you have added more than double the weight per area to the rear of your model! Solartex is 85-95grams per square metre, polyester Solarfilm is 48 grams per square metre. Allow for the fact that Solatrex has a fabric "weave" that takes more filling with primer/top coat of paint and it is easy to end up tail heavy. I would suggest that if you had copied Tony's methods to the letter then your All-Up-Weight would be siginificantly less and the balance point would be easier to achieve. It's damage limitation time now. If there is anything you can do to get weight out of the rear end at all (I have read of folks getting a miniature sanding drum down into the rear fuselage and removing wood from formers etc) it will be of benefit. Perhaps a built up set of elevators over a thin balsa sheet core would also help.

Eric Mine didn't have ailerons and they weren't shown on the plan. Maybe Bowmans did an update of the kit because let's face it you don't see many rudder/elevator models around do you? Sorry for any confsion, but it did fly well without ailerons and I would expect it would only be better with them. Ironically, I did convert another Bowmans kit, the Mini Skyman from rudder/elevator to ailerons! Jim, hello, yes it's me. Small world on the internet isn't it!

I've got one! It was built in the early 80's by my Dad - he had an aversion to ailerons. Too complicated to build, too many stick movements when flying so most of his models were rudder/elevator. The Spatman was a bit like a high wing trainer to fly, but a bit more sprightly and with a very exciting roll-rate considering it had no ailerons. I only stopped flying it because it had become old, oil-soaked and a bit tatty. It had an old but reliable Enya 15 fitted and was metallic blue fus. with white wings. Jim's model above must've had something wrong beacsue we had literally hours and hours of good flying with our model. Happy days!

The name of the thing is the Zombie flight profiler. The manufacturer's website is www.atomicworkshop.co.uk.